#it is never morally wrong to steal from supermarkets or grocery stores

[metamatar]

yeah it socks when circumstances put you in situations where you have to come to terms that maybe you wouldn't do the good thing. Growing in an abusive family I learnt to choose survival over 'doing good'. We were also poor so my brothers use to steal, and I learnt how to be incredibly mean. I'm unlearning the meanness at the moment but I'm still poor y'know? And not in the best situation in terms of housing so I'll stick to the survival for the moment

all strength to you, you were wronged by the world and you're still surviving and trying to be the person you want to be.

[anarkiddie-blog]

On Stealing; why do people think piracy is ok but shoplifting isn’t?

In this post I’ll try to examine why it is that in our society, computer piracy is deemed acceptable but shoplifting is not. Advance apologies for any confusion, just stick with me. 

Full disclosure: I personally believe both are morally right, but my biases shouldn’t really be relevant to this post, as I’m not writing about whether they’re right, I’m writing about how they’re perceived and why so.

Breaking the law isn’t exclusive to radicals and anarchists. Everyone does it. It’s impossible not to. Driving a fraction over the speed limit, jaywalking, not stopping completely at a stop light, littering, these are all crimes, and almost impossible to avoid doing sometimes. So you can’t say that breaking the law is never acceptable in our society.

So why is it that some types of theft are a-okay, while others are not? When you use an online converter to download an mp3 of your favorite musician’s latest single from YouTube, you’re committing a crime. It’s technically akin to walking into a grocery store with empty pockets and walking out with a couple unpaid lollipops and a bag of skittles.

There are two ways we can approach this. The first being through a lens of tangibility, the other through the lens of perspective.

Shoplifting is tangible and computer piracy is not. Similarly to how people are prone to spending more money when they’re paying with a card than they would usually when paying with cash; digital money is intangible, real money is not... (not to imply that money actually exists and isn’t a spook or smthn)

Basically, when you steal from a store, you are physically removing that item from someone else’s possession and placing it in your own. When you steal a song, you are copying the file onto your hard drive. You’re not depriving anyone else of their song- you’re making a copy. For most people, it doesn’t even process as stealing. For most people, stealing is when you take something from someone else. Because it’s not physical, because the “property” (lmao spooky) is intangible, most people either don’t see it as theft or just don’t think it’s immoral.

... The second interpretation: a difference in perspective. For instance, I think it’s a safe assumption to make that working class people are typically more approving of shoplifting than not. Middle and upper class folks on the other hand, are not, because they claim it’s morally wrong. Interestingly, the same people that are so quick to attack impoverished folk for stealing in order to avoid starvation are totally ok with not spending their excess money on some digital goods (ie STEALING). Why is this?

This is because working class folx know and understand all too well that survival can definitely be a struggle, even in the first-world country America claims to be. Capitalism is literally starving the working class, so when they see shoplifting, they just see some guy going through a hard time that just can’t afford to, well, pay for the food. It’s a necessity for survival. What’s he gonna do, starve?

Even if they’re not literally starving and they just steal, like, some beer, it’s still justifiable through their lens: capitalism fucks them over every day, so does that make fucking it back that bad? They’re not stealing from their neighbor, or from another hungry worker like themselves, it’s not a “free-for-all”, they’re stealing from some fat CEO that sits on his ass all day whoms’t by counting from one to ten has already earned more $$$ than that mischievous little thief earns all week. So, from a worker’s perspective, perfectly justifiable. 

For the middle class, survival is not a struggle. Not even close. The biggest “struggle” in their life is deciding between whether they should buy organic kale chips or gluten free low-in-sodium crackers at the supermarket. 

For the middle class there is never a struggle for food, therefore shoplifting is not a necessity, it’s not something they’re ever exposed to (assuming they live in a middle class area, which they likely do). Shoplifting is this abstract idea, something theoretical they’re taught about in school. It’s bad, don’t give in to peer pressure, etc. It’s stealing. You’re taking something that belongs to someone else, and that’s wrong. You don’t stop to consider who it really belongs to, you don’t stop to consider that for some people, access to food isn’t a given as it is for you. 

For you, shoplifting is something completely separate from yourself and you have no experiences that could justify it. You don’t know what it’s like to be starving. You can’t know what it’s like skip meals because you literally can’t pay for them. Hell, I don’t!

After all, why would you ever steal something when you can just pay for it?

Piracy is the same. Middle class people are “affected” by piracy, if you will. It’s so easy after all. It’s intangible, too. They’re no so quick to condemn pirates because piracy exists in their realm; the world of computers, the internet, free time, music and movies and video games. They’re exposed to piracy. While shoplifting is something that’s completely removed and detached from their lives, piracy is not. 

Which is probably why even the most devote “legalist” who thinks the pirate bay is the devil will still occasionally download an mp3 from YouTube.

Hopefully that wasn’t too confusing. I’m new to writing lengthy posts about this kinda thing. I appreciate any criticism you send my way.