My Honest Opinion

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Icelander

No, it doesn't.

GURPS Honesty is a pathological belief in an external authority as a source of immutatable ethical law. It represents the complete abrogation of personal integrity, morality or honour and the replacement of personal judgment with an appeal to established authority. The ethical position of someone with GURPS Honesty is that everyone should follow the rules set by the ruling political elite in any given polity.

Someone who has GURPS Honesty may lie, cheat, murder and steal, as long as it is always done within the strict letter of the law whereever he happens to be. In fact, someone with GURPS Honesty can deliberately choose a jurisdiction to carry out a dishonest piece of business based on its laxity when it comes to whatever immorality the character feels like committing.

Adolf Eichmann probably serves as the best examplar of a character with GURPS Honesty.

You're hyperbolizing something fierce. First of all, Eichmann wasn't operating within the constraints of the law. He was part of a regime that felt free to ignore the law as written and did. And it is not true that an Honest man can cheat as long it is done within the strict letter of the law. Honest men are bound to live up to their promises regardless of the law. (Pro Hint: Don't make promises the fulfillment of which would violate the law.)

What's more it is both wrong and unfair to characterize Honest as "a pathological belief in an external authority as a source of immutable ethical law." Nothing prevents an Honest person from working to change a law it considers unjust by lawful means. An Honest person is usually not a rebel (although they [I]can[I] rebel to restore a previous status they consider more legitimate) but they are free (as far as Honesty goes) to be a reformer or a martyr.

That being said, you certainly can be an Honest villain who makes the most of any opportunity the law gives them to be cruel and oppressive, or just do what the law requires. You can be Lawful Evil, Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good so to speak.

Murder is, of course, a legal term as well as an ethical one. It's that first one that the GURPS Honest character needs to care about. In a jurisdiction where certain minorities don't have basic human rights, nothing prevents him from killing them in a way that is nothing short of murder, ethically.

More accurately Honest doesn't keep him from doing that. But Honest doesn't define a character's entire sense of right and wrong. He has to actually want to kill those minorities in the first place.

That means that he'll go out of his way to turn subjugated minorities in to their persecutors when he visits countries where homosexuality or certain religions are punishable offences, but one plane ride later, he'll be turning anyone who agrees with the religious police he was helping in for hate speech.

It means no such thing. One fulfills the requirements of Honesty quite adequately by simply attempting to persuade criminals to not break the law.

Someone with GURPS Honesty would have cheerfully enforced the laws of Nazi Germany before making a full confession at Nuremberg and demanded to be hanged the moment the Allies retroactively made his actions illegal. He couldn't help it, compulsion.

Actually the Geneva Convention existed before Nuremberg. When laws conflict an Honest person must decide which law holds more legitimacy. And the things war criminals were hanged for were not things the Nazis actually formally legalized.

Hmm... actually, considering that the Internet is a worldwide publishing platform, it is very likely that any character with GURPS Honesty who is active on social media has to start his visit to many countries by turning himself in for illegal speech, as he is very likely to have posted something against the law in the new jurisdiction.

Nope. Legal in the jurisdiction where the act was committed. The Honest person did not transmit the illegal sentiments into the place where they were illegal.

GURPS Honesty, as written, represents the deep-seated belief that morality is defined by the whims of whoever has the authority to make laws where ever the character is located and that he should proactively help them enforce that morality

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No. It isn't. It's the belief that even when a law is wrong, it's also wrong to break it. That's not the same thing as thinking the law isn't wrong. As mentioned working to change the law within the system is always an option and in the opinion of the Honest person a better one. And no, it doesn't require you to inform on everyone else. It requires you to try to persuade everyone else.