NationStates

After reading the news that Roe was offered a fuckton of money to change her mind on abortion, even as she said that it was "all an act," it got me turning to NSG with an idea for a thread: namely, given how she changed her mind because she got paid to do so, surely there are people out here who will be willing to alter one of their major beliefs: one that they deeply hold all through their lives, just so they can be slightly wealthier.

Thus, my question to NSG is this: will you change your most deeply-held political belief(s) for cold hard cash, if someone extraordinarily wealthy were to offer you an obscene amount of cash to do so?

Personally, I would do so: if I was offered an obscene amount of wealth to abandon my anti-American political beliefs, I'd certainly take the money and begin praising the American government and how it benefited the world, as opposed to right now where I look more at the negatives of American government on both its own people, and on the international stage. If such a change can help me ensure my family can live comfortably, I'd take the money.

It depends on the belief. I can become a social democrat, maybe, or become Catholic. But I wouldn't accept fascism or a completely different religion. It's not worth it.

I would have a consistent ideology if I did that.

Geneviev wrote:It depends on the belief. I can become a social democrat, maybe, or become Catholic. But I wouldn't accept fascism or a completely different religion. It's not worth it.

Interesting.

I was thinking the person offering you the cash would want a blanket "as-is" if you will, but I suppose I didn't make that clear enough.

I'd say yes, take the cash, and continue going about with my beliefs.

It'd take more than cash to change my mind.

Luziyca wrote:

Geneviev wrote:It depends on the belief. I can become a social democrat, maybe, or become Catholic. But I wouldn't accept fascism or a completely different religion. It's not worth it.

Interesting.

I was thinking the person offering you the cash would want a blanket "as-is" if you will, but I suppose I didn't make that clear enough.

Both of those would technically be a change in my beliefs. Every loophole should be exploited.

I'm not sure how possible it is to actually change what you believe — rather, it sounds to me like this question should really be more about changing what you advocate or signal. Let's take atheism/theism, since it's one that's pretty familar to many.

Now, I'm not very good at gaslighting myself (and I suspect most people reading this question aren't either). If you offered me a huge amount of money to convince myself that a god existed, I couldn't do it, because I've found the evidence to be overwhelming in the other direction and I'm not in the business of making myself crazy enough to reject everything I've seen before on a whim. I could absolutely, however, start preaching and attending a church and signaling to everyone that I was a theist, for the right incentive.

If this question implies that the person giving me the money is going to rewrite my brain to make me utterly convinced of a position I don't currently hold? No thanks; no realistic amount of material gain would be worth mindjacking (though perhaps an unrealistic amount would — offer me a trillion years of paradise or something, and I might change my mind...).

If I'm just being asked to start acting wholeheartedly as though I held a different belief (and this is enforced by, say, getting punished for not doing this)? I think it suddenly becomes more feasible for me. Lots of pros and cons to consider, and in the end it'll come down to the finer details of what I'm giving up and what I'm getting.

Not gonna happen.

No

It might not actually change my mind but if Bezos wants to cut me a fat check I'd start shilling for a lot of causes I currently don't.

If it was for something piddly, and I was in control of making the change myself--no weird brainwashing or gaslighting or whatever--then I would do it. Like, if they said, "We know you like the color blue best, but we'll give you five million dollars if for the rest of your life you said you like yellow best," then I'd be a millionaire. And I'd probably be able to teach myself to actually like the thing.

If it was for something that's actually important to me, or if it required unpleasant methods, no. Not ever. Having oodles of cash would fix a lot of problems for me and mine, but I already had to grow up pretending to be someone I wasn't. Like hell am I going back to that after all the work to get free of it, cold hard cash or not.

The people who said yes would be interesting to practice sales pitches on.

I mean you cant really stop believing in something. You can lie. Would I lie about my views for money? It is entirely dependent on the circumstances.

If I was a public figure with broad recognition, probably not, especially if the view I was being paid for would be, in my mind, dangerous or immoral.

If I was just normal me? Maybe, probably wouldn't hurt anyone, just make Thanksgiving Dinner more interesting

Not a bad little scheme, not bad at all. Legalise abortion then get paid big bucks to campaign against it.

Bear Stearns wrote:The people who said yes would be interesting to practice sales pitches on.

If someone sells a bridge, you can be sure that people'll fall for it.

There is no amount of money you could pay me to push opinions directly opposed to my deepest held beliefs. If I change my opinions, it is because I become convinced that the other person has a better argument, more evidence supporting them or so on.

No-one can see into your head to know you don't mean what you say. You are judged, in part, by the opinions you spout and (thanks to the internet) they never go away.

Long after she dies -- those speeches McCorvey gave, denouncing abortion, will be out there. The fact she was said it all for money and was pretending will mean nothing. "Look, the woman who fought to legalise abortion regretted it" will always be a pro-life talking point.

I'm going to say no, until someone stumps up an appropriate amount of cash.

If I could and did, then I never truly believed what I used to believe in the first place. In that case, the only thing I ever truly believed in is greed and self-interest. It's simply impossible for me to truly renounce greed and self-interest in favor of something that is itself an expression of greed and self-interest. If I take the money, my selfish worldview hasn't changed one bit and I'm just lying at this point. If I refuse, then am I really that selfish? This is an inherently paradoxical notion.

Yes.

I mean, I'm fairly anti-capitalistic now, but if someone gave me lots of cold hard cash, it would be stupid to not defend the system.

Religious beliefs? No. I stay Lutheran.

Political Beliefs? Hell yes.

But if it interferes with or goes against my religious beliefs, no.

No. That's not how beliefs work. You don't make conscious decisions about them. Would I pretend that I had? To the person trying to pay me? Sure, they resigned the right to expect me to ask honestly when they tried to bribe me. Beyond that? Nah, probably not, unless it was something really unimportant and a fair bit of money.

I hope I wouldn't. I like my political opinions.

Salandriagado wrote:No. That's not how beliefs work. You don't make conscious decisions about them. Would I pretend that I had? To the person trying to pay me? Sure, they resigned the right to expect me to ask honestly when they tried to bribe me. Beyond that? Nah, probably not, unless it was something really unimportant and a fair bit of money.

Well yes, I wouldn't be able to just decide I believe one thing, but I can decide to pretend I do. Which I will.

Is it bad I can provide support for both Capitalism and Communism?

I wouldn't change my political opinion even if somebody could make me the richest man in earth because (atleast according to me) your political opinion directly influences your character and I would not change my political opinion for anything or anybody because I believe my opinion is the most right and moral and therefore, I hold it extremely dear.

P.S. I am a Conservative.

Nah, I’d just take the cash after saying that I would change my beliefs.