#moral-judgment

#moral-judgment

Ever notice how some people at the grocery store meticulously return their cart to the corral, while others abandon it in the parking spot? I started paying attention to this after watching a heated debate unfold on social media about "cart returners" versus "cart leavers." What struck me was how passionately people defended their position, as if this simple act touched something much deeper.

"Hate the sin, love the sinner" is a concept even devout Christians often find challenging. But what if the sin is hate, the sinner is a hater, and your whole redemption-free religion is based on the hatred of hate? What if we are all sinners in the hands of an angry podcaster? This is the deep theological discourse that can be provoked only by the author and essayist Ta-Nehisi Coates, who made a joyless noise unto the Lord in the direction of the slain conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

Anyone who has used bots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude knows they can lean a little ... well, suck-uppy. They're " sychophants." They tell you what you want to hear. Even OpenAI's Sam Altman acknowledged the issue with the latest iteration of ChatGPT, which supposedly was tuned to be less of a yes man. Now, a study by university researchers is using one of the key barometers of knowing-if-you're-a-jerk: Reddit's " Am I the Asshole" page - where people post stories good and bad,