Grandstanding

The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk

By: Justin Tosi, Brandon Warmke

Narrated by: Christopher Grove

We are all guilty of it. We call people terrible names in conversation or online. We vilify those with whom we disagree and make bolder claims than we could defend. We want to be seen as taking the moral high ground not just to make a point, or move a debate forward, but to look a certain way - incensed, or compassionate, or committed to a cause. We exaggerate. In other words, we grandstand.

Nowhere is this more evident than in public discourse today, and especially as it plays out across the internet. To philosophers Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, who have written extensively about moral grandstanding, such one-upmanship is not just annoying, but dangerous. As politics gets more and more polarized, people on both sides of the spectrum move further and further apart when they let grandstanding get in the way of engaging one another.

Drawing from work in psychology, economics, and political science, and along with contemporary examples spanning the political spectrum, the authors dive deeply into why and how we grandstand. Using the analytic tools of psychology and moral philosophy, they explain what drives us to behave in this way and what we stand to lose by taking it too far. Most importantly, they show how, by avoiding grandstanding, we can rebuild a public square worth participating in.

©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor

Very relevant today

I learned a lot about myself and how I can improve my online conversations and political discussions.

Good Read

It’s a good read. I have no complaints. The narration is fine. Does a good job explaining the motivations for grandstanding, and the impact of such behavior.