Please do tell: In what ways are you a hypocrite?

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I tell people to act on a just do it attitude, yet I never can.

I tell people to not worry about something that they cannot help, but I chronically seem to worry about all that.

I tell people to look at all sides of an argument, but I usually look at the side I believe more, and how they debunk the other side. (An example being trying to convince a christian of why I believe in atheism, sending the videos and such, and not watching christian ones myself, because they bore me.)

I tell people to live in the present moment, yet I can't seem to get my head out of the past and the future.


I also plan on becoming a vegetarian... someday, lol. Though that can be excused by the fact that I eat what my mother cooks.

Like so many others who have posted, I could fill a thread with the little ways I'm a hypocrite! Probably the the biggest way, or at least the one that comes up most often, is that I'm pretty proud of having arranged my life to ease the ways that my body is pretty inflexible--I need regular sleep, I eat frequent small meals, I avoid being in the kind of places that are noisy and visually cluttered. Yet I sure am quick to mentally judge those that can't just suck it up and do what is required in certain situations. I'm just a high-maintenance person who judges other high-maintenance people.

Hmmm.....I thought I'd be able to think of millions of examples of hypocrisy in myself, but offhand I can't think of one

I suppose I don't try to pass myself off as a particularly "good" person - mostly I'm just out for my own happiness, which happens to include trying to help others. I wouldn't dream of claiming that I try to help others because of some noble choice on my part. I was just made that way. I guess much of it is enlightened selfishness - basically it pays to keep people sweet - though I rarely think it through when I act altruistically, I suppose I do it to bolster up my self-image, I'm usually very "throw away" with the help I try to give, I'm very unlikely to feel indignant that any one person is failing to reciprocate my kindness, because I appreciate that it may only be kindness in my head, and of course the people in the most need are often in no position to return my favours. I'm more likely to just quietly withdraw my services from those who I judge could have reciprocated but chose not to. I also get some kind of a warm, sentimental feeling from making somebody happy, which would probably still motivate my altruism even if sociology proved that kindness never paid. But my point is that I never took any free decision to be "righteous" or not - it just somehow turned out that way, and I think it would have been very different if I hadn't had kindness from others along the way. Monkey see, monkey do.

I think I'm probably sometimes guilty of committing the fundamental attribution error - which I gather is part of human nature and closely linked to hypocrisy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamenta ... tion_error
i.e. when I do a nasty thing it's because the environment forced me to do it, whereas if somebody else does the same thing, it's because they're a bastard who deserves a slap round the head. But usually I catch the thought and I get real - the hardest cases are those in which the other person's behaviour harms me greatly, the pride takes a knock when it can't hide behind stuffy moral indignation and has to admit that really it's just one selfish guy (me) who's been defeated by another selfish guy (them). Doesn't mean I can't regroup and fight them back every bit as fiercely - I don't need the "moral certainty" that comes from demonising those I happen to find awkward.

As a socialist member of the working class in the UK, I feel entitled to use all means at my disposal to eliminate the ruling class, take ownership of the means of production, redistribute by force, etc. etc. - not that I make much effort to do any of that, being somewhat short of realistic strategies. I used to make a big thing of that entitlement, but I never recognised the right of those who are poorer than I am to redistribute my goodies in their direction. That could be called hypocrisy, except that I no longer feel that those poorer than myself "shouldn't" try to take from me. I'll defend my stuff just as vigorously, but I have to admit they're not trying to do anything fundamentally wrong, any more than it would be fundamentally wrong for me to steal from the Queen.

I do sometimes get carried away while talking with people, and find myself implying beliefs that I don't actually hold, but it's never a consciously-willed thing, somehow when I'm with other people my outlook seems to bend towards theirs, so that it's often only when I get away from them that I can see my own opinions clearly again. I don't like it, as I tend to feel I've somehow been temporarily brainwashed. But I don't know if it's a flaw in me or if it's one of those traits that's essential for social cohesion. There is such a thing as pathological honesty, and maybe we shouldn't try too hard to rip out all hypocrisy and deceit from our range of skills, or we may find ourselves rapidly assisted towards the bottom of the pile.

Well here goes, my deep dark secret.

I work in the disability field, I look after people with physical and intellectual disabilities and secretly think that some of them would be better off euthanased.

A lot of money is used to help bodies cling to life long after the person has vacated the premises, presuming that someone was home in the first place. I just think that it is cruel to force life. Not the sort of thing to express in my sort of job so I just keep my mouth shut and change the nappies and wipe up the drool.

The ultimate hypocrasy

I hate stereo-types, but I am one.
I get frustrated with people who don't automatically know everything about computers, but only 2 years ago would I have been in the same situation as them.
I hate the girl who my ex cheated on, but know deep down that I probably would go out with my ex again even though he's currently dating my best friend.
Etc. xD.
EMZ.

Zev, having three relatives in severely declining physical and mental health, I think quality of life is a valid consideration. Two of these people never had a really great quality of life to begin with, but it is likely (IMO) that the third would not approve of his kids poring in resources to merely maintain him the way he is now. I'm glad I don't have to make decisions for him. I don't think having an opinion about this is hypocrisy in your case.

I suggest to people to keep their backs straight when they stretch. Mine is never straight!

I feel like a useless, gluttonous, self-centered, parasitic consumer who thoughtlessly indulges in this middle-class North American lifestyle and contributes to the planet's diminishing ecology but I do very little about it. (Hey, at least I don't want kids)

I never give out advice because I rarely ever talk to people, but something I'm a hypocrite about is spelling. I hate it when people misspell words, though I do it myself sometimes. Sometimes purposefully.

The word "wierd" is supposed to be spelled "weird," apparently.
However, all through school everyone is taught "I before E except after C".
In the word "wierd" there is no "C", but for some reason, the "e" comes before the "i"
That irritates me & makes no sense, so I continue to spell it "wierd" because that's the way it should be spelled.

That's like asking, "are you asleep?" The only way of knowing is when the hypocracy is in the past.

A better question might be "In what ways do you not live up to your own ideals?"

I have little patience with people who show impatience.
I have very low tolerance for people with low tolerance.
I get mad at people who get mad for no reason.
And the only thing worse than tailgaters is people who drive too slow.

Good point......and there I was thinking I was a saint
I share 3 of your 4 flaws. The ony reason I'm not guilty of the 4th one is that I haven't driven for a long time. But I have little tolerance for people who show anger that I'm in their way, and I'm pretty intolerant of people who get in my way.

I feel a lot better now I know I'm just as bad as everybody else at this stuff.

I'm not a hypocrite. I always practice what I preach.

That kind of talk just makes me want to find someone to punch out.
And I know just the guy who deserves it.
This culture is so corrupt that you can't admit to being a saint, for fear of ridicule, or worse.
You have to pretend to be a bad guy who is pretending to be a good guy.
It's so much easier for bad people. They only need one layer of lies.

I am. I'm so sick of pretending. Of being a triple agent. Of contorting myself for the comfort of the corrupt and the soulless.

Some people really don't have a moral base. They're hollow. They really don't have a standard for determining the difference between right and wrong. Let's call him "Ed." There is no right or wrong except as it relates to Ed. If it's good for Ed, it's good. If it's bad for Ed, it's bad. Now that we've got that settled, let's look for an excuse to trick or force others into doing the "right" thing.

Rational selfishness is an excuse to do the right thing for the wrong reason. It very often agrees with morality, but it gets there via a completely different road. It's our feeble way of tricking soulless people into understanding and doing what they should already know. It only works when it's convenient, when it doesn't cost them too much.

The more famous saints (Ghandi) were deluded. They were too generous and optimistic.
Rules like "Love your neighbor" and "All you need is love" don't work because the scum among us are not capable of understanding it. If you get it, rules like that would serve as a moral compass. Turn the situation around (that theory of mind thing) and right vs wrong is instantly obvious. No further commentary is necessary or even possible. It's right, just because it's right. If you don't get it, you never will. If you can look into the eyes of a helpless person and continue to abuse, even when he is not fighting back at all (if you are not ashamed to be an American right now) there's no hope for you.

For example, how could anyone live in a world that allowed slavery and not know, at some level, that it was wrong? (Being a coward or lazy is a different question.) How could anyone be directly involved in enforcing and defending the status quo? Yes, I can judge a previous generation. Had I been alive at the time, I might have been a coward, but at least I would have known.

Or the stuff the US has been doing lately. You can't blame cowardice or brainwashing, because it takes a majority to allow it. Everyone has his own convoluted, subconscious excuse, but the bottom line is that it's happening because most people are scum.

So here we are, "ToughDiamond," myself and others, playing triple agents and trying to contort our minds to fit into a world that makes no sense. I've had enough. I am a saint, and I'm not going to apologize for it any more. I won't pretend that I'm not flawed. I am capable of acting on an impulse. But when I have a chance to think about it, I do know right from wrong. It comes down to an instinct that most people simply do not have.

It's called "compassion."

(Edit -- I found it -- It was WC Fields who said "You can't cheat an honest man.")

Assuming Mark Twain was being accurate, there were superstitious white communities in the Deep South who thought that helping a slave to escape was punishable by Eternal Damnation. Obvious church propaganda to you and I, but Huck Finn actually thought he'd go to hell for all that, yet he carried on, and the word compassion probably wasn't in his vocabulary. I guess it was in his heart though. Fictional character unfortunately.


I'll buy that

I make fun of emos and I used to be one

I complain about things people do that I do myself

I have had secrets that I kept from my friends (including the reason I'm on this site) but still advertise them on my bebo page

I say I hate hypocrites but in many ways I am one

There are other examples I just can't think of them

I have spent my whole life trying to fit in the NT world. That was hypocrite.

Now that I stopped trying, almost, I'm so confused that I don't even know when I am cheating and when I am not.

On the other hand, what's straight in a world in which you cannot go clear about your feelings, the reasons beyond your acts and so on? I agree with Tahitiii this is so corrupt.
We make it like it is, that's clear to me. Sad enough, I feel I set my little brick every day.

Other issue to me is answering to the question what's polite and what's hypocrite? I don't have any clue, still I feel I would get offended from lack of hypocrisy towards me. I'm so deeply into it that I don't know when I'm being, pitifully or not, cheated myself.

Lately, I'm noticing disabilities all around me, no exempts. I think to myself: "look he's got this", "she's got that", "he pretends...". Then, there are those disabilities that completely overwhelm one's sight, when you can hardly see more. I guess those are the ones you call "visibly disabled". They remind me mine, so I am more caring. That's not hypocrite. Is it?

I've taken the Hypocritic Oath. As a result, I reserve the right to change my mind about anything, any time, no matter how vehemently I may have argued against the idea I now support in the past.