The utility monster does exist though, the utility monster is NGOs ran by billionaires, it's the US state department, it exists in justifying more drilling permits. There are lots of examples in the real world that sort of operate on exactly this logic. It's not justified as "pleasure", but lots of evil gets justified essentially as providing more utility than it costs in suffering.
For me a core part of taking the utility monster argument in good faith is that the monster isn't just lying. It has to genuinely get more utility, not just be a regular guy with a propaganda industry. For USAID or similar to be a utility monster, the good they do by giving out food would have to outweigh the harm the cause by furthering US imperialism. If I believed that, I wouldn't be on this website. It doesn't matter how they justify it, their actual actions are a net harm, so the utilitarian thing to do is to starve them of resources.
The utility monster does exist though, the utility monster is NGOs ran by billionaires, it's the US state department, it exists in justifying more drilling permits. There are lots of examples in the real world that sort of operate on exactly this logic. It's not justified as "pleasure", but lots of evil gets justified essentially as providing more utility than it costs in suffering.
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yeah that would be bad under utilitarianism as utilitiarianism does have the advantage or saying you have to think about other people
For me a core part of taking the utility monster argument in good faith is that the monster isn't just lying. It has to genuinely get more utility, not just be a regular guy with a propaganda industry. For USAID or similar to be a utility monster, the good they do by giving out food would have to outweigh the harm the cause by furthering US imperialism. If I believed that, I wouldn't be on this website. It doesn't matter how they justify it, their actual actions are a net harm, so the utilitarian thing to do is to starve them of resources.