Existentialism’s critics rightly saw it could be misused as an excuse doctrine

Evidence

Of course, they had a point. Just because existentialism was not supposed to provide excuses did not mean that people would not try to use it that way. It would not require great skill in sophistry to twist The Flies into an argument for selective forgetfulness. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 651

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the later debate about whether existentialism breeds nihilism — echoes of the Marxist and Christian critiques. — connects to: Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 2; American critics condemned existentialists for valorizing lowbrow American culture — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 551