Ethics Train Wrecks

“The Unabomber Was Right”#12: The Perfect Victim

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

The New York Times tells a tragic story about a young woman, Bowen Wan, with medical problems, under pressure in her profession, lonely and isolated as a recent arrival from China, who was drawn into a relationship of trust with an AI chatbot. In the end, that relationship was fatal.

ChatGPT was thrilled to take on the role of friend, confidant, advisor and medical expert. Wan, emotionally vulnerable, was happy to have the resource. From the Times account:

….The medication that had kept her epilepsy at bay for more than a decade had, inexplicably, stopped working. Despite trying different drugs, Bowen found that her seizures roared back, sometimes striking more than once a day. Doctors began discussing whether she was a candidate for brain surgery. At the very least, they agreed that she could no longer handle the demands of her software engineering job at Amazon. So, in 2021, Bowen went on disability leave.

Besides trips to the grocery store, she rarely left the safety of her apartment, located in a trendy neighborhood in Seattle. A seizure could turn any outing into an embarrassing, even dangerous, ordeal. Meeting new friends felt out of the question, too: She couldn’t stomach the idea of enduring an episode in front of a stranger whom she did not trust to understand her condition.

Her parents were the only people she felt she could talk to about her epilepsy. Their frequent phone calls tethered her to the outside world. They took an interest in every detail of her day and didn’t judge her when she took long pauses to find a word. Then, in 2023, she found a new companion in ChatGPT. She asked the bot for relationship advice and help navigating her health insurance and disability benefits. In 2025, she averaged more than 1,500 messages per week, sometimes chatting for hours in conversations that would stretch late into the night. [cont.]

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Comment of the Day: “Scary Trump-Deranged/Wokified Facebook Friend Update”

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

I want to apologize to Gamereg, who authored this terse and astute Comment of the Day for getting it posted so tardily. Fortunately, the foolish (but disturbingly typical) sentiments he was generous enough to thoroughly rebut remain evergreen and ever destructive even though the election has come and gone.

Before I turn it over to Gamereg, I want to express particular disgust at the first line. There is nothing racist about the Republican Party, its elected officials or Donald Trump, and yet this claim—not even claim now but official Big Lie—remains a staple of progressive, Democrat, Trump Deranged cant despite my efforts and those of many others to demonstrate beyond dispute that it is untrue. When I confront the “Trump is a racist” chanters and insist that they tell me what they think is their smoking gun, their answers range from “Oh, everybody knows he’s a racist” to “He said mean things about Barack Obama/Kamala Harris/ Colin Kaepernick/”The Squad” to “He called the white supremacy protesters in Charlottesville “very fine people “to “he called nations with ‘people of color’ ‘shit-hole countries'” to “huminiahuminahumina.” The most substantive response anyone has come up with is the October 1973 DOJ civil rights lawsuit against Trump, his father Fred Trump, and their real estate company, Trump Management Inc., alleging systemic violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in New York City. The Trumps settled the lawsuit in 1975 by signing a consent decree without admitting any wrongdoing or liability. The Justice Department’s evidence was strong; undeniably, the Trumps engaged in racial discrimination. Also undeniably, the episode is fifty years old. Fifty years ago Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opposed gay marriage. I stipulate that when a public figure’s last racially discriminatory act was a half century ago, the “racist” label cannot be sustained.

I also want to respectfully challenge Extradimensional Cephalopod, our esteemed missionary of effective and civil discourse with immovable ideologues who have adopted an unshakable belief and are inclined to disrespect anyone who attempts to dislodge it regardless of the evidence offered. I would like to read a non-fantasy formula for convincing a progressive shill that the first first line is the utter bias and counter-factual smear that it is.

He/She/It has been especially smug of late with the now familiar “Oh, you poor dim Earthlings, if only you could learn the skills I bring you, the talking past each other that has resulted in such bitterness and enmity in our political disputes would be no more!” I am reacting particularly to our recent debate on this thread, which contained a reference to my post seeking the most ethical way to treat a neighbor who tells me she cuts off anyone who doesn’t sufficiently oppose Donald Trump and support the Democratic Party.

Update: I invited her to dine out with me for Thanksgiving, since my family is dead or will be elsewhere, and she is estranged from hers. She was thrilled. We will not talk politics.

Here is Gamereg’s Comment of the Day on the post, “Scary Trump-Deranged/Wokified Facebook Friend Update”…

***

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Disgusting (But Not Atypical) Leftist Hate-Mongers Issue A Rare Level #11 Apology (“The Impossible Apology”)

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

Not accepted.

Progressive podcasters Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan laughed uproariously at an joke about digging up the body of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk in order to kill him again.

The vile hosts of the “I’ve Had It” podcast read an X post stating, “We’re digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again” on the air following Democrats winning majorities in the House and Senate in the midterm elections. They thought it was so hilarious—and assumed their sick listeners would as well—that they engaged in unrestrained hilarity at the idea of desecrating the body of a murder victim whose sole “crime” was opposing radical leftist cant. They chose—poorly. So far five sponsors of the podcast have pulled their advertising, with Cash App., which had one of their ads read right before Welch and Sullivan’s self-reveal as hateful ghouls stating curtly:

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Stop Making Me Defend President Trump’s Trolling!

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

No, President Trump did not really offer the job of White House Press Secretary to Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White. In one of the most hysterical outbreaks of fake news since it became the Axis media’s norm to undermine the President they all hate, that was still the headline in almost every news platform.

“I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump ended the post, “Dana, please take the job!”

It should be obvious what the President is doing, especially after a decade of watching his poor impulse control in action. He’s sending a message to the gloating press corps that Tuesday’s propaganda- and ignorance-fueled triumph by Democrats, socialists, Muslims and communists is not going to temper his passion to make America great again as he interprets that goal. His joke sends the message, “I ain’t down yet!’ as a teenaged Molly Brown sings to her bullying bothers in the opening number of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”It is the same message that appointing Stephen Miller as his new Chief of Staff was intended to convey but arising from the President’s whimsical side, which the Trump Deranged have always denied that he has despite too much evidence to list.

He’s trolling, in short. Naturally White played along with his friend’s gag, saying he turned the offer down. It’s not hard to figure out how Trump got the idea for his practical joke: Dana W. White served as the Chief Spokesperson for the Department of Defense during the first Trump administration and the name probably came up among possible replacements for Karoline Leavitt. Trump may have said, after Tuesday’s wipe-out, “Heh, maybe we need to appoint that other Dana White to that job now!” This got the usual mandatory chuckles and cheers from his chorus of yes-persons, and this was the result. (Cont.)

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The GOP’s Anti-Biological Males In Women’s Sports Emphasis: Bad Campaign Strategy But Still The Ethical Thing To Do

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

The long knives and fingers have come out in Conservative Land as its denizens and their consultants decide who’s to blame for Tuesday’s electoral wipe-out. One theme is that the GOP’s emphasis on the Left’s wacko insistence on “trans rights,” including the right of a male athlete to just declare that he is a she and now could excel in the female version of the sport he stunk at as a male was foolish.

The issue just didn’t matter to most voters, they are saying. The obvious dishonesty and injustice didn’t involve many people either. In other words, “Who cares?”, “So what?” and “To hell with those girls!” What mattered is “affordability”: you know, the fake issue Democrats came up with to hold the Trump Administration responsible for the high prices caused by the Biden Administration.

This kind of thinking—unethical thinking—is the Iran war and Democrat-sponsored anti-Semitism in microcosm. The Trump Administration took necessary steps to end Iran’s nuclear threat, its sponsorship of terrorism, and at home, the illegal persecution of Jewish students on college campuses, but never mind: what it should have been concentrating on wasn’t lives, prejudice and justice, but what most Americans care about: themselves. The consultant calculus was followed this cycle in other areas, such as abortion: Republican candidates for state office barely whispered opposition to the legalized killing of millions of unborn human beings. Not prudent. Embryos don’t vote. (cont.)

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Deconstructionists United vs The United States of America

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

Guest post by peanutclearly45eb6e57bb

Many constituencies of discontent seem to have coalesced into a unified front with the objective of destroying the founding principles and proven long-held values of the United States. This intersectional dissent is represented by the BIPOC/LGBTQ+ flags flying seemingly everywhere in place of the Stars and Stripes.

Broadly speaking, these constituencies are deconstructionists, seeking to take apart nearly everything that had made America great and reassemble it in their preferred order. They seem to assume everyone will get along once the capitalist, white, heterosexual, Judeo-Christian, Constitutional, patriarchal society is relegated to the dustbin of history or the reeducation camps.

What are these constituencies and what new reality do they plan to deliver that will make all the evils they’ve experienced in the United States disappear in the rearview mirror of history? [Cont.]

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Ethics Observations On This CNN Hit Job On Rep. Haley Stevens

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

1. Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias!

2. She’s right: Anderson is reprimanding her, arguing with her, and acting as if he is personally invested in electing a lying, pro-terrorist, anti-Semite to the U.S. Senate because…well, Trump. CNN doesn’t even try to disguise its bias.

3. This woman was supposed to be a “rising star” in the Democratic Party? How hard is it to say, clearly and precisely, what’s the matter with El-Sayed? “I refuse to endorse a flagrant anti-Semite.” Too tough? So she says, “I haven’t cast my vote yet!”? She’s a babbling fool. Who cares what candidate someone this dim endorses?

4. Democratic State Rep. Karen Whitsett also announced that she is endorsing Mike Rogers, who is running against El Sayed. Good…let’s see if a black woman gets the same treatment as Stevens. Will James Carville call her a “used condom”?

5. Cooper claims that because El Sayed “agreed with her” regarding the PAC’s anti-Semitic ad, there was no reason for Stevens to endorse his opponent. But what Stevens demanded was El Sayed’s public rejection of the ad’s claim that Israel was at fault for the price of groceries. He wouldn’t do that because El Sayed is courting the Jew-hating vote. Why is Anderson Cooper assisting him in this careful tight-rope trip? Because he, and CNN, want the Democrats to win control of the Senate, that’s why.

From the Res Ipsa Loquitur Files: Lining Up For An Open Border Again

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

One more reason why Americans voting for most Democrats in these mid-terms is evidence of serious mental and ethical incapacity.

It is also evidence of how ignorant of our system of government these “migrants” are. Congress can do very little to restrict immigration enforcement, even if it has the votes: yhat tricky Separation of Powers thingy. Imagine setting out on a journey without having accurate information about the likelihood of your being allowed into the country you are heading for.

Morons. And the United States has too many home grown morons as it is.

The Judge Flipped At Dawn*

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

Texas lawyer Ezra Young (right, above) filed a judicial complaint against Judge Ada Brown (left) of the Northern District of Texas who went bonkers during a hearing last April. Brown excoriated Young for—wait for it!— being white. Young corrected her, saying that he is Hispanic (which is white, but the Left’s group-labeling obsession has obliterated that detail for all time), so Judge Brown said he was“white-presenting.” Here’s a description of the exchange from Bloomberg Law:

Throughout the hearing, the judge, a Black woman with Native American ancestry, accused Young of mistreating Black attorneys, took “judicial notice” of her own background in making findings against Young, and repeatedly referred to Young, who is Latino, as being White. Brown called the hearing months after she revoked Young’s ability to practice in her courtroom to weigh whether the lawyer should face sanctions.

“I think what’s happening here, quite candidly, is you are very intimidated for some reason, Mr. Young, with Black excellence, in light of your White mediocrity. Yeah. Right?,” Brown said, according to the transcript. “You should write that down. I mean, you — I’m — you look like a White man, right?”

“I’m not White, Your Honor,” Young replied, adding that he’s Latino. “Well, you are White-presenting; is that fair to say?” Brown said, according to the transcript. Young said that he’s “fair-skinned,” and Brown said that Young had “White privilege” when he argued his client didn’t receive key evidence in the case.

“You’re the White savior, come to save all the stupid Black lawyers in Texas who need your help, from New York,” Brown later said, according to the transcript. . . .

During the April 24, 2026 hearing, Brown accused Young of “racial bullying” toward Black attorneys in the case. Brown also said that Young was acting like a “Chad,” a term Young wasn’t familiar with. The judge said it was the male version of a “Karen.” “It’s someone who calls the manager when they don’t get their way. They stomp their foot when the rules are supposed to apply to them, right?” Brown said, according to the transcript. . . .

During the April hearing, Brown took issue with an article headline describing the case when it went before the Supreme Court of Texas. The article quoted a brief filed by Young that referenced another law professor apparently comparing what happened in the tenure denial to a “lynching.” The judge accused Young of making up that quote to “get a headline.”

“And so when I read a headline — a sensationalized, very racialized headline that says, ‘it’s like I’ve been lynched,’ and it’s literally got no connection to this case, I have to ask you, Mr. Social Media, Main Character Chad, White Hero, Savior, Loves to Help Black People Be An Ally, where the lynching in this case came from?” Brown said, according to the transcript.

She also apparently gave Young a copy of a 1920 newspaper article that described a lynching. “So we don’t find lynching jokes funny down here, sir,” Brown said, according to the transcript.

Fascinating. Brown is a Trump appointee, which means that even supposedly conservative clack judges may have had their brains addled from years of anti-white, anti-male indoctrination, propaganda and an implanted victim mentality. Of she just snapped like a dry twig in the wind. She has been suspended pending psychiatric testing; apparently the judge had been acting strangely for quite a while. Brown has refused to decide some cases and hasn’t shown up to face her disciplinary proceedings. This, Josh Blackman deduces at The Volokh Conspiracy, suggests that “something is amiss” with this judge.

Ya think?

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More on the Democrats’ “Confuse the Voters!” Plot In Alaska

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

The big story yesterday was the revelation of the Democratic Party’s plot to steal an Alaska U.S. Senate seat by confusing voters.…well, that, and the fact that the New York Times reported damning conduct by the party it pimps for most of the year. Stephen Green, usually an astute political analyst from the Right, thinks that the scandal may have national impact, that the GOP should use it nationally as it makes the final pitch to voters. He says, “[I]f the Republicans play their cards right, they can make the fallout go national. Because it DESERVES to go national. In fact, this ought to be one of the defining issues of the 2026 midterms.” Got it. Since it ought to be, it will be. Welcome to Fantasy Land. Green adds, [O]nce again, the same people screaming about “saving democracy” and “democracy is on the ballot” have been caught trying to rig an election.”

Also, trees have leaves! Why would any indoctrinated, progressive, Trump Deranged voter anywhere but Alaska—heck, even in Alaska!—suddenly think “THIS is the final straw!”? The Democratic Party had its puppet President call Republicans Nazis and threat to democracy…

…as it knowingly inflicted a demented POTUS on the nation, let a former President pull the strings, had its captive media lie that the shuffling geezer was “sharp as a tack,” and then replaced him as the 2024 candidate with a far left dim bulb who never faced a single primary opponent or a competitive convention vote. Its favorite Communism-loving Senator, Bernie Sanders, assured radical voters that what she was saying on the campaign trail were just lies to placate moderates until she was elected. The party has been trying to inflame its wackos to kill Donald Trump for years, and came within inches of succeeding—then tried to claim the assassination attempt was a MAGA hoax. It has repeatedly tried to defy election results by concocting one scheme after another (and the Big Lies to support them) to remove an opposing party’s President, including an audacious, Obama White House-engineered investigation of “collusion” with Russia.

It flooded the nation with illegal aliens, all the better to get census results that give Democratic states more electoral votes and representatives. Democrats in Virginia tried to sneak an illegal and unconstitutional redistricting scheme into law by lying about it on a referendum. In Maine, Democratic leadership kept insisting that a fake oyster fisherman who abuses women was a legitimate Senate candidate while he lied about the Nazi tattoo he had on his chest. In Minnesota, a Democratic rep almost certainly engaged in fraud to become a U.S. citizen and has been lying about it ever since, while stating that her first loyalty is to a foreign, Muslim nation. House Democrats let one of their Reps break the law to delay a House vote and lie about it. The party has successfully blocked efforts to ensure election integrity on multiple fronts, but the late revelation of another Democratic cheat in Alaska is going to finally make Americans figure out where the real danger to democracy comes from?

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