# Bridgegate question **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 15, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880 "2014-01-15T16:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880/101 "2014-01-19T06:22:10Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > No one (at least not I) disputes that people were hurt. No one (at least not I) disputes that the actions that hurt those people were deliberate. What is stupid is the claim that “the purpose [of the incident] was to hurt people”. Again, look up the difference between “method” and “purpose”. Those are two different things. > > It may seem like quibbling, but too often I see this Chronos-style stupidity of claiming that your political opponents are pure evil. Because, of course, only a pure evil person can hurt people just for the purpose of hurting them. I think we all understand the distinction you’re making here. You’re saying there’s a distinction between intentionally hurting people for a reason unrelated to hurting them and intentionally hurting people for no reason other than hurting them. And you’re saying that in the former case your “purpose” is whatever unrelated reason you have while in the latter case your “purpose” is hurting people - and that the latter is evil while the former may not be. The point most of us are making is we’re not defining “purpose” in the same way. We calling the “purpose” the reason for the act itself not jumping ahead to ask the reason for the consequence of the act. Suppose, for example, there had been a need to perform legitimate street repairs around the bridge. They might have closed down the same sections of the street and caused the same traffic problems during the repairs. But in this case, we would not be saying the “purpose” of the closing was to inconvenience people. The purpose was to make repairs and the inconvenience was incidental. Inconveniencing people would not have been the purpose for the act of closing the bridge lanes in those circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880/102 "2014-01-19T07:24:50Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You’re saying there’s a distinction between intentionally hurting people for a reason unrelated to hurting them and intentionally hurting people for no reason other than hurting them. And you’re saying that there isn’t? I know Chronos definitely doesn’t see the distinction. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880/103 "2014-01-19T10:49:40Z")
Why did they do it? I can’t find a YouTube of the scene from _8MM_ but did find [the playscript](http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/eight-millimeter.html): ```auto LONGDALE You're asking me why? WELLES I'm asking. Longdale sits back, wipes sweat from his face. LONGDALE A man like Mr. Christian, a great man... all his money, all his power... a man who attained everything there was to attain... WELLES Why did he [del]buy a film of some poor,[/del] [del]lost girl getting butchered?[/del] want to see poor innocent motorists stuck in traffic? LONGDALE Isn't it incredibly obvious? WELLES Enlighten me. LONGDALE Because he could. He did it because he could. (pause) What other reason were you looking for? Welles tightens his grip on the wheel, numbed. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880/104 "2014-01-19T14:43:23Z")
> [@](#): > > And you’re saying that there isn’t? I know Chronos definitely doesn’t see the distinction. Your telepathic abilities need some work. I see the distinction; I just think it’s an irrelevant one, since either way, it implies that the people involved are evil. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880/105 "2014-01-19T15:03:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Your telepathic abilities need some work. I see the distinction; I just think it’s an irrelevant one, since either way, it implies that the people involved are evil. Well, no, there are occasions where one might purposely hurt people for a noble reason and not be evil. Occasions where there is simply no way around people being hurt, and hurting them in one way rather than another will result in a better overall outcome. This of course wasn’t one of those situations. It appears the purpose of hurting the motorists was to hurt the mayor. That’s kind of doubling up on evil. The very most charitable reading would be accepting the traffic study story, in which case we’d have gross incompetence and, after the first day, malicious indifference to the disruption caused. Anyone working at the Port Authority should be well aware that a proper traffic consultancy firm could give reasonably accurate estimates on the impact of reallocating two of Fort Lee’s toll lanes to the interstate without moving a single traffic cone. Maybe **Terr** believes that some good came out of all this, like perhaps some guy’s delay in getting home from work was the tipping point for his wife who filed for divorce, went on to meet someone else, get knocked up, and give birth to the person who’s going to cure cancer. See? How do you know that Christie hasn’t cured cancer by ordering this traffic jam? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridgegate-question/678880.md?page=5)