Moral Outrage Porn

C. Thi Nguyen; Bekka Williams

doi:https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v18i2.990

Volume 18, Number 2
August 2020

ARTICLE

Moral Outrage Porn

and

Volume 18, Number 2, August 2020, Pages 147–172

https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v18i2.990

PDF

Abstract

We offer an account of the generic use of the term ‘porn’, as seen in recent usages such as ‘food porn’ and ‘real estate porn’. We offer a definition adapted from earlier accounts of sexual pornography. On our account, a representation is used as generic pornwhen it is engaged with primarily for the sake of a gratifying reaction, freed from the usual costs and consequences of engaging with the represented content.We demonstrate the usefulness of the concept of generic porn by using it to isolate a new type of such porn: moral outrage porn. Moral outrage porn is representations of moral outrage, engaged with primarily for the sake of the resulting gratification, freed from the usual costs and consequences of engaging with morally outrageous content. Moral outrage porn is dangerous because it encourages the instrumentalization of one’s empirical beliefs and one’s moral beliefs, manipulating their content for the sake of gratification. Finally, we suggest that when porn is wrong, it is often wrong because it instrumentalizes what ought not to be instrumentalized.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

|

News Journalism and the Principles of Objectivity

Dhananjay Jagannathan and Clara Ence Morse

Prospects for a Progressive Critique of Self-Sexualizing Rap Music: The Challenge of Oppressive Double Binds

Tareeq Jalloh

It’s a Fine Line Between Sadism and Horror

Scott Woodcock

False Exemplars: Admiration and the Ethics of Public Monuments

Benjamin Cohen Rossi

Unifying Moral and Epistemic Praiseworthiness

Leo Eisenbach

Being Wronged and Understanding Moral Wrongness

Daniel Vanello

When Enough Is Not Enough: Satisficing and Moral Efficiency

Konstantin Weber

Parents and Peers: A Kantian Moral Development

William Grant Ray

Soldiers and Moral Tragedy: Comments on Renzo

Christopher Kutz

Moral Disagreement and the Question Under Discussion

Stina Björkholm

The Moral Harms of Homelessness

Bradley Hillier-Smith

It’s Only Natural! Moral Progress Through Denaturalization

Charlie Blunden