How do you feel about snitching?

[Doctor Amadeus]

What’s your opinion on snitching?

[Thekri]

I mean it depends. You should establish your character enough that people know what you stand for, and what you will tolerate. If a friend or acquaintance does something outside the limits of that, then they are the ones that broke your trust. Within the limits of that, you should never snitch, outside the limits of that, never fail to report it.

But people should know that about you. It shouldn't be a surprise. It should be consistent with your character. My Co-Workers should know, that if they show up late to work for some reason, I will have their back. I am not going to snitch, I am going to cover for them. They should also know that if they lie on a customer bid, or if they misallocate company money, I will address it and right the wrong. I will "Snitch" on that, and they know it. They need to understand what your moral character is. I am not a stickler for the rules, but I am stickler for what is right. As long as it isn't hurting anyone, as long as it isn't done with malicious intent, I am going to be loyal and protect them. When they cross that moral line, I won't follow them across it.

[Doctor Amadeus]

I mean it depends. You should establish your character enough that people know what you stand for, and what you will tolerate. If a friend or acquaintance does something outside the limits of that, then they are the ones that broke your trust. Within the limits of that, you should never snitch, outside the limits of that, never fail to report it.

But people should know that about you. It shouldn't be a surprise. It should be consistent with your character. My Co-Workers should know, that if they show up late to work for some reason, I will have their back. I am not going to snitch, I am going to cover for them. They should also know that if they lie on a customer bid, or if they misallocate company money, I will address it and right the wrong. I will "Snitch" on that, and they know it. They need to understand what your moral character is. I am not a stickler for the rules, but I am stickler for what is right. As long as it isn't hurting anyone, as long as it isn't done with malicious intent, I am going to be loyal and protect them. When they cross that moral line, I won't follow them across it.

Interesting take. Not that I disagree. However implicit bias is always going to be a thing. In the example you give.

[Templar 331]

When asked I try to tell the truth. This has caused me some problems from time to time. I don't consider this snitching since I didn't go out of my way to say anything damning. If the truth hurts you then that's on you, not me. Though I have feigned ignorance a few times when telling the truth will cause more problems than it should.

Now for someone that goes out of their way to run their mouth, they are asshats. These people typically leave out details that can make or break a situation and have a reason besides telling the truth to talk.

[muto]

No option for it depends on the circumstance? I would tell on someone if I saw them steal something, but I wouldn’t if my friend was lying about his favorite food to connect with his crush.

[Cosmic Janitor]

How about "it depends on the case, because I'm not a 5 year old and the wold is more complicated than that"

I'm missing that option in the poll.

[Egomaniac]

It all depends on the situation.

If someone steals a candy bar... I'm not a snitch
If someone murders someone... I'm a snitch

[Thekri]

Interesting take. Not that I disagree. However implicit bias is always going to be a thing. In the example you give.

Of course. Doing the right thing is always going to be a judgement call, and reality is always going to be tricky because the "Right" thing isn't always clear.

Here is an example of this in reality. At a place I used to work at, a customer was paying us to do inspections on every other pallet of product, which was a chemical formula in granule form. The inspections consisted of drawing samples from each pallet and running them through a series of lab tests to ensure the product was to spec. The customer was paying a surcharge for individual testing, which means each pallet got ran as a separate testing batch. Well what I found out the lab tech was doing, is mixing all the samples, and running them as a single batch. If the mixture passed, he approved the whole lot.

Now in theory this makes sense, it certainly saved time in running the batches, and it would catch any sort of major issue. However what it wouldn't do is catch if specific pallets weren't meeting spec because they were the washout batch (The last run through the machine), as long as the issue on that pallet was close enough not to throw the average off the tolerance, it would just get shipped to the customer, although it failed. Even more importantly, the customer was specifically paying us NOT to run mixed batches.

So what to do here? We had been doing this for months, it had never caused problems and the customer hadn't complained about anything. On the other hand we were charging for a service we weren't doing. Do we tell the customer what we have been doing? Do we fix the issue going forward? Do we keep mixing batches?

The strict right answer is obviously tell the customer what we have been doing, which could have huge consequences, and give them a reason to break contract with no penalty.

Personally I took the middle path, I forced the lab to start running batches individually (They were not happy), but I didn't go the full way and inform the customer what we had been doing. Was that cowardly of me? Probably. I don't know if the way I did it was the best possible way, but at least I wasn't complicit in continuing to cheat the customer. I did the best I could and moved forward. The Lab got in trouble from me and the operations manager, but we didn't take it to the General Manager. Again, we probably should have.

It is always a judgement call. It is never easy in reality.

[PC2]

I think people should not divulge private information unless they have the consent of the subject. Of course if the subject is somehow violating the consent of other people then it's okay and often obligatory.

[Doctor Amadeus]

When asked I try to tell the truth. This has caused me some problems from time to time. I don't consider this snitching since I didn't go out of my way to say anything damning. If the truth hurts you then that's on you, not me. Though I have feigned ignorance a few times when telling the truth will cause more problems than it should.

Now for someone that goes out of their way to run their mouth, they are asshats. These people typically leave out details that can make or break a situation and have a reason besides telling the truth to talk.

I think this is a good rule to live by.

- - - Updated - - -

I think people should not divulge private information unless they have the consent of the subject. Of course if the subject is somehow violating the consent of other people then it's okay and often obligatory.

What if you know someone something you didn’t ask to know and weren’t sworn to secrecy like say. A locker room?

- - - Updated - - -

How about "it depends on the case, because I'm not a 5 year old and the wold is more complicated than that"

I'm missing that option in the poll.

Depends on how much you’re being paid. The trade off doesn’t have to be money.

It could be for other bias or favor. Say like allegedly Harvey Weinstein or people liked such as Bill Cosby.

[Shadowferal]

Most times...not a rat.

Line gets crossed when children or innocents in general are involved.

[Endus]

Bears mentioning that the only people in movies you see pulling the "snitches get stitches" bullshit, as in the OP's video example, are shitbird criminals, usually extremely violent and sadistic ones at that.

These are not people you should be taking ethics advice from.

I'm not gonna go all tattletale on someone unless I think what they're doing is wrong and they should be stopped, then yeah. I'll let someone know. If I notice you grabbed a Large drink when you paid for a Medium, whatever, it's not worth my time to make a fuss. If you're drinking soup straight from the ladle at the buffet, fuck you, you're gonna get everyone sick, yeah, I'm telling the manager, asshole. Gross, man. Fuck you.

[PACOX]

Most people running around about "I don't snitch" and "snitches get stitches" don't even understand what people mean by snitching. They make themselves look idiots going around yelling "snitches get stitches" or refusing to 'snitch' when authorities absolutely need to be notified of something. Snitching is contextual. Reporting a crime isn't necessarily snitching. If someone is being harmed, innocent lives in danger, do tell. Snitching when tells on you stealing cable. Snitching is when someone who was part of crime runs to the police for a deal. Snitching is telling your boss that Steve comes in 10 min late even though Steve gets all his work done and is otherwise a good guy.

[shadowmouse]

I'm not in a gang, I'm not in the mafia, omerta isn't really a thing for me. I'm a retired lawyer, so I think we need people to be willing to come forward when something is wrong. With that said, whistle-blowers, confidential informants and such are a mixed bag.

There is a balance between needing to speak up and just being a malicious gossip. We don't have enough people who are willing to put themselves in the former group, but we have too many of the latter. I resigned my position with one law office because I felt that there were shenanigans that I heard enough about to be uncomfortable, but nothing I could say I knew for a fact or produce evidence for. If I had had evidence or known something for a fact, I would have gone to the disciplinary committee (ARDC). Since I couldn't, I quit rather than make accusations I couldn't back up.

[Dug]

I'd only rat on someone if somebody was unjustly being harmed so child abuse, rape, murder, theft (of me or my friends/family) etc.

Dumb poll btw

[Forgettable]

I think that the words "snitch" and "rat" have negative connotations to them. You'd probably get much different responses if you phrased it a different way, like "Would you tell the truth?"

[smityx]

Snitchen gonna git u sum stitchen

[Mekkle]

I dont defend my friends doing stupid shit

[Pony Soldier]

Depends on the person and how I feel about him/her. If it's a friend or family member of course I'm going to lie for them. If it's some random prick I hardly know he/she better be on my good side because you best believe I'm snitching on his/her ass.

[I Push Buttons]

For something major I will probably go out of my way report you and/or cooperate with authorities, regardless of whether you are complete stranger or friend/family...

If its something minor, I won't go out of my way to report you... But if the authorities come knocking, I will probably cooperate with them, I am not going to lie on your behalf.