Moral Princesses
I liked this term from Bleeding Heart Libertarians. Perhaps it is common but I have not heard it before. It seems apt:
Moral Princesses. In “The Princess and the Pea,” the prince believes that real princesses are so sensitive that a single pea place under 25 feet of bedding will disrupt their sleep. The general idea is that real princesses are sensitive to irritations that wouldn’t bother crude commoners.
Expanding on this idea, some people wish to signal that they are, for lack of a better phrase, moral princesses. They are so sensitive to moral concerns that they are enraged by things the rest of us crude commoners do not even notice. By frequently expressing their sensitivity, they thereby prove they are better than everyone else. (See this paper on moral grandstanding for more.)
Regular person: “Mmm, chicken tikka masala is delicious.”
Activist: “I can’t eat that, as doing so makes me complicit in the British colonialist legacy.”
Mercury:
"Self-righteous princess" is probably a more apt term than "moral princess" (SRP is the new SOB!).
In any case, extra princess points for reclining here while making such pronouncements:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/12/lax-private-terminal-rich-people-celebrities
May 15, 2017, 10:32 amDr. Pansimian:
Combine the words to abbreviate: "messes".
May 15, 2017, 12:54 pmTanuki Man:
I think I'll stick with the term "drama sluts" instead.
May 15, 2017, 7:35 pmtimworstall:
" “Mmm, chicken tikka masala is delicious.” Activist: “I can’t eat that, as doing so makes me complicit in the British colonialist legacy.”"
Which is a particularly absurd thing for anyone to complain about. Tikka masala was invented in Britain. Immigrant chefs noted that Brits didn't seem to like the dryness of tikka, preferred a "gravy". Add tomatoes, sauce created, tikka masala.
Something invented in Britain by immigrants is part of the colonialist legacy?
May 16, 2017, 2:40 ammarque2:
Tacos and Burritos are border food invented in the Soutwestern part of the US and parts of Northern Mexico - go to Mexico City and they don't touch that stuff, yet eating Tacos is called cultural appropriation. Chinese food, as we know it, was invented in New York City, and San Francisco, but again people don't know that. Pizza, as we know it, also a US invention - much to the irk of traditional italians, because when tourists come to Naples, they expect the American style pizza and are disappointed not to find it.
May 16, 2017, 4:46 amBut these cultural appropriation people don't know the origin of their food, so they make the baseless claims anyway.
cc:
If you start with the assumption that life is chaotic, people are selfish and often stupid (including our rulers), and bad stuff happens, lots of things make sense and one can be grateful for anything that goes right, for planes that don't fall out of the sky, for companies that stay in business, that a war doesn't break out.
May 16, 2017, 8:32 amIf, on the other hand, you compare life to an imaginary fairy tale world, it is nothing but crap, always evil, and one shows one's awareness of this evil by pointing it out constantly. To such naive people, this constant complaining shows they know what is up. To the non-naive, it simply shows they are only at stage 1 of awareness (like the stages of grief, they are at the anger stage).
Peabody:
Though keep in mind that many will admit that "feelings" trump facts. As is often the case, someone makes stereotypical assumptions about how an entire cultural group will feel based on how someone else thinks they should feel.
May 16, 2017, 3:02 pmrst1317:
"
someone makes stereotypical assumptions about how an entire cultural group will feel based on how someone else thinks they should feel.
"
That's racism, isn't it? ;-)
May 16, 2017, 3:21 pmjames:
What about the Columbian Exchange? Potatoes didn't get to Europe by swimming the Atlantic, did they?
May 16, 2017, 4:07 pmmarque2:
Interestingly we brought Indians citrus and apples in exchange
May 16, 2017, 4:52 pmQ46:
When economic migrants from Europe went to India/Africa, it was colonisation and bad, when economic migrants come to Europe from India/Africa it is freedom of movement and virtuous.
Strange place Planet Earth.
May 18, 2017, 3:33 amQ46:
Non-Anglo-Saxons speaking English must be cultural appropriation; as indeed those not from north of Hadrian's Wall who drink Scotch.
May 18, 2017, 3:38 amSteveMGD:
The problem is not their sensitivity to moral concerns but that their moral beliefs are incorrect.
May 18, 2017, 6:29 amJohn Moore:
A lot of libertarians seem to be in that category. They could not bring themselves to vote for the only alternative to Hillary and the death of freedom because, well, moral princesses can't touch anything that isn't perfectly clean.,
May 19, 2017, 11:03 am