Perpetrators of political violence vindicate their acts through heroic self-conception rather than denial

Evidence

In the case of terrorism, however, perpetrators strive to publicize their activities rather than camouflaging or neutralizing them. Their linguistic sanitizing centers mainly on how they construe their mission and view themselves in carrying it out. They regard themselves as “freedom fighters” in a war of liberation from oppressive rule, corruption, and humiliation. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2145

Categorization

• XREF: Terrorists’ ‘freedom fighter’ self-construal parallels how Islamophobic policymakers frame exclusionary policy as protective, per Cooper’s social-conservatism argument.
• DEFINE: Clarifies that terrorists’ moral disengagement runs through mission construal, unlike conventional wrongdoers’ concealment.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2145