The deployment of historical context, utilitarian calculus, or ideological ends to minimize, excuse, or morally vindicate large-scale human suffering. It often involves bogus counterfactuals ("it would have been worse otherwise") or the labeling of victims as acceptable collateral damage in a grander narrative of progress or security.
Example: Justifying the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by claiming they "ultimately saved lives" by ending the war faster. The immediate vaporization of civilians is rationalized through a speculative, retrospective body-count calculus. This atrocity rationalization uses a hypothetical alternative to sanitize a concrete war crime.
This term is similar to the apostrophe catastrophe, but it is reserved for the most revolting of apostrophe errors. Only a trueabomination of a linguist would commit an apostrophe atrocity.
a reprehensible conflict of interest, usually political in nature, benefiting three parties; an arrangement amongthree people intended to enrich themselves.
The politician's spokesman worked at a newspaper before he joined the politician's payroll, but his wife still works for the paper. She writes about politics. What a menage atrocity!
conflict of interest ethics morals scruples greed corruption politics self-serving bureaucracy abuse politicians media