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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
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The application of formal, pseudo-logical deductions to prove that victims of capitalism are either non-existent or at fault. It constructs syllogisms from debatable premises (“Markets are free,” “People are rational actors”) to “prove” that outcomes are always fair, and that therefore any victim must be illogical or lazy.
Logicalization against the Victims of Capitalism Example: “Premise 1: The market pays you what you’re worth. Premise 2: You are poor. Conclusion: Therefore, you are of low worth. QED.” This logicalization uses the veneer of airtight reason to transform a structural condition (poverty) into a personal, logical judgment, dismissing appeals to unfairness as emotional error.
by Abzugal February 8, 2026
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The rhetorical minimization of capitalist harm, treating systemic failures as minor, isolated, or even humorous. It reduces profound suffering to anecdotes about “avocado toast” budgets, frames exploitation as “hustle culture,” or mocks demands for change as the whining of a “snowflake” generation.
Trivialization against the Victims of Capitalism Example: A meme showing a homeless person with a smartphone captioned, “Priorities.” This trivialization reduces the complex crisis of housing and mental health to a single, misleading image, suggesting poverty is a choice of frivolous spending rather than a systemic trap.
by Abzugal February 8, 2026
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The argument that the violence, extraction, and cultural destruction of colonialism were ultimately beneficial, necessary, or outweighed by introduced “gifts” like infrastructure, borders, or religion. It positions the victimized societies as primitive beneficiaries of Western intervention, framing conquest as salvation.
Justification against Victims of Western Colonialism and Imperialism Example: “Yes, the colonial period was harsh, but it ended tribal warfare and gave them modern states and Christianity.” This justification acknowledges harm only to immediately discount it by asserting a superior alternative was provided, framing the violence as a difficult but necessary education.
by Abzugal February 8, 2026
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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
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The construction of logical arguments that “prove” colonial subjects were, on balance, better off, or that their present-day struggles are illogical holdovers from the past. It uses selective data and formal logic to argue that the ledger of history shows a net gain for the colonized.
Logicalization against the Victims of Western Colonialism and Imperialism Example: “If colonialism was so bad, why do all those people now want to immigrate to Europe? Logically, they are voting with their feet for the benefits of the system we built.” This logicalization ignores the systemic underdevelopment and border controls created by colonialism, using a false deduction to blame the victims for their own displacement.
by Abzugal February 8, 2026
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The treatment of colonialism’s legacy as a niche academic grievance, a political correctness fad, or a matter of simple statues and vocabulary. It reduces centuries of structural violence to a debate about “offense” or “changing names,” mocking demands for reparations or accountability as oversensitive.
Trivialization against the Victims of Western Colonialism and Imperialism Example: Calling for a museum to return looted artifacts and being told, “Get over it, it’s ancient history. Should we give back the Roman roads too?” This trivialization equates millennia-old infrastructure with recent, culturally sacred plunder, reducing a moral claim to a silly reductio ad absurdum.
by Abzugal February 8, 2026
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