• Mr Fish@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    the dude was a pedo

    How is that related to his opinions on international politics? Just because someone is terrible in one aspect of their life, doesn’t mean the rest of their ideas have to be thrown out.

    • SassyRamen@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Well let me stop you there. His opinion on anything was shit that didn’t deserve a moment of time, due to the fact he was a pedo. Better Mr Fish?

      Edit: Mr Fish: “I’m just saying I wouldn’t mind hearing what Jeffery Epstien would say over the Clean Air Act.”

      • Mr Fish@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I’m just saying I wouldn’t mind hearing what Jeffery epstien would say over the clean air act

        Not what I’m saying. My point is that one flaw, even one as terrible as pedophilia, doesn’t influence all of a person’s opinions. Sure, I wouldn’t ask Gandhi for his views on healthy relationships, and having learned about this I have lost pretty much all respect for him as a person. But his opinions on international politics should be reasonable because of his role as a leader of a protest movement, and likely aren’t impacted by him being a pedo.

        With your Epstien example, is there reason to think his opinions on climate science are more well informed than the average person’s? Do you think his role of running his pedo island would impact his views on topics like the clean air act?

        The trouble with your line of thinking is that we’d run out of acceptable people’s opinions really quickly. No one is perfect, and it will usually be possible to frame someone’s flaws in a way that makes them a horrible person in all aspects and never worth hearing out. When it gets to “Bob is a racist, Jim is a pedo, Fred is a domestic abuser” (to be clear, in not saying these are equally bad or anything, just some examples of ‘this person is inherently bad because of one thing’) and so on about everyone, who’s left to be worth discussing things with?

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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        7 days ago

        If it turned out that Newton had a thing for kids, would you advocate for throwing out his laws?

        • MSBBritain@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Well, I’d certainly want someone else to check his work first!

          But even that is beside the point. Gandhi’s achievements aren’t in an inherently rational and objective field. No matter who you are, gravity works the same.

          But instead Gandhi’s field is morals, ethics and politics. Those are inherently subjective and about opinions. If you have a really shitty opinion, then yeah, I’ll question your other opinions.