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 10, 2023
A fearless, independent warrior for truth and justice who doesn’t wait for the system to fix itself—they take matters into their own hands. A "Sigma" personality in the justice world, standing against wrongful convictions,corruption, and broken legal systems. N.Bear
"They tried to silence her, but she went full Justice Sigma, exposing the corruption with AI and fighting back harder than ever." N.B
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The mop dryeth, the mop weteth again, I opened the window with my normal kid powers, face the fury of my F, My teeth might not be super anymore but I've always wanted to do that!!!
The Crimson Chin threw a Barbecue of Justice.
by The Chintastic Adventure July 10, 2009
The act of urinating on somebody who deserves it; delivering ultimate retribution to somebody due to their moral or social wrongdoings.
by WorstWordist February 27, 2022
An ethical rule that states that before an individual can start calling out other people for making discriminatory comments or performing biased actions against minorities, the individual must first acknowledge and deal with their own implicit and explicit biases, as well as effectively manage their emotions, so they can lead by example. This includes recognizing biases that are not typically viewed as being part of social justice. (That means you must confront biases like Privilege of the Living and Political Identity Privilege.) It is recommended that when calling someone out over biased comments or behavior that you try to so in a calm and polite manner, so they are less likely to feel attacked, and to avoid supporting the stereotypes about social justice supporters spread by some far-right wing political commentators. Basically, if you expect other people to listen to you and change their behavior in order to be less biased, then you have to be willing to deal with your own biases and privilege and control your emotions.
The social justice two-way expectation rule is an important ethical responsibility for any person considering standing up to discrimination, because if you don’t deal with your own biases first, then a lot of people will ignore you due to the fact you don’t practice what you preach. Failing to deal with your biases prior to calling someone out can also negatively impact the views of social justice in other people as they may see the movement as being just being all talk, without producing any real results.
by Vanguard 1998 March 12, 2021