Comment by Peter_Kim on The Fallacy of Gray · 2008-01-07T18:42:40.000Z · LW · GW

Dan Burfoot, permit me to join in those conversations:

Me: "No, coercive violence is merely a shade of gray. Another harm of the status quo, like sick children, may be a darker shade of gray, in which case I'm willing to become a little darker so I can gain more lightness overall. For example, I don't think there's much opposition to using coercive violence to protect the life of infants (criminalizing infanticide, taxation to support wards of state, etc.). Of course, opinions on the relative light/darkness of coercive violence vs. other 'bad' differ, and therein lies the popular contention between 'big govt' vs. 'small govt,' not whether government based on coercive violence, or that coercive violence is bad."