As expected, my thread on sadism blew up with butthurt.

What I was surprised by, however, was the many attempts by critics to veil their moralizing as strategic criticism.

"Don't be a sadist, because then people will want to take you down even more."

Or

"If you enjoy hurting others, you'll pass on opportunities where you could have won with kindness."

While there is truth to these criticisms, they come from a perspective of "I didn't really read what you just wrote and decided to play straw-man."

Which is fine. It gave me a good idea for another post (this one).

And that is the Profit of Virtue. When is a virtue also profitable? A win-win, morally and strategically?

Keeping your word, in almost every case, is one of the most strategically powerful tools you can have.

It also paints you as one hell of a guy, because a man is only as good as his word.

By keeping your word, you demonstrate intent, determination, integrity, and power. These are attractive, masculine qualities.

People know they can rely on you, which from a cold, Machiavellian perspective is parasitic, but the counter-argument is that it makes people dependent on you, thus you have power of them.

People know that your threats mean something. This is powerful because if you say you'll whoop their ass or if you'll beat them at something, they're going to take it seriously.

Your friends will trust you more. Which means you can trust them more. Sociopaths aside, if someone trusts you, it's much more probable for your trust in them to be well-put, since they won't be looking for fuck you over and risk you doing the same to them.

Sociopaths, the exception, are untrustworthy for many reasons, but one of the big ones being that they operate under the assumption that everyone else is a sociopath. They don't trust anyone else, because they literally lack the capacity to see anyone else as other than themselves - as a being without the ability for sympathy (sociopaths have empathy, the ability to understand emotion, but not the ability to feel yours. It's the autists who lack empathy).

Again, the thing to keep in mind here is whether or not that person is your friend. Aristotle has some standards of friendship in his Nicomachean Ethics.

Also, being a man of your word, you're considered a moral man, which means it's much more difficult to morally shame you. In matters of "he said, she said," people will be more inclined to believe you, since you hold a higher moral ground.

This is all what good scholars would call karma.

One less talked about function of karma is internal karma. If you know you were the trustworthy person in a situation, especially one of betrayal, guess what your reward is?

Righteous anger.

There are few forces in the universe as powerful as righteous anger. A man who knows and feels he is right.

Is there any time when it's okay to break your word to someone?

What if someone betrays you? You giving your word was dependent on them also giving theirs and keeping it. A contract is nullified if either party rescinds on their promise.

What if you promised too much? Don't promise what you can't keep.

"I will stand by you in sickness and death."

Don't say this unless you can keep it. Also, remember that women do not care about keeping their word. Don't blame them for it, either; it's not in their structural makeup to give a shit about virtues like honor. Just be smart and don't trust them to act on such grounds; instead, trust them to act in terms of self-interest.

Yes, what I'm implying is that you should rarely give your word to a woman in anything large.

If you promised to pick her up after work, then yes, do it. Stick to your word. If you don't, she will respect you less for it. And it's an easy promise to give. In fact, I'd say that most relationships/marriages fail because the man fails to keep his word and she loses respect for him, but that's another discussion for another time.

Keep your life as blameless as possible, and you will rarely feel doubt in yourself. This was one of the Buddha's best recommendations for fighting against depression and regret - don't do anything worth regretting and you have one less problem to deal with.

Speaking of morality outside of its strategic importance is difficult once you've swallowed the Red Pill. If you've gone far enough in meditation and religious studies, you will also understand that stainless moral behavior is impossible in all but one circumstance. But this is beyond the purview of this sub.

Be a man of word. You will be better for it, in every way.