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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   29323 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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I'll just say it: hypocrisy is not a weakness in the Culture War. You can't put a social justice-believer in their place by attacking their epistemology, what makes you think you can do it to The Chief Twit himself? Applying Ctrl-H to rhetoric does not win you the argument, let alone the Culture War. Maybe highlighting someone as a hypocrite worked back in the old Internet Atheism days (and that's a big maybe), but now? Your opponent is likely to just ignore it, able to perfectly compartmentalize the reasons as to why they're right and you're wrong.

Hypocrisy may not be a tactical weakness in culture war, but it is a moral failing. Moreover, if you're doing the exact same thing you criticize your opponents for doing, then you deserve to be cast down just as much as they do.

I am actually inclined to agree and feel a little ashamed of my post. Accusations of hypocrisy appeal to the lowest denominator. No matter what one's object level positions are one can generally agree that hypocrisy is bad. This makes hypocrisy seem like the worst sin one can commit (both right and left think you're bad!) but actually I think having bad positions consistently is much worse than being a hypocrite if ones hypocrisy leads to one doing good.

"Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue." ― Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld,

I remember seeing this in Diamond Age as a kid, and not really understanding it, but now I do and yes.. there are far worse things that being a hypocrite.

Obligatory, rest in peace

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ljaP2etvDc4

This makes hypocrisy seem like the worst sin one can commit

If you're operating under mistake theory, it is. By contrast, it's the equivalent of shelling one's own position in conflict theory (i.e. 'if hypocrisy leads to one doing good'); and if you're not willing to shell your own position, you are not willing to win.

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