Genocidal ideology is constructed after the plunder motive, not before it.

Evidence

The organized murderers are inspired by a kind of dynamic idealism. They set out to plunder, and construct a complicated ideology to that end, with illogical claims to be the saviors of the family, the fatherland, and mankind. But since they remain dupes (as they have already secretly realized) their wretched national motive—loot—which they tried to rationalize is undermined, and their motivation becomes honest in its own way. The dark impulse which from the outset was closer to them than reason takes full possession of them. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 127

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that murderers are ‘dupes’ who have ‘secretly realized’ their own motivations collapses — Adorno asserts a pre-rational ‘dark impulse’ closer to them than reason, undercutting his own instrumental-rationality account of fascism. This internal tension is central to reading the whole book.
• XREF: The ‘dynamic idealism’ serving as cover for loot echoes Arendt’s reading of Eichmann’s clichéd speeches and the book’s earlier analysis of myth and Enlightenment turning back on themselves. — connects to: Prejudicial ideologies arise after exploitation, to justify it, not before — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1398; Genocidal escalations begin well before the genocidal regime takes power. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 131

Broader Connections

• Prejudicial ideologies arise after exploitation, to justify it, not before #corroborates (0.92) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1398