"It's not illegal.."

[Pithlet]

Does that automatically make something okay?

What brought this to mind was the hunter that was quoted in the crow hunting thread.

Edited to clarify: I'm not talking from a punitive standpoint. I understand that someone cannot be punished for something that isn't against the law.

[ohiosmith]

1. No. It may be inappropriate, immoral, unethical. All of which are

a matter of perception.

[Pithlet]

3. Is it really just a matter of perception?

I don't think it always is. I think there are some things that are inherently wrong and don't need a law to say so. Therefore, if no law exists, I don't think that absolves anyone.

I'm not speaking just about the crows, just things in general.

[ohiosmith]

16. Perception being reality you make my point. Take for example

cock fighting being legal in a couple of states (Florida and Arizona I think but I may be mistaken). I believe the practice to be wrong on many levels. Those who engage in the activity believe it is their right to participate as they are not in violation of the law. Who's right?

[Pithlet]

17. Are they only basing it on the fact that it isn't against the law?

Or are they using that as a defense against those who tell them it's wrong? Are they really in the right merely because they aren't breaking a law? Does that satisfy you, who believes it is wrong, when they say so?

To me, it is a weak defense. As I was reading that post about the crows, that hunters comment just struck me as such. As if "Well, that makes it okay, then".

And I was bored, so I felt I'd just throw that out there.

[ohiosmith]

18. My opinion is that they are not right regardless of their defense.

Their opinion is that they are and have every right and the law supports them. Is my opinion any more valid than theirs?

[kixot]

2. Unfortunately, according to the law yes.

Otherwise, I guess it's much like aesthetics, depending on the observer's point of reference or system of thought they consider authoritative. If they use legality as a reference frame then, yes, it's just peachy.

[Kellanved]

4. technically yes

Nulla poena sine lege.

Something being legal doesn't make it morally OK though.
The trouble for prosecutors and judges caused by something evidently being not OK, but not forbidden either is shown pretty well by the German cannibal.

[Pithlet]

5. I'm taking law out of it.

I guess I should have made that more clear. I don't think that someone can automatically absolve themselves of a wrong doing simply because it isn't a matter of law.

[kixot]

7. see my answer above

[Beaker]

8. well, that's how the fundies view abortion-

that's the company you keep...

[Beaker]

6. in our society, yes.

that's exactly why we have laws- to set the rules for what is "okay", and what isn't.

[BigDaddyLove]

12. ......and sometimes those laws change......

like those for slavery.

[DrWeird]

9. And just because it's illegal doesn't mean it's bad.

:smoke:

[Pithlet]

10. That's what I'm getting at.

It seems to me that too many people seem to use only whether they'll get punished or not as a marker of whether something is good or not, morally. It goes both ways. I definitely don't think that something is wrong simply because it is against the law. There has to be more to it than that.

[DrWeird]

13. Yeah, but only assholes think like that.

Fuck 'em.

Damn nazi swine.

[Pithlet]

14. You're right.

Posts like that come from the fact that the only intellectual stimulation in my life all day comes from people under the age of three.

[BigDaddyLove]

15. To some extent I think we have a feeling what constitutes......

what is right and what is wrong...and in some sense I think there are absolutes.

It just doesn't feel right to abduct and kill an entire family.

[kixot]

11. word

:smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke:

[Nikia]

19. That's the thinking that allows Nazism

If you convinve people that there are no morals, there is only illegal and legal, you will be able to get people to do things that are morally wrong by all accounts by making them legal and making moral actions illegal.
If people have a strong sense of right and wrong, they will not go along with immoral changes in the law.