“What’s Something People Think Is Unethical, But You Don’t See A Problem With?” (31 Answers)

From when we are little, we are taught to be good people and to behave appropriately. But when you think about it, what exactly is a good deed and what is a bad deed? Who decides such things?

This kind of thinking can be referred to as “morality”. In a nutshell, it’s a categorization of intentions, decisions, and actions into those that are proper and improper. These standards can derive from a particular philosophy, religion, culture, or universal social norms.

That suggests that some things are more commonly viewed as (im)moral, while others are more dependent on various factors. For instance, ending someone’s life is viewed as one of the most immoral things you can do. Yet, when it comes to something smaller, for example, violating etiquette rules or lying, the morality of that can be debated, as opinions might differ.

Let’s take today's list as an example. It’s a collection of things people named in an online thread under the question, “What's something people usually think is unethical, but you personally don't see a problem with?” 

Here, you can find situations like people cutting their parents out of their lives. For some, this action might seem so immoral, they can’t even bring themselves to consider such an idea.

For others, it is a reality, something they have considered doing or have done. The reasons behind it can be various, but one of the most common is when the parent-child relationship is so toxic or even violent, it severely harms a person's well-being, and so going no-contact is the only way to heal. 

Another practice of debatable morality mentioned in this list is “Consuming art/media you enjoy made by terrible people”; basically, the idea of “love the art, hate the artist.” This phenomenon is quite often debated online – does embracing it make you a terrible person, can you actually separate the art from the artist?

One of the newest and most prominent examples of this is the conversation about J.K. Rowling. As you may or may not know, for the last couple of years, the author has been publicly going after the transgender community.

This insulted not only transgender fans of Harry Potter, but the community’s allies, both from the LGBTQ+ and straight sides. They then started questioning whether it is moral to consume Harry Potter media when the author is so vocally transphobic.

Some suggested “separating artists from the art”, since it is hard to boycott a story you grew up with, while others said this doesn’t work in this case and they should kiss the beloved story goodbye. Till this day, this debate is going on. And people are choosing sides depending on their moral compass.

These examples just prove our previously expressed idea that what we consider (im)moral quite often depends on many factors in a person's life, making the question of what is and what isn’t unethical rather hard to answer unequivocally.

What are the things you don't view as a big deal, but others think are immoral? Share with us in the comments!