Technicians working to destroy the United States’ chemical weapons stockpile at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot on June 8, 2023, in Pueblo, Colo.
AAP Photo/David Zalubowski
GOP candidates Kari Lake, Herschel Walker and Dr. Mehmet Oz have caught people’s attention for outlandish stunts and false statements that are increasingly accepted in politics.
Infowars founder Alex Jones in court during his Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in Waterbury, Conn., Sept. 22, 2022.
Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File
Shame and guilt seem equally foreign to many politicians and public figures these days. Rather than cover their bad behavior with a veneer of hypocrisy, they revel in it, a classics scholar says.
Though hypocrites seemingly relinquish their moral authority, the trial against Socrates shows us that our favoritism for public figures is stronger than our judgments of their hypocrisy.
Donald Trump in front of Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota, July 3, 2020.
Saul Loeb/AFP
The problem with hypocrisy is that it shatters truth. If we believe in a principle, but don’t apply it ourselves, that principle is essentially meaningless.
Muslims pray at the Kofar Mata Central Mosque in Kano, Northern Nigeria. Liberal and fundamentalist Islam are in a contest of legitimacy in the region.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
The debate around photos of two Nigerian Salafi clerics taken in London wasn’t a trivial conversation about dress and recreational choices. It was loaded with symbolism.