It is completely ethical to remove the funding power from those who would cause others to suffer.
Just sayin, you have options.
Comment on Should this be in unethical life pro tips
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
If I didn’t have ethics, I could con so many religious people…
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 5 months ago
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah, but you’re not really conning the higher-ups, you’re conning the grannies who are going to church and giving away their social security money. And they really don’t deserve to be conned even if it would be easy to con them.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They’re going to be conned. Might as well be by someone who can help them with that money.
Blackout@kbin.social 5 months ago
If that is unethical then all of religion is unethical hey wait a second...
Thrashy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I long ago came to the conclusion that a slice of the American Dream is still out there to be had, as long as you don’t mind cutting it out of a bunch of suckers and rubes. Alas, my petty sense of morality is stopping me from joining the ranks of the wealthy elite, but at least I can sleep at night knowing my lifestyle isn’t directly financed by the misery of people I made a conscious choice to hurt.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
That’s almost universally true at the multimillionaire and above level unless you inherited it all. You don’t get that rich without stepping on everyone you can to get there.
Elon Musk has ruined a ridiculous number of people on his way to the top and he continues to do it.
AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Could easily rationalize it. Suckers are going to find a religion to con then no matter what. You could provide a less harmful option.
I’m not saying you should, but you could find a way to justify it. It’s pretty easy money.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I don’t think a ‘less harmful’ con makes the con any more ethical. And I don’t want to take poor people’s money. A lot of people giving to televangelists are people living on social security and the like.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Conning religious people isn’t unethical /s?
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I think about this sometimes I could go to school and build a career for myself, or I could make way twice the money in half the time doing shit like this.
Sometimes I hate that I have a sense of guilt. Life would be so much easier if I were a psychopath
STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 5 months ago
But psychopaths never feel love
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They don’t feel empathy
stoneparchment@possumpat.io 5 months ago
I don’t think that’s true? They have a dysfunctional guilt/shame system but they still have other feelings, right?
Baku@aussie.zone 5 months ago
Interestingly, a quick google didn’t really answer this. It seems pretty split as to whether they can or can’t. I don’t think there’s really a definitive answer. My guess is that it probably depends where you fall (I imagine it’s a spectrum like most things), and some can, some cant
MightyGalhupo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
That suits me just fine
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
If it makes you feel any better, it’s probably hard to figure out when to get out. You’ll always feel like you can do just one more because the last one worked out so well, but each time you cash in, more people will see the truth and might want in on it until you find yourself in a situation where you can’t stop even if you wanted to because then the others who you are propping up will turn on you.
AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 5 months ago
So what if they turn on you? Once you’re rich just admit it’s a scam and walk away. The believers will continue on.
Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted the end of the world in 1914. When that didn’t happen they lost members but came back quickly enough. Then they predicted it for 1975. Same thing happened, and now they have more members than ever.
meyotch@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
There were likely some Mormons and definitely some fellow Freemasons in the angry mob that killed Joseph Smith. He was in way too deep to just walk away, even if his brand of narcissism would have allowed him to contemplate that.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
As the other commenter mentioned, things could get violent. Being wrong about a prediction means that the leaders look as dumb as the followers, but saying outright that you scammed the followers means you deliberately made them look stupid.
But even if they aren’t mysteriously angry about it, it’s still illegal. I wonder if the prosecutors going after Trump plan on going after him again from that angle once they prove his election steal claims were fraud because he used those claims to solicit donations.
Talaraine@kbin.social 5 months ago
Oddly specific haha