Maybe I deserved that. But come to my house we will play some groovy bongo rhythms and I’m sure you will have a good time.

Great question. It turns out protesting doesn’t seem to have that much effect, unless a lot more people participate.

I mostly posted my rant just to be contrary, but I still feel like there is something erroneous to this argument, even tho you do make it seem clear and sensible.

I offer Japan as an example: the whole country is very neat, tidy and orderly. People know that if you see garbage, or something out of place, you put it where it belongs. People take the personal responsibility to clean up after themselves very seriously, and willingly clean up after eachother. As it was explained to me, 'If you’re the first person to see it, then you are the person to take care of it."

So you would expect this baseline indication of ethical behavior to translate into other domains. Surprisingly, people who as a group score very well on this test of self-regulation and ethical behavior seem to have a systemic problem with violence, sexual abuse and sexual harassment against women. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/3/8/sexual-assault-in-japan-every-girl-was-a-victim

It could be that individuals not putting things away is a sign of a deeper societal issue, but group/individual fastidiousness doesn’t seem to generalize to broader ethical adherence.

Maybe there is a mistake somewhere in my thinking.

Nope, I don’t buy it.

• An estimated one out of every 500 Americans is homeless
• Unarmed noncombatant civilian women and children are being bombed, shot, and starved to death.
• There has been a nearly 70% reduction in wild vertebrates worldwide since 1970
• The leading cause of death among children and teens in america is firearms

Privileged westerners could do something about these things, but they are sipping their pumpkin spice lattes and congratulating each other for putting their shopping carts back because, you know, it’s the ultimate test of moral righteousness. Ugh.