Condemning one’s own practiced wrongs in others enables easy self-exculpation.
Evidence
It seems to be a law of present-day social psychology that what one has practised oneself is always what makes one most resentful. The unconscious motives for this, closely related to the projection mechanism, need not be discussed here; suffice it to say that, as soon as one has condemned false generalization, it is easy to distance oneself from National Socialism, and that once this has been accomplished without much cost it is easy to put oneself in the right and to make yesterday’s persecutor today’s victim. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2033
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A dense psychological mechanism: projection makes self-condemnation via the other the cheapest path to absolution — a subtle account of German postwar moral accounting worth sitting with.
- XREF: Connects to the ‘Grafting & Growth’ and ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ essays’ shared interest in how moral/identity signaling does political work — and to Adorno’s larger projection theory of authoritarianism. — connects to: Self-reflection is where people both face and exonerate themselves from wrongdoing; Projecting badness onto others protects the self from internal contradiction. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 646; Confessing one’s own sins can be felt as moral license to condemn others — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 815 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Self-reflection is where people both face and exonerate themselves from wrongdoing
#corroborates(0.92) - Confessing one’s own sins can be felt as moral license to condemn others
#corroborates(0.88) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 815 - Projecting badness onto others protects the self from internal contradiction.
#expands(0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 646 - People minimize discrimination attributions for themselves while readily applying them to others
#corroborates(0.80) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 131 - Recognizing one’s potential for evil can lead to greater self-respect and resistance to oppression.
#contradicts(0.78) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 168