Teresa Bejan on Virtue

Bejan: Well, yeah, and I argue that the word problematic functions as a kind of evaluative descriptive term, a way of indicating that something is objectionable without specifying why, as a kind of strategy. I like to think of it as an “insinuendo.” Mounk: That’s a lovely term because it sort of says, this is something you should dislike while relieving me of the effort of explaining why. Bejan: Or warning you if you don’t immediately intuit what the problem is that you better not ask, because in asking you would reveal yourself not to be in the know.
: So today, it’s very easy for us to have our say. We all can be on social media and mouth off however much we want, in theory. But many of us are constrained by situations; students in college who have to live with their classmates and might be very worried about how they’re going to be treated if they say the wrong things; you might have an employer who would fire you, etc. Though we can have our say in principle, we don’t feel empowered to speak our mind.