Hypocritical Finger Pointing: That Most American of Diseases

I sometimes wonder about people…

I wonder about people who take conservative stances on certain issues and are willing to present criticism like its gospel. Yes, I am talking to conservative pundits out there. You are critical of a deceased singer’s supposed prescription drug abuse, while conveniently neglecting the rehab stint for same of one of your own? This goes farther, though. I will beat up on you at a later time with a much larger bat. Us agreeing on a couple of things does not exempt you from being called on your bull.

Today, however, I am talking to everyday people who love to point the finger of judgment at others. You know,those that take a “conservative” or “moral” high ground, while refusing to point that high powered perception at themselves.

Sometimes this is funny.

Here is an example. I love talking to people who have lost a ton of weight. These folk go from porcine to prejudiced in a matter of sizes. Listening to these people, it is hard to remember just a short while ago, they were tipping in at two coach seats on your favorite air carrier. Your polo shrinks in the dryer, and they are sharing diets tips. Sometimes it’s funny. Other times, you want to anonymously mail them a $50 McDonald’s gift card with a note saying, "Have at it!" They go on and on about healthy eating and exercise. Their criticisms, however, of people who are where they were just months before are downright offensive. This is funniest when these folk are in the medical profession. Gee, Doc, glad to see what you read in med school is finally worth sharing now that you can fit into size 44 pants…No thanks, the salt in Subway is just as bad at the fat in Mickey Ds.

What’s even funnier are those who made a number of bad decisions earlier in life. They turn their lives around and engage in what they feel is a program of social redemption:going to college. They then spend every waking minute belittling everyone who is where they once were. This is usually followed by criticism of those who have obtained the same education without having made a mess of their lives beforehand. Robbing that bank or having seven kids with eight losers is completely redeemed because you have earned a degree. In fact, your four years of study, eighteen months of which was in your major area of study, including internship, now qualifies you as an expert on all things similarly related. Don’t let their major be in the human sciences. Once they diagnose themselves, a prerequisite for judging others,watch their counseling career take flight.

I am not even going to touch former drunks and the recently religious.

Now, all of these nice folk have a couple of things in common.

1. They are usually petty
2. They are almost always unlikable
3. Usually, they are not that far from what they criticize. In many cases, they have not changed, but are doing a swell job of pretending.

A shysty hustler who obtains a degree is still shysty. If her mentality was one where it is get over at all costs, that is not going to change. It is like pouring coffee down a drunk’s throat. You’ve still got a drunk. He’s just wide awake. I know more people who, thanks to student loans, get an education. That is commendable. It can open some doors, and coupled with hard work, can take a person places they never imagined. My own education notwithstanding, I also believe hard work and sometimes luck, education or no, can take a person just as far. A big misconception is that somehow, joining the ranks of the degreed puts one in a class of folk who understand fairness, integrity and just plain being nice to people. The recent conviction of a Chicago mortgage hustler who earned an MBA while doing his last stint in the joint may dispute that silly notion. People who use their education as some kind of “Criticize All Other at Will” card are about as credible as people who inherit their money and then criticize the recently unemployed middle class as “not working hard enough.”

As I have stated to more than one PhD, however, an education provides you with the tools necessary to do your job. It does not put you at a station above anyone, nor does it give you license to look down on anyone. I know too many unemployed college grads, and quite a few techs who for Comcast earning $80K.

A fat person who suddenly has slimmed and loves to down the heftier among us probably still wrecks shop at buffets. He just travels farther out to do it, to areas where they won’t be recognized. He is burping up the lunchtime bankrupting of Golden Corral while criticizing you for not drinking Diet Coke. Too many good looking people who can suddenly shop at the Gap without searching hard for a fitting garment are really creeps. Especially those who, seven months ago, couldn’t walk in the store without being automatically being given direction to the nearest Casual Male. This person doesn’t inspire others, and secretly, others plot for his failure. The numbers are on the plotters side.

That political pundit who is critical of someone else’s marital infidelities is boinking the live-in help. The help, by the way, may be undocumented. Bet it’s happened before. How is that person better than someone else who has strayed? People who live in glass houses…

Is it me? At what point did people start confusing the best they can do with the best there is? And when did judgment become a more valuable currency than compassion and understanding?

Ya’ll know better.