Hacker News Reader

Comment by tastyfreeze | Hacker News Reader

Moral decline over time and no change in perceived morality of contemporaries can both be true. We had a man be celebrated for rubbing his fake tits at the Whitehouse on camera. A moral person doesn't do that and a moral society doesn't celebrate it. Such an act would have been unconscionable and condemned even 5 years ago.

View on HN

Could say the same thing about a former President publicly admitting to committing crimes, and half of the country not caring. Never before in history have so many people been so openly evil. Maybe the takeaway is that they've actually been that evil this whole time, they just weren't doing it so visibly. I personally would also clearly perceive a difference between being disrespectful and being evil; to whatever degree both could be considered immoral, I'd sure rather the former than the latter.

You don’t know history if you really believe that “never before in history have so many people been so openly evil”.

This is so off as to be beyond laughable.

You misunderstood. People historically viewed themselves to be good, and justified their actions that way. People are now giving up the ability to justify their actions as good, and openly admitting to doing bad things on purpose. Go ahead and check your history books for that ever happening before. You can laugh, but normal people aren't particularly enthused by this turn of events.

Could say the same thing about a former president admitting to having oral sex in the oval office, or pardoning a corrupt multi millionaire on his last days in office. Making this political does not take away from OPs argument.

Not sure how you think I "made this political" if you read the first post. I was just balancing the perspective. I'd rather have a president get sucked off than openly commit acts of treason, if that's the equivalency you would like to draw. If by "OP's argument" you mean the incorrect idea that the topless trans person was "celebrated": (1) the white house literally denounced their actions, (2) I already acknowledged that I believe it to be disrespectful and not particularly immoral, and (3) I consider those to be two different things.

> Could say the same thing about a former President publicly admitting to committing crimes, and half of the country not caring.

Bill Clinton, who admitted to giving misleading testimony under oath?

> Never before in history have so many people been so openly evil.

"History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new." - Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 (New Living Translation)

Some people always think they're living through the worst times ever -- it may be the worst times for them _individually_, but it's certainly been worse for others in history.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com