Sunday, December 18, 2016

Morally Unacceptable Trump

President Trump’s interpersonal practices cannot represent morally acceptable modes of behavior if they do not align with general rules that can be applied to anyone as social norms.

Governor Brown

California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. delivered remarks Dec. 14, 2016, at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

“There is a paradoxical benefit when someone takes to an absurd length a completely erroneous position because that then unmasks the error in such a vivid way that allows everyone else to refute, to join together and to be embolden to move forward.”

Lying

President-elect Trump lies by telling falsehoods at his convenience (over 500 lies: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/2016/11/04/donald-trump-the-unauthorized-database-of-false-things.html#analysis ). When this behavior is generalized and becomes a social norm, this would destroy verbal communication.  Since the practice of lying at your convenience reduces to absurdity when implemented as a general rule, this is judged to be morally unacceptable.

Example of President-elect Trump lying:
"If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
Fact: Accusations came months before the election.

Self-Contradiction

President-elect Trump has turned the self-contradiction into an art form.  The social norm is that when someone is "caught out in a contradiction" in this way, their position self-destructs in a reduction to absurdity.  When implemented by everyone as a general rule, self-contradiction destroys verbal communication. Since the practice of self-contradiction reduces to absurdity when implemented as a general rule, this is judged to be morally unacceptable.

Example of self-contradiction:
"The @nytimes states today that DJT believes ‘more countries should acquire nuclear weapons.’ How dishonest are they. I never said this!”
Fact: DJT did say that.

Unsatisfiable Instructions, Definitions and Specifications

President-elect Trump has issued instructions that are absurdity.  The social norm is that instructions, definitions and specifications must be able to be satisfied. When they are in principle unsatisfiable, they are for this very reason absurdity.  Since the practice above reduces to absurdity when implemented as a general rule, this is judged to be morally unacceptable.

Example of issuing instructions that are absurd:
Trump tweeted: ”We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!"






No comments:

Post a Comment