The rather obvious point of my story Becky’s Lesson is that the typical A-Mat spewings about morality coming from societal consensus are irrational, because the “everyone thinks its OK” theory of morality can be used to justify all manner of evil. I am always trying to get A-Mats to follow the logic of their argument to where it leads, and they almost always steadfastly refuse. Because, by and large, A-Mats are Simpering Cowards.
But in the spirit of giving the Devil his due, I must recognize and give credit to an A-Mat who does, finally, follow his logic out to the end. RodW is one such. In response to my story he wrote, “Well if I lived in a world where everyone thought it genocide was ok I assume I’d think it was ok too.”
RodW has the courage to look into the abyss, and we have to give him credit for that. Of course, the subtext of the story is that a metaphysics that leads to a moral theory that can be used to justify genocide is incoherent and should be rejected. Horrifyingly, instead of rejecting the metaphysics, RodW embraced its justification of genocide.
Most of the other A-Mats responded by desperately trying to change the subject. They mostly wanted to talk about Canaan 3,000 years ago instead of Europe within living memory (CR was their bandleader). Of course, if my moral theory had just been exposed as potentially justifying the Holocaust, I would want to change the subject too.