Even executioners must morally justify killing through mixed rationales that make it easier

Evidence

In reality, people have to justify to themselves the morality of executing a human being. They use some combination of justice, deterrents, and a dose of vengeance. If they believe that executing human beings shows respect for their humanity, that makes executions even easier to carry out. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1883

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s project on how ordinary people rationalize supporting harmful policy — the ‘respect for humanity’ reframe of killing is a classic moral-justification move.
• SEED: Essay angle: how honorific reframes (‘respecting humanity’) grease lethal policy — a mechanism operating across death penalty, drone strikes, and structural violence.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1883