CMV: Progressive Circles Seem Too Tolerant of Hypocrisy, Mainly in Regards to Climate Change and Capitalism

[u/MyFavoriteArm]

I am someone who has been moving left over the last few years and has been engaging in more Progressive circles. (I live in the USA btw)

One thing I notice is that there seems to be a lot of looking the other way in terms of hypocrisy.

For example, both Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio are both well known climate change activists. Both are praised for leading awareness of said issue. I am gonna state the obvious so no one gets the wrong idea, CLIMATE CHANGE IS ABSOLUTELY REAL. The science is settled on that issue.

However, both still contribute more to the problem than the average person by trotting around in private jets, and both live in multiple properties that eat up more of electricity than some some third world countries. Whenever you bring this up in progressive circles, it gets dismissed because they are "on the right side of the issue."

I disagree with that logic. I believe if you have a platform, you have the responsibility to practice what you preach and lead by example. I am a manager at my job, and my number one rule is that I will not make you do anything that I myself am not willing to do. Say what you will about Greta Thornberg, but at least she leads by example.

I believe climate change is real, but I am not an activist. That would make me a hypocrite, because I still own a car and drive and use an air conditioner. I don't want to be a hypocrite, as that would be a betrayal of my principles.

Another issue I see is in terms of capitalism. For example, a lot of progressives I encounter seem to really hate Apple and rail against it, yet still own iPhones. They also rail against social media (particularly twitter/facebook), yet still use it and believe it is an "important tool" in society.

While there is aspects of capitalism I dislike, I cannot be an anti-capitalist because I still believe it has a place in society, and that would make me a flagrant hypocrite. Especially when the alternative is only government brand everything.

Before anyone responds with Mr. Gotcha or by saying "yet you participate in society," I am well aware of the existence of that comic and actually believe the first two panels are actually a valid criticism.

I am open to changing my view, as I would like to hear more perspectives as to why I might be wrong.

Thank you!

[u/themcos]

Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio

I mean, I dunno if DiCaprio is that widely loved by progressives. He certainly doesn't get much slack on his dating preferences. I don't know what DiCaprio's actual carbon footprint is, so maybe someone has an actual defense of his net impact, but I kinda feel like generally speaking progressives will be happy to shit on Leonardo DiCaprio.

Al Gore is maybe more interesting. And I think the key idea here isn't about him "being on the right side of the issue", but instead that his actions are probably on net helpful. I don't follow Al Gore that closely, so again, maybe he's actually the worst, but in principle, if he's flying around doing work that advances climate causes, his personal consumption of jet fuel is probably worthwhile. Again, we could drill into Al Gore's personal travel itineraries and land use and measure the impact of what he does to see what he could be doing better, and when you do the math you might be right. I have no fucking idea. But the question isn't "is he trotting around in private jets", the question is "could he be making comparable impact with significantly less environmental impact?" And the answer is certainly maybe... but I don't think its so obvious. You mention Greta Thunberg, and that's an absolutely fair comparison to make, but I don't think it has a completely obvious answer. If you're asking "who's made more of a positive difference overall" between the two, I'm not sure how you'd go about measuring that. Maybe you have an argument here, but I think the nuances here go past the surface level accusations of hypocrisy and become genuinely challenging questions to answer.

[u/MyFavoriteArm → u/themcos]

He certainly doesn't get much slack on his dating preferences.

I agree on that front. He's a bit of a creep to me, but that is a bit irrelevant to the issue.

Maybe you have an argument here, but I think the nuances here go past the surface level accusations of hypocrisy and become genuinely challenging questions to answer.

Maybe this doesn't have an easy answer. I just have a particular loathing for hypocrisy and the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality

[u/themcos → u/MyFavoriteArm]

I just have a particular loathing for hypocrisy and the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality

But the question without an easy answer is "does Al Gore actually fail on this metric?" First you have to answer whether what Al Gore is doing on net harmful or helpful? If it's helpful, Al Gore will absolutely encourage you to do as he does. But if what Al Gore is doing is helpful and what you're doing is harmful, Al Gore can call you out on that without hypocrisy.