Why do liberals engage in Moral Relativism?

Question

The liberals seek to discredit the moral values held by the majority of our society. They blame the usual "-isms" for any values not in line with their far leftwing socialist agenda: Racism, Sexism, Capitalism, etc.

The Moral Relativist is a wily and resourceful provocatuer. He will attack a position on a particular issue with emotional ploys instead of the hard data or facts. For example, 80% of Americans believe that the USA should "fully enforce existing immigration laws". The moral relativist, however, will point out that illegal immigrants are simply hard working individuals seeking a better life - and that makes everything all right. The moral relativist absolves the criminal of his wrongdoing because "the ends justify the means".

A man robs a bank at gunpoint. The Moral Relativist doesn't advocate punishing the wrongdoer, but instead, trys to make society feel guilty about it because it "oppressed" the crook and "forced" him to obtain money through illicit means.

Answer 1

Because they think with their hearts and use their minds as filters.

conservatives think with their mind first but filter their thoughts through their hearts thus arriving at a more objective and logical perception.

Answer 2

Neither of your examples are valid. If 80% of the country supports enforcing immigration laws (I'm guessing that the real % is higher than that) then that means that many (probably most) liberals (such as myself) also support enforcing immigration laws. What liberals like myself are able to do is see both sides of the issue. Yes, these people broke the law and they do not deserve to be rewarded for that -- but at the same time, our immigration system needs to be fixed in order to allow people like them to work here legally, instead of illegally. All you see is that some icky foreign person broke the law, you don't give a damn about their quality of life.

Your second point is even more absurd. You'd be hard pressed to find a single sane person that would make the argument you made. The vast majority of liberals are not going to blame the society for a robbery, even if the robber happened to be poor. While that is a circumstance that should be considered by the court (possibly give a less harsh sentence than they would have given a person driven purely by greed), nobody suggests that the poor should be able to steal at will simply because they are desperate. Also -- isn't it usually conservatives that are always ready to blame rape victims for being raped?

Everyone is guilty of moral relativism - liberals included - but your examples were weak at best, and liberals are no more guilty of this than conservatives.

Answer 3

Actually none of these examples are Moral Relativism. Moral Relativism judges an act relative to the situation. So the Moral Relativist asks if a hungry man steals a loaf of bread and a rich man steals $100K dollars are they both equal guilty of theft?

And actually most of us use some form of Moral Relativism. For example we believe that killing is wrong but would kill to defend our life or the lives of our families.

I am not supporting any given philosophy here, just trying to clarify terms.

Answer 4

Where do you get this stuff from? It really is a waste of time to try and paint a set of people with the same brush.

You can search around and find 1 person with a certain opinion (or 100, 1,000...), who happens to call himself a conservative, but that doesn't mean that whatever he believes is what all conservatives believe. That's one of the most egregious forms of logical fallacy.

Answer 5

You are correct Sir! Now be sure to represent in the Election of `08. We need every Soldier to cast that Vote for some return to Morality. And I'm counting on you.

Answer 6

Fringe libs are the masters of moral, social, and economic relativism. It's an easy answer, because they don't have any unique ideas of your own.

My typing of this answer has increased my carbon footprint and depleted ozone....you HATEMONGER.

...You must be anti-earth.

Answer 7

Perhaps this is due less to a political viewpoint or agenda than it is to human nature. For example, what does the following have to do with Republican "family values":

http://www.armchairsubversive.com/

(Glass houses, stones, and all that...)

Answer 8

i can see your brain cells are not working effectively. you need to do some hard research and examine the true meaning of liberalism. The malarkey you've written regarding liberals is false and misleading.

Answer 9

When you wrongly elevate yourself to a god, all things are permitted!