Rationalization of Evil

The psychological process of concocting emotionally plausible, self-serving excuses to justify one's own or one's group's harmful, cruel, or immoral actions. It uses the language of reason—practical necessity, greater good, victim-blaming, or righteous retaliation—to evade moral responsibility and soothe cognitive dissonance. The rationale is crafted after the decision to do harm, not as its guide.

Example: A colonial administrator rationalizing the exploitation of a colony might tell himself, "We're bringing them civilization and saving them from themselves. It's for their own good, even if they don't understand it yet." This Rationalization of Evil dresses up greed and violence in the noble costume of a "civilizing mission."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 4, 2026

Rationalothinking

The groupthink of self-proclaimed rationalist or "skeptic" communities, where the performance of rationality (using specific jargon, invoking Bayesian probability, dismissing emotion) becomes more important than the substance of truth. The group develops orthodox beliefs about topics like AI risk, effective altruism, or libertarianism, and deviations are dismissed as "irrational" or "motivated reasoning." The shared identity as "rationalists" prevents rational scrutiny of their own sacred cows.

Example: In an online rationalist community, a member questions the group's orthodoxy about the near-term certainty of superhuman AI. They are immediately flooded with responses citing Yudkowsky, Bostrom, and complex probability notation. This Rationalothinking uses the aesthetic of rationality to enforce conformity, attacking the questioner's in-group status rather than engaging the argument on its merits.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Rational Groupthinking

The illusion of consensus achieved through a process that appears rigorously rational. The group uses shared tools—cost-benefit analyses, decision matrices, weighted voting—but the inputs (assumptions, criteria, data selection) are unconsciously shaped by shared biases. Because the process feels objective, the outcome is unquestioned. This is common in corporate boards, engineering teams, and policy think tanks.

Rational Groupthinking Example: A tech company's board uses a sophisticated scoring system to decide which project to fund. All members agree on the rational criteria (market size, development cost). However, their Rational Groupthink leads them to all weight "market size" based on the same Silicon Valley hype-cycle reports, causing them to unanimously invest in a metaverse project that ultimately flops, while ignoring a less-hyped but solid AI tool.

by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026

Rationalization against Victims of Capitalism

The cognitive process of using abstract economic principles to explain away suffering, making it seem like an inevitable outcome of natural laws rather than political choices. It involves appeals to “market logic,” “incentive structures,” or “competitiveness” to drain moral outrage from scenes of human devastation.

Rationalization against Victims of Capitalism Example: An economist on TV discussing factory closures: “While painful for communities, the relocation of manufacturing overseas is a rational allocation of global capital and labor. It’s simply how efficient markets work.” This rationalization uses the clinical language of efficiency to neutralize the tragedy of deindustrialization.

by Abzugal February 8, 2026

Rationalization against Victims of Western Colonialism and Imperialism

The use of historical counterfactuals, geopolitical realism, or cultural relativism to explain away imperial violence as a product of its time, an unavoidable human tendency, or a practice no worse than “what local empires did.” It seeks to normalize and de-exceptionalize the violence.

Rationalization against Victims of Western Colonialism and Imperialism Example: “Every great civilization has expanded. The Europeans were just better at it. It’s naive to judge them by today’s standards.” This rationalization removes specific moral responsibility by appealing to historical fatalism and a myth of neutral civilizational competition.

by Abzugal February 8, 2026

Rationalization against Victims of Liberalism

The process of explaining away liberal society’s failures (deep inequality, democratic erosion) as results of insufficient liberalism (“not enough free markets,” “not enough democracy”), or as aberrations caused by external illiberal forces. The system’s logic is never wrong, only imperfectly applied.

Rationalization against Victims of Liberalism Example: “Our politics aren’t corrupt because of lobbying and dark money; it’s because we don’t have true campaign finance liberalism. More transparency and more speech will fix it.” This rationalization treats the systemic flaws as accidental, preserving faith in the original ideology by blaming its imperfect implementation.

by Abzugal February 8, 2026

Rationalization against Victims of Neoliberalism

Explaining neoliberal harms through a lens of technocratic inevitability and complex global dynamics. It uses the language of “there is no alternative” (TINA), “global realities,” and “market confidence” to make social devastation seem like the result of impersonal, expert-managed forces, not political ideology.

Rationalization against Victims of Neoliberalism Example: A news analyst explaining pension cuts: “With an aging population and global bond yields under pressure, reforms were mathematically unavoidable to avoid a sovereign debt crisis.” This rationalization replaces ideology with a narrative of mathematical and economic destiny, removing human agency and choice from the equation.

by Abzugal February 8, 2026