One Rule for You, Another One for Me
There is one character trait that I truly despise. I am not talking about the obvious ones that would make you a criminal but something that many people don't seem to mind. I am talking about hypocrisy. This is something that I notice all the time in people and it always makes me loose respect for them.
As Wikipedia describes it, hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have morals or virtues that one does not truly possess or practice. In other words having double standards. I really strive to not be a hypocrite myself but when I see how often people tend to say one thing and then do another I sometimes get afraid that maybe I do this myself without noticing. I hereby beg you to point out to me if you catch me having double standards!
One of the most common form of hypocrisy is people that bitch about people that are bitching about other people but are at the same time doing exactly the same. How about admitting the fact that we all do it at least occasionally and stop worrying about it (and claiming that we never do)?
I am usually pretty quick to catch on when people contradict themselves (unfortunately, it is rarely possible to say anything). I however wasn't very quick to catch on to all the hypocrisy surrounding the Mohammad cartoons. It seems like most people that are heavily involved have one set of rules for themselves and another set for others. An example: The Norwegian, Christian newspaper that posted the cartoons had previously been fighting for blasphemy rules in Norway to protect their own religion. As pointed out in my comment section the Danish newspaper would not have posted cartoons of Jews. There are reports that some newspapers in the Muslims countries post cartoon to mock Jews and then condemn the posting of the Mohammad cartoons.
The latest was a Norwegian political party (FRP) that had previously fought for the blasphemy rules all of a sudden wanted to remove it after the cartoon incident. So it is fine to use blasphemy at other religions than Christianity? This drives me nuts! I myself do criticize religions, but I think I am pretty fair and criticize most of them.
Wouldn't it be nice if everyone in the world could follow the same rules themselves that they make for others?
C/T
To accept thing that we agreed with.
To discover differences by sharing ideas without criticising.
To repects those which are not in the same fundamental concepts as ours.
Allt i glussa
Heja Norge.
Fæst gefins. Fýrarnir undir fjöllunum. blog.central.is/fyrinn
The fact that Austria recentl
The fact that Austria recently decided to jail David Irving for three years because of something he said 17 years ago and has since gone back on, also says something about how deep our love for freedom of speech really goes. Freedom of speech is our one true god when muslims protest against desecration of their religion. But the moment a historian questions Holocaust - we put him in jail!
I do by no means agree with Irving's Holocaust denial. But allowing people to say what they believe, even if we do not agree with it, is kind of the cornerstone in freedom of speech. What's wrong with simply proving him wrong (an easy matter) and leave it at that?
- Eira
Better to admit than try to cover up
I fully agree. Does it really hurt anyone if one silly guy tries to shout out that the Holocaust never happened? What is the worst that can happen? He just discredits himself. I can understand if people feel offended and hurt by him but there is a lot of idiots in the world and we just have to live with it.
With freedom of speech you should be allowed to say thing that are dumb and get away with it. We are all bound to believe and say something really stupid at one time or another.
He at least later admits that he has been wrong. We should all be able to do that. I don't respect people that try to cover up when they were wrong but I respect it a lot if people do actually get off their high horse and admit it!