>What's the alternative? You sell software to entities who you like, and not to the ones you don't?
Well yes, that's generally how moral choices work.
Not to Godwin, but it is the perfect example here: was it okay for companies to provide goods and services to the Nazi regime, which facilitated the atrocities they committed? We don't need to conjure up scenarios, we have plenty of real-world current historical ones that illustrate the point. Boycotts of South Africa in the 80s, for instance, played a part in bringing down the apartheid system. Would it have been better for the companies involved to instead declare their "apolitical" stance and make sales to that regime?
Why is "just following orders" not an acceptable defense for personal wrongs, but "just doing business" okay?
>I don't know about you, but I'd rather live in a world where companies act a-politically then ones that don't.
But again, there's no such thing as " a-politically". That's a political choice to support the status quo.
For example, the 80s and 90s the gay rights movement came to prominence, and fought against both legal and social discrimination against homosexuals. If a company said, "Look, we're not taking a position either way, we just want to do business and not get into politics, so we're not going to address this", that's a facially "apolitical" stance. But that stance, then, is then one that supports the then-current reality that legal and social discrimination against homosexuals still existed.
Well yes, that's generally how moral choices work.
Not to Godwin, but it is the perfect example here: was it okay for companies to provide goods and services to the Nazi regime, which facilitated the atrocities they committed? We don't need to conjure up scenarios, we have plenty of real-world current historical ones that illustrate the point. Boycotts of South Africa in the 80s, for instance, played a part in bringing down the apartheid system. Would it have been better for the companies involved to instead declare their "apolitical" stance and make sales to that regime?
Why is "just following orders" not an acceptable defense for personal wrongs, but "just doing business" okay?
>I don't know about you, but I'd rather live in a world where companies act a-politically then ones that don't.
But again, there's no such thing as " a-politically". That's a political choice to support the status quo.
For example, the 80s and 90s the gay rights movement came to prominence, and fought against both legal and social discrimination against homosexuals. If a company said, "Look, we're not taking a position either way, we just want to do business and not get into politics, so we're not going to address this", that's a facially "apolitical" stance. But that stance, then, is then one that supports the then-current reality that legal and social discrimination against homosexuals still existed.