Do you think our society should punish malicious manipulators more severely, people have their own responsibility to keep themselves safe, or like most things in life, little of both?
Do you believe our society is currently programmed to victim blame or we are already doing the best we can to handle malicious people?
In my mind the law requires the equality of us all (no one should be above the law and also no one should be more targeted by said law). So, no 'malicious people' should not be punished more than other people committing the same 'crime'.
If it is to be respected, any law needs to be fair. If it is not, bad things will happen. That's one of the reasons laws can be amended or removed and... why they should be when they aren't fair.
Edit: typos.
I agree that laws should be applied equally to everyone and I would never suggest otherwise. In this context, malicious would mean intent. So in legal terminology it would be the difference between 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree murder, or manslaughter.
Exactly.
Responsibility cannot be delegated. People are always responsible to keep themselves safe. But it makes sense for them to cooperate in a society to organize their safety.
The problem is that manipulation is part of society. For society to work, people must be unaware of some manipulations but then, manipulators can abuse the blind spots.
Overall it's a cost benefit decision. Some abuse can be easier prevented by regulations, some by personal responsibility.
Just to clarify, what would you consider necessary manipulation? Disregarding the malicious component for a moment even.
Nothing is necessary in particular, but a choice among options.
We desensitize people to compassion, we dogwhistle people into racism, we train people to ignore dishonesty, we make people comply with authority even if they are wrong, we make people believe in science instead of understanding it, and some more.
This is to make people accept their jobs and create the things that are needed.
In general, people don't do stuff on their own. So overall the manipulation is needed if we want to have more than hunter gathering. This can be seen as malicious, but also as benevolent.
What do you mean?