Why don’t we like snitches? Damfino.
It’s never wrong to do the right thing. Sometimes, it’s incredibly hard to do it, but no one - NO one - should ever be punished for reporting infractions of any kind.
I HATE SNEETCHES. Damn bastards think they’re so good with their star-bellies!
Some years back, I had a coworker who was abusing overtime. She’d sit at her desk after the boss had gone and did crossword puzzles or talk on the phone. One day, I saw her sitting there doing her taxes. That was the last straw - I went to my boss and said: “Would you want to be told if someone was abusing overtime?” He said yes, and I told him what was going on. Turns out he suspected she was not working after hours, and from that day on, he wouldn’t approve extra hours for her.
Incidentally, it was your tax dollars she was wasting, as we were both federal employees. You’re welcome.
spooje hit on a key point when he asked, “To whom is loyalty owed?” The answer often involves a choice between further-off systems of authority and closer relationships.
E.g., I remember when Ted Kaczynski was arrested. His brother David turned him in, and it came out later that David was a very principled man who cared deeply about his brother, but also wanted to prevent further murders in the event that he was in fact the Unabomber. This is how I would have felt (and how I would have acted) if the Unabomber had been my brother. At least, I hope I would have acted as David did – it took a lot of guts.
David asked for a deal that would spare his brother’s life (which for a while looked in danger of being reneged on by the government, but was ultimately honored).
I remember several people, colleagues and friends of mine, who criticized David’s actions. They said it was wrong to turn in his own brother.
I cannot for the life of me understand this way of thinking.
I consider these people to have a misguided sense of loyalty. I’m not religious, and I tend to be a moral relativist in many situations, but I can’t think of an instance where innocent people (citizens of my own country even) should die so that I protect an evildoer, just because the evildoer shares my DNA.
As a teacher, most snitching annoys me. That’s because most of it’s on the level of “Ms. Phouka, so-and-so is talking!” “Ms. Phouka, so-and-so called me a name!” and “Ms. Phouka, so-and-so isn’t doing his work!”.
It bugs me because:
- the snitch is looking to get another kid in trouble, whether he deserves it or not
- the snitch is trying to brown-nose me and look good.
- the snitch is avoiding working on their own social skills and expects me to fight his battles for him
- the snitch is trying to waste my time
Believe it or not, the middle schoolers I’ve worked with are not that bad at it. The high schoolers are much, much worse. The snitches there mostly think there being cute.
The exception, of course, is if a student is doing something dangerous or is truly harrassing another student. Those I will step in immediately and later thank the reporter. Otherwise, I just ask the snitch what they plan to do about the other student’s behavior.
Depends on whether the rule/law is a good or bad thing. This is obviously quite a subjective matter. For example, I myself would probably not look down on someone for deciding not to snitch on a friend for breaking a law they don’t think is a good law, for that reason. That can be a part of advocacy. Neither option (snitching vs. not-snitching) seems to have a clearly different effect on the greater good.
Protecting an embezzler or bribe-taker is more clearly against the greater good. Thus, snitching on such an activity is a Good Thing ™.
I have told my co-workers now at three different places that if they are doing anything they aren’t supposed to be doing, to not let me know. I ain’t going to jail for anyone. This started because I suspected my coworkers of being under the influence and further suspected one of them was supplying the rest. I told them if I was ever questioned by the police I would sing like a bird. I would tell everything I know and everything I suspected and everything I could intuit. I maybe didn’t make any friends but I also did hear anything more that made me worry about being an accessory to a crime. I also told them if they didn’t want me to tell every thing I know to management don’t let me know. Same principal, I’m not going to lose my job because of someone else’s boneheaded move.