Mastodawn

Irony level: expert.

Idk why people keep thinking that pointing out this “hypocrisy” is clever. The current government is operating from an exceptionalist standpoint. Many people believe America is anointed by God, the agent of good and right. Others simply believe in the law of self-interest.

Either way, (I can feel the downvotes coming now), this isn’t really hypocritical behavior by any means. This is like criticizing a sports team: “Wait, so it’s good for YOU to get the ball in the basket, but it’s bad for THEM to get the ball in the basket?”. The people who approve of America’s behaviour do not see other countries and people as being on the same team, and while that may be stupid, it isn’t hypocritical. Imagine someone saying this about you with some instsnce of yourself being self-interested.

“Oh, so when you get a promotion it’s a reason to party, but when that lying asshole in your department gets the promotion instead of you, now suddenly you feel upset? Hypocrite!”

That’s not hypocrisy. That’s just you believing that you deserve the promotion and believing that the other guy doesn’t. Now, if you don’t actually deserve the promotion, that still makes you wrong, but not via hypocrisy.

Its important to understand this distinction because all these “hypocrisy” call outs from the left ring so hollow even to many people on the left, and they certainly won’t wake up or bother anyone on the right, because they’re fundamentally missing the point.

The problem isn’t that America coherently pursued its interests by wanting a passage opened for it in one place, and pursues its interests by wanting a passage closed in another place… The problem is that those things are not actually in America’s interests, or that they are selfish and disregard other innocent people, etc.

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ppue Mar 23

But the post talks about “fair” vs. “unfair” not “good” vs “bad”. And if you want to say an Action is fair for us but unfair for them, you would need additional rules to distinguish between the Actions in respect to the Actors. Otherwise, it would indeed be hypocrisy. (Not that it matters too much, this is not sports.)

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squaresinger

Remember, right-wingers use words differently. They use “unfair” the same way my toddler uses it. In this case “unfair” means “I don’t like that and I use a word that makes it sound like that’s not just my opinion”.

Fairness and mutual benefit are a specific trait of a left-wing world-view. If you accept that everyone should have the same, fair chances and that working together brings mutual benefit, that already puts you squarely into a left-wing position.

The main right-wing world view on the other hand is self-centred. “I am the person who is most important to me. If I don’t benefit, I’m out.”

This goes through all parts of left/right views and politics. On the left, people are ok with social monetary transfers, even if it might harm their bottom line, because they think it’s fair that poor people can afford to live. On the right, people are envious of people receiving benefits. On the left, people are against billionaires, because they take money from poor people to enrich themselves. On the right, people worship billionaires because they want to be like them. On the left people are for asylum, because they think it’s only fair to provide people with a safe place to live. On the right people are against asylum, because they think asylum seekers will take money from them.

Because of that, “fair” and “unfair” mean different things on the left and the right. A left-winger who has a high salary might say “It’s unfair, that I earn so much and the person who makes my food doesn’t. Let’s raise minimum wages.” A right-winger might say “It’s unfair to raise minimum wages, because the guy who makes my food could have just gone to university like me, and increasing the minimum wage means my burgers won’t be as cheap as they are now.”

Left-wingers see fairness as an universal standard, that has to be applied to everyone even to their own detriment. Right-wingers see fairness as a way for them to increase the share they are getting.