1/ Ask anyone if they support FRAUD––they say no.

Want to grok how supporters of FRAUD (politics, stocks, medicine) come to overlook it, rationalize or justify it as OK.

THIS is the manual

Albert Bandura’s ‘“Moral Disengagement”—how people do harm + live with themselves’

2/ There are a handful of consistent observable examples of “moral disengagement”

A handy table of the top 5
(there are 8 documented examples; see next tweet)...

3/ Here are all 8 mechanisms of “moral disengagement” and the next table are a few correctives...

4/ If you take ANY example where you see justifications for immoral actions you can see true believers invoke one or more of these 8.

Consider my favorite example;) Tesla...

5/ Tesla beleivers who ignore/excuse immoral behavior invoke #3 “advantageous comparison”.

It takes the form:

-who cares about the SMALL thing: misleading, misdirection or outright mistruth + lying about accounting, sales, safety

-look at the BIG thing: solving climate crisis

6/ The NYT published this week a piece on how to get away with LYING to people and their own psychological defenses helping the liar to lie

“...the larger mission is more important than some small infraction...”.

This is of course true––of Trump too.

7/ The GOOD thing about knowing how liars lie effectively (by letting you do the work for them)––is it gives you a defensive manual.

The BAD thing about this––is it also gives liars an effective offensive manual.

You choose. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/science/psychology-dishonesty-lying-cheating.html