Benevolence masks malice by approving people’s role as their own hangmen

Evidence

If one is concerned to achieve what might be possible with human beings, it is extremely difficult to remain friendly towards real people. It is already the case that benevolence is virtually an index of malice … The maliciousness of benevolence may consist in the fact that kindness offers a pretext for approving of precisely that element in people by which they prove themselves to be not merely their own victims but virtually their own hangmen. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1112

Categorization

• APHORISMS: A genuinely unsettling, worldly maxim: kindness can ratify complicity with one’s own oppression rather than free it.
• XREF: connects to: Subordinates inflict harm on their own group with benevolence to succeed within dominant rules — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 683; People rationalize oppressive arrangements that harm them rather than protect their own interests — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2911; Oppressors invoke their own freedom to justify oppressing others (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• People rationalize oppressive arrangements that harm them rather than protect their own interests #corroborates (0.90) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2911
• People legitimize existing social arrangements even against their own interests #corroborates (0.87) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2874
• Subordinates inflict harm on their own group with benevolence to succeed within dominant rules #corroborates (0.86) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 683
• Self-hatred toward one’s own group is displaced self-loathing made safe #qualifies (0.80)
• Oppressors invoke their own freedom to justify oppressing others #exemplifies (0.78)