Do As I Say, Not As I Do

If the 1980s was the "decade of greed" and the 1990s was "the me decade," I'd like to declare this decade, "the era of self-righteous preachiness."

I think the Internet, combined with 500 television channels, has resulted in an unprecedented wave of people constantly telling us how to live our lives.

Politicians are as guilty of this as any group. And that's why it's such a pleasure for activists to point out any hypocrisy. And, man, is there A LOT of hypocrisy.

Why? Because studies increasingly reveal that we don't do what we tell others to do.

The obvious:

It's one thing to decide that veganism is a better choice than vegetarianism, and another to turn down the chocolate lava cake at dinner.

Another fascinating aspect of the reports cited in this NPR post is the idea of acquiring moral credit. That is, by doing one good thing, people give themselves the latitude to do something bad at a later date:

"I gave money to charity, so it's okay to cut in line." 

This type of behavior reveals a weakness at the heart of liberalism and certain aspects of social conservatism, which seeks to ensure certain behaviors by people through government activism. But it's not popular to advocate for less government control because people are just no damn good, anyway.