Ask Lemmy

If it harmed an innocent, probably. If it harmed a government, corporation, or detestable person, no.

I feel like this is the kind of question that needs a whole lot of details before it is answerable.

Tax fraud? Absolutely fuck not.

Drunk driving? Probably I would give them a single "Hey next time I find out you're doing that I am calling the cops on you" warning shot.

Stealing from their company? Depends, what does the company do and who owns it? Again almost certainly not.

And so on.

What offense?

You don't have join them, but you can also not see a god damned thing. Unless they're doing something that screws over good, innocent people, especially on a wide scale, I'm minding my own business.

First, Skyler was practically a hostage, and an unwilling participant at best. I would describe her more as an abuse victim who still stays with her partner than a collaborator.

But to answer your question it's always going to be a case-by-case basis because it really depends on the impact of what they're doing and the harm it causes.

• Defrauding the government? Meh, the government has been fucking us for generations, turnabout is fair play.

• Stealing from some oligarch? Shit, need a partner? Eat the rich.

• Embezzling from your small-business employer? That's more likely to have a direct impact on your coworkers so I'd be concerned but still probably not.

But more serious stuff like dealing hard drugs to kids, selling guns and bombs to crazy people, killing people, blowing shit up, etc? Yeah, now we have a problem. Now, what gets done about that problem also depends on the person, the activity, and the circumstances.

• My husband came after me with a knife so I shot him? Cool, gimme a call if you need help hiding the body.
• Help I accidentally murdered someone (and it really was an accident)? Gray area, the law probably needs to get involved but I would encourage them to come forward themselves rather than turn them in. If they had a compelling reason not to I might help them or might stay out of it depending on circumstance.
• My wife wouldn't let me turn our home into the set of a realtiy TV show so I could be a star so I beat her to death (an actual thing that happened)? Hello officer, it was this guy right here.

Depends on the details. If their crime hurt someone innocent (or had a high likelihood to) and it was intentional, yes.

If I'm likely to go down with them if they get caught, yes.

Otherwise, I ain't no snitch and even if I were I don't know anything about nothing.

What's the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?

Snitch on a loved one? Never. If I thought it was ethically or morally wrong, I would tell them what I think about it. Good people also make mistakes, and good people can change.

If it's non-violent, no. never.

As a general rule, I don't call the cops on anyone unless that person's death will prevent immediate harm to others.

Cause if you call the cops on someone, you do put that person (and their neighbors) in mortal danger.

No and no.

Ponzi scheme or something like that? Yes, I would snitch. Bank robbery, please do not tell me. Cheating on taxes? I will judge you but no, not turn you in, if you get caught you get caught.

Snitches get stitches. If they aren't hurting anyone let em be exercise ur right to silence if questioned.

If they get in shit tho don't bail em out its not ur problem.

No. Fuck the government and giant corporations. I mean I wouldn't commit such crimes, but that's just because I don't want to deal with the consequences if I get caught. If you're willing to pay your nickel and take your chances, go for it, as long as no innocent people are hurt in the process.

Snitches get stitches. Unless someone is hurting people, I ain't seen nothing.

Report them for tax fraud? Almost definitely not. I would be getting a lawyer and accountant to insulate myself and my financials from them.

Depends, if the crime severely harms other people

Ethics comes above personal relationships always. That being said, small-scale tax fraud doesn't really seem pressing; there's plenty of flexibility about what to do about that, ethically speaking.

I'd have to duckduckgo where you even report that, because I don't think it's the normal police.

There's two extremes and the gradient between as I see it. One end of the scale follows their own code primarily and only respects laws they disagree with out of fear of social contract violations and the punishments. The other group follows and enforces all law without much critical thought about who is writing them and why. Unjust or not they don't seem to care. Then your middle grounders.

Partners and I have always been pretty strongly on the "our own code is primary" side. Probably because I wouldn't find someone with the other mindset attractive.

So, it really depends on what they did exactly. If I agree with them, I'm not saying shit. Although if I'm upset or not depends if we talked about it or not. If I'm just getting surprised by this, the sneaky secrecy behind my back would risk the relationship more than anything likely.

Tax fraud I wouldn't be okay with, so if they went and did it anyways or didn't talk to me about it beforehand that's game over.

10% cut

Serious, yes. Tax fraud, no.

Tax fraud may be serious to the govt, and the punishment may be serious, but you’re not hurting an individual, you’re not putting anyone out if business or out of a job, you’re not committing treason, you’re not even displaying sociopathic tendencies. Maybe if it were on the scale of Trump’s tax fraud …

I agree with other commenters that it depends on the crime against my own morals.

Neither? I'd wash my hands off the whole thing "on your head be it if this goes to shit".0

Not calling the authorities, also not going to need torture to tell them what I know if you get caught.

Honestly, if it's truly a "loved one" I probably wouldn't even report them for murder. Why? I think that when someone is close enough to you we simply apply different standards to them. Kind of like rescuing your own child from a burning building rather that rescuing two strangers.

As long as nobody is hurt beyond the pockets, I don’t know shit about fuck.

Generally if a person or small business was harmed then I'll report them but if it's the government and they did tax fraud or evasion I couldn't be bothered.

Thanks for the spoiler.