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Comment by IggleSniggle | Hacker News Reader

Acknowledging a truth does not make you duty-bound to address the problem. Indeed, even though I know that a traffic accident is one of the most likely ways that my children will die, and even though I adore my children, I still drive them around almost every day.

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Though I agree in general, I think acknowledging it kind of smugly changes the calculus a bit.

Why?

If someone says, “Here is a wrong thing,” that’s just an acknowledgement that the thing is wrong, but there is no hypocrisy.

If they say “Here is a wrong thing and anyone who does it sucks,” then it is the definition of hypocrisy if they do it themselves.

The smugness is an implicit moral judgment, and the moral judgment has to create a duty to act, or else it’s not a moral judgment (maybe? I’m not a philosopher...)

If anything, it's the other way around. We can call out someone for being a hypocrite or smug, if we so desire, but it shouldn't change the calculus.

But it does make someone a hypocrite and maybe not someone you want to spend time listening to. In your example, it would be more relevant if you were a public figure who talked about the dangers of car driving wrt kids...

That really doesn't leave many people worth listening to.

Hypocrites aren’t wrong; they’re just hypocrites. We need to detach our ego from this debate if we ever want to find a solution, and just so that of others.

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