# Smapti is Pitted **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907 "2014-05-21T08:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 82
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1621 "2019-03-24T04:58:54Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > (Never mind, I’m not wading back into this) You would have been a real riot in the concentration camps. Smapti: “Hey, everybody… okay, so you’re starving and emaciated and you get no medical care and you work all hours of the day with hardly any clothing on in terrible weather, and at this point you barely even look like a person anymore, but listen! You’re alive. Isn’t that great? Ce-le-brate good times, come on!” Everyone else: “Are we done yet?” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1622 "2019-03-24T07:10:20Z")
Smapti would’ve willingly become a kapo. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1623 "2019-03-24T17:20:33Z")
Is there a name for the people who reported their neighbors in Nazi Germany? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1624 "2019-03-24T18:22:49Z")
Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1625 "2019-07-29T12:02:25Z")
Bumping due to **Smapti** spreading his insanity into a death penalty thread: [Well, looks like Texas executed an innocent man - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=370694) Just as a reminder, **Smapti** is on record, by his own posts, as believing [it is wrong to help free slaves](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17719100#post17719100) at little/no risk to himself, he believes [MLK Jr.'s civil disobedience was wrong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17715412&postcount=444), he believes that the _only fucking morally correct actions for a slave in the pre-1860s US was to **[obey their master](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17715425&postcount=447)**_, and he believes that [Harriet Tubman’s actions to help free slaves were morally wrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18517017&postcount=4970). IMO there’s no point in engaging with **Smapti** on these issues, since his sense of morality and the law is fundamentally broken. I recommend treating his opinions on the subject as you would the ramblings of a crazy person on the street. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1626 "2019-07-29T12:10:03Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > **Smapti** ’s moral brokenness is analyzable in terms of [Kohlberg’s stages of moral development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development). Kohlberg identified six stages beginning with the simplest pleasure-vs.-pain motivation of very young children and building up to universal ethical principles at the level of highest development. > > Smapti is stuck at the fourth stage, where morality is identified with law and authority. Mature adults normally progress past this stage to higher levels of understanding of right and wrong. He’s hit a hard ceiling at the fourth stage. Not only that, he’s bolted iron plates into the ceiling joists to ensure he can never break through to a higher level of development. > > He’s a little more complex than that, but not in a good way. In some instances he seems to regress to lower levels, where the motivation is to avoid consequences for oneself. This takes place when his usual fourth-stage morality runs into impossible contradictions, as it must at times. > > I can’t speculate on what has caused such a hardened fixation at an immature level of development, but in Kohlbergian terms his problem is clear to see. It’s profoundly disturbing and I can only hope he somehow gets help for it. A few months old, but this is a great analysis of **Smapti** ’s particular flavor of insanity. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1627 "2019-07-29T12:27:45Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > A few months old, but this is a great analysis of **Smapti** ’s particular flavor of insanity. I try to be fair with posters. The only time Smapti stuck out in my mind in a negative way was in discussing Edward Snowden, but there are arguments to make against what Snowden did. Some of the posts cited here, however, are reminiscent of the kind of things Steophan might type - I don’t judge Steophan in total, only having a negative view of his apparent embrace of police power, which I find disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1628 "2019-07-29T14:01:45Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > IMO there’s no point in engaging with **Smapti** on these issues, since his sense of morality and the law is fundamentally broken. I recommend treating his opinions on the subject as you would the ramblings of a crazy person on the street. Let me fix that last sentence for you, if you don’t mind: _I recommend treating his opinions on the subject as you would the ramblings of any other crazy person._ ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1629 "2019-07-29T15:53:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Let me fix that last sentence for you, if you don’t mind: > > _I recommend treating his opinions on the subject as you would the ramblings of any other crazy person._ Or, you know: \*A coward, a fascist and an idiot. \* ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1630 "2019-09-13T13:58:12Z")
**Smapti** is now spreading his crazy into an organ donation thread: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881869](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881869) For those tempted to engage him (and that includes me, for a few posts, until I remembered), I recommend keeping in mind the following: Just as a reminder, **Smapti** is on record, by his own posts, as believing [it is wrong to help free slaves](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17719100#post17719100) at little/no risk to himself, he believes [MLK Jr.'s civil disobedience was wrong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17715412&postcount=444), he believes that the _only fucking morally correct actions for a slave in the pre-1860s US was to **[obey their master](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17715425&postcount=447)**_, and he believes that [Harriet Tubman’s actions to help free slaves were morally wrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18517017&postcount=4970). IMO there’s no point in engaging with **Smapti** on these issues, since his sense of morality and the law is fundamentally broken. I recommend treating his opinions on the subject as you would the ramblings of a crazy person on the street. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1631 "2019-09-13T14:41:38Z")
Someone was recently (and justly) taken to task for feigning concern for another poster’s mental health. That said, I think Smapti really, truly believes that vivisectionists are lurking, waiting for a chance to kill him for his organs. I’m not saying this to make fun of him. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1632 "2019-09-13T19:00:42Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Someone was recently (and justly) taken to task for feigning concern for another poster’s mental health. That said, I think Smapti really, truly believes that vivisectionists are lurking, waiting for a chance to kill him for his organs. > > I’m not saying this to make fun of him. He needs to be reassured that this was not a documentary. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5ig9wr8517E/hqdefault.jpg "LIVE ORGAN TRANSPLANTS MontyPython TheMeaningOfLife1983 HomeCinema online video cutter com") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ig9wr8517E) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1633 "2019-09-14T00:51:40Z")
I’m not surprised he’s against organ donations. The operation getting him a working brain was clearly a failure. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1634 "2019-09-14T01:02:57Z")
So, slaves and those that would free them should be obedient to the state, but if something has the potential to impact him personally, well that’s clearly government over reach. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1635 "2019-09-14T07:42:37Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’m not surprised he’s against organ donations. The operation getting him a working brain was clearly a failure. I am not “against organ donation”. I am against policies that would make people organ donors by default, or punish people for not being donors (which several people have proposed in the thread at question), because the precedent they establish is the beginning of a slippery slope which leads to forced euthanasia for the purpose of organ harvesting. > [@zoid](#): > > So, slaves and those that would free them should be obedient to the state, but if something has the potential to impact him personally, well that’s clearly government over reach. I am not stating that I would actively disobey any given law about organ donation. I’m saying that I believe such a law would be wrong, just as I believe that slavery is wrong. Saying that a law should be obeyed is not a judgment as to whether the law is a good one. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1636 "2019-09-14T08:05:49Z")
Given that opt-out results in significantly higher participation rates, and thus much higher availability of donor organs, it would reduce or eliminate the organ shortfall - and thus reduce or eliminate any reason for “forced euthanasia for organ harvesting”. Also, those places rumored or reported to have engaged in “organ farming” most explicitly do not offer the concept of “opt-out”, not in fact any opting of any kind. If there is such a slippery slope, it doesn’t start with opt-out. It probably starts with a totalitarian regime not questioned or resisted by its citizens. It sorta starts with _you_. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1637 "2019-09-14T08:36:03Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I am not stating that I would actively disobey any given law about organ donation. I’m saying that I believe such a law would be wrong, just as I believe that slavery is wrong. Saying that a law should be obeyed is not a judgment as to whether the law is a good one. Did you flunk civics? Quick, folks; list all the ways in the United States of America to get a bad law revoked. It’s a short list, Smapti. One of them is doozie, too. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1638 "2019-09-14T08:42:01Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Did you flunk civics? Quick, folks; list all the ways in the United States of America to get a bad law revoked. It’s a short list, Smapti. One of them is doozie, too. Passing new legislation, judicial review, or Constitutional amendment. In the case of slavery, the antebellum Congress was unable to prevent its spread and the Supreme Court found it was permissible under the Constitution at the time, which is why the postbellum Congress passed the 13th Amendment to do away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1639 "2019-09-14T11:11:23Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Passing new legislation, judicial review, or Constitutional amendment. Ah, so you do know about judicial review. Let’s just stipulate you know how a law gets in front of the courts for that to happen. (Well, technically, it’s a case that comes before the court, but that’s not much of a distinction here.) So, in short, you’re just a fucking idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1640 "2019-09-14T11:19:03Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Let’s just stipulate you know how a law gets in front of the courts for that to happen. (Well, technically, it’s a case that comes before the court, but that’s not much of a distinction here.) One who feels that their rights are abridged by the law files suit against the authority which they feel is denying them the exercise of their right. In some cases, this involves attempting to perform an act which is illegal under the law in question for the specific purpose of it being prevented by the authority, for the purpose of demonstrating the alleged denial of rights. This is not an unacceptable act of disobedience, because the intent is not to openly defy the law, but to demonstrate that an act is unlawful for the purpose of arguing that it ought not be so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907.md?page=81) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907.md?page=83)