>How have we come to accept this kind of immoral behavior on the large scale
Cheating is legal and doesn't affect me a customer. Its crazy that an entrepreneur forum is obsessed with exposing these men and women. Not too long ago, my dad's generation were saying "A company run by a gay? I'd never do business with such a morally bankrupt pervert!" Meanwhile, my own bosses have said things like, "Hire someone who smokes pot? Well, we don't hire immoral criminals here! Now piss in this cup."
Now here we are, again. Maybe we should just stop moving the goalposts and understand that what people do privately is their own fucking business. I don't care how many affairs you've had. I just care about the value proposition. I hate how cheating makes everyone a moralist and a biblethumper, when they otherwise have secular liberal values. I hate this entitlement and culture of shame it brings out in people who should know better.
I care about cheating because it tells me that the person is OK with lying to people close to them. If they're OK lying to their spouse, my concern is that they're also OK lying to a customer.
If people want to have an open marriage or practice polyamory, fine, that's entirely up to them.
The deception is the thing here that is problematic.
And how do you know which is which? If you see a name that you recognize that used AM, do you ask them to clarify which bucket they belong in, or do you just assign them one yourself?
The site, as far as I know, bills itself as a place to find cheating partners.
The poly people I know seem to have their own places for finding potential relationship partners. The poly people I know are also all quite open about their relationship choices.
If I saw a name I recognized on Ashley Madison, I'd assume they wanted to cheat and keep that hidden from their partners.
What about closeted gays and others who are forced to be deceptive? I lie about my religious views because you can't be an atheist where I'm at. etc, etc. There's so much white-lying going on that its ridiculous to hold it up to some standard or pretend it means anything.
>my concern is that they're also OK lying to a customer.
This is ridiculous. Do you really think the CEO's sex life translates directly to the product? Do you even understand what a CEO does?
I think very few people would consider cheating on one's spouse or partner to be a form of white lying.
I also do business with a lot more people where I'm doing business with the owner themselves. If I'm looking someone in the eye and shaking their hand to do a deal, and then they turn around and lie to their spouse (someone they ostensibly owe a lot more to than me), that's hard for me to reconcile.
Maybe you don't care, and that's fine. I do. I find it hard to trust people who cheat. Why would I be treated differently or better than a spouse? (Again, open marriage/polyamory/whatever is a different story.)
All the CEOs I'd consider "evil" have been faithful from what I can tell. You're making an argument you can't support for reasons that seem 100% emotionally hysterical to me.
"Look at other women?! I'm not buying his product!" This is no different than "A Hindu running a company? No thank you sir! I only go with good honest Christian men!"
In a large company the CEO does little more than attract investor money and recruit senior leadership, if that. The idea that his sex lies are going directly in your software is hilariously puritanical.
I do not find people who cheat on their spouses or partners trustworthy. That is my argument. You can feel differently. Calling my argument hysterical or unsupported makes me think you don't know what those words mean.
I care about cheating because it tells me that the person is OK with lying to people close to them.
Then you should care about marijuana users and people in repressive regimes who import contraband media and news for in the same way for the same reasons.
People who enter into monogamous relationships can get one set of "this is what counts as honesty" rules w.r.t. what they owe their spouses (i.e. don't cheat).
People who are born into and live in repressive regimes can get a different set of "this is what counts as honesty" (i.e. some law is unjust and therefore can be broken).
Funnily enough, though, sometimes I do hear of people breaking laws that makes me think they're less trustworthy, too. Like a guy I know who wants to try and get a handicapped parking placard even though he isn't handicapped. You know, those spots are supposed to be for people who really can't walk that far, and he wants to try and grab one because of the convenience. That's a trivial example, and dumb, but when I hear that I think, there's a guy who wants to rip off the system in a small way, but one that could hurt people who actually need it.
So it's not like "here is one conception of honesty that I have to apply everywhere, mechanically and without human reasoning." Human life is more nuanced than that.
" In the United States, laws vary from state to state. Up until the mid 20th century most US states (especially Southern and Northeastern states) had laws against fornication, adultery or cohabitation. These laws have gradually been abolished or struck down by courts as unconstitutional.[138][139][140]"
If the law making it illegal is unconstitutional, it's legal.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that any relationship between consenting adults is legal, and that any laws against the same are unconstitutional. (2003, Lawrence v Texas) This applied in this case to homosexuality, but the Supreme Court's ruling didn't limit the interpretation.
No politician wants to be the one who says "I propose a bill to make adultery legal. It's not an issue for the courts."
There have been less that a dozen misdemeanor prosecutions in the last half century in those 21 states combined.
So yes, in those states, it's illegal. Unconstitutionally so. Just as in many cases, so was homosexuality, and anal sex.
Cheating is legal and doesn't affect me a customer. Its crazy that an entrepreneur forum is obsessed with exposing these men and women. Not too long ago, my dad's generation were saying "A company run by a gay? I'd never do business with such a morally bankrupt pervert!" Meanwhile, my own bosses have said things like, "Hire someone who smokes pot? Well, we don't hire immoral criminals here! Now piss in this cup."
Now here we are, again. Maybe we should just stop moving the goalposts and understand that what people do privately is their own fucking business. I don't care how many affairs you've had. I just care about the value proposition. I hate how cheating makes everyone a moralist and a biblethumper, when they otherwise have secular liberal values. I hate this entitlement and culture of shame it brings out in people who should know better.