Comment by FrustratedMonky

The problem is, it is not obvious what the 'correct' decision is today to maximize the future lives. It's all guesses, for longtermist and presentist. Its just that the longtermism people are using this long term argument for things they do want now, but are potentially 'atrocities', but in the view of infinity looks logical. So dress up some logic using the infinite future with trillions of lives, to make my current bad decision seem reasonable. Its tipping the scales when they also do not know which is best decision.