>> Lots of Nazis were working boring jobs as part of the system that exterminated millions of people. But as a society we generally do not hold these people accountable for such actions.
So what?
Perhaps if they had held themselves more accountable when they were enabling the regime then some of the horrific acts committed by the Nazis could have been stopped! Sure, as a society we don't hold them criminally responsible, but we hold them morally responsible to some extent. And we absolutely should. Just being one cog in a giant evil machine is not a good thing, the existence of millions of such cogs enables incredible evils to occur.
There is no absolute here. You can't say as an absolute "if it offends your morality then whistleblow" and neither can you say "always trust the chain of command". Neither leads to a good outcome. But people damn well need to take a look at all the small things they do and evaluate if they contribute to something they cannot morally defend. And where it's massive abuses of the people by the government, hell yes, blow that whistle hard.
So what? Perhaps if they had held themselves more accountable when they were enabling the regime then some of the horrific acts committed by the Nazis could have been stopped! Sure, as a society we don't hold them criminally responsible, but we hold them morally responsible to some extent. And we absolutely should. Just being one cog in a giant evil machine is not a good thing, the existence of millions of such cogs enables incredible evils to occur.
There is no absolute here. You can't say as an absolute "if it offends your morality then whistleblow" and neither can you say "always trust the chain of command". Neither leads to a good outcome. But people damn well need to take a look at all the small things they do and evaluate if they contribute to something they cannot morally defend. And where it's massive abuses of the people by the government, hell yes, blow that whistle hard.