It's not even necessary! If I'm prancing gayly off the edge of a cliff and someone grabs me and pulls me back before I fall, it doesn't matter that they didn't ask permission to save me. All that matters is whether I regret not falling off that cliff. If I would have regretted falling, I would thank the person who caught me!
And no, it's more about if your victims feel regret about what you've done to them. If everyone's a remorseless monster, then yeah it's fine if they go all Machiavelli on each other. It's when good people get caught in it, that... things don't go well.
CC: Sashin (npub1hge…us7k)
