Gun executives justify harm by comparing themselves to nuclear weapons makers.

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

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Connects to the ‘advantageous comparison’ mechanism Bandura frames at the chapter’s start and across the work on moral disengagement generally.

Related

• Corporations excuse harm by comparing themselves to worse actors. (similarity 0.91)