{"id":2930,"date":"2015-07-11T10:28:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T09:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=2930"},"modified":"2015-07-11T10:28:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-11T09:28:02","slug":"apologising-for-the-wrong-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/07\/11\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Apologising for the Wrong Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little addendum to yesterday’s monster post.<\/p>\n

Ivan Oransky reports that<\/a><\/span>, before deleting her Twitter account, Hope Amantine had apparently also said in a tweet that the story was “not meant to offend”. \u00a0I’ve noticed that a lot recently: a person does something wrong, is publicly called out for it, and apologises for any offence caused. \u00a0Greenpeace apologised for any offence caused<\/a><\/span> when they trampled over the Nazca lines. \u00a0Gary Barlow apologised for any offence caused<\/a><\/span> by the stories about his tax-dodging. \u00a0(Not for offence caused by tax dodging, but for offence caused by the world having come to know of it, natch.)<\/p>\n

I hate it when people say that.<\/p>\n

It reduces moral discourse to one of whether or not Smith was sufficiently courteous. \u00a0Moral discourse is richer than that. \u00a0Hell, moral discourse has got almost nothing<\/em> to do with that.<\/p>\n

More, I doubt anyone was offended in any of those cases. \u00a0That wasn’t the problem. \u00a0Lying was; trampling humanity’s patrimony was; dodging tax was. \u00a0Apologising for causing offence is a non-apology, and leaves the real moral problem utterly unremarked.<\/p>\n

I just wanted to get that off my chest. \u00a0As you were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little addendum to yesterday’s monster post. Ivan Oransky reports that, before deleting her Twitter account, Hope Amantine had apparently also said in a tweet that the story was “not meant to offend”. \u00a0I’ve noticed that a lot recently: a person does something wrong, is publicly called out for it, and apologises for any offence […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1240,403],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogosphere","category-rant"],"yoast_head":"\nApologising for the Wrong Thing - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/07\/11\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Apologising for the Wrong Thing - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A little addendum to yesterday’s monster post. Ivan Oransky reports that, before deleting her Twitter account, Hope Amantine had apparently also said in a tweet that the story was “not meant to offend”. \u00a0I’ve noticed that a lot recently: a person does something wrong, is publicly called out for it, and apologises for any offence [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2015\/07\/11\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-11T09:28:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/11\\\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/11\\\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Apologising for the Wrong Thing\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-11T09:28:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/11\\\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":201,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blogosphere\",\"Rant\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/11\\\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/11\\\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/11\\\/apologising-for-the-wrong-thing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Apologising for the Wrong Thing - 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