Thanks for the essay. I'll add that I think my dislike of hypocrisy can be seen as subset of dislike of BS more generally. This is why I hate economic central planning, experts, US global empire, and civil rights law, while respecting results-based science, markets, including betting markets, Nassim Taleb, and the international balance of power.
Moreover, I don't think hypocrisy should play no role in society. I think it's to a large extent unavoidable. I dislike the leftist variety because it's harmful and the one with the highest status. I don't care about say the hypocrisy of traditionalists because I'm more sympathetic to their outlook and it doesn't have as much power. If Christian conservatives had as much power as LGBT and vice versa, I could take a different view. It's the combination of high status + harmful that makes some particular hypocrisy worth attacking.
Also, I wouldn't say aesthetic preferences are arbitrary. I think there's a human nature that's being subverted in unhealthy ways. But I don't worship human nature as a guide to policy, there's an egalitarian instinct that's worth suppressing because it leads to socialism and economic redistribution, which is harmful for human progress. This is the inverse of some liberals, who acknowledge that say homophobia and ethnocentrism are part of human nature but think they should be fought anyway, while humans can justifiably indulge the preference for equality. I think it's the preference for equality that is our greatest sin. I also dislike ethnocentrism and racism in certain cases and think these things in most periods of human history have gone too far, but today in many ways we've overcorrected.
Robin Hanson would probably agree that abolishing hypocrisy would be bad, since homo hypocritus has accomplished so many amazing things. But prediction markets which penalized hypocrisy and rewarded accuracy would be even better.
Thanks for the essay. I'll add that I think my dislike of hypocrisy can be seen as subset of dislike of BS more generally. This is why I hate economic central planning, experts, US global empire, and civil rights law, while respecting results-based science, markets, including betting markets, Nassim Taleb, and the international balance of power.
Moreover, I don't think hypocrisy should play no role in society. I think it's to a large extent unavoidable. I dislike the leftist variety because it's harmful and the one with the highest status. I don't care about say the hypocrisy of traditionalists because I'm more sympathetic to their outlook and it doesn't have as much power. If Christian conservatives had as much power as LGBT and vice versa, I could take a different view. It's the combination of high status + harmful that makes some particular hypocrisy worth attacking.
Also, I wouldn't say aesthetic preferences are arbitrary. I think there's a human nature that's being subverted in unhealthy ways. But I don't worship human nature as a guide to policy, there's an egalitarian instinct that's worth suppressing because it leads to socialism and economic redistribution, which is harmful for human progress. This is the inverse of some liberals, who acknowledge that say homophobia and ethnocentrism are part of human nature but think they should be fought anyway, while humans can justifiably indulge the preference for equality. I think it's the preference for equality that is our greatest sin. I also dislike ethnocentrism and racism in certain cases and think these things in most periods of human history have gone too far, but today in many ways we've overcorrected.
Robin Hanson would probably agree that abolishing hypocrisy would be bad, since homo hypocritus has accomplished so many amazing things. But prediction markets which penalized hypocrisy and rewarded accuracy would be even better.