inBOIL

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and hopefully someone here can explain this to me. I can’t understand the reasoning behind blackmail being illegal/immoral. I can understand if what you’re threatening is illegal, (pay me or I’ll reveal your medical records) or if you have an obligation to report something (pay me or I’ll tell the cops you abuse your kids). But if you have a right to choose which course of action to take, why is it wrong? I don’t see how the blackmailee is victimized by paying to keep something a secret when revealing that information isn’t something that victimizes him, especially if he would rather pay than have that information revealed. Aren’t you just selling your decision to someone who has a vested interest in the outcome? How is this different than, say, a landowner selling the development rights for a forest to an environmental group?

__________________
And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.