Thread by @sighing_sadly

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, to be exact. There is also the shaky (if in some circles fashionable) assumption that the government should do whatever it can to maximize happiness, with no concern for individual liberty.

Let's explore the implications of that one.

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS Let's say that a lynch mob wants to hang a loner, somebody who nobody else knows or cares about, just for its own amusement. Let's say that the sheriff encounters this mob (and its victim) as the lynching is about to begin.

What should the sheriff (a governmental official) do?

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS If one is anything other than an absolute psychopath, one knows that the sheriff should stop the lynching and set that innocent man free. But, if we proceed from the implicit assumption in the OP's tweet, we'll come to a completely different (and plainly absurd) conclusion.

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS If the sheriff says "have fun ending his life, boys" and lets them continue, there will be one unhappy man (the doomed victim) and a lot of happy people (the lynch mobs). The total amount of happiness will go up, if the mob is allowed to end an innocent man's life.

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS If we were to accept the OP's assumption, we would be forced to say that the sheriff should not just let the mob do as it wishes, but in fact join in, because that would really delight them.

Which is to say that the assumption would leave us without any real consciences.

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS It's a bad assumption, one that needs to be called out and condemned.

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS The proper job of the government is not to maximize happiness. It is to defend the individual liberties of those of sound mine who've respected the rights of others, thereby giving them to seek to maximize their own happiness, subject to the constraints set by their moral duties.

@ChrisMyburg @BladeoftheS Happiness looked at in such a simpleminded a manner as that seen out of the OP, viewed without concern for the character of the motivations of those whose happiness is under consideration, is not a good in and of itself.