New theory: "The virtuous lie"
A virtuous lie is a falsehood that's promulgated & not corrected despite known falsity b/c it serves an "emancipatory" end.
#1619Project, New History of Capitalism, Hawaiian indigeneity: lies that're "good" b/c they free us of an oppressive past.
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We quite literally live by these lies. At my college, you see signs that say "This is Tongva land." No one cares that before the Tongva got here, the Hokan were here. The Tongva, an Uto-Aztecan people, replaced the Hokan, as Uto-Aztecan peoples did across western N. America.
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We live by these lies b/c to do so makes us good people. To question them is to align oneself w/ evil. Famous author addressed a local HS with a talk straight out of New History of Capitalism. He painted American slavery in the most gruesome colors. So far so good. However...
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...he lied that cotton made up 50% of the US economy and that cotton's increasing productivity resulted from increasing torture.
Logic of the virtuous lie: nobody wants to be the one who points out that this is contradicted by the best research. What, you support slavery?
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The author's lies were virtuous. Slavery is a moral abyss: one can never overdo one's condemnation of it...even if one lies. Such lies are virtuous, serving noble goals like reparations, as was explicit in the author's talk. To correct the lies is to oppose the noble goals.
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Virtuous lies (VL) differ from Plato's Noble Lie (NL) & @robkhenderson's Luxury Belief.
(1) NL promotes positive self-conception; VL, self-criticism. (2) NL reconciles us to social inequality; VL aims to dismantle inequality. (3) NL is metaphysical; VL is historiographical.
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Like Luxury Beliefs (LB), virtuous lies (VL) are both emancipatory & signal moral goodness. However, LB are prescriptive, e.g., "defund the police." VL, in contrast, are descriptive, e.g., "cops are more likely to kill black people." Thus, VLs provide "factual" basis for LBs.
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I'll update this 🧵 with examples of "virtuous lies."
From Isabel Wilkerson's book "Caste." The lie is subtle: You're invited to believe that 1/1000 black men & boys are currently being killed by the cops while unarmed. That'd be genocide! Truth here: freeblackthought.substack.com/p/what-the-dat…
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"Virtuous lies" underlie many communications at elite institutions. This talk announcement simply *presupposes* that "unkindness" is a distinctive characteristic of "our post-1492 era."
Almost every utterance on campus invites us to see the US as implicated in unique evils.
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Virtuous lie: inflating mass shooting stats.
Fact: "mass shooting" is defined by federal gov't: 3+ killed in public rampage.
There've been 141 since 1982. 3.53/yr: Far too many, but not what's claimed.
Accurate stats here (& see next Tweet):
motherjones.com/politics/2012/…
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Inflating mass shootings is a virtuous lie. It's morally "good" to inflate. It signals that you take the problem seriously. Insisting on the true number is to "minimize" & thus "bad."
Yet getting it wrong matters, b/c it impedes effective responses:
motherjones.com/politics/2015/…
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"Implicit bias, attitudes or internalized stereotypes that affect our perceptions, actions, & decisions in an unconscious manner, exists, & often contributes to unequal treatment of people based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, etc."
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CA's Assembly Bill 241 (quoted prev Twt), mandating "implicit bias" education for MDs and nurses, is wholly based on the "virtuous lie" that we understand what we mean when we say "implicit bias" and that whatever it is, it influences behavior. This is an outright falsehood.
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The truth about implicit bias is:
"it's not clear precisely what is being measured on implicit attitude tests; implicit attitudes do not effectively predict actual discriminatory behavior; most interventions [such as CA's new law] are ineffective."
musaalgharbi.com/2020/09/16/div…
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CA's Assembly Bill 241, mandating "implicit bias" education for MDs: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billText…
Support for implicit bias being a "virtuous lie" that we believe because it makes us "good":
1. dailynous.com/2017/01/12/rec…
2. freedomcast.us/iopod/episode1
3. psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rabble…
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"Implicit bias" is a "virtuous lie" we live by.
It even informs law now, like CA's Bill 241, which says "Implicit bias...exists, and often contributes to unequal treatment..."
Two more sources on implicit bias, both by @jessesingal:
1. thecut.com/2017/01/psycho…
2. Ch. 6:
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It's a "virtuous lie" that for gender dysphoria, science is settled on (1) "puberty blockers for adolescents going through early stages of natural puberty," followed by, for "older teens," (2) "cross sex hormones, essentially avoiding natal puberty."
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Virtuous lies about puberty blockers, hormones & suicidality for kids w/ gender dysphoria are repeated w/ uncritical certainty by media elites.
@TheBARPod's @jessesingal & @kittypurrzog take @jonstewart & @LastWeekTonight to task for their untruths:
blockedandreported.org/p/episode-138-…
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