I argue that moral offsetting is not inherently immoral
(I’m probably just responding to a literal interpretation of what you wrote rather than the intended meaning, but just in case and to provide clarity:) I’m not aware of anyone who argues that offsetting itself is immoral (though EAs have pointed out Ethical offsetting is antithetical to EA).
Rather, the claim that I’ve seen some people make is that (some subset of) the actions that would normally be impermissible (like buying factory farmed animal products or hiring an assassin) can be permissible if the person doing the action engages in the right kind of offsetting behavior, such as donating money to prevent factory farmed animal suffering or preventing an assassination.
I bring up the assassination example because we’d pretty much all agree that that hiring an assassin is impermissible regardless of what offsetting behavior one does to try to right this wrong. For people who agree that hiring an assassin is wrong regardless of any offsetting behavior, but think there are some other kinds of generally impermissible actions (e.g. buying animal products) that become permissible when one engages in a certain offsetting behavior, I’d be interested in hearing what you think the difference is that makes it apply to the one behavior but not to the hiring of the assassin. (If this is what the OP blog post does, let me know and I’ll give it a read.)
I’m also curious if there are less controversial examples than buying animal products where most people agree that offsetting behavior is sufficient to make a generally impermissible action permissible.
As you imagined, the blog post does respond to your argument. If you don’t think the response is satisfactory, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts :)
Forewarning: I have not read your post (yet).
(I’m probably just responding to a literal interpretation of what you wrote rather than the intended meaning, but just in case and to provide clarity:) I’m not aware of anyone who argues that offsetting itself is immoral (though EAs have pointed out Ethical offsetting is antithetical to EA).
Rather, the claim that I’ve seen some people make is that (some subset of) the actions that would normally be impermissible (like buying factory farmed animal products or hiring an assassin) can be permissible if the person doing the action engages in the right kind of offsetting behavior, such as donating money to prevent factory farmed animal suffering or preventing an assassination.
I bring up the assassination example because we’d pretty much all agree that that hiring an assassin is impermissible regardless of what offsetting behavior one does to try to right this wrong. For people who agree that hiring an assassin is wrong regardless of any offsetting behavior, but think there are some other kinds of generally impermissible actions (e.g. buying animal products) that become permissible when one engages in a certain offsetting behavior, I’d be interested in hearing what you think the difference is that makes it apply to the one behavior but not to the hiring of the assassin. (If this is what the OP blog post does, let me know and I’ll give it a read.)
I’m also curious if there are less controversial examples than buying animal products where most people agree that offsetting behavior is sufficient to make a generally impermissible action permissible.
As you imagined, the blog post does respond to your argument. If you don’t think the response is satisfactory, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts :)