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> Most people believe they are in the right. I have found this to be not quite true. In my experience a ton of people in the wrong know very well they are in

> Most people believe they are in the right. I have found this to be not quite true. In my experience a ton of people in the wrong know very well they are in the wrong. They don't internalize it, but they know anyway. They just prefer to stay in the wrong because they prefer other people suffering over having to change their world view, especially if it would make them look bad.

baq 3y ago
Also ‘I’m wrong but have many friends who are also wrong and I want to keep being friends with them’
- xboxnolifes 3y ago
  I like: "I'm wrong, but living right leads to poverty".
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  I'd say I see a lot of "my job is basically evil but my kids enjoy a roof, health insurance, and food, so I guess I'll keep doing it". One more reason I've never been interested in the kid thing.
atoav 3y ago
> In my experience a ton of people in the wrong know very well they are in the wrong. They don't internalize it, but they know anyway. No I meant what I say. My grandfather was an actual Nazi in the Wehrmacht. Did he know that what the Nazis did was wrong in a moral sense? Sure. But he still believed their wrongdoing was something that had to be done, because "this was war" or because of the superiority of the arian race. So in his mind him sacrificing his moral standards was a heroic act to further the "greater good" he believed in. The Nazis believed they were doing the "lesser races" a favour by destroying them. I am convinced that if you talked to any political fanatic they would come up with a similar mental gymnastic to explain the actually evil things they are doing. The point is that everybody does that to explain the suffering in the world. E.g. think about the unspeakable harm capitalism has caused to nature and certain parts of the world. I am pretty sure that 90% of the HN crowd would be able to tell you a story of why it isn't that bad or maybe even good in the grand scheme of things, because if we didn't tell those stories to ourselves we would have to change something. Or we know this is wrong, but then we tell ourselves atories why we cannot change things. Even that guy who "rolls coal" with his purposefully dirty truck think he is right, because all those liberals are in fact hypocrites and he is just exposing that or something. Of course you will also have people who are in such existential dires that they will tell themselves they cannot afford the luxury of being a good person, but deep down they will see themselves as a good person in a pickle or as a good person who has been failed by society.
philistine 3y ago
Are those friends around you who know they're in the wrong extremely rich? It seems that to make absurd amounts of money, you need to believe you're always right to the point of hubris.

baq 3y ago

Also ‘I’m wrong but have many friends who are also wrong and I want to keep being friends with them’

xboxnolifes 3y ago
I like: "I'm wrong, but living right leads to poverty".
hotpotamus 3y ago
I'd say I see a lot of "my job is basically evil but my kids enjoy a roof, health insurance, and food, so I guess I'll keep doing it". One more reason I've never been interested in the kid thing.

atoav 3y ago

> In my experience a ton of people in the wrong know very well they are in the wrong. They don't internalize it, but they know anyway. No I meant what I say. My grandfather was an actual Nazi in the Wehrmacht. Did he know that what the Nazis did was wrong in a moral sense? Sure. But he still believed their wrongdoing was something that had to be done, because "this was war" or because of the superiority of the arian race. So in his mind him sacrificing his moral standards was a heroic act to further the "greater good" he believed in. The Nazis believed they were doing the "lesser races" a favour by destroying them. I am convinced that if you talked to any political fanatic they would come up with a similar mental gymnastic to explain the actually evil things they are doing. The point is that everybody does that to explain the suffering in the world. E.g. think about the unspeakable harm capitalism has caused to nature and certain parts of the world. I am pretty sure that 90% of the HN crowd would be able to tell you a story of why it isn't that bad or maybe even good in the grand scheme of things, because if we didn't tell those stories to ourselves we would have to change something. Or we know this is wrong, but then we tell ourselves atories why we cannot change things. Even that guy who "rolls coal" with his purposefully dirty truck think he is right, because all those liberals are in fact hypocrites and he is just exposing that or something. Of course you will also have people who are in such existential dires that they will tell themselves they cannot afford the luxury of being a good person, but deep down they will see themselves as a good person in a pickle or as a good person who has been failed by society.

philistine 3y ago

Are those friends around you who know they're in the wrong extremely rich? It seems that to make absurd amounts of money, you need to believe you're always right to the point of hubris.