I had one of those questions posed to me today that I really wish people would not ask.
My group has an annual international event coming up soon. I have been making some calls using light persuasion trying to talk people into attending. My girlfriend asked if I would feel guilty if someone I persuaded to go had an accident on the way to the event. My feelings are that as long as I am not asking anyone to do anything abnormally risky it is a mute point. She seems to feel I will have guilt and maybe I shouldn’t persuade those to go who have been having second thoughts. Is my involvement any different than an advertisement?
That would be a lot of tangential guilt to carry around. If you fit into this category, you should just become a hermit and never interact with people. ever. again.
Moot. It is a moot point.
“Moot: 2. of little or no practical value or meaning; purely academic.”
Your girlfriend is not making a rational point. Perhaps she has some other agenda against your making these phone calls, but the one she stated is just silly.
What if you invited them to your birthday party and while they were walking over to your place they were hit by a meteor? You’d feel bad, definitely. You’d feel guilty, maybe. But just because you might feel that, doesn’t mean that you are guilty.
Tell your girlfriend that you can’t invite her anywhere, now, because if she died just because she was on a date with you, you’d never get over it.
What if you decided not to invite people, and somebody you didn’t invite stayed home and got killed by a { meteor | earthquake | robber | red-light runner } (pick one) right there in his/her home town?
ETA:
P.S. If you cross a cow with an owl, you get a cowl. What does a cowl say? Moot! Moot!
Yeah, I got that one from Highlight For Children magazine, about 45 years ago.