Comments on: Ordinary disgust taints moral judgments

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:23:40 +0000

Reminds me of an old joke.
The small town parents go to visit with their gay son in the big city. They have come to accept his partner, but it still confuses them. On the first evening, the father takes his son aside, and asks him point blank, “What exactly do you two do, in the bedroom?”

The son looks his dad in the eye and says, “You know those things that you almost never get mom to do with you? That’s what we do.”

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:34:37 +0000

Erika: I also wonder just how many of our “moral” judgments are fueled (seemingly unnecessarily) by gut level disgust, even unconscious disgust. Yes, the sick and the homeless and certainly yes, the POOR. Many people find these groups viscerally repulsive because they are often dirty and smelly–and they don’t have lots of nice THINGS like WE do. I suspect that personal unease ramps up into a full blown “moral judgment” in many cases. And what about those immigrants? Many people are disgusted that immigrants are “invading,” which leads so effortlessly to the conclusion that they are morally wrong to do so.

Further, if you consider that we are a thoroughly symbolic species, there is really no end to this mischief. Politics is a realm where we might as well intentionally conflate a new term: immoral/disgusting. It’s all the same thing to many people. Just watch their faces when they talk about something they find to be “immoral.” For instance, take a look at this video of neocon commentator Thomas Friedman (I found that I was a bit “disgusted” at his disgust).

It all starts with the failure to recognize a simple early (often false) move: What disgusts me is therefore immoral (meaning that it’s immoral for all people in all places).

I’ve posted before on how early and seemingly minor intellectual moves can grow into large and grotesque proportions (and sometimes into wonderful things). The power of seemingly slight early intellectual moves!
Today’s quote of the day from The Quotations Page is apropos:

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil’s Dictionary

By: Erika Price

Erika Price — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:52:21 +0000

It strikes me as almost tragic that so many people go through life with a sense of moral outrage over things that merely squick them out. Because there is such a “quick and dirty pathway” from disgust to emotion, people don’t even realize that the process is happening. When I think of the effort that moral ideologues place into abolishing the “immoral” things that are simply gross, not wrong, I almost feel sympathy for them and their wasted time.

But revealing this information to such a person would do no good, I suspect. I can think of no effective way to tell a homophobe “Well, you see, you only think gays are immoral because male-male anal sex weirds you out.” Once that moral framework has been laid, it is nigh impossible to excavate. What a waste!

Does this disgust-morality link help explain moral outrage at drug use and extreme poverty, too? Do many of us “hate” homeless people because they often have poor hygiene? I see myriad possible connections between the things that disgrace us and the things that disgust us.