The claim "intent isn't magic" is actually annoyingly trite. It's not magic, of course, but it certainly counts in any kind of proper assessment of a person's actions. Here's an example.
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You're a progressive politician, & you're genuinely committed to the cause of furthering women's equality. So you target tax breaks at women with children, and you commit to big investment in child care.
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Unfortunately, you misjudge the economics just a bit - not negligently so, but you get it wrong - and the economy overheats. You get inflation & what not, and eventually an economic crash.
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As a result, everybody ends up a bit worse off than before you started (except for bankers, because they never end up worse off), but especially the most vulnerable women (because the most vulnerable always suffer the most in an economic crash).
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Now you could argue that the original policy was misguided, you could argue that there should have been more caution, and there's moral culpability in that direction.
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But you really cannot reasonably argue that the original policy was misogynistic or bigoted. And it's because of intent - the intention to bring about a goal that furthers women's equality. Intent matters.
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And yes, I know, my knowledge of economics is pretty much non-existent. Let's just pretend things could have played out the way I suggested.
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End of conversation
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