Why do many in America view someone with a clear sense of right and wrong as judgmental?

Question

Judgmental seems to be right up there with prejudiced and racist. But right is right and wrong is wrong. It's wrong to cheat on your spouse. It's wrong to lie and cheat. It's wrong to get paid for working a job when someone spends half his time surfing the net.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Great observation.  Nowadays you can be sued for giving someone your opinion in a public place.  Sued!  

And if you say "I think it is obviously unnatural and morally wrong to be g*y" someone will say you are 'a hater' or some other generalization, because you make an observation that is true.  No one can hear the truth today and not be offended.  This speaks loudly about our current position.

Answer 2

Here are a couple of real-life situations.  Would you justify "lying" in these cases?

A local police dept. is trying to round up known child molesters who have skipped meeting with their parole officers for some time.  Rather than going to the homes of the molesters and trying to arrest them (they are rarely at home), the police dept. send out fake "You've won the lottery!" letters to these guys, and invites them to a local address to pick up their prizes.   Some of the molesters fall for this, and show up at the address, where they are promptly arrested for parole violations. Clever police work, or dishonest?

Or how about this?  A recently fired employee comes storming into his former workplace, and asks a clerk where the supervisor is.  Since it looks like the supervisor might be in danger from this person, the clerk tells the fired employee that the supervisor is elsewhere for the day (even though he is really upstairs).  Is it ok to lie in this situation - to save someone from harm or death?  I think it is.

Answer 3

Where did you hear that? I only view someone as judgemental if they pass on judgement that is unwarranted. It has nothing to do with right and wrong.

Answer 4

right and wrong are an objective matter. is it wrong to cheat on your spouse when he cheats on you and beats you? there is no black and white in this world, and people who think this way cause all the problems. when you can accept the benefits of both sides of the argument and disregard the negatives to reach the most effective conclusion, then this is truly right.

i think you need to take a long hard look at yourself

Answer 5

Let's start at the top.

"It's wrong to cheat on your spouse."  True.  If you have entered an agreement to be an exclusive sexual partner, you should abide by that agreement.  The question that I would ask is "Why is sexual conduct so important to so many people?"  

"It's wrong to lie and cheat."  This is a very broad statement.  Suppose, for example, that a guy asks you out on a date.  You personally think that he is very unattractive.  You say,"No, thank you."  He says,"Why not?"  Hmm. You could tell the truth.  You would hurt his feelings, though, if you told him that you thought he was ugly and you weren't attracted.  On the other hand, you could tell a 'white' lie, and spare his feelings.  Saying something like,'I don't date guys that I work with' or 'I prefer to remain friends' is a lie.  And take 'cheating'-if my kids are starving, is it better to let them go hungry, or cheat at a game of poker in order to get money?  

'...get paid for working a job when someone spends half his time surfing the internet.'  So?  How does this effect YOU?  If you are depending on him in order to properly do your job, then you have a valid complaint.  Otherwise, it's not your problem.  If your employer chooses not to hold his employees to a certain standard of productive activity, so be it.  YOU can't solve this problem by tattling on your co-worker.  Even if the company fires him, the problem remains.  This company has no way to track the accountability of its employees. They will not go very far with this kind of inefficient set-up.

I'm guessing that you are fairly young (under 25), you are middle to upper-middle class, and you think that the world would be a wonderful place if people would just follow the rules.  I've got news for you-not everyone wants to follow the same rules that YOU want to follow.  

My final thought-you should move into my neighborhood for a week.  Crack addicts, prostitutes, kids that carry guns...this is America, too.  I have MUCH bigger problems than whether or not someone is sleeping around or if some dude is playing on the Internet.  I've got to make sure that I don't get shot on the way to the community college.  I've got to watch out for people running out of the bushes and grabbing my backpack because they think that they can sell my books for a few dollars.  So...yes...I think you are judgemental, but naive people usually are.

Answer 6

Not everything is seen in black and white, honey. Sometimes, there's Grey in between. If you can honestly say that everything is either correct or incorrect, then you haven't looked at this world using perspectives other than your own. I wouldn't say its "judgmental," but its definitely opinionated.