# Rationalization

Rationalization is a [mental gymnastics](mental_gymnastics.md) technique (an "argument fallacy") in which one tries to justify (to self and/or others) doing something he wants to do (usually something [evil](evil.md)) by providing seemingly "rational" arguments in favor of the action. In [current](21st_century.md) dystopian world this is done constantly by practically everyone as a part of the "[self interest](capitalism.md) game". However, as always, best examples can be found in politics and places alike. The goal of rationalization is to justify evil, make evil look like [good](good.md) and/or make someone look not responsible for it, by exploiting the [mental shortcut](shortcut_thinking.md) "rational = good" and playing on the established [cult of science](soyence.md). It's also a way of just "saying something" when accused of evil, i.e. culturally when we're accused of evil, we're meant to start opening and closing our mouth and make some sounds, and rationalization is a great device to do it without having to think much.

**Example**: [capitalists](capitalism.md) often use rationalization to justify or reject pretense based on what's best for them like this:

- If pretense is bad for the capitalist, he rationalizes against it; e.g. given a chance to rip someone off, he does it and argues: "Yes, I need [money](money.md) and will do what I have to do to get it. Should I pretend I don't care about money when really I do? I just don't want to lie, I am just being honest!" Here he justifies lack of pretense by claiming it's a good thing (i.e. something he "should" do) as part of "honesty".
- If pretense is good for the capitalist, he rationalizes its use; e.g. when he's doing an office job he hates and his boss shows up, he will pretend to be enjoying the work and to like the boss, even if he in fact hates him. If this is obvious to his colleagues and they confront him about it, he responds: "Yeah, you'd have to be crazy to show disgust for your work in front of your boss, right? Everyone does it, it's part of the social game and everyone must do it so that the game works, it's a culturally established behavior that everyone knows about and I just don't want to cause trouble for everyone around by rebelling against cultural expectancy." Here he justifies pretense by "respecting culture", "sustaining peace", "ends justifying means" etc.

It's clear the capitalist just does what's in his personal interest and just [spits out some keywords](shortcut_thinking.md) that are meant to conjure and illusion of "rationality" to hide the selfish motives behind. Indeed, this only fools a retard, but practically everyone in society is a retard, so this technique works every time.

Yet another example is the infamous [soyence](soyence.md) brain fart going as follows: "Human [races](race.md) don't exist, the concept has no significance and is unethical to research BECAUSE it is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT invented in very old times." Of course other social constructs invented in old times such as biological species, [science](science.md) or [music](music.md) are somehow perfectly existing, useful and acceptable.

## See Also

- [shortcut thinking](shortcut_thinking.md)
- [idiot fallacy](idiot_fallacy.md)