Internalizing and essentializing "I'm one of the good guys," seems to be a fast track solution to ending up worse than you started.
Doing the right thing is hard, continuous work, not an identity.
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Right now a 100 youths are protesting outside my place of work, some local Extinction Rebellion chapter.
Clearly they are doing what they feel is right.
In a decade, how many of them will still be doing something innocent & pure? How many will still feel they're Right & Good?
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My guess is the first number will be much smaller than the second. Life on this planet is deeply morally compromised.
It's easy to rationalize your bullshittery in the name of your "principles", but principles require maintenance work, which is hard.
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None of this is to be confused with moral relativism - at least not from me. There are better and worse actions, and better and worse actors.
But self-congratulatory bullshit is a vice, ultimately. Best avoided, unless you need it to remember where to plant your feet.
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