# What things are you a conscientious objector about? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 17, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122 "2016-08-17T20:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Firstservingman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Firstservingman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firstservingman)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/21 "2016-08-18T07:57:34Z")
Cage eggs. Not much else though. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/22 "2016-08-18T08:15:27Z")
I refuse to own a gun. I refuse to harm a sentient animal . . . except to protect a human. I refuse to attend a religious service of any kind. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/23 "2016-08-18T12:37:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I refuse to use potentially deadly violence, including in self defense. If we were at a bar, having a beer, and a stranger attacked you with a knife, I’d reflexively come to your defense. If I killed the attacker, would you be pissed off at me? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/24 "2016-08-18T13:04:43Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I do not turn down a free beer without _exceptional_ circumstances intervening. I don’t either: those exceptional circumstances being: – I will be driving. – The beer is warm. – The beer is IPA. – The beer is beer. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/25 "2016-08-18T13:08:16Z")
I don’t patronize companies whose owners are racist, antisemitic, homophobic, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/26 "2016-08-18T13:31:18Z")
I don’t eat meat. I never stand by if someone starts talking loud and agitated. That is the first step to losing self-control, and I will generally go up and say “Is everything all right here?” That often defuses the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/27 "2016-08-18T14:43:18Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > I think the OP is enormously expanding the concept of “conscientious objection”. Basicallly, any action that I might refrain from taking for ethical reasons is being classed as a “conscientious objection”. In that case, I have a lot of consientious objections - to murder, to assault, to theft, to fraud, to lying, to adultery, to exploitation, to voting for Donald Trump, to voting for Republicans in general, to parking in the disabled bay, to keeping the profit when I am mistakenly given too much in change, to eating battery-raised chicken, to pirating software or content, to eating all the cake when I know my wife wants some, . . . > > Conscientious objection involves more than making an ethical choice. It involves refusing to perform an obligation, or discharge a duty, that is imposed on one. Someone who fails to volunteer for military service is not a conscientious objector; someone who refuses to be drafted is. I concur. With the added stipulation of “refusing to perform an obligation,” I conscientiously object to the drug laws of my nation. If caught violating them, I will accept the legal penalties without complaint, but it would not deter me from violating them in the future, as I see them as essentially unjust. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/28 "2016-08-18T15:20:37Z")
Don’t buy from WalMart or any of it’s sister stores. Don’t have any guns, and do not allow anyone on my property who has a gun. I do not attend any religious ceremonies with the exception of weddings where my absence would be noted. I do not listen/watch any new organizations that use debate as a communication method. I want facts that are represented as facts, and opinions that are represented as opinions. Blur them into talking heads talking to each other, and I refuse to watch manufactured conflict. No, Pepsi is not the same as Coke. If you don’t have Coke, don’t suggest that your different thing is the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/29 "2016-08-18T15:21:43Z")
I eventually stopped contributed to any kids’ school fundraisers that didn’t return 100% of the profits to the cause in question. I don’t care to support the business model of using free child labor to hawk your wrapping paper or cookie dough or whatever. The peer pressure and coercion that go on with these campaigns is also not pretty. I’d rather just write a check. I make an occasional exception for Girl Scout cookies because they aren’t allowed by the organization to fundraise in any other way. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/30 "2016-08-18T15:30:35Z")
Very long list. I’m a stubborn person with strong opinions. Some of them I might tuck away and wince internally and shut up about if, let’s say, someone I cared about personally was celebrating a major personal triumph and invited a dozen of us to eat at some establishment I was boycotting, that sort of thing. You know, let it be about them and their triumphant moment instead of making the moment about me and my list of grievances. Other things I’m utterly inflexible about. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/31 "2016-08-18T15:38:05Z")
In terms of refusing to doing a thing that I was more or less supposed to do, I would not take people to a bullfight even though it was my job to take people to a bullfight (I was in charge of a group of people on a visit to Madrid and while it’s not specifically in my job description to “take people to a bullfight” it’s pretty clear that it was my job to “take people to notable things in Madrid based on what they wanted to do.”) It was an anticlimatic ending, because I work for a university and people are generally into conscientious objecting as a concept, so once I said I wasn’t going to do it, it wasn’t as if there were any repercussions. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/32 "2016-08-18T16:39:30Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I won’t buy or own or use even as a gift a Mercedes, a Cadillac, or a Lincoln Towncar. I’m curious about why you chose these three. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/33 "2016-08-18T18:26:29Z")
I have a personal rule about cleaning your own messes. I will not hire house cleaners. I will not hunt animals as long as I can buy my meat at the grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/34 "2016-08-18T18:43:59Z")
Vote. I could probably populate a whole “ask the…” about my refusal to pay attention to any and all things political but, long story short, my one vote doesn’t count, politics itself disgusts me, and nothing will directly affect me anyhow. (And if it does I’ll certainly not know it!) ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/35 "2016-08-18T18:58:40Z")
I don’t use illegal drugs and have little sympathy for those who do but justify it by saying they _should_ be legal. I don’t pirate music or software and have little sympathy for those who do but justify it by saying it _should_ be free. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/36 "2016-08-18T20:27:53Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I have a personal rule about cleaning your own messes. I will not hire house cleaners. You may feel differently when you are 85 with arthritis and chronic fatigue; my parents sure did. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/37 "2016-08-18T21:21:02Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If we were at a bar, having a beer, and a stranger attacked you with a knife, I’d reflexively come to your defense. > > If I killed the attacker, would you be pissed off at me? Not if it happens like that, no. You’re not a subscriber to my value system, you’re responsible for your own actions. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/38 "2016-08-18T21:23:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by QuickSilver View Post > I have a personal rule about cleaning your own messes. I will not hire house cleaners. You could do what my wife does and clear for a few hours before they arrive. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/39 "2016-08-18T21:26:33Z")
No shopping at Hobby Lobby. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122/40 "2016-08-18T21:58:57Z")
Businesses I won’t patronize: [ul] [li]Walmart and its associated stores[/li][li]Chick-fil-A[/li][li]Hobby Lobby[/li][/ul] This has been a gradual thing for me, but I think I’m also done going to zoos. I spent way too many hours as a child going door-to-door selling fundraising items, and they are some of my least fond memories. Expecting me to buy something simply by placing your kid’s catalog in the workplace lunchroom isn’t going to work; conversely, being approached by a kid who directly asks for support, including an explanation of what the funds will be used for, is always a guaranteed sale. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-are-you-a-conscientious-objector-about/763122.md?page=3)