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Comment by 0x3f | Hacker News Reader

> I never found anyone successfully argue against it.

I think what you mean is you've never found a rule you personally prefer more, based purely on vibes. Which is all moral knowledge can ever be.

It's easy to argue against the golden rule anyway, from many angles, depending on your first principles.

The simplest is: How I would like to be treated is not necessarily how they would like to be treated.

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The better version of this principle is John Rawls' "Veil of Ignorance".

In this "original position", their position behind the "veil of ignorance" prevents everyone from knowing their ethnicity, social status, gender, and (crucially in Rawls's formulation) their or anyone else's ideas of how to lead a good life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_position

This is as useful as doing physics with spherical cows.

Elaborate

But it is the same most of the time for most humans. Should I take this close parking spot or let the old lady behind me take it? Consider it in the spirit not the letter of the law.

Aye. I've sometimes heard treating others like you want to be treated framed as the silver rule. The golden rule being treating others how they want to be treated.

Both have problems.

Most of MAGA is "thread on me daddy", so I think you really got a point here.

There are very large portions of societies that believe class systems are the way it should be, even if they aren't on the top, as long as they have someone below them.

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