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Comment by galangalalgol | Hacker News Reader

I mostly agree, but I'd caution against the label of hypocrisy. I think it was in "diamond age" that Stephenson wrote something to the effect that hypocrisy is the only remaining taboo when all morality is relative because the only moral standard you can hold someone to is the one they eapouse themselves. This leads to people espousing no standars of behavior at all, when the best standard of behavior of all is one you know you won't be able to quite live up to.

I want to never be cruel or cowardly, but I know I will mess up sometimes, hopefully I will make amends, but I probably won't always. I don't think that is hypocrisy, just fallibility.

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> I mostly agree, but I'd caution against the label of hypocrisy. I think it was in "diamond age" that Stephenson wrote something to the effect that hypocrisy is the only remaining taboo when all morality is relative because the only moral standard you can hold someone to is the one they eapouse themselves.

I wish, but hypocrisy is a weak criticism that's easy to escape except in the most clear cut cases, and in some cases is deemed as invalid.

Eg, some people's approach to morality is that people are intrinsically moral or immoral, not actions. This allows people to make statements that work out to something like "My friend may be a rapist, but he's a good person. He shouldn't be punished for a mistake". Moral goodness isn't gained through actions but through acquiring status in some way.

In that kind of worldview, hypocrisy is irrelevant. My friend is a good person because he lives in a good community and is well-off. That guy over there is a bad person because he lives in a slum and obviously deserves that.

One can avoid being called a hypocrite, moral relativism conversation aside, by doing one thing - not judging others publicly.

I see people simply stating their moral system and when they fail to uphold it, being attacked. The inference that they think everyone should use their moral system might be inferred, but wasn't necessarily intended.

That also works, but seems unrelated to my comment

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