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There is truly something poisonous in the one-upmanship of our society.
Some examples:
lishd had an amazing portrait of a hawk carved into her side over the course of five hours ( Read more... )
Some examples:
lishd had an amazing portrait of a hawk carved into her side over the course of five hours ( Read more... )
That wasn't really the thrust of this, but thanks, I guess?
Anyway, I'm not sure that I actually am a hypocrite. I can't think of any particular case in which I acted contrary to my sentiment here. However, I recognize the possibility that I may have acted hypocritically in writing this post.
That dispensed with, I am often fond of pointing out that arguing someone is wrong by reason of hypocrisy is a form of the ad hominem fallacy.
To be honest though, people never actually seem to understand the concept of an ad hominem fallacy when I point it out as a criticism of their argument.
A great example that comes to mind -- and one you often hear from pro-choice folks -- a friend of mine said that it was wrong for men (read: male humans) to write laws which would make abortion illegal.
In spite of the fact that she's generally a sharp person, several rounds of Facebook comments did not succeed in getting my point across to her.
People change.
And here, I suspect that you might have hit on the reason why. People seem to really believe that changing your mind is a sign of intellectual weakness rather than a sign of good character.
As a first approximation of a sociological (or perhaps, semiotic) explanation, I'd guess that it's because of our interest in determining trends. Thus, we perceive that admitting that you're incorrect now is a sign of being incorrect in the future.
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