In a revealing discussion on moral boundaries, cultural commentators Jia Tolentino and Hasan Piker joined Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman to explore the gray areas of modern-day pilfering—from digital piracy to shoplifting at major retailers.
The conversation began with a simple question: Would you steal from Whole Foods? Tolentino admitted she has, under specific circumstances, while framing such acts as neither significant moral transgressions nor meaningful forms of protest. "I think that stealing from a big box store—I'll just state my platform: It's neither very significant as a moral wrong, nor is it significant in any way as protest or direct action," she explained.
Spiegelman initiated the dialogue with a series of hypotheticals designed to probe personal ethics:
"Would you share your Netflix password?" Both participants acknowledged they do—and have benefited from others' accounts in the past.
"Would you get around a paywall on an article you're trying to read?" Piker responded, "Do it every day on my stream. Every day." Tolentino added, "I support it when people do it for my own work. I say go off. Use the Wayback Machine."
"Would you pirate music from an indie band?" "Is it 2005 and I'm using LimeWire? Because, yes," Piker quipped, noting that many millennials have engaged in such practices. Tolentino reflected on streaming platforms' impact on musicians: "I feel fundamentally Spotify is kind of like deleterious to the musician livelihood, and I use that. But then I go to the shows."
When asked about more substantial thefts, opinions diverged. While Piker joked about pirating a car if it were as easy as digital piracy, both drew firm lines at harming small businesses. "Would you dine and dash from your local diner?" Spiegelman asked. "Never, never," Piker asserted. "Tip 35 percent." Tolentino agreed: "No, I wouldn't do that. And if I saw somebody doing that, I'd probably pay for their meal."
The discussion highlights how individuals navigate ethical dilemmas in an era where digital content feels intangible and corporate giants appear faceless—yet personal connections to local establishments invoke stronger moral guardrails.