What's the difference between "self righteous" and "righteous" ?

[Dexta]

I'm confused. And accused of the former.

[brewerb]

Did you leave out condemnation or indignation?

[no one]

Self

[Thumpalumpacus]

Self-righteousness is chest-pounding and aimed at earning brownie-points and social status. Bring righteous is quiet, speaking truth without seeking acclaim.

[Rhythmcs]

I feel like the difference is right on the tin. One implies that you do the right thing for other people, and the other implies that you do the right thing for yourself.

I'm guessing...in mere reality.....your life's decisions are a mix of the two. I'd be as surprised at your not having ever done The Right Thing™ as I would be at your always having done the personally expedient thing.

[Dexta]

So the context of my posting this thread is due to a colleague saying I'm "self righteous" because I said I'd only fly in an emergency due to the enormous greenhouse gas emissions inherent to air travel. I got quite cross, actually. Fair comment by him? I don't think so.

[brewerb]

So the context of my posting this thread is due to a colleague saying I'm "self righteous" because I said I'd only fly in an emergency due to the enormous greenhouse gas emissions inherent to air travel. I got quite cross, actually. Fair comment by him? I don't think so.

For the sake of discussion lets eliminate 'emergency' from the discussion for now and look at 'I won't travel by air'.

Playing devils advocate:

One person stating that they won't travel on a commercial flight won't stop the flight or significantly reduce the flights air pollution.

If the person is going to travel the same distance as the air flight, is a single person choosing another mode of travel which also produces pollution actually making that much of a difference on creating air pollution? 

Another point that needs to be considered is what other pollution would you ad to the environment when traveling by another mode of transportation.

It's commendable that you want to decrease your pollution footprint but I'm not sure that boycotting air travel holds as much weight as you think it does. That's where the 'self' part probably got applied, especially when you got cross. My guess is that some judgement of others was involved.

[Dexta]

So the context of my posting this thread is due to a colleague saying I'm "self righteous" because I said I'd only fly in an emergency due to the enormous greenhouse gas emissions inherent to air travel. I got quite cross, actually. Fair comment by him? I don't think so.

For the sake of discussion lets eliminate 'emergency' from the discussion for now and look at 'I won't travel by air'.

Playing devils advocate:

One person stating that they won't travel on a commercial flight won't stop the flight or significantly reduce the flights air pollution.

There's a global network of social movements encouraging people to avoid air travel. These movements have at least 10,000s of subscribers and forever growing - that impact would stop some flights - perhaps many many flights. It's like voting, one vote won't make any difference so why bother voting at all - fuck that train. I read somewhere that just 1% of the world's population travels by air - it's the low hanging fruit of global warming mitigation by my mind - a largely unnecessary luxury.

If the person is going to travel the same distance as the air flight, is a single person choosing another mode of travel which also produces pollution actually making that much of a difference on creating air pollution? 

Another point that needs to be considered is what other pollution would you ad to the environment when traveling by another mode of transportation.

I haven't left the country in years and have no plans to. Might visit the local seaside or go raving in nearby big cities - who needs foreign holidays? Not I.

It's commendable that you want to decrease your pollution footprint but I'm not sure that boycotting air travel holds as much weight as you think it does. That's where the 'self' part probably got applied, especially when you got cross. My guess is that some judgement of others was involved.

I do not know what positive knock on influence my publicly eschewing air travel might have. He probably felt guilty and ashamed of his unnecessary air travel and that's why he called me self righteous. No, I replied, in heated tones, not self righteous, just righteous.

[Dexta]

Self-righteousness is chest-pounding and aimed at earning brownie-points and social status. Bring righteous is quiet, speaking truth without seeking acclaim.

So analogous to virtue signalling in your book more or less? Incorrectly perceiving virtue signalling when people are just espousing doing the right thing - an easy mistake to make.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Fair comment by him? I don't think so.

Seems so to me as well.

[brewerb]

I do not know what positive knock on influence my publicly eschewing air travel might have. He probably felt guilty and ashamed of his unnecessary air travel and that's why he called me self righteous. No, I replied, in heated tones, not self righteous, just righteous.

Glad you can tell what others are feeling. Or are you telling others what they should be feeling?

If the tones were heated you probably earned the 'self righteous (indignation/condemnation)' label.

[Dexta]

I do not know what positive knock on influence my publicly eschewing air travel might have. He probably felt guilty and ashamed of his unnecessary air travel and that's why he called me self righteous. No, I replied, in heated tones, not self righteous, just righteous.

Glad you can tell what others are feeling. Or are you telling others what they should be feeling?

If the tones were heated you probably earned the 'self righteous (indignation/condemnation)' label.

If he'd called me a c u next Tuesday and I replied in the negative, in heated tones, you think that'd make me a cunt? What's the difference? I took offence and got pissed - that happens, news at 10.

[epronovost]

To answer the OP, I would say the following.

A righteous person is a person who does what is right even when such thing is hard and come at a personal expense.

A self-righeous person is a person who wields his or her righteousness as a cudgel to insult, diminish and disregard another person and place oneself as better. Alternatively, a self-righetous person can also describe a hypocrit though there is always a measure of hypocrisy in my opinion in using one's virtues as an insult towards others.

[Rhythmcs]

If you compost your leftover food you'll offset more than flying, and if your leftover food goes into the trash, then it doesn't matter if you don't fly.

[airportkid]

With Google at our fingertips essentially ANY dispute can at least be rigamaroled over a slate of real data, and not fought in a vacuum of ignorance - a failing of human impulse that often leaves blood on the floor and friendships wrecked that we can finally get beyond.

Carbon footprints per person kilometer of common transport methods

Making jet travel less "dirty"


I find it interesting that long distance travel by car makes a larger carbon footprint than long distance travel by air.  But railroad is really efficient.  Here in the United States railroad travel has been severely truncated and almost doesn't exist as a practical alternative, unlike in Europe and Japan.  If the US could build a high speed rail system for the short hauls, mostly on the western and eastern seaboards, many benefits would accrue, including a drop in carbon pollution.

[Dexta]

"Vacuum of ignorance" is it. You're missing the point APK:

I haven't left the country in years and have no plans to. Might visit the local seaside or go raving in nearby big cities - who needs foreign holidays? Not I.

[Dexta]

A Boeing 747 can hold approximately 48,400 – 57,285 gallons of jet fuel depending on the model of aircraft (model series 100 – 400). This is 183,214 to 216,847 litres of fuel or about 180 to 213 tonnes.

 https://executiveflyers.com/how-much-fuel-does-a-boeing.../

[brewerb]

Glad you can tell what others are feeling. Or are you telling others what they should be feeling?

If the tones were heated you probably earned the 'self righteous (indignation/condemnation)' label.

If he'd called me a c u next Tuesday and I replied in the negative, in heated tones, you think that'd make me a cunt? What's the difference? I took offence and got pissed - that happens, news at 10.

Then in the moment own the self righteous label. You're allowed. But don't get pissy when others think it may have been accurate. That will only result in another label.

[Dexta]

Wrong brewerb - politely espousing and living a reduced carbon footprint is righteous, not self righteous. It really is that simple.

[brewerb]

Wrong brewerb - politely espousing and living a reduced carbon footprint is righteous, not self righteous. It really is that simple.

Didn't you describe the conversation as 'heated'. I rarely find conversations that are politely heated. You might have started out trying to be polite but, based on your posts here, I doubt it stayed polite. Again I'm guessing (since you've not given both sides of the interaction) that you provided a fair amount of judging the other person and found them lacking when comparing them to yourself.

Edit: I'm judging your behavior as lacking. I'll admit that I'm being self righteous, something that you don't seem able to do.

[Dexta]

It only got heated after he accused me of being self righteous. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear, I guess.

[brewerb]

It only got heated after he accused me of being self righteous. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear, I guess.

Now that we've discussed it, do you think that someone else might have perceived your position/statement as self righteous?

[Dexta]

Yes, perhaps, as the definition of "self righteous" is not universally agreed upon, as evinced in this thread, far from it. I think however that we'd all agree it's insulting to be called self righteous...I mean it is an inherently derogatory term...IMO.

[brewerb]

Yes, perhaps, as the definition of "self righteous" is not universally agreed upon, as evinced in this thread, far from it. I think however that we'd all agree it's insulting to be called self righteous...I mean it is an inherently derogatory term...IMO.

That sounds ego dependent.

[Dexta]

Yes, perhaps, as the definition of "self righteous" is not universally agreed upon, as evinced in this thread, far from it. I think however that we'd all agree it's insulting to be called self righteous...I mean it is an inherently derogatory term...IMO.

That sounds ego dependent.

If you mean I want to like what I see in the mirror when I brush my teeth in the morning, then yes, it's ego-dependant.