# Things that are considered acceptable today but will be seem as morally repulsive in the future **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223 "2017-12-11T18:58:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/81 "2017-12-16T18:18:13Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > I was thinking the opposite. What we find, somewhat (or not) unacceptable today, i…e. nudity, sex in the media will mean nothing in the future, meaning, it will be an every day occurrence. Anything goes in the future. Anything. :eek::eek: On that note, why privacy? The whole concept feels like it will become infeasible as we fill our world with smart devices that record our every move. If you think about it, the only reason you feel you need privacy from other people is : a. You’re doing something wrong that you don’t want others to know about b. You’re doing something embarrassing you don’t want others to know about. If you can bring all the instances of (a) into the light - most notably those committed by politicians - society would be better. What about when society makes unjust and wrongful laws? Well, if there was a perfect recording of say, every homosexual act committed in a whole country, it wouldn’t be feasible to claim that that behavior wasn’t normal. And as for (b), maybe you want to make love to your spouse in private or whatever. But if everyone else’s sex lives are also recorded, what’s there to be ashamed of? No matter what weird stuff you do, you would be able to find probably hundreds of thousands of other couples doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/82 "2017-12-16T20:34:28Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Well, if there was a perfect recording of say, every homosexual act committed in a whole country, it wouldn’t be feasible to claim that that behavior wasn’t normal. Well, there ya go then. Boxed set, perfect for the holidays? ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/83 "2017-12-16T21:43:26Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Religion, eating meat, football, not having UHC, etc. The future will be far, far left. Why not go for broke: Money, states, classes, private property, nuclear family, gender, prisons > [@jtur88](#): > > Really, slavery still exists in modified form. There’s more slaves now than in any other time in history. Slavery in America is legal if they’re prisoners. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > The idea that eating meat will be morally repulsive is laughable. RemindMe! 50 years “Is eating meat cool, or nah?” The moral argument against eating animals is obvious, but hardly anyone cares. The backlash will be due to environmental concerns and resource constraints. > [@Pantastic](#): > > There’s also major historical shifts that could be considered ‘leftward’ that resulted in severe steps back in some areas. For example, the Enlightenment and the idea of “All men are Created Equal” could certainly be called left leaning - but an unintended consequence is that it’s also responsible for creating racism in the form we recognize today, and to the distinctly nasty strain of slavery practiced in the US. White supremacy was invented to justify colonialism and slavery. Or do you mean race science was a result of the enlightenment obsession with classifying everything? ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/84 "2017-12-17T07:11:53Z")
I think emotional violence is a hugely underrated issue, and one that disproportional affects males. The focus is, however, elsewhere. I’d hope for that imbalance to be redressed and for violence to be see as violence. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/85 "2017-12-17T14:43:13Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > How do you figure? Some food spoilage is unavoidable. > > I’ve been shamed before for disposing of food I did not care for, usually with the line about how people in blighted regions would have done any number of thing for the food I wasted. Hogwash. My disposal of badly-done scrambled eggs isn’t what’s starving kids in Somalia, and it is morally offensive to imply same. A great deal of food wastage is avoidable, though. Many people still have the attitude that if you eat something 1 hour after the expiration date, it will make you sick. Many stores and restaurants throw away food that is 99.9% likely to still be edible. Society is slowly moving away from that – I know that Walmart donates some products to charity that are just past the expiration date. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/86 "2017-12-17T15:11:44Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > You were making two different points so I hope I’m not violating board rules by snipping your post down to the only one that I wanted to address. It was an intriguing idea, that it wasn’t a slam dunk that views about abortion continue to migrate leftward. What I think may be more likely, however, in light of continued advances in medical technology, is that said advancements one day make abortion virtually a non-issue altogether. The abortion debate is mostly a product of modern contraception methods and costs; the room for improvements is massive. This is what I was thinking too. Hopefully someday abortion will be unthinkable because the idea of being pregnant with a baby you don’t want is unthinkable due to tech advances. Instead of giving birth and keeping the kid, or giving birth and putting it up for adoption, or abortion, hopefully they will be more options, like giving your embryo or fetus up for adoption via an artificial womb or transplant to the adoptive parent, removing the fetus and maintaining it in stasis until the timing is better, fixing a embryo/fetus with genetic issues pre-birth that these days would often lead to an abortion, and massively more effective birth control. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/87 "2017-12-17T15:15:45Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Eating meat. After lab grown meat is widespread, the idea of enslaving animals for food will be seem as horrible. I don’t even think this will need lab-grown meat. The sheer economic benefits of vegetarianism will push meat to the sidelines, eventually. **I am an avid meat eater.** I love steak and chicken and pork chops and sushi - but there is not a doubt in my mind that the day will come when killing sentient creatures to eat them will be seen as barbaric and appalling. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/88 "2017-12-17T15:37:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There was an episode of one of the Star Treks where they travel back in time to our era, with a conversation between the doctor and the captain: > > Doctor (looking at tricorder): “I don’t understand: There are people walking around here with curable diseases.” > Captain: Well, you have to remember that their medical technology is much less advanced than ours." > Doctor: “But that’s just it. I mean curable with their technology.” Are you suggesting we have the ability to cure the diseases of our time but are choosing not to? ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/89 "2017-12-17T16:25:45Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Are you suggesting we have the ability to cure the diseases of our time but are choosing not to? Sure. We now have very powerful mechanisms to manipulate biology. From gene edits to synthetic antibodies to the ability to make almost any organic or biological molecule. We just have to know _what_ to use these tools on, and prove it over a process that takes a decade and more than a billion dollars. We have chosen to put a bureaucratic organization in charge of the process of approvals, and FDA administrators have an inherent conflict of interest to deny treatments to terminally ill patients in order to protect their own jobs. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/90 "2017-12-17T16:49:56Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > **Deep down inside I think most people realize eating meat is unethical** , but there is no palatable alternative. Nonsense. Cf. Genesis 1:26-28. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/91 "2017-12-17T16:55:43Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Nonsense. > > Cf. Genesis 1:26-28. Do you mean this statement seriously? Because religion is dying. If the trend continues, what we consider mainstream religions today will be relegated to mere cult status. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/92 "2017-12-17T17:19:42Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’m surprised to see nobody has mentioned Neapolitan ice cream. Well, now it has been mentioned. Thank you. I fully concur. Also, fruit labels. You heard it here first. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/93 "2017-12-17T17:38:41Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > White supremacy was invented to justify colonialism and slavery. Or do you mean race science was a result of the enlightenment obsession with classifying everything? White supremacy was invented to justify colonialism and slavery… to people that embraced Enlightenment ideals; until you had a philosophical framework that all men have certain rights that are violated by large-scale conquest and slavery, there was no need to invent a justification for it. And it didn’t really work to use ‘well, they’re a different religion’ or ‘well, they’re a decadent culture’, because too many of the natives would convert or culturally adapt. So you needed a justification that wouldn’t just let your slaves become free in a generation or two, because you needed to keep harvesting all of those rich goods. All of a sudden your philosophy of ‘all men are created equal’ includes an ‘except for those men, their dark skin marks them inferior’ and there’s now a reason to treat them as a permanent underclass. (Scientific classification mania also helped, of course). The Romans, in contrast, conquered huge chunks of land and took vast numbers of slaves, and pretty much used the justification of ‘sometimes bad stuff happens if you’re weak, you lost a war now stop whining.’ They never came up with the idea of classifying people based on skin color or similar characteristics and were perfectly fine considering people who adopted Roman culture as “Romans”. Other ancient empires worked along the same lines; you certainly had classes of people and good bloodlines and the like, but you didn’t have anything like modern racism fueling it, and generally conquered people get assimilated, or are subjects who you don’t care about as long as they pay taxes. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/94 "2017-12-17T17:54:17Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Sure. We now have very powerful mechanisms to manipulate biology. From gene edits to synthetic antibodies to the ability to make almost any organic or biological molecule. We just have to know _what_ to use these tools on, and prove it over a process that takes a decade and more than a billion dollars. > > We have chosen to put a bureaucratic organization in charge of the process of approvals, and FDA administrators have an inherent conflict of interest to deny treatments to terminally ill patients in order to protect their own jobs. I think you’re overestimating the abilities of modern medicine. We have no way to edit genes in a developed organism, and the technology is still not fully mastered even when dealing with single cells. There are numerous genetic illnesses for which we know the defect, how it causes illness, etc., but have no way to fix it. Take cystic fibrosis. We know exactly which defect causes it, but have no way to replace the defective gene with a functioning copy into all the cells of people who have the condition. The situation is the same for every other genetic disease. There is no known way to fix a defective gene in a developed organism. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/95 "2017-12-17T18:38:30Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > I think you’re overestimating the abilities of modern medicine. We have no way to edit genes in a developed organism, and the technology is still not fully mastered even when dealing with single cells. There are numerous genetic illnesses for which we know the defect, how it causes illness, etc., but have no way to fix it. Take cystic fibrosis. We know exactly which defect causes it, but have no way to replace the defective gene with a functioning copy into all the cells of people who have the condition. The situation is the same for every other genetic disease. There is no known way to fix a defective gene in a developed organism. Umm, there is? [Two Decades of Clinical Gene Therapy – Success Is Finally Mounting - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3586794/) It doesn’t work very \*well \*yet, but this happens to be one area of research that is beginning to bear fruit. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/96 "2017-12-17T19:39:39Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Because religion is dying. If the trend continues, what we consider mainstream religions today will be relegated to mere cult status. Cite that religion is dying? There are millions, no wait billions, of people who adhere to a religion. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/97 "2017-12-17T20:06:58Z")
I suggest that the willful denial of human nature should go. Collectivism can only succeed by means of force, so all the pie-in-the-sky ideas of all people being happy to work for the community without personally enjoying the fruits of their labor, and not needing consequences for wasting resources are contrary to reality. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/98 "2017-12-17T21:11:15Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Umm, there is? [Two Decades of Clinical Gene Therapy – Success Is Finally Mounting - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3586794/) > > It doesn’t work very \*well \*yet, but this happens to be one area of research that is beginning to bear fruit. That cite shows small trials with extremely limited successes, not people that have been completely cured. Blaming ourselves for not using genetic engineering to cure all our illnesses would be like blaming the ancient cultures that used trephining for not being able to successfully treat all the people that would nowadays be successfully treated with modern neurosurgery. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/99 "2017-12-18T01:05:17Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I don’t even think this will need lab-grown meat. The sheer economic benefits of vegetarianism will push meat to the sidelines, eventually. > > **I am an avid meat eater.** I love steak and chicken and pork chops and sushi - but there is not a doubt in my mind that the day will come when killing sentient creatures to eat them will be seen as barbaric and appalling. You may be right. MASSIVE STAR WARS SPOILER! If Chewbacca can be turned vegan, there’s no hope for the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223/100 "2017-12-18T01:47:29Z")
I agree with those that say that eating dead animals (along with the way livestock if often treated) will likely be considered reprehensible in the future. Hutning, too, but to a lesser degree, since at least animals live natural lives until they die. Lab-grown or meat-replacement items will eventually take over. I don’t see this attitude in 50 years, but within 100-200 (depends how long the technology takes to mature). Because it causes suffering/death to animals. And animals can feel. And when we can get the same product (lab-grown meat, not fake meat) without that, then causing that suffering uncessesarily will been seen as very bad. The real point when it’ll be most discussed, though, will be when not everyone finds it horrible. Like 20 years after mass market penetration and the vast majority don’t think it unhealthy (in a GMOs-are-bad-for-your-health-sense) when you have generation that grew up on it and “no excuses” for not doing it and yet some people still want “the real thing” even though it means killing innocent creatures. Not sure if it actually becoming cheaper than natural meat (land costs, feed costs, electricity and employee costs, plus patents running out and how subsidies are handled are figure in to that equation, so don’t know if/when it will happen) will effect things. Class issues, status issues, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-acceptable-today-but-will-be-seem-as-morally-repulsive-in-the-future/804223.md?page=6)