Corporations excuse harm by comparing themselves to worse actors.

Evidence

Reducing moral self-sanctions by means of advantageous comparisons is typically achieved by contrasting one’s harmful activity with more egregious inhumanities. John Risdall, president of the gun manufacturer Magnum Research, used this common mode of corporate exoneration: “But don’t tell me I’m immoral for selling this product. Did the people at Honeywell who were making components for nuclear weapons feel they could be doing something immoral? I don’t think so. It was a business” (Diaz, 1999). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1077

Categorization

• XREF: Advantageous comparison is the exact psychological mechanism that could corroborate vault claims about ordinary people rationalizing Islamophobic or racially harmful policy through upward contrast against ‘greater’ threats. — connects to: Corporate actors deflect moral blame by comparing themselves to worse harms
• SEED: Could anchor an article on corporate/official exoneration rhetoric: how ‘the other side is worse’ neutralizes moral sanctions across gun violence, drone warfare, and anti-Muslim policy alike.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1077