Do you think there is such a thing as a, nice people fallacy.
We often say that you can hate an idea without hating the people who hold it. Do you think however, that there may be an equal and opposite fallacy which results from, judging ideas and institutions because of the people who hold and belong to them ? The. ' Nice people can not support bad things fallacy. '
Or the. “We are not like that.” Answer.
Certainly when people join an institution, they often choose to give up a lot of their personal conscience, in order to fit in with the collective narrative, which can sometimes make institutions far less conscientious in action than individuals. Especially when ideologies and institutions grow big enough and it becomes impossible for individuals, to be aware of all that the ideal or group may do in the wider world. Which when combined with the law of unintended consequences, is a recipe for disaster.
Yet I have never heard it put quite as plainly as the. 'Nice people can not support bad things fallacy.' Perhaps it is a good phrase to remember, though I am sure it will not be original.
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6 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.If I understood your intended point, I agree.
MikeInBatonRouge
Level 8
June 22, 2021
1
Thank you. Yes it was not my plainest post, late night idea. But it got some interesting replies.
The problem with any organization is they eventually get to the size where what they do is more for keeping itself going rather than being to cause a good thing to happen. Has to do with the Capitalist System. When making money is more important than caring for the people who work for the effort, those who make the money by working cease to be important. The worker can be replaced by another person or by a machine. If the system is not working for the betterment of the people within the system then for the people it is bad. The system has to change, but to what? Thoughts?
dalefvictor
Level 8
June 21, 2021
2
Well, yes... I think it is a fallacy to think that nice people cannot support bad things. If one does not support bad things, and yet does nothing to counteract bad things, that is not opposing bad things. If one believes something is wrong, one needs to do something about it, even a little bit such as write a letter to a newspaper, rather than give mere lip-service against it.
AnonySchmoose
Level 8
June 21, 2021
2
Suppose that a nice lady believes that homosexuality is wrong, gross, sinful, etc. She does nothing about it, because she figures that it isn't really her business, and anyway, she's not the type to make a fuss.
Does she really need to do something to counteract (what she believes are) bad things? I, for one, would be happier if she just kept it to herself.
@AmyTheBruce
If she doesn't feel it is her business, that is true. I was thinking about those people who feel strongly and talk about a bad thing a lot, yet never do anything but talk. If she is not talking about it, then she is doing unintentional good, because she is not inciting worse reactions to the controversy. To avoid doing something negative can be considered doing something good sometimes.
@AmyTheBruce I was thinking more about your lady being someone who supports gay rights, and believes in kindness to all, yet goes to a church which has a gay hate policy, puts money in the tin and recruits new members. Because it is her community church and she thinks the community matters more than abstract political views, (All gay people in her communty are closetted, so she has never knowingly met one.) and because she thinks that the church is not really doing anything.
It is futility to attempt to always do the right thing, it's a question of magnitude of consequences.
It's like all the covert activity of the MAGA types trying to frame the BLM protesters for example.
In normal times it would have been an obligation to publicly expose them, but we had a would be dictator that had to be stopped on the other side of the continent. Now the moment has passed, and Americans have the memories of a gold fish so the perception is that BLM was the violent terrorist when we should all know it was the right-wing coalition of white supremacist, Christian Nationals, and MAGA fascist Trump supporters committing most of the crimes.
Trust me evil grows when good people do nothing, and at the moment there's a lot of nothing being done. Louis DeJoy is still fucking up the post office six months after trying to kneecap the mail to steal the election for Trump.
There's a shit load of entrenched fascism to be drained from the conservative political swamp.
Sadly it all takes time, especially after a four year assault on democracy.
Yes, nice people can be as fascist as Hitler, they just support the people with blood on their hands.
Willow_Wisp
Level 8
June 21, 2021
3
Personally, there are things I can't support but I don't have the bandwidth to oppose (picking your battles). The treatment of refugees in the middle east and our southern border rouse me to action. I am bothered by factory farms and what are essentially factory farms for humans but I eat meat and have a Chinese android phone
Buttercup
Level 8
June 21, 2021
3
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