> Corporations are amoral entities that seek to maximize profits
The steps they take to obtain that goal matter a lot. If they went around literally stealing money from peoples wallets, we wouldn't just hand-wave it away and say "oh, they're amoral entities"
> just as living organisms are entities that seek to maximize reproductive success
We still consider it unethical to obtain that goal by any means necessary.
> There's nothing wrong with either incentive
I have nothing wrong with either incentive. Making a profit and reproducing are both great things. Doing either of them (or anything!) in unethical ways is the problem.
> Therefore, in this case, there was no reason to trust Reddit admins on what they say
What they have said in the past and what they have done WRT treating subreddits are "your space" is pretty consistent. We didn't just take their word for it. Their actions over the last 10 years in almost every circumstance has led us to believe this is the policy.
> they will simply say whatever they want in order to pursue profit
The public NEED to combat these kinds of problems by holding companies accountable. I would much rather live in a world where a company has to worry about lying to consumers because they will be held accountable than live in a world where anything a company says is ignored because we threw our hands up and said nobody can be trusted to any degree.
Just as a lion eating a gazelle has no moral qualms, a corporation does not either, so long as it's legal. Expecting ethical behavior in a corporation when such behavior is not encoded in its fitness function is misguided. You may not like this answer but it's true. If you want corporations to act ethically, encode it in their fitness function; make there be legal or monetary consequences to acting unethically because until then, they will simply do what they want to do.
In other words, even if you may feel that corporations are acting unethically, without any consequences for their actions, they'll just continue to do so, that's just the reality of it. You can try to change it, as you mention in your last paragraph, but that will be exceedingly difficult.
The steps they take to obtain that goal matter a lot. If they went around literally stealing money from peoples wallets, we wouldn't just hand-wave it away and say "oh, they're amoral entities"
> just as living organisms are entities that seek to maximize reproductive success
We still consider it unethical to obtain that goal by any means necessary.
> There's nothing wrong with either incentive
I have nothing wrong with either incentive. Making a profit and reproducing are both great things. Doing either of them (or anything!) in unethical ways is the problem.
> Therefore, in this case, there was no reason to trust Reddit admins on what they say
What they have said in the past and what they have done WRT treating subreddits are "your space" is pretty consistent. We didn't just take their word for it. Their actions over the last 10 years in almost every circumstance has led us to believe this is the policy.
> they will simply say whatever they want in order to pursue profit
The public NEED to combat these kinds of problems by holding companies accountable. I would much rather live in a world where a company has to worry about lying to consumers because they will be held accountable than live in a world where anything a company says is ignored because we threw our hands up and said nobody can be trusted to any degree.