I had to say that it's up to you, but don't expect me to still be your friend and still talk to you if you go for that.
"defense"
The fact that this feels like a normal thing to say to a friend tells on you a bit. Get out more, spend time with people who don't already share your priors, and the certainty starts to sand down on its own. Threatening your friendships over someone else's career is not the moral high ground, it's just an ugly way to treat people. Humility is understanding you can be wrong about things even when you're certain you're correct.
I can approve of just about any job unless it's about murdering people because some politician(s) want it.
Obviously, it's one thing to be a commander ordering an attack, vs a soldier firing the weapon, vs starting the company to make the weapon, vs being a supplier to the weapons company, vs being an employee at the manufacturer, etc.
What about working for a president who is going to inevitably order hundreds if not thousands murdered? Or voting for said president?
What about paying taxes, knowing those tax dollars will go to missiles and guns used to murder?
(This isn't a criticism of your worldview, by the way. I'm just genuinely curious about how others draw these lines.)
I personally turned down multiple offers/work when it comes to drones for example, I designed stuff back in 2020 that some companies now just knew about it and its potentials, but when you meet with them and discuss what they are trying to build, you know that whatever they are after can be used in bad faith if the company decided to do so, do you sell your soul for the cash or do you prefer to sleep well at night?
The only exception is whatever you built has no direct or obvious bad faith, you build a library, a gstreamer addon, etc., that can get a pass.
Of course you can. It's just inconvenient. You could leave the country, break the law or stop getting a taxable income.
It's not that "playing along" isn't a choice. It's just an easy one.
If the CEO of your company changes and turns out to do evil things with the company and the product of your work, would you switch the company?
If the President of your country changes and turns out to do evil things with the country and your taxes, would you switch the country?
The line you draw is always the one of the level of convenience you are targeting for yourself. Not saying there is no point having a line, but it's highly subjective.
Not if you are a US citizen, you pay taxes even if you’re living abroad.
And yes I would switch companies, it’s exactly what I did before, and I will do it again. I can’t switch countries and I don’t think it’s effective like switching companies, but there are other means if your president or PM turned things evil, from pressuring your MP/senator to campaigning against to others. You never succumb to evil things no matter what.
Afair: Only if you pay less taxes where you live, which won't apply if you move to any European country.
> but there are other means if your president or PM turned things evil
I think that's correct, as long as we are thinking about a functional Democratic country. In an autocratic country this doesn't hold anymore.
Would you tell Palestinians to stop working on 'killy stuff' for moral/ethical reasons?
Others will have different opinions, obviously, but this is mine.
Now, cutting friends and family off over something this just means you do not want to tolerate people with differing views and opinions on this.
It's more about the side you are on rather than some abstract moral argument against working for companies tangentially related to the defense sector.
But feel free to petition literally all countries to remove words like defense or security from the names of their militaries.
And anyways, nobody _likes_ abortion, even if they are committed to it being a woman’s right
Either you're going to be surprised or you're just in bad faith.
Doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Putin transformed the young post cold war democracy of Russia right back into a dictatorship and is now in a full scale war with another country and would have already invaded everything he thinks should be part of 'great Russia'.
A country needs an army because at any time there are just too many aggressors out there. Who that is exactly might change over time, right now Russia clearly is one of them. As the US threatened Greenland and it's raging war against Iran (which course itself is an aggressive dictatorship), it's also a current aggressor against which European countries need an army.
Finland agreed which is why they joined NATO basically over night when Russia attacked Ukraine.
My job does pay my bills and put food on the table but is certainly less glamorous than something which changes the lives of millions of people (though in some way it might). It is definitively inoffensive.
Adding a line of code to a killing machine. That is something else my friend.
People feel much better having some distance from cruelty, that's why they prefer to eat meat from animals that were tortured their whole life and then killed, but somewhere else where your don't see it happening.
Eh, this is a bit of a straw man, no? It's one thing to be liked by everyone. It's another for a (presumably) long time, close friend to say they can no longer respect you due to your decisions.
In this case, it's someone who is already making a lot of money, who could make even more by working for a company that builds AI killing machines. Telling that person they are making a serious mistake is doing them a favor. Wouldn't you want your friends to do the same for you?
Out of curiosity, what's considered an "already ridiculous salary"?
"Yes, of course I'd make tools to kill people for money! How dare you unfriend someone for that?"
Telling on themselves.
What this person is arguing is not for pacifism, its an argument that to be their friend you must agree with them on pacifism.
I have my own thoughts and beliefs. My friends have theirs. They arent all the same. Thats how it should be, and thats healthy. Thats diversity. This "you're dead to me if you dont believe what I believe" culture is idiotic and is not inclusive at all.
Friends have to be honest with each other. Friends don't let friends become fascist!
Have you seen what Russia is doing to Ukraine?
What's wrong with a European company working on not letting the same (or worse) repeat in the Baltic states or Poland?
Pretty much the only honest ones I can think of are things plumber, carpenter.