What do you call......

B

Buffalo

Active Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
4,052
Reaction score
1
What do you call a person who thinks he is doing good works but he is actually doing serious damage???? Hypocrite?
 
Well, I would shop short of calling someone a hypocrite since that person "thinks" he is doing something positive, maybe he/she is out of the loop.
 
Hypocrite usually means someone knows what they are doing and don't care or lying to themselves. The only thing I can think of is "well meaning".
 
A hypocrite means someone who tells or does something to another about his/her opinion, may defend it, but whenit comes to a situation where they are in it, they actually don't follow their original opinion.

For example, I tell you "You should eat Pizza. I love pizza and will eat it anywhere, it's good for you."
One day, you noticed I ordered pasta at pizza hut. When you saw that I didn't follow my original statement, I am by definition, a hypocrite.


The context and situation of the person you are trying to describe is important to determining word choice. The closest word I can think of that fits your definition is "martyr" given with what you said so far.
There are different ways of expressing a martyr, but for this one is one who may think she (or he) is sacrificing herself for the sake of benefiting others, but might not actually be true.
 
Thick headed, impervious, stupid, stubborn, but the best one,,,,,,EGOCENTRIC!
 
I think Bottesini has it right. Egocentric is a very good description. When someone thinks only of what they are doing as right and doesn't bother to go out and find out if it's the right thing TO do, they are letting their ego rule them.
 
Buffalo said:
Maybe all misguided benevolent people are really egocentric.....I use "misguided benevolent" because I am being polite. :)
Click to expand...

Oh well, I guess it was pretty egocentric of me to insist my word was best.
:lol:
 
It depends on the circumstances. We don't have the full story.
 
Back
Top