Originally Posted by
Hizashi
You make some good points here; I agree that the context matters, Jean saved lives, but I don't think Taylor made a strong enough case that Jean behaved completely ethically. I think that a good piece of evidence for that was that Taylor had Kurt ask the obvious question so Jean explained the mechanics of what she did. That shows that Taylor is aware of the implications that accompany what Jean did and, for me, her explanation doesn't completely absolve the action. I'm not arguing, and I don't believe I've made the argument, that Jean has fallen down the slippery slope, but Jean shouldn't be on it in the first place. The point was raised, so if it's dropped then it'll be a plain disappointment, but there's an even worse possibility to me - Jean's use of telepathy may continue to be framed in the story as ethical, even if she pushes it a little further. As I said in my original statements on this topic, I have a larger problem with how telepathy is utilized in the MU as a whole and that Jean's action raised that problem to me again. So here's one small example of what I mean: whenever a telepath says they're sorry they read someone's mind but "they were thinking too loudly", I just want to roll my eyes. I could understand a new telepath with no experience struggling with this, but when a trained X-Man says this, it just feels contrived and morally dubious.
Your points about Jean being allied with Namor are solid, I see that it's still a little too vague to determine the potential fallout, but I'll maintain that killing would've been too far in this case. It could've been taken as an action of war, even with Namor's vague trade threat. As for her use of telepathy? You say that speech is a poor form of communication, that a mistake would've led to death, but that's not true. Jean had a trained team behind her, and significantly more force than needed to quickly and decisively stop the soldiers from attacking so she could speak to them uninterrupted. Storm's show of force should've been enough to stun the soldiers so that they might listen; at this point, I'm speculating on alternatives, but what I'm trying to say is that Jean had options. What she did certainly was the quickest way out, but like I said earlier, it puts her on a slope she shouldn't have been on.
A little more speculation here: if Nova is as devious as she's always been, I can see her using those soldiers against Jean. Suppose they quit the military and advocate for mutants rights, yeah? Well, all Nova has to do is expose that Jean used telepathy (somehow, it should be within her power) and then the screws get put on even harder to mutantkind. I think that would be interesting, but Nova is just as likely to use Jean's mere presence there to raise hatred against mutants. Where do you think they'll take it? Do you think the point will be raised again?
One final thing: consent is absolutely important when it comes to telepathy, it certainly matters to the superhero community and even to people on Jean's team. Telepaths should be aware of the need to maintain limits on the use of their ability at all times.