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What crimes does this extend to? There are crimes of a whole range of severity. At what point does it become severe enough that you are obliged to cut ties or report? And what if you have less than 100% confidence that he committed the bad deed?
I haven't thought about this in a systemic way, but if I knew for a fact that a friend of mine had done one of the below (without having been punished), I think I would have no choice but to cut ties with him:
I'm sure there are others that one might add to the list, those are just the first few that come to mind. If I knew for a fact that a friend of mine had stolen someone's wallet or defrauded someone out of a significant amount of money, I would probably cut ties with them as well (although in that case it would be more out of concern that he might do the same to me).
What if I don't know for sure? I think if my friend has been publicly accused of one of these serious crimes, but I personally think he's innocent, then I don't think I have no obligation to cut ties with him (indeed, probably the worst thing about #MeToo was the number of men who lost their livelihoods and entire social circles on the basis of allegations which were implausible on their face). If he hasn't been publicly accused, but rumours are starting to circulate, then I think one ought to do one's due diligence, investigate if the rumours sound credible, and escalate if so.
I was thinking more "has done racist things". Does blackface, or a couple of racist remarks, mean you need to cut ties? What if it's less than 100% certain that the racist remarks were in context?
I'm trying to think of how explicitly racist someone would need to be before I would cut ties with them. Certainly I wouldn't want to be friends with someone if I found out that they had a swastika tattoo they had no intention of removing.
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