this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
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Well, I don't know if you read My article about supporting Biden, but I made it very clear that any support for the Democrats should be fake, not real. I think that's generally how other soulists feel about the issue too. Nobody wants to genuinely support the Democrats, it's just a means to prevent genocide. I for one take genocide very seriously and can't do nothing about it. If I'm understanding the other side's position on this issue, I think this might be an issue of us disagreeing on the inaction vs inaction problem. See, I view making a choice not to act as a form of action. Morally equivalent to an action of equal effect. It seems to Me that a lot of the more moderately inclined people on this issue who prefer inaction, are doing so because you think a slightly bad action is worse than a really bad inaction.
So we're back to utilitarianism as the deciding factor. The soulist only cares about the consequences. They don't care if one choice means doing something and one means doing nothing. But the deontologist has personal rules against doing a bad thing. Doing nothing, that's fine. And if nothing turns out to have a worse outcome than something, so be it. The utilitarian disagrees. They'll sacrifice their principles to achieve a better outcome for the victims of genocide. They only care about the result.
So which tenet of soulism decides which group of people is worth genociding for another?
Fortunately, no such situation has come up yet. Biden is not threatening any people that Trump isn't. So favouring Biden over Trump does not subject any additional people to genocide in comparison with inaction. That means we've never had to choose to harm some people to save others. It's always been a straightforward situation of harming more people vs less people, with the smaller group inside the larger one.
If you'd like to switch to asking tricky questions, though, I've got one for you. How many lives is inaction worth? How many people have to die as a result of your choice not to act, before action becomes preferable? Is the difference a billion people? A million? A thousand? One? If you knew doing nothing would kill a million people, and doing something would kill a thousand, would you let a million die to keep the blood off your hands?
So which tenet of soulism decides which group of people is worth genociding for another?
They're not two different groups of people. It's a large group, and a small subset of the first group.