#moral scrupulosity

[fremedon]

I'm not making this a reblog because there have been a lot of posts this applies to and I'm sure there will be more.

But if you ever do find that perfectly pure candidate that you feel can vote for without morally compromising yourself--that person with a completely stainless career and no blood on their hands--they will still step into the morass created by all their predecessors. They will have blood on their hands from the moment they take office. The blood comes with the office. There is no way to avoid that.

If they want to not execute the evil and unjust laws which they have just sworn to faithfully execute, they will have the choice of flouting the law or changing it. Both of these are difficult, take time, and cannot be done by one person's fiat.

Laws are made by Congress; changing a law--even the worst one on the books! even that one!--means getting a majority of both houses on board. This is drastically easier if the president's party has a majority in both houses, but still requires coordinating literally hundreds of people to do what you want; if the president's party does not have that trifecta, it may simply be impossible until after the next elections.

Flouting the law--just deciding to ignore it--sets a worrisome precedent: In general, we would like the executive branch to follow the laws of the country! But beyond that, it is also difficult and also requires coordinating with hundreds of other people. The administrative state is designed to run on rails. The administration can hand down guidance on the interpretation of laws--which often as not gets challenged legally and needs to be resolved by the courts, which is a whole other level of complication and, currently, a whole other level of fucked up--but ordering federal agencies to violate the law wholesale is usually going to be a non-starter. Even when the law is bad. Until the law is actually changed, which, see above, sometimes the most that can be done is harm reduction--delay implementation, narrow the scope, tie it up in red tape.

And. Look. I want you to find that perfect candidate. I long for the day that someone can make it all the way into the highest office without ever compromising their morals. But if they do, they will become complicit with all the horrors their predecessors left to us. There is no way to dismantle those horrors without taking on some degree of complicity.

When the machine is covered so thickly with blood, pulling the off switch still gets blood on your hands.

[scrupulosity-et-al]

scrupulosity and an OCD obsession with morality is so much more than just wanting to be a good person.

yes, I want to be a good person. but for me, that comes along with:

an unreachably high moral standard

an unshakeable guilt complex

a chronic feeling of “what have I done wrong?”

constant flashbacks to “shame memories”

tying myself up in knots over making the right decision (even over the little things)

and sometimes… this obsession with being a good person actually prevents me from being as good a person as I would be otherwise (e.g it can make me come across as selfish and not compassionate)

[yakitori-queen]

maybe a problematic opinion but the "silence is death" "staying silent means siding with the oppressors" ideology kind of fucked up everything for me as someone who has moral scrupulosity ocd. now I straight up just hate myself no matter what because I feel like even just doing nothing makes me a bad person which is made especially difficult by the fact I can barely even think of getting into anything remotely activism related because of how much emotional distress it brings me just to think about it (all the crushing guilt I just mentioned). this also expands to the idea that you have to be hypervigilant about every mundane thing you do in order to be a good person (this concept is especially prevalent here on tumblr) ie: if you buy from a problematic creator, if you consume problematic media, if you don't watch what companies you buy from when grocery shopping, etc you're a bad person. like I'm sorry I can't even try to keep up with all this. that sounds exhausting. still feel like scum about it though.

any fellow ocd havers struggle with this? I feel like I haven't really seen it discussed yet

[ineffag-swag]

the moral ocd urge to use tumblr like a confession room in a church 😭 stop

[ocd-bunny]

gentle reminder that it's ok if you need a break from upsetting news. it's ok to curate your online experience and mute tags if seeing constant news updates is distressing. do not torture yourself over something that is not your fault. you are not a bad person for wanting a break.

[the-irken-pony]

“That guy’s cake is way better than mine”: Moral Scrupulosity Bullshit Edition

That guy finished making his cake before you did so if you finish making the cake you’d be stealing his idea.

He made cake, and now you want to make a cake yourself. Making a cake yourself would be to imply that you think you’re better at cake than him.

She has expressed interest in making cake. To make cake now would be to take that opportunity from her.

The head chef has made the entrées and plans to make cake. If you make cake you’d be taking away their options.

The head chef has made the entrées and has explicitly stated they don’t plan to make cake but has pondered the possibility of potentially making cake in the future. If you make cake you’d be taking away their options and discouraging them from making cake in the first place.

[mg-and-eli-of-the-world]

"You know you're just PLAGIARIZING that scrupulosity-comics person on here by making this, right?!?!?"

Bonus:

[m4d-pr1de]

I think the worst part abt OCD intrusive thoughts treatment is the fact that to get ur intrusive thoughts to be less upsetting to you, you need to just. let them be.

which would be easier if my moral ocd didn't equate "letting [my] intrusive thoughts pass by not immediately trying to force it out of my mind" with "embracing [my] fucked up thoughts"

[alventodelmiocuore]

No guys I actually did a poll and turns out I am the most despicable person with OCD. Worse than all of you. Yeah turns out my Real Event and my intrusive thoughts are in fact worse than everybody else's. I checked the stats guys :( also got a letter in the mail from the Ministry of People Who Suck. I am like the Chairman or something now. Yeah guys its tough.

[marcusbrutus]

I think the worst thing for someone w moral scrupulosity is to lose a friend over political differences or internet bs. It’s almost like proof that you are actually a bad person. And your brain is sitting there the whole time like I TOLD you. I TOLD you that you were bad and here’s proof. Maybe if you were more Politically Pure they would have stayed. Everyone is going to leave now you because you’re bad.

[neon-slime]

i want to experiment with playing video games where you can make morally questionable/mean choices as a form of exposure therapy for my Moral Scrupulosity OCD. i think i'm gonna start by playing once a week for ten minutes and see how it goes

[atiedupmoth]

Moral OCD, or as I like to call it, clinically significant white guilt,

[nat-stimmy]

hey shoutout to ppl w/ moral scrupulosity! we dont get talked about enough at all and i think that should change. you deserve a break. you don’t need to be perfect to be worthy of love, and you are allowed to make mistakes. it doesn’t mean you’re irredeemable, or a horrible person!

[saritaurez]

Exactly a year ago today I had one of the worst nights of my life. I thought I was over. I was all guilt and fury at myself. I thought there was no way anything could ever get better.

One year of working on myself. It’s been a struggle sometimes. And it took a lot of time and hard work. But I’ve never been happier. It was worth the struggle.

Don’t ever give up on yourself. Please. Each of us is worth our own time and our own energy. Things can change in ways you could never imagine. I’ve had one of the happiest days of my life today. Life can surprise you in horrible ways but if you stick around it can do it in the best ways too.

[ineffag-swag]

I have to stop worrying about people's opinions online because this shit with morality ocd is UNBEARABLE

[inexperienced-0]

I hate the aspect of OCD that makes me isolate, like if it gets really bad ill just hide and spend significantly less time with the people that I love. And then they think I don't like them, AND THATS THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO IM SORRY ITS JUST THAT IM CONSTANTLY BATTLING WITH MYSELF ITS EXHAUSTING

AND HAVING TO MASK MOST OF THE TIME TOO I JUST WANT TO HIDE AND MY EMOTIONS ARE SO HEIGHTENED AND ITS SO LOUD JSJJSJSNSBSJWJS