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Our Hypocrisy Blindspot - by Michael Hallsworth - Behavioral Scientist

behavioralscientist.org · 2,047 words · saved by 1 readers

Hypocrisy accusations are woven into the fabric of politics—they are probably the most common attacks that politicians make. As the political thinker David Runciman notes, hypocrisy is what you reach for “if you wish to do the maximum possible damage to your political opponent in thirty seconds of airtime.” One side will point at, say, right-wing bastions of law and order who want leniency and special favors when their rule breaking comes to light. The other side will mock wealthy left-wing advocates of equality, diversity, and social justice who maneuver furiously to ensure spots at elite universities go to their children, not to those whom they claim to care about. These attacks are so common because they are so easy. You don’t need to engage with or debate someone else’s principles on their own terms—that’s hard. All you have to do is say that they have not lived up to those principles, whatever they are. Call it the “simple inconsistency” ploy. With it, you can avoid seeming to tak

Hypocrisy accusations are woven into the fabric of politics—they are probably the most common attacks that politicians make. As the political thinker David Runciman notes , hypocrisy is what you reach for “if you wish to do the maximum possible damage to your political opponent in thirty seconds of airtime.” One side will point at, say, right-wing bastions of law and order who want leniency and special favors when their rule breaking comes to light. The other side will mock wealthy left-wing advocates of equality, diversity, and social justice who maneuver furiously to ensure spots at elite un

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