I'd love for us to get away from this trope of ever-increasing umbrella categories that you are discouraged from criticizing if you participate in it, very commonly marked by usage of the term "funny"/"hilarious" to imply hypocrisy.

The world is big and complicated. "AI" is the biggest umbrella category we have ever seen in modern civilization. There's nothing inherently wrong with criticizing AI while using AI. There's nothing inherently wrong with criticizing a country while living in that country. There's nothing inherently wrong with criticizing a company while using that company's service. Etc.

"Hypocrisy!" is a favorite accusation of those with the same-but-opposite bias as the one they are calling out. It's the easiest attack to construct, because you can point to anything and omit the complication of reality.

And people are hypocritical! That's part of why it's such an easy thing to claim. But it's also the reason you need a stronger argument than just stating the claim. You need to separate yourself from the endless sea of low-quality internet snipes that rely on simple accusations of hypocrisy.

Disagree strongly - reasonable people can hold different beliefs, and being able to accept that is an important part of being able to discuss issues reasonably, but if someone's actions show the opposite of how they say the world should be for others...

That's especially the case for incredibly optional things like choosing to generate an AI image or buying from a company that the buyer says is immoral. (I don't include moving from a country in the incredibly optional category.)

I think hypocrisy is perhaps one of the most useful criticisms we have to evaluate others in terms of whether they sincerely hold the beliefs they espouse -- for example, if a politician or entertainer says "Everyone should not do x", maybe that's a sincerely-held belief that we should respect. But if we then find out that politician or entertainer was actually doing x, maybe it's not actually a sincerely-held belief we should respect their views about.

For US readers, like if <Dem or GOP party> said "Politician X is bad for Y reason" but we then find out the accusing party was actually doing Y, is there any stronger indicator about whether their espoused beliefs were at least sincerely-held, regardless of whether we disagreed with the view?

> And people are hypocritical!

"And people are <___>" could be said about most other illegal or frequently-criticized behaviors -- and would especially be the case if the consequences for the other behaviors were only as bad as the "consequences" faced for hypocrisy. But that doesn't mean we should avoid criticizing those other behaviors for that reason.

Agree and it has applied to pretty much everything for a long time.

It's why when I bitch about the UK, I get told if I don't like it why don't I leave.

It's like my dudes fail to grasp to concept of loving something and wanting it to be even better, to solve minor quibbles with it.

Bravo, everybody should read this.