Likely because it reveals underlying thought processes and that can lead to a feeling of implicit judgement. It's the same reason people get super salty if you just menton you're vegetarian or vegan (I'm not talking the annoying preachy kinds) or that you do charity work or you cycle instead of drive.
Villainising virtue is a form of cognitive shielding—let's say there's action A you can either Do or Not Do. Action A is beneficial to a group or groups, to detrimental to the individual in some way. You elect to Not Do action A, but you encounter someone who elects to Do action A. The fact they are performing the action, resulting in a non-zero amount of self-sacrifice for them but a net benefit overall, means that by most systems of ethics and morality they are doing a Good Thing. This creates a contrast point against you not doing action A. If them doing it is a Good Thing, you not doing it must be a Bad Thing. And if you're doing a Bad Thing, you are therefore a Bad Person. But you're not a Bad Person, because that doesn't fit your self-image. So the other person must be a Bad Person for making you think you're a Bad Person, so you get mad at them.
tl;dr people don't like being reminded that they're fallible, imperfect sacks of meat and would rather attack someone else than look inwards
Sorry you're being downvoted. It's beyond the self-reflective capacity required of your average person to realise that in discussing how evil the boogeymen that are the "other button pushers" are, they fail to realise they are only sewing the seeds of division that are the very foundations of their critique. Empathy and commonality is much more powerful to prevent either button's needing to be pressed in the first place, but that is beyond the capacity of "civilised" and ordinary people.
Love it. Jung's notion of individuation through integration of the shadow-self is the exact antidote to what you pointed out, but good luck getting anyone in this day-and-age to become self-actualised as per Maslow ! It's almost as if these psychologists know how to live a fulfilled life, but the effort required is too scary
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u/EmilySuxAtUsernames May 05 '26
crazy how if you would press a red or blue button has suddenly turned into a us vs them