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RobinHanson's avatar

A long standing principle of law, which I endorse, is that it is legal to threaten to do what is legal, and illegal to threaten to do what is illegal.

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Peter David Jones's avatar

"But money-inspired threats happen anytime parties haggle over a price, and few folks get worked up over that. If people are free to buy or not buy, and to sell or not sell, why not let them make threats about the price they’ll accept? Similarly, if people are free to gossip or not gossip as they prefer, why not let them haggle over the price of their gossip?"

If all threats are OK, why not threats of violence?

In a business deal, the threat is that someone doesn't get what they want. In blackmail, the the threat is loss of reputation ruin, and emotional distress. In a mugging, the threat us death or physical injury. These are the same in about the sense that a mouse and an elephant are both mamnals.

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