What on earth are you talking about?
I'll grant that good people won't beat you to death over a loaf of bread, if you stipulate that desperate people who would otherwise never do such a thing are not good, which could be argued either way. However, when the choice is between a rich man not willing to spare anything and a father trying desperately to keep his children alive with nowhere else to go, the question becomes murkier.
But that an evil person might reluctantly murder you for a wad of cash to purchase non-fun things; I'm honestly befuddled. Despite the fact that crime rates (in America, at least) have generally been going down, people have been murdered for a couple of bills that may be in their wallets. The idea that someone would kill someone else for a pair of shoes has gotten so ubiquitous that it's become a cliche! And these are from people that most would not consider evil. So why do you think an evil person would hesitate? Which doesn't even cover the fact that more money spent on non-fun activities means more of the original amount of money could be spent on fun actions.
What does 'evil' mean to you that you think evil would kill so reluctantly?
You seem to have taken the wrong emphasis from my words. The grandparent was arguing that the things that good people won't do but bad people will, are all fun-but-naughty stuff. My point was that there are lots of things that 'bad' people might do, that are not fun.
The idea that someone would kill someone else for a pair of shoes has gotten so ubiquitous that it's become a cliche!
This supports my point, unless you think that people are stealing shoes because shoes are fun.
The next discussion thread is here.
This is a new thread to discuss Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and anything related to it. This thread is intended for discussing chapter 84. The previous thread has passed 500 comments. Comment in the 14th thread until you read chapter 84.
There is now a site dedicated to the story at hpmor.com, which is now the place to go to find the authors notes and all sorts of other goodies. AdeleneDawner has kept an archive of Author’s Notes. (This goes up to the notes for chapter 76, and is now not updating. The authors notes from chapter 77 onwards are on hpmor.com.)
The first 5 discussion threads are on the main page under the harry_potter tag. Threads 6 and on (including this one) are in the discussion section using its separate tag system. Also: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
As a reminder, it’s often useful to start your comment by indicating which chapter you are commenting on.
Spoiler Warning: this thread is full of spoilers. With few exceptions, spoilers for MOR and canon are fair game to post, without warning or rot13. More specifically: