 Third, the hardship or loss must be imposed in response to an act or omission. It is a confusion to take oneself to be “punishing” others for some facts over which they had no control (Mabbott 1939). One need not be conceptually confused to take oneself to have reason to intentionally inflict hard treatment on others because of some trait that they cannot help having. One might want to oppress others on the basis of some trait they cannot help having, such as their ethnicity or physical appearance. Doing so would presumably be immoral, but it need not be conceptually confused. What would be confused is thinking that one is inflicting “punishment”. (It is, however, not a confusion to punish one person more harshly than another on the basis of traits over which they have no control.)