I want to know what it is called when some one accuses someone else of something the accuser also does. Example: If someone says that it's not ok to eat chicken but does so them self, what is that called?
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The idiom: The pot calling the kettle black applies. So does the advice in the New Testament to remove the log/beam from your own eye before trying to remove the splinter/sawdust from someone else's. Matthew 7:3 Luke 6:41 – Ronald Sole Apr 21 '17 at 15:23
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You could call it projecting -- a term from psychology, understood by many laymen (but not all). – aparente001 Apr 22 '17 at 4:16
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1I don't think it can be a duplicate of a question asking for alternatives to hypocrite, because the answer to this question seems to be hypocrite (not milder synonyms). – 1006a Apr 28 '17 at 2:36
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What is the word for a person who does the opposite of what he speaks? and Is there a name for someone who calls someone else what he himself is? – Mari-Lou A Oct 30 '17 at 20:10
You can refer to what you are describing as "hypocrisy", and the saying that refers to this context is:
Prov. Cliché You yourself should do the things you advise other people to do.
- Dad always told us we should only watch an hour of television every day, but we all knew he didn't practice what he preached.
(McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms)
For something softer than "hypocrite" you could call this kind of person a poser or poseur, one who strikes a pose or attitude in an affected or fashionable way but may not be genuine. See OED.
For example, "Johnny claims to be a vegetarian but he eats chicken all the time."