The Snitch Test

After The War, one of Hitler's generals said of the dictator that his decisions "ceased to have anything in common with the principles of strategy and operations as they have been recognized for generations past. They were the product of a violent nature following its momentary impulses, which recognized no limits to possibility and which made its wishdreams the father of its acts."

This is simply a well-worded iteration of a common flaw; we become so invested in our own intelligence that we stop testing ourselves, we stop asking for advice, and we drift further and further from reality on the tide of our own ego.

When we cease to dissect our decisions and our motives, we fall into this trap.

Ask any student in my school what they think of snitches, and the answer is invariably the same. They are the lowest form of life, snitches get stitches, etc, etc. Such deeply held beliefs may lead us to think that the issue has been thought about widely and deeply, but of course it has not.

Ask the very same students the definition of a snitch, and you'll get looks that betray an anger at this metaphysical nonsense. It's obvious what a snitch is, these looks tell you. Except it's not obvious what a snitch is, especially to people who devote so much energy to hating them.

Just as Hitler became so delusional that he invaded the Soviet Union and declared war on the United States within months of each other, many urban youths today blindly sweat loyalty to the premise that snitches deserve death that they no longer commit the only act necessary to those who claim to hold this belief: define snitches.

These people are so busy hating snitches that they don't even bother to define the word. Just as Hitler grew too self-righteous to pay attention to the proper definitions of "economics" or "justice" or "logic" or "history" or anything else, for that matter.

So what is a snitch? A snitch is someone who cooperates with the police. That's the truth, but it's not the whole truth. And the truth without the whole truth is often worse than a lie. For example, Hitler would have define "Jews" as "against the German people". And that was the truth.

But the whole truth was that the Jews were against the German people because the German people were exterminating them from the face of the earth. Quite a bit of daylight between the truth and the whole truth, no?

The whole truth about snitches is that they cooperate with the police AND they benefit from that cooperation.

Some examples: Let's say I witness a man shoot an 80 year old woman in the face. If I cooperate with the police in getting this man off the street, am I a snitch? No. Here's why.

I did not sell my "cooperation". I did not benefit from it. I was not forgiven for any crime I may have committed, and I received no money. If anything, I willingly put myself in danger from the idiots who ignore this distinction and who would target me for death for the sin of "snitching".

Another example: Let's say I sell cocaine. I get caught. The police tell me I have two choices: 10 years in prison or I can cooperate with the police in locking up my business partners. Am I a snitch? Yes. Here's why.

I sold my cooperation. I benefit from it by escaping the consequences of my own crimes. There is an enormous moral chasm between these two scenarios.

Even further down the moral plane are people who get paid either in money or reduced sentences by fabricating information or planting evidence. These tactics have been used by our own government against civil rights and anti-war groups.

There is no virtue in profiting by the incarceration of another person. Whether you are paid in time, coin, or paper, the corruption is the same. A free society is not possible when criminals can be forgiven of their crimes by spying on and betraying others, innocent or not.

A free society is also not possible when it is taboo to condemn the animals among us and to help the police imprison them. That is the whole truth. It doesn't fit on a t-shirt or a bumper sticker, but it is what civilization is based on. So help me God.