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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8699434" data-attributes="member: 6790260">So much for the argument that the only thing anyone here is talking about is doing stuff everyone is implicitly supportive of...Other examples:"If the teacher doesn't know we're all copying our homework from the nerd in the class, so long as we turn it in on time, why does it matter?""If the customers don't know the bank is actually insolvent, so long as we can meet daily withdrawals, why does it matter?""If the employees don't know we've been shorting their pay, why does it matter?""If <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair" target="_blank">our theoretical physics papers are absolute fictions but published because no one knows enough to contradict us</a>, why does it matter?"I could give some more, shall we say, charged examples relevant to political events of the past few years, but I will instead leave those as an exercise for the reader.Being flippant doesn't respond to the thing said. It is unusual, and not particularly great, that you do something you KNOW will upset someone, and cover it up specifically because you know it will upset them. You have yet to explain why doing so is a good thing. This clearly differs from something like performance magic, where revealing the trick's inner workings is usually met either with mild disappointment or, more often, fascination at the actual process. (I'm thinking, for example, of how sleight-of-hand artists can achieve some genuinely shocking results with such minimal actions and the economy of attention.) The earlier example (I believe you gave it?) of a surprise party is also illustrative here: if someone told you "I do not want a surprise party, I don't like birthday parties, I just want a nice quiet birthday to spend with my family and maybe a close friend," and you threw them a surprise party anyway, don't you think that would be a problem?They were wronged because they THOUGHT they had forged a story of their own with the freedom to choose a different path. Instead, they were sold a bill of goods, and there was always and only one path they could have taken. The freedom was a straight-up lie. The intention to make something cool and awesome does not excuse the action of deceiving someone into thinking they have freedom when they do not when it would upset them to know that that freedom wasn't real.In fact, let's examine that "intention matters" angle:"If the patient doesn't know we're pumping them full of experimental drugs to keep them stable, what does it matter?""If my daughter thinks she can do as she likes, but in actuality I have pre-approved every person she ever interacts with, what does it matter?""If my husband thinks he's still vegan, but I've been secretly feeding him meat to treat his anemia and B-vitamin deficiency, what does it matter?""If my Jewish friend loves my cooking, but doesn't know I use pork fat because nothing else tastes as good, what does it matter?"In every case, the intention is to do something the speaker thinks is good for the person in question. In every case, it is still wrong.Or, to give you an adage in return: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.</blockquote>

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