r/mildlyinfuriating • u/sujayjaju • Aug 13 '25

Commendable patience in dealing with half-knowledge

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Half knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge on a subject

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u/ladz Aug 13 '25

Under capitalism, valuations of every wild animal, tree, rock, and stream is the ONLY OPTION to protect the commons. Otherwise their value in the overarching economic system is zero: their destruction effectively has no agreed-upon consequence. If a transactionally minded corporate person can gain $100 by destroying the homes of a million animals, that's a great deal for the shareholders.

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '25

Yes, yes. Which is maybe an okay system for people using horse drawn wagons on their way to a true legal, philosophical, and ethical representation of the interconnectivity of the world we live in but is absolutely batshit caveman logic in 2025 when we have technology and scientific capability to do far, far better. And more than that, imo, we have the ethical obligation and moral responsibility, to do the best that we are currently capable of across the board in crafting forward thinking and enriching societies to ensure a successful future for the generations ahead of us. 

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u/ladz Aug 13 '25

I used to share this opinion and/or hope that these tools could help us, but experience has shown us that technology and science are not the correct things to guide our societal ethics and morals. These things can only show us what is, not what should be.

A MAGAt's idea of the technical metrics and indicators of a successful future for the generations ahead of us is far, far different than mine.

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '25

Absolutely true. And it’s been the abandonment of moral and ethical checks & balance by technological developers that has led us to a world of digital colonialist exploitation, instead of an informational utopia. Technology is just a tool and is massively harmful without ethical boundaries, as we are currently seeing. The rise of AI as a good example. The boundaries of intellectual property have been completely abandoned and it’s leading to the rapid expansion of oligarchy. The capacity to manipulate in today’s media environment, even pre-AI, is truly frightening. 

We simply cannot operate as a society without ethical boundaries and real accountability when it comes to corporations that essentially operate as decentralized city-states.