How Moral Grandstanding Is Ruining Our Public Discourse

How Moral Grandstanding Is Ruining Our Public Discourse

It's hard not to notice how heated and divided our public discourse has gotten, especially online. People insult and vilify each other, take unnuanced positions, and seem to be competing as to who can seem the most committed to a cause or the most outraged about an issue.


You may have called some of this behavior "virtue signaling," but my guest today says that it's better described as "moral grandstanding," and he's studied the phenomenon not in terms of eye-roll-inducing anecdotes, but through the lens of both philosophy and empirical research. His name is Brandon Warmke, and he's a professor of philosophy and the co-author of the book Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk. Brandon begins by defining moral grandstanding as the act of engaging in moral talk for self-promotion and status, and explains why he thinks moral grandstanding is a better term for this behavior than virtue signaling. We get into the difference between prestige and dominance status and how moral grandstanding can be used to obtain both types. We then discuss why it's tricky to know if you or someone else is engaging in moral grandstanding, before turning to whether there’s a personality type or a side of the political spectrum that's more likely to grandstand. Brandon then delves into why moral grandstanding isn't just an annoyance on social media, but comes with real costs to society. We end our conversation with what we can do about moral grandstanding.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Avsnitt(1159)

Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work

Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work

The last several years have seen the rise of a sort of anti-productivity movement. Knowledge workers who feel burned out and that work is pointless, meaningless, and grinding, have been talking more a...

6 Mars 20241h

The 5 Factors for Crafting Simple (Read: Effective!) Messages

The 5 Factors for Crafting Simple (Read: Effective!) Messages

Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or entrepreneur, you want to be able to persuade your students, children, and customers with your messages. That’s a tall task in the modern age, when people are bomb...

4 Mars 202449min

The Misconceptions of HIIT (And the Role It Can Play in Your Fitness Routine)

The Misconceptions of HIIT (And the Role It Can Play in Your Fitness Routine)

You've probably heard of HIIT — high intensity interval training. In fact, you may feel so familiar with the idea that you think you understand it. But do you?People often hold some popular misconcept...

28 Feb 202449min

The Making of a Stoic Emperor

The Making of a Stoic Emperor

Perhaps you've read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, a book many turn to to learn and internalize the teachings of Stoic philosophy. But what do you know of the man who penned that seminal text?Here to h...

26 Feb 202451min

The Secrets of Supercommunicators

The Secrets of Supercommunicators

Have you ever known one of those people who seemed to be able to connect with anyone? The kind of person who had the ability to make others feel understood and smoothly navigate even the trickiest of ...

21 Feb 202444min

7 Journaling Techniques That Can Change Your Life

7 Journaling Techniques That Can Change Your Life

In my twenties and early thirties, I was a regular journaler. Several years ago, however, I stopped journaling almost entirely because I wasn’t getting anything out of it anymore. But my guest has hel...

19 Feb 202449min

Busting the Myths of Marriage — Why Getting Hitched Still Matters

Busting the Myths of Marriage — Why Getting Hitched Still Matters

The marriage rate has come down 65% since 1970. There are multiple factors behind this decrease, but one of them is what we might call the poor branding that surrounds marriage in the modern day. From...

14 Feb 202448min

Chasing Shackleton — Re-creating the World’s Greatest Journey of Survival

Chasing Shackleton — Re-creating the World’s Greatest Journey of Survival

If you’ve ever read the classic book Endurance, you probably shivered and shuddered as you wondered what it would have been like to have undertaken Ernest Shackleton’s famously arduous Antarctic rescu...

12 Feb 202445min

Populärt inom Utbildning

historiepodden-se
rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
det-skaver
alska-oss
nu-blir-det-historia
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
not-fanny-anymore
johannes-hansen-podcast
rss-viktmedicinpodden
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
sektledare
allt-du-velat-veta
roda-vita-rosen
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-psykoterapipodden
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
rss-basta-livet
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd