re: “hot takes on ethics”, I wish everyone would take more care to distinguish ethical theory and practice. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory, so it’s something close to a category error to say that “something is deeply wrong with utilitarianism in practice.” Maybe you mean that something is deeply wrong with how some people attempt to implement utilitarianism in practice. This makes clearer that the problem is with the people, and how they were thinking about the theory. There are better ways of thinking about it available (which are in fact central to the utilitarian philosophical tradition).
Great post.
re: “hot takes on ethics”, I wish everyone would take more care to distinguish ethical theory and practice. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory, so it’s something close to a category error to say that “something is deeply wrong with utilitarianism in practice.” Maybe you mean that something is deeply wrong with how some people attempt to implement utilitarianism in practice. This makes clearer that the problem is with the people, and how they were thinking about the theory. There are better ways of thinking about it available (which are in fact central to the utilitarian philosophical tradition).