Nassim’s Sword of Social Justice (aka D’Sousa’s Razor)
Identified by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in the Medium article: The Merchandising of Virtue" - May 27, 2017
"Kids with rich parents talk about “white privilege” at such privileged colleges as Amherst –but in one instance, one of them could not answer D’Souza’s simple and logical suggestion: ‘Why don’t you go to the registrar’s office and give your privileged spot to a minority student who was next in line?’
Hence the principle:
If your private life conflicts with your intellectual opinion, it cancels your intellectual ideas, not your private life.
and
If your private actions do not generalise then you cannot have general ideas.
This is not strictly about ethics, but information transfer. If a car salesman tries to sell you a Detroit car while driving a Honda, he is signalling that it may have a problem."
The video Taleb is referencing is:
SO SATISFYING: Dinesh D'Souza absolutely shreds SJW over "white privilege" - Young America's Foundation
Published 09 Jun 2018. Recorded at Amherst College.
If you hold an intellectual ideal, but your real world actions do not reflect or enforce this ideal. Then your actions cancel out this ideological stance. You cannot say to the words "I am a vegan" and claim the moral virtue for such an identity, but occasionally eat chicken. The act of eating the chicken cancels out any moral or ideological virtue or superiority claimed by being vegan.
Identified by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in the Medium article: The Merchandising of Virtue" - May 27, 2017
"Kids with rich parents talk about “white privilege” at such privileged colleges as Amherst –but in one instance, one of them could not answer D’Souza’s simple and logical suggestion: ‘Why don’t you go to the registrar’s office and give your privileged spot to a minority student who was next in line?’
Hence the principle:
If your private life conflicts with your intellectual opinion, it cancels your intellectual ideas, not your private life.
and
If your private actions do not generalise then you cannot have general ideas.
This is not strictly about ethics, but information transfer. If a car salesman tries to sell you a Detroit car while driving a Honda, he is signalling that it may have a problem."
The video Taleb is referencing is:
SO SATISFYING: Dinesh D'Souza absolutely shreds SJW over "white privilege" - Young America's Foundation
Published 09 Jun 2018. Recorded at Amherst College.
If you hold an intellectual ideal, but your real world actions do not reflect or enforce this ideal. Then your actions cancel out this ideological stance. You cannot say to the words "I am a vegan" and claim the moral virtue for such an identity, but occasionally eat chicken. The act of eating the chicken cancels out any moral or ideological virtue or superiority claimed by being vegan.
Student: "We have numbers that demonstrate precisely how much wealth was stolen, and that's money that in some way could be given back."
D'Sousa: "You're willing to have social justice with other people's pay, but you're not willing to pay.
So that's the problem. And that's the problem with the progressivism that marches behind social justice, while protecting its own privileges. You know, how you said, we all have to survive, really, you have to be at Amherst to survive?
You don't have to be at Amherst to survive, you have to be at Amherst to benefit.
You have to be at Amherst because you're getting opportunities at this college that many other people are not getting.
So if you say you believe in equal opportunity, you're a hypocrite because you are taking advantage of opportunities unavailable to others. But for you this hypocrisy is fully justified because you are militating on behalf of the poor. But if it's if you're against privilege - this college is privilege. So there's a glaring hypocrisy, and you will never turn your moral mirror on yourself to say, What am I doing about it?
That's my point. For you - society should act before you do - to enforce your moral code.”
____________
Person A: “I’m a vegan but I occasionally have some chicken.”
Person B: “By the logic of Nassim's Sword of Social Justice - the act of eating the chicken cancels out your vegan claim, regardless of what you say about yourself.”
D'Sousa: "You're willing to have social justice with other people's pay, but you're not willing to pay.
So that's the problem. And that's the problem with the progressivism that marches behind social justice, while protecting its own privileges. You know, how you said, we all have to survive, really, you have to be at Amherst to survive?
You don't have to be at Amherst to survive, you have to be at Amherst to benefit.
You have to be at Amherst because you're getting opportunities at this college that many other people are not getting.
So if you say you believe in equal opportunity, you're a hypocrite because you are taking advantage of opportunities unavailable to others. But for you this hypocrisy is fully justified because you are militating on behalf of the poor. But if it's if you're against privilege - this college is privilege. So there's a glaring hypocrisy, and you will never turn your moral mirror on yourself to say, What am I doing about it?
That's my point. For you - society should act before you do - to enforce your moral code.”
____________
Person A: “I’m a vegan but I occasionally have some chicken.”
Person B: “By the logic of Nassim's Sword of Social Justice - the act of eating the chicken cancels out your vegan claim, regardless of what you say about yourself.”
by bewdew December 9, 2023
Get the Nassim's Sword of Social Justicemug. An activist who is motivated more by a love of conflict than by a desire to accomplish the (typically liberal) purported political goal. Whereas regular activists prefer to win without a fight, a social justice warrior prefers to fight without a win.
"I have to spend an afternoon sorting through my old Twitter posts. If I don't, some self-righteous social justice warrior might go digging and try to whip up a mob to get me fired for using a currently-disapproved term sixteen years ago when I was in high school instead of just privately asking me to remove it."
by IowanStill September 2, 2023
Get the Social Justice Warriormug. Social justice is double speak for justifying socialism. The true meanings of words are hidden so well by the socialists that the casual observer has little reason to question them. So convinced of the meaning of social justice, social justice warriors will resort to the use of force in their quest for justice(?).
by 2B+ September 2, 2022
Get the social justicemug. by Niknast769 September 10, 2025
Get the Social Justicemug. Allocating resources, opportunities, and privileges in society in a manner that gives preference to constituencies and cronies.
He was passionate about social justice and the safe distribution of healthcare. Due to this, he decided to use his ever-powerful certificate of need law to prevent Grayson from opening another hospital nearby.
by MorBaddies October 11, 2022
Get the Social Justicemug. Social Justice is such a disease, why do people like that idiot over there in that corner think it's a good idea?
by PhoenixGamer34 March 31, 2021
Get the Social Justicemug. Noun.
somebody with the passion and heart of a social justice warrior but more intellect and actually pays attention to what's going on. Debates with integrity. Is aware of thier own biases and able to put them aside and listen to alternative points of view.
somebody with the passion and heart of a social justice warrior but more intellect and actually pays attention to what's going on. Debates with integrity. Is aware of thier own biases and able to put them aside and listen to alternative points of view.
the rise of social justice warriors led to the rise of social justice Patriots like Jordan Peterson.
by Action Jackson III January 4, 2019
Get the social justice patriotmug.