I think Engles touches on this point, as do many Anarchists with a distiction on how a bourgois morality of means above all pushes an immorality of both ends and current conditions.
I'm feeling a bit tired, so I hope someone can correct me if I'm completely off base. I don't think I care much about morals, at least not in the way the term is commonly used today. For instance, isn't Neoliberal democracy often considered the greatest and most moral system ever created? If that's the case, and I consider myself in opposition to neoliberal hegemony, does that mean I'm not a 'good' person? Does it make me a bad guy, an enemy of freedom, or an evil left-wing extremist simply because I advocate for housing the homeless and feeding the hungry?
I'm not saying I choose to be a 'bad guy,' but I'm aware that according to common sentiment, I may be portrayed that way. That's why, outside of a philosophical discussion, I honestly don't care much about traditional notions of morality.
Just using the word 'morals' might be oversimplifying things, I guess? Like I agree using the word "morals" can be quite reductionist when discussing complex political and ethical ideologies. It's a broad term that often oversimplifies the nuanced perspectives people hold.
Then again im a baby when it comes to this stuff so keep that in mind
Ok im gonna be 100 with you Im not even sure I understand what moral relativism really means. I just stated that I dont care "much" for the concept of morals because I feel its often used to deny minorities the right of self defense because when black people fight back and its not a toothless protest its amoral. Im not a man of learning but Im open to learn... so feel free to enlighten me if you have anything else to say.
Okay so maybe this helps you, but I came from a very similar place as you and yeah I agree that morality and ethics are just used to shut down further discussion. "I think its bad!" Conversation over.
The problem I want to argue isn't with morality and ethics but (as other people have pointed out) there is a problem with the way that morality is defined/commonly understood and we miss it because the problem isnt with morality, but the problem of splitting things into categories and then assigning a relative "value" to those categories. Its a direct descendent of bourgeois enlightenment philosophy, Christian conceptions of good and evil, and catalysed with a healthy dose of residual cultural puritanism. However, it is the primary way that most people define most things, as having a subject/object value relation, rather than a dialectical one. Things are in a good group, which is my accepted group, and the other group. This is popular way of constructing an argument because it completely ignores projection -- if I can imagine the other wants to kill me then I can justify killing the other, which short circuits human risk calculation.
IMO dialectical morality and philosophy doesn't get anywhere enough study and attention, so what you end up with is a bunch of leftists who can do dialectical materialism, but still view morality as an objective value relation. Or we get accused of it (purity tests) and we have no response because we don't understand the problem with the way the argument is framed.
In a nutshell, dialectical morality would be something more like "good and bad define each other." I get a lot of this from the Dao de Ching, but its effective because it allows us to critique other people's moral arguments by escaping the limitations that are causing people to reach shitty conclusions, while not abandoning ethics as one of the people with the most consistently ethical beliefs, surely a contradiction that shuts down all engagement as well. Also, there are times when something is clearly right/wrong so a mastery of many different forms of constructing an argument helps us to be on the right side at the end of our analysis. We also know that dialectics helps to make class analysis as well, so the more time we spend in that headspace, the more natural it becomes.
Morality in its common presentation and push was invented by the bourgeois
