Two Kinds Of Hypocrisy

If the worst anyone can say of you is that you are a hypocrite, congratulations: you are on the fast track to Heaven. On the whole, hypocrisy is perhaps a good thing because hypocrites at least uphold a standard to which they and others are presumed to aspire.

That is what I always thought, anyway.

But there are two kinds of hypocrisy, one much worse than the other. We normally think of a hypocrite as someone who publicly upholds a good or moral principle, while violating it in his or her private life. That is not admirable, but, as noted above, there is something to be said for it.

A second type of hypocrite is the person who publicly advocates an evil principle, thereby helping to worsen the condition of others, while following a better rule in his or her own life. This, in my view, is a much worse variety of hypocrisy because it is so hurtful to the non-privileged. If you want to read a whole book about it, check out Peter Schweizer’s Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy. Liberals constantly advocate for bad policies in the public sphere, while following conservative principles when it comes to themselves and their own families.

Ilhan Omar exemplifies this more vicious type of hypocrisy. She hates law enforcement and campaigns to defund the police, but when it comes to her own safety? Men with guns. Alpha News reports:

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign recently dropped tens of thousands of dollars on private security services following her calls to defund the police and support for a campaign to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, federal filings show.

According to Federal Election Commission records, the campaign spent $27,081.14 on “security services” between July and September, the highest quarter to date.

Before the third quarter, her campaign paid roughly $83,000 to private security firms between May 2019 and July this year, according to a review of federal filings.

So that is over $110,000 total. No doubt many thousands of Omar’s low-income and middle-income constituents, who live in sky-high-crime Minneapolis and its inner-tier suburbs, would love to spend $100,000+ to protect themselves and their families. But they can’t afford it. Omar wouldn’t be able to afford it either, except that she is a celebrity left-wing politician.

Ilhan to her constituents: Too bad about the violent crime that is making your lives intolerable. I am doing my best to make your situation worse, by attacking law enforcement and encouraging defunding the police. But hey–I got mine, Jack! I don’t need to rely on any understaffed, underfunded, viciously undermined police force! I’ve got my own private security, paid for by rich liberals across the country. So keep voting for me, suckers!

That is the worst possible kind of hypocrisy.

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