Despite the claims of moral relativists, there are some moral ideals that are universal among humanity. One of the most obvious is our disdain for hypocrisy. And we can spot it a mile off.
“Do as I say, not as I do,” is rightly derided and is generally fatal to public moralising. Whether it’s the homophobic preacher who secretly bangs rent boys in hotel rooms or the anti-capitalist who preaches the virtues of poverty while secretly squirrelling away vast, often looted fortunes.
Or teenage climate activists who tell people not to fly to Fiji, while they fly to Fiji.
The world’s major religions, while they often violently disagree on other things, are universal in condemning hypocrisy: Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist scriptures all rail against hypocrisy.
Confucius and Lao Tze both warned that saying one thing while doing another was a great moral failing.
Even non-theistic logic agrees that hypocrisy is such a failure of rational thinking that it gives it a fancy Latin name: ad hominem tu quoque. Loosely: “Back at you, you fraud!”
The New Zealand legacy media are a-moral frauds extraordinaire. Naturally, they don’t see a problem with blatant, canting hypocrisy.
The suggestion, on talkback radio and on social media, that student activists who take flights, drive a car or eat meat should shut up and quit complaining is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.
No, it’s not. It’s simply noting that these hypocritical brats are utter frauds who aren’t willing to make the sacrifices they demand of everybody else.
Speaking of utter frauds…
As Climate Change Minister James Shaw told Newsroom on Tuesday […] “We all have to be members of the society that we are in. You cannot function in the society that we’re currently in without burning fossil fuels. That doesn’t mean that you should not call for the end of fossil fuels.”
That’s right — society made them do it. I don’t recall that excuse working at Nuremberg. It won’t wash here, either.
Sure, Nazi prison guards were forced to function as part of the Third Reich — they weren’t forced to be death camp guards, nor were they forced to be egregiously sadistic. Participating in the death squads was purely voluntary. Soldiers could opt out, freely. There is no documented case of any German soldier’s career being adversely affected if they did.
Similarly, climate activists might be forced to consume fossil-fuel-generated electricity, if renewables aren’t available — but they are absolutely not forced to fly overseas for holidays. Even if mummy says they have to.
But, just to prove that the left not only can’t meme, but don’t understand basic logic, along comes this mind-boggingly dumb effort.
Taken to its logical conclusion, as one popular meme does, this argument says anyone who participates in society should be barred from arguing for it to be improved.
Newsroom
That’s not its logical conclusion, you morons.
The logical conclusion was that anyone who advocates not participating in society at all should not participate in it.
Take note how the stupid cartoon slides further and further into the straw-man fallacy: If you think Apple are an immoral, exploitative company, you should use someone else’s products, because you can. You are not obliged to buy Apple gear.
If you think cars should have seat belts, that doesn’t mean you can’t own a car. It just means that you should either buy one with seatbelts, or fit your own.
Wanting to improve society is not the same as wanting to abolish it.
The left really is this dumb.
And Izzy Cook really is a stupendous hypocrite.