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Lumifer comments on Open thread, Oct. 27 - Nov. 2, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: MrMind 27 October 2014 08:58AM

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Comment author: Lumifer 27 October 2014 03:34:32PM 4 points [-]

would suggest ANZAC, Germany, Japan, or Singapore. ... Scandinavia is also good.

That's a very curious list, notable for absences as well as for inclusions. I am a bit stumped, for I cannot figure out by which criteria was it constructed. Would you care to elaborate why do these countries look to you as the most ethical on the planet?

Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 27 October 2014 10:05:33PM 1 point [-]

I don't claim that the list is exhaustive or that the countries I mentioned are ethically great. I just claim that they're ethically better than the US.

Comment author: Lumifer 28 October 2014 03:02:36PM 0 points [-]

Hmm... Is any Western European country ethically worse than the USA from your point of view? Would Canada make the list? Does any poor country qualify?

Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 28 October 2014 03:15:29PM *  -1 points [-]

In my view Western Europe is mostly inert, so it gets an ethics score of 0, which is better than the US. Some poor countries are probably okay, I wouldn't want to make sweeping claims about them. The problem with most poor countries is that their governments are too corrupt. Canada does make the list, I thought ANZAC stood for Australia, New Zealand And Canada.

Comment author: Metus 27 October 2014 09:46:02PM 1 point [-]

Modern countries with developed economies lacking a military force involved and/or capable of military intervention outside of its territory. Maybe his grief is with the US military so I just went with that.

Comment author: Azathoth123 28 October 2014 03:54:16AM 4 points [-]

Which is to say they engage in a lot of free riding on the US military.