Your definition uses the word “usually,” meaning it is not required. Since I specifically said I was trying to not to be pompous or whatever ever synonym was used upthread, that portion of the definition is to be left out.
I posted what I posted to challenge the idea that moralizing is an inherently bad thing. I actually allege that every good person actually does it, because every good person is concerned about trying to make the world better, and thus will moralize people who are making it worse.
I firmly believe that this is one of those ethics that got instituted to allow bad people to continue getting away with being bad. The very idea of calling people out is views as inherently negative. Negative concepts are attached to it inhernetly, when there’s no reason a word that comes from “moral” and "-ize"should have any of that connotation.
Moralizing, if you can remove the extra elements that got attached to it over the years, is a good thing, and is a thing all good people do at some time or another.
That’s what makes this so frustrating. I can’t not moralize. All I get is advice that I can’t do. All I can do is try to present it in a more palatable way.
Which, of course, won’t be enough for the people who already hate me and hold grudges. They’re as unreachable as rabid Trump fans.
You want to make the world better? Go volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Become a big brother. Build a house. Or don’t. But here’s the thing:
When you start putting a little sweat equity into the overall goodness of the world, you’ll find yourself caring a lot less about telling random internet people how to behave. I promise.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but one week tutoring at-risk kids is worth, oh, let’s say 31,990 posts on a message board.
Moralizing at strangers over the internet is like pissing your pants. Sure you get a nice warm feeling, but it won’t last long, it changes nothing, and everyone ends up laughing at you over it.
My question is do you do moralize like this in the real world as well? I have some pretty big doubts. I’ve seen you in multiple threads being brave on behalf of other people, but I have never read you telling a story about how you, personally, have done jack shit to make the word a better place.
Thing is, with you, Stringbean, I don’t know if that’s sarcasm or legit. But, if it’s legit, thank you.
As I’ve said, I do my level best not to hold grudges. You piss me off once but are nice later, then I try not to let the pissed off part make me dislike you.
Not saying everyone should do this (though I think they might enjoy it), just putting forth what I try to do.
The fact that you believe that anybody might think that you bear any similarity to Atticus Finch is nothing short of astonishing.
It seems to me that the moralist is the most useless and contemptible of creatures. He is useless in that he would expend his energies upon making judgments rather than upon gaining knowledge, for the reason that judgment is easy and knowledge is difficult. He is contemptible in that his judgments reflect a vision of himself which in his ignorance and pride he would impose upon the world.
I’m not sure what I meant. I had just watched the infamous closing argument on Youtube and your post made me think how moralizing can be very powerful, but also off-putting if not framed the right way. I think part of it is the risk involved – Atticus was putting his life on the line defending a negro. It’s very hard to strike such a (pardon the phrase) black-and-white moral stance these days. There are so many shades of grey. I think the people criticizing you in this thread do so because you often strike an absolute moral position that they feel shouldn’t be so narrow.
BigT, for what it’s worth I’m behind you. A couple of times you have pissed me off in threads, but shit, MANY others have pissed me off by many multiples of a couple. The pile-on here is just most of the usual suspects trying to add value to their board-cred (something I thought had died out years ago, but I was obviously mistaken).
Keep on going BigT, and fuck all your critics in this thread. That’s not to say they can’t have a go at you in individual threads, that is fair game, but this? Not so much.
I don’t think that brush is broad enough. Would you like a broader one?
I for one don’t give a shit about board-cred. I posted what I did because BigT is a hypocritical sanctimonious blowhard. He’s the first to tell everyone else what the moral thing is, and he’ll shame people for not doing it, all while he is safe from any consequences hiding behind his keyboard.
Now, if’s possible that I’ve missed him talking about how he works with disadvantaged youth, or volunteers in a soup kitchen, or anything at all where he actually does anything in the real world to make it a better place. If that’s the case, I’m way off base, and I will apologize. However, from what I’ve seen, that is not the case. All I’ve seen is the more-moral-than-thou keyboard warrior finger waving, and I have nothing but contempt for keyboard warriors.
