I am addicted to hunting down news stories of hypocrisy and double standards

[repoman]

Anyone else here have this issue?

I just can't seem to be able to let these stories go. Maybe it has to do with my ancient primate ancestry and being obsessed with fairness.

But like porn is not me having sex, reading about hypocrisy in the news is not (always) me being shafted by a manipulator.

I try to tell myself, double standards happen and reacting to them takes energy. Reacting to them in person can often be useful, but always getting amped up about faraway things can't be good.

There are some topics like global warming caused sea level rise that can be looked at rationally. But, ironically I think Fox News likes to pull in ginned up hypocrisy to muddy the waters.

Here is a funny response to a double standard - not funny to the monkey I am sure:

 

[Bronzeage]

I want say I am addicted. I'm still in the social hypocrisy stage. It's just amusing to me, but not outrageous.

 

[repoman]

Well, it is strange for me now. I was reading a shit ton of stuff about Global Warming, sea level rise, overpopulation and peak oil - and getting very concerned.

So intellectually I can see that caring about a petty hypocrisy is trivial and even wasteful in comparison.

But I still get drawn in, and yes it is too much on the outrage and not enough on the amusement side.

I am becoming a humorless dickwad. Hahaha.

 

[Bronzeage]

I post a lot on another forum where the neocon members have become an elite corps of humorless fucks. They post links to news stories about the latest Obama outrage, only to have the entire thing debunked and flushed a few hours later. There was a story about President Obama's trip to India. The source claimed the US was spending an outrageous amount of money on the trip, which included 200 Naval vessels brought to the Indian Ocean. I followed the link until the source was given as an "anonymous middle level Indian civil servant," which is the type of person who would never be privy to the President's security plans. I pointed out the given amount was not the travel budget, but the entire operating budget for the US Navy, for the whole year. Since then, I've let other people have the fun.

People will always accept bullshit, if it conforms to what they already believe.

 

[repoman]

I guess that is a case of a person with a personal axe to grind looking for his story even though it is bullshit.

But even if you can find a fair amount of REAL hypocrisy, what is the point of gloating after having found out about it?

But a person who revels in "exposing" hypocrisy like on that board, will want to believe anything bad about their enemies. Fixing that mindset would be good, I won't hold my breath.

 

[Unbeatable]

I have discovered over the years that I have double standards myself. The thing is, realizing this did not make me want to categorically stop having double standards. It just made me question the notion that people "shouldn't" have double standards. And like pretty much every other time I've questioned a "should", it collapsed into nonsense under scrutiny. There may be a double standard here or there which I would prefer to be rid of due to the inconveniences those specific double standards cause me, but overall, I'm fine with the majority of my double standards.

If I have a problem with somebody else's double standards, it's not because they're double standards; it's because they're not mine, or because they negatively impact my interests in some way. It's just a tribal thing, my recognition that this other person is not on my team. I don't get outraged that other people aren't on my team. I'm used to it. On the other hand, I see how it's useful on a tactical level to expose the double standards of people on other teams, since it can benefit me to hurt their credibility. But I don't have the motivation to do that sort of thing. Maybe I would have the motivation if instead of seeing this as a matter of naked self interest and strategy, I saw it in moralistic terms like "unfairness", "injustice", etc. and experienced outrage about it.

 

[tupac chopra]

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I have discovered over the years that I have double standards myself. The thing is, realizing this did not make me want to categorically stop having double standards. It just made me question the notion that people "shouldn't" have double standards. .

That is beautiful