Speak Up, Pot

No, this isn't about marijuana.

Sometimes, the pot needs to call the kettle black. Sometimes, even if you've got a bit of sin, you need to cast, if not a stone, maybe an indictment of behavior. Not being perfect may not give you a right to criticize, but it doesn't give them a right to get away with it.

Basically, that's what a lot of finger-pointing has devolved to at this point. Either the pointer of fingers must be totally without blemishes, or what they say is discounted.

Guess what? If I'm a mass-murdering jerk, if I say that you shouldn't kill people, that's hypocritical. But if you did kill someone, and I'm the first person to point it out, while I may have no business denigrating you for it, I do have business calling you out on it.

If we wait until we're utterly blameless before pointing out other people's shortcomings, no one will ever get called on anything. International diplomacy seems to consist of one country saying, "Hey, you're treating your people terribly," and then the other country replying, "Oh yeah, well so do you." Maybe that first country should reexamine its own rights record, but the point still stands that the second country is treating its people terribly, whether or not it can be judged by the first country. If the United States tells China its human rights record is lousy, China can't simply improve its human rights record by saying, "Jim Crow!" really loudly.

You can look at it another way: it takes one to know one. It's a common childhood rejoinder to insult, but guess what: all you're doing when you say that is acknowledging that you are. If someone accuses you of being a liar, and you say, "Takes one to know one," then you're admitting that, well, fine, you may be a liar, but the other person is also a liar.

Not good enough. In fact, if someone who's a huge jerk says, "Man, you're a jerk," you might want to consider that you must be a pretty big jerk if someone who is a massive jerk thinks you're one. Sometimes it does take one to know one, and no matter what that says about the person making the accusation, it still says that the accused is guilty as well.

It shouldn't be tit for tat. If everyone has to be perfect before anyone can be... well then, no one will be perfect. It's the classic, "I will when he does," dodge. Frankly, international diplomacy is sounding more and more like the schoolyard. I'm surprised anyone takes it particularly seriously. It would be amusing, if it weren't so important.