Is having Netflix sinful?

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This is yet another example of either having to provide some small, remote, inconsequential degree of material support to a cause, ideology, or business practice that offends Catholic faith and morality, or do without the benefit this provides us, possibly at inconvenience or even detriment to ourselves, in the name of ideological purity and “not contributing to a sinful cause”.

Nobody “has to” have Netflix. People did fine for years without it. We do have it, first of all, because my son watches quality young people’s programming on it that we couldn’t get anywhere else, without commercial interruption. They also do have some very good things on it, such as the Gospels series and the film For Greater Glory. I think $15/month can be justified, even though a minuscule portion of that $15 — possibly a small portion of a penny — goes to fund things that are contrary to Catholic faith and morality.

I wouldn’t worry about it. I will welcome the (name removed by moderator)ut of a priest or layperson educated in moral theology if I am getting any aspect of this wrong.
 
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imo said:
Well, Netflix has a kids version that filters the content, so it is better than regular TV.
Besides, I like the example of pharmacies. By that logic, we couldn’t by a good medicine in any pharmacies that sell contraceptives, or worse, abortives pills. Or supermarkets that sells condoms…
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NOTE: You still have to be careful with Netflix’s kids section. They are some programs that are kids, but have LGBTQ themes or undertones. I try to watch programs with my kids because you can’t trust Hollywood at all.
 
Yes, of course. There are lot of pharmacies publicizing contraceptives and condoms. Here in Brazil is fairly common, you don’t need prescription for that.
 
Thanks. I still need that Netflix is more “secure” than regular TV, since you choose what you watch.
 
Other streaming services? There’s Hulu and Amazon Prime, which has one of my favorite shows, Psych. Disney+ just came out, but I think I’ve heard Disney has ties to Planned Parenthood. Even YouTube could suffice. They have all kinds of high quality channels, educational and entertaining, though they can be hard to find.

A lot of large companies support bad things. I don’t think it is necessary to boycott, but Netflix isn’t a huge sacrifice like Microsoft or Google would be. If there are easily accessible alternatives, I don’t see why not drop it.
 
The telephone lines, the fiber optic networks, that bring you your internet all contribute to things we find morally objectionable.
 
By that logic, pretty much everything is a near occasion. There’s a such thing as a remote occasion, but I doubt Netflix is even that.
 
Nearly everything in our modern world is remote cooperation.
 
Willing_Spirit said:
Other streaming services? There’s Hulu and Amazon Prime, which has one of my favorite shows, Psych. Disney+ just came out, but I think I’ve heard Disney has ties to Planned Parenthood. Even YouTube could suffice. They have all kinds of high quality channels, educational and entertaining, though they can be hard to find.
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Amazon engages in highly questionable workplace practices, where people are worked to the point of ill health under draconian conditions. One could object “yes, but nobody has to work there”, but this ignores the fact that in many communities, a job with Amazon might be the best one they could get. There are people who drive 50+ miles every day, each way, to their jobs, and not just because it’s something highly profitable. Some people have to take whatever jobs they can get, wherever those jobs happen to be. There’s no “choice” to it.

To tell the truth, I have more of a problem with contributing to Amazon, than I do with remote, inconsequential amounts of material support towards immodesty and impiety that no one has to watch. Sadly, they are often the only way you can find that widget, or this doohickey, at a cheap price, delivered to your door as soon as the next day.
 
I agree, but the content Netflix offers isn’t my problem with them. It’s their desire to use their influence to “punish” states that enact restrictions on abortion that bothers me.

Unfortunately, employee abuse exists in most corporations/retailers as large as Amazon. There was a time when I tried to completely avoid sweat shops, but the research was consuming too much of my time. I would be spending hours trying to find where to buy every little thing.

I decided to just stick with boycotting companies that are clear as day about their wicked intentions, openly trying to use their influence to acheive evil.
 
Willing_Spirit said:
I agree, but the content Netflix offers isn’t my problem with them. It’s their desire to use their influence to “punish” states that enact restrictions on abortion that bothers me.

Unfortunately, employee abuse exists in most corporations/retailers as large as Amazon. There was a time when I tried to completely avoid sweat shops, but the research was consuming too much of my time. I would be spending hours trying to find where to buy every little thing.

I decided to just stick with boycotting companies that are clear as day about their wicked intentions, openly trying to use their influence to acheive evil.
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Unfortunately, we can’t totally avoid all products of sweat shops (either in the US or abroad, such as China) nor of abusive workplaces. The US does not have the kind of social cohesion for a mass movement to get started, and for all workers just to walk off their jobs and shut the country down unless conditions improve — kind of like Atlas Shrugged in reverse. And, as has been discussed in another thread, there are legal restrictions on this sort of thing, where unions are involved (most Americans don’t belong to unions).

In some ways — though assuredly not in others — the United States is a very difficult country to live in. Yet as Ken Hamblin says, find a better one. (No offense intended to non-US readers.)
 
You don’t think that the companies making immoral content have more responsibility than a fiber-optic company?
 
I can go to WalMart, I do not have to buy condoms there.

I can have NetFlix, I do not have to watch anything I do not want to watch.
 
I definitely do. There’s a difference between giving someone a tool, and giving them content.
TheLittleLady said:
I can go to WalMart, I do not have to buy condoms there.
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You may not be sinning by going to Walmart, but Walmart is sinning by selling them. I don’t thing an internet provider is sinning. The internet is a tool. Users sin.
 
Every time you walk in to Walmart, is there signage and displays right in the front when you walk in of their objectionable / controversial items?
 
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