It’s A Moral Issue! So Just Shut Up!
31st May 2016
Ronald Bailey lets us peek behind the curtain a bit.
Climate change is a moral issue on a par with slavery. Abortion is a moral issue. Gun control is a moral issue. Same sex marriage is a moral issue. Genetically modified crops are a moral issue. Human enhancement is a moral issue. Premarital sex is a moral issue. Childhood vaccination is a moral issue. Pornography is a moral issue. Immigration is a moral issue. Recycling is a moral issue.
Partisans often seek to frame their views as a “moral issue” as way of saying that whatever it is that they favor is beyond the grubby realm of mere costs versus benefits and the sordid practicalities of reaching a compromise with opponents. Such framing works according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The researchers report that “merely labeling an attitude as moral increases its strength.” For example, take recycling.
Please….