Response to Crime Being a Cultural Construct
I get confused by the logic, or lack thereof, in today’s social media world. (I know that seeking logic, rational thought, or consistency in the masses and unqualified opinions of random people is wishful thinking, but still…) Whether it is the explosion of flat-earthers, the people who side with terror organization dedicated to genocide in order to denounce a new definition of genocide, or people insisting math is wrong, I have little hope for western culture going forward.
That said, this particular post caught my attention the other day:
This person is engaged in one of the more frustrating inconsistencies I’ve seen recently. Do they want “crime” i.e. morality to be a social construct? Or are they arguing for a moral standard that is objective? Today’s average young person seems to want both. They want their cake, and they want to eat it.
On the one hand, if they are upset that certain people “get away” with crime, they have some sort of moral standard in mind. That is good! I am in agreement with them and want justice codes and enforcement to be more consistent and enforced well. However, if that is the case, their post should say something to the effect that “crime is not a social construct.”
I suspect, though, that they don’t believe in a moral standard. They want “crime” to be a social construct, just THEIR social construct. They likely think littering should not be a crime, but pollution should be. They want majority rule and just want to change who the majority is. These people tend to be the ones arguing that morality and ethics IS just a cultural construct. Whatever the majority say IS the standard. Murder is wrong because the majority says it is. Killing babies inside their mothers is not because the majority says it isn’t. (But killing a pregnant woman can be tried as a double homicide, once again, because the majority deems it so.)
It is an annoying post because it is inconsistent. I think that moral standards should be enforced and that they are not a social construct. The person writing this complaint does not see things that way. They therefore do not have an argument to back up their cause, other than to insist that they want their subjective views to beat the current subjectively enforced system.
That said, this particular post caught my attention the other day:
This person is engaged in one of the more frustrating inconsistencies I’ve seen recently. Do they want “crime” i.e. morality to be a social construct? Or are they arguing for a moral standard that is objective? Today’s average young person seems to want both. They want their cake, and they want to eat it.
On the one hand, if they are upset that certain people “get away” with crime, they have some sort of moral standard in mind. That is good! I am in agreement with them and want justice codes and enforcement to be more consistent and enforced well. However, if that is the case, their post should say something to the effect that “crime is not a social construct.”
I suspect, though, that they don’t believe in a moral standard. They want “crime” to be a social construct, just THEIR social construct. They likely think littering should not be a crime, but pollution should be. They want majority rule and just want to change who the majority is. These people tend to be the ones arguing that morality and ethics IS just a cultural construct. Whatever the majority say IS the standard. Murder is wrong because the majority says it is. Killing babies inside their mothers is not because the majority says it isn’t. (But killing a pregnant woman can be tried as a double homicide, once again, because the majority deems it so.)
It is an annoying post because it is inconsistent. I think that moral standards should be enforced and that they are not a social construct. The person writing this complaint does not see things that way. They therefore do not have an argument to back up their cause, other than to insist that they want their subjective views to beat the current subjectively enforced system.
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