Essay:Double standard

A double standard is a standard that arbitrarily applies to one party but not to another. An example would be if, in a debate about cannabis legalization, the opponents of legalizers were to make appeals to motive such as "You legalizers just want to smoke pot but you don't care about how children will be affected," and then to object to the legalizers saying "You prohibitionists just care about your lucrative jobs in the drug enforcement agencies and government-funded nonprofits; you don't care about freedom" as being a fallacy of relevance. There are many double standards; for example, leftist politicians will sometimes accuse libertarians of being selfish for not allowing leftist politicians to decide how the libertarians' incomes are to be spent; however, it is not considered selfish for those leftist politicians to draw hefty salaries as compensation for their "service" of wealth redistribution.