This was driven home for me in an interview with a Republican voter about the Tennessee governor's race. The woman being interviewed said that she understood that the candidate she voted for was going to terminate her ability to get the medication she needed to live by ending Medicare expansion in the state, but she voted for him anyway because he was against the gays.
]]>By your logic, Hitler existed, therefore we're all Hitler and being a little Nazi is inevitable.
Just start right with Godwin, eh? Look over the history of humanity, in wartime and in peace. We are tribal beings who, by nature, treat those in our out-group as less than human. The history of progress in human ethics has been to grow the in-group such that it includes all of humanity but this is still an ongoing process. Racism, sexism, and all other forms of bigotry that still exist are symptoms of how hard this is for us to shake. And, as I said and you didn't address at all, this is with fellow humans who only differ based on skin color, cultural background, or ridiculously stupid things like gender identity or sexuality. I assert that this difficult process will have to start all over again when we are dealing with something which can easily be slotted into the category of "appliance" by nature of being artificial. The "we aren't all Nazis" argument ignores that the horrors of WWII were not unprecedented. AT ALL. Rape, genocide, slavery, and oppression have been stains on human history forever. WWII wasn't an aberration. Hell, it wasn't even the last case of genocide in Europe in the 20th century. In every case, the victims speak of how jarring it was to see their friends and neighbors, people they knew their entire lives, scream for their blood. Sure, people can be kind and compassionate to people they identify as people. Historically, though, that isn't all humans.
]]>Oh, yes, but I don't believe that the majority of people ARE natural sadists (which implies at least strong psychopathic tendencies) when it comes to sex.
How commonplace rape is against dehumanized and oppressed groups gives lie to your assertion. Wartime rape, for example, is the norm rather than the exception. The ability to include all of humanity in our "in group" and thus worthy of kindness is a fairly recent development and hard fought. And that is with biological humans. When we are talking artificial organisms that are demonstrably not human and, in fact, build by us, I see sexual assault as not only probable, but likely the norm in a society that categorically does not consider them people.
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