RFK, Jr. eats McDonalds and drinks a Coke and the corporate statists lose their minds. “Hypocrisy!” They cry in unison. Either they don’t understand what hypocrisy is or they don’t think the people do. So I’m here (once again) to educate those who don’t know what a word means.
Hypocrisy indeed involves a discrepancy between expressed beliefs or principles and actions, but it is specifically tied to the pretense of belief or virtue. Hypocrisy is not knowing something is unhealthy or wrong and doing it anyway—that could be addiction, inconsistency, weakness, or something else. Hypocrisy arises when someone claims to hold a standard or value while acting in a way that contradicts it with the intention of deceiving others into believing he is virtuous.
Recognizing something is bad like smoking and wanting to reduce its practice but continuing to smoke may reflect human fallibility, etc., but not necessarily hypocrisy unless the person also claims not to smoke or condemn others for it while doing it himself.
The corporations that manufacture harmful products are very happy to see progressives misrepresent the concept of hypocrisy because it assists in the campaign to stop liberals from improving the health of Americans. Corporations stand to lose trillions if they’re pressured into making healthier products. Not just Big Ag and other corporations stand to lose but the Medical-Industrial Complex, which depends on unhealthy people. Indeed, the MIC makes and maintains millions of sick people in a continual basis
freedom and reason 