On Sat, 12 May 2001, David Honig wrote:
> Extortion is too general to be useful ethically. If I 'extort' you
> by offering to trade some value for my silence about your 'secret'
> behavior, this is not immoral ---its offering a privacy service.
Actually it is. The ONLY way extortion works is to cause 'harm' (violence
is a sub-set of same that involves a physical mechanism). Whether that
harm is physical through an act of violence or is simply pschological and
results in say the loss of reputation (which could have say other
effects) is irrelevant. The point of extortion is to get somebody to do
something you can PROFIT from by causing them discomfort of some degree.
The C-A-C-L view is that the 'profit' motive justifies it provided no
physical harm occurs. Bullshit.
> Extortion by threatening violence is violence, and should be a crime.
You draw a false distinction between 'harm' and 'violence' (as a physical
act).
> This has been discussed before.
And you still don't 'get it'. Sigh.
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