OOH! Here’s a much better “Blogtown Ethicist” quandary for you to chew on:

IF SOMEONE—say, Brad, the Mercury office manager—LEAVES HIS FACEBOOK WALL COMPLETELY OPEN, AND WALKS AWAY TO LUNCH, DO HIS CO-WORKERS HAVE AN ETHICAL OBLIGATION TO FUCK WITH IT IN ORDER TO TEACH HIM A VALUABLE LESSON?

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Your opinions on this weighty matter are welcome in the comments below.

Bang bang, choo-choo train, let me see you shake that thang. Wm. Steven Humphrey is the editor-in-chief of the Portland Mercury and has held the job since 2000. (So don’t get any funny ideas.)

10 replies on “THE BLOGTOWN ETHICIST II: Someone Left their Facebook Open”

  2. Apply the Golden Rule. Turnabout is fair play. You may someday have a similar lapse. If someone doesn’t put their name and date on their brown bag lunch in the fridge, does that make it fair game? If someone drops their wallet are you justified in keeping the contents because they were careless? This is an ethical slow pitch. Now, if your morbidly obese coworker could be pushed in front of a train to save three others, what would you do?

  3. Normally I would say that such stupidity should be punished, but really, working there is probably just about all the punishment that anyone should be expected to bear.

    Oh, hell, just one “BACK IN AN HOUR, TAKING A WEIGHTY AND MESSY DUMP” status update can’t hurt.

  4. Ethics and morals are slightly different things. I would say that you do not have an ethical responsability to fuck with Brad. However, you DO have a MORAL responsability to do so.

  6. I think your ethical obligation is to list Brad as married to his mother or father. He won’t know he’s been messed with until the target sends him an “uhhh” message.

    You could also change his employment status to the employer/job title of your choice.

    Brad could leave a dozen comments along the lines of “Your baby would look even cuter if it had a Care Bears tattoo. Mine gets me so much ass.”

  7. If it’s a public office computer, fair game. If it’s generally his for exclusive use, than fucking with his FB is a dick move, though not totally out of bounds.

  8. You do not have an ethical responsibility to teach him a lesson, but should you choose to do so, you DO have an ethical responsibility to ensure that it is HILARIOUS.

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