Dear Ethicist: I often feel I'm doing a public service by popping peoples’ bubbles. I have been gifted with a supersensitive bullshit detector. So it’s hard for people to fob their life lies off on me. One could take the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it attitude.” Why don’t I allow people their delusions? Mind your own business; they’re not hurting you. Unfortunately, for me at least, these verities don't hold true. I want to vomit when I see someone kidding themselves. It's so bad I gag and bring up the kind of bile that burns my throat. Live and let live doesn't work. But how am I to differentiate between those who are selling themselves a bill of goods and the small percentage of the population who're simply expressing their contentment with life? And how can I trust that I’m an objective arbiter of who is going to hell in a handbasket? Is the pot calling the kettle black? Are my demands so great and my criticism of human peccadillos so unremitting that I’m the one whose head is in the clouds? If someone tells me to get lost, should I keep my opinions to myself or persist in attacking them for their own good?
Misanthrope
Scarsdale NY
Dear Misanthrope: Are any of the people you’re criticizing doing harm either to themselves or the public? If not, I’d get off your high horse. Look you've been using a lot of cliches. It’s apparently contagious as you can see by the above sentence ("high horse"). I think you have to shit or get off the pot. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Read "Sarcasm" by Francis Levy, HuffPost
and listen to "Soul Man" by Sam&Dave
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