Self-Righteous

"Them's fightin' words, mister," says the cowboy as he spits a thin line of 'bacca juice into the dirt of the dusty street and shifts his gunbelt.

And that's what happens when you start slinging around the word "self-righteous."

According to WordNet, the correct definition of self-righteous is:

• holier-than-thou: excessively or hypocritically pious

Answers.com gives two definitions:

1. Piously sure of one's own righteousness; moralistic.
2. Exhibiting pious self-assurance: self-righteous remarks.

So, when a discussion about board games & plagarism drifted into ruminations on the morality of various actions, the "self-righteous" grenade got tossed into the middle of the crowd. What follows is my slightly edited response.

There is nothing self-righteous about trying to stake out a personal moral position. In doing so, you automatically are placing a value not only on your position but also on other people's positions - and that's not self-righteous. It sounds like what you want is for people who disagree with you to roll over & play dead - in other words, "shut up & let me enjoy what I want to enjoy."In a web-based world where freedom of speech is a "sacred value", that sounds awfully... well, self-righteous.

"Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up..."

• Choosing a moral position & defending it is not self-righteous... it may irritate others to the point of wanting to stuff a used gym sock in your mouth, but the advocacy of a particular view of morality is not inherently self-righteous.
• The very act of choosing one moral position over another infers that you are using some criteria in order to make this decision - and that criteria shows clearly that you value one position more than you value other positions. This, too, is not self-righteous.

In conclusion:

• If I say, "I think you're incorrect when you say that decisions about plagarism & copyright have no moral implications; on the contrary, they have profound moral & ethical resonance and I'm stunned that you would think otherwise," I'm merely advocating a moral position.
• If I say, "I think you're incorrect when you say that decisions about plagarism & copyright have no moral implications; on the contrary, they have profound moral & ethical resonance... and the fact that you disagree with me shows that you're obviously a degenerate reprobate who's mind is corrupted beyond hope of repair," then I'm being a self-righteous prig.

Let's use our words carefully, please.