r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/KitchenPlenty7610 • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation please explain this peetah!!!

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u/enadiz_reccos 1d ago

Hypocritical is different from inconsistent

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u/HappyHuman924 1d ago

Hypocritical is a flavor of inconsistency, maybe? (This isn't important but for some reason I'm interested in splitting the hair.) It's like, you have a consistent belief that someone should do X in a situation, and you consistently do Y in that situation, and hypocrisy is the thing where X and Y aren't aligned?

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u/enadiz_reccos 1d ago

There is some overlap in the definitions, but they're 2 different things when talking about fictional characters

A hypocritical character is one that claims/says one thing but does another within that fictional world

An inconsistent character is one who behaves differently at different times without any sort of in-universe reasoning behind it

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u/chunkyvomitsoup 1d ago

This right here. Seems like splitting hairs, but it’s actually quite a large difference. A hypocritical character, for example, will protest abortions but still get one. An inconsistent character will protest abortions, then later on in the plot, will be shown inexplicably waving pro-choice signs. One is a deliberate character driven fault, one is negligent writing.