2013 MLB Hall of Fame Screechfest

Would "fudging your taxes and hoping you never get audited" be a better example of the point you're trying to make here? We might be able to have this discussion, but using military atrocities as an example of "stamp of approval of authority" just seems so far out of bounds, even for a hypothetical discussion.

 

Sure, but there's a reason I picked that particular example: I knew for a fact that people would likely say, "Well, sure, in that case, the approval of authority does not justify the behavior."

I don't think taxes would generate that degree of unanymity.

 

In this instance, yes.

See above post.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

 

Dick, there's no parallel there.

The army never incentivized atrocities. Atrocities never had a stamp of approval. Even tacitly.

In fact the US Army - and all historical global codes of conflict - specifically and in great, emphatic detail, prohibits them.

 

Note that although I would have put good odds on unanimity, it was certainly plausible someone would say, "Yes, armed forces members are not accountable when following orders, even in the case of atrocities."

Then we'd know for sure that said poster(s) think that the approval of authority exonerates its subjects. I don't think we suss that out with a milder example and, thus, we'd be adding unnecessary steps to the process.

 

The army incentivizes following orders.

 

Not doing that, though.

 

No one ever gave orders to commit the My Lai atrocity, Dick. Another failure of the parallel.

 

And (usually) punishes known atrocities. Harshly.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley

 

Wikipedia? Really?

He was ordered to engage the enemy.

Not machine gun women and children.