>>And from what I gather, you're gleefully fanning flames.
Have you seen those programs where somebody is berating a child on the sidewalk, and eventually somebody stops and tells him it's wrong? Is the person who stops fanning the flames, or reacting to what they see?
>>Sounds like a fairy tale.
It's a necessary part of the social compact. Reward without obligation is more representative of a lottery or banditry.
>>I don't think fanning the flames is the ethical thing to do.
So we're back to "have you stopped beating your wife?" Seriously, too many straw men here.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1