The opium wars are not obscure!
I bet that your reading of the opium wars is in accord with that of many respectable historians and discord with many other respectable historians. Your account of the opium wars, like any account of any historical situation of large scale, is tendentious. I don't think history is always a great place to contemplate morality.
Still, when you say
what I've been doing for the last few months seems to be working so far
what do you mean?
The opium wars are not obscure!
Yay!
I bet that your reading of the opium wars is in accord with that of many respectable historians and discord with many other respectable historians.
Fair enough. I guess it would've been better to start with a more personal example.
What do you mean?
I trust my moral intuitions about if something is ultimately good or bad, but spend time reflecting on my emotions, which I often act contrary to.
Often when I'm annoyed its the result of someone misunderstanding something, or me not eating recently or sleeping enough. ...
Joshua Greene manages to squeeze his ideas about 'point and shoot morality vs. manual mode morality' into just 10 minutes. For those unfamiliar, his work is a neuroscientific approach to recommending that we shut up and multiply.
Greene's 10-minute video lecture.