Moral licensing is "the heirloom of all philosophers and priests who 'improved' mankind. [They] have never doubted their right to lie."
By: Brandon
Published: Feb 13, 2025
The Improvers of Mankind
In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche devotes a short chapter to a group of people of whom he does not think very highly: the so-called "improvers of mankind". A primary tactic of the Improvers, which Nietzsche identifies, is that of "pia fraus", or pious fraud. This is a kind of lie often told, in Nietzscheâs time, by religious men, prophets, priests, or shaman; supposedly moral people who would, ostensibly, usually be averse to deceit. The pious fraud is a lie told by pious peopleâtrue believersâin the service of some supposed larger truth, some higher good.
An example of pious fraud comes from the ancient priests who secretly scarred their hands in the manner of the crucifixion and then presented their stigmata as a miracleâa message from God to their followers. Such pious fraud is performed in the belief that the ends justify the means. What does it matter if the lie is not true in fact, when it is true in spirit? In the priest's mind, though this specific instance is not a miracle, God does perform miracles. Thus, to the priest, he is deceiving his followers only on the technical detailsâbut if in doing so he converts many new people to Christianity and ensures their heavenly salvation, then is he not justified?
Many priests, shaman, and mediums know they are committing a fraud with their âmiraclesâ. But in their minds, because it may bring their followers salvation, peace of mind, or closure, then the lie is vindicated. Many doctors, quacks, and homeopaths also use pious fraud. Again, for them, the ends justify the means: "So, what if the medicines I peddle are so often merely sugar pills or coloured oilsâ, they think, âthe medications bring my patients relief through their belief and therefore the treatments are, in some sense, also real." Again, the lie, in their minds, is vindicated.
The willingness to engage in pious fraud arises through a mechanism known as moral licensing. Moral licensing occurs when one believes that their moral goals or good behaviour grants them âlicenseâ to do immoral things. Moral licensing is also tied to victimhood status; those who perceive themselves as victims are more likely to use such a status to exempt themselves from normal codes of moral conduct. This brings us to the new improvers of mankind: the modern Left. Or at least a subset of it: the social-justice-left. They believe they are working for cosmic justice and universal good and they view themselves as victimsÂÂÂâdouble the moral license!
Nietzsche, in an incredible feat of prophetic insight, said that there are those who "constantly bear the word 'justice' in their mouths like poisonous spittle, always with pursed lips, always ready to spit upon all who are not discontented but go their own way in good spiritsâŚThe will of the weak to represent some form of superiority, their instinct for devious paths to tyranny over the healthy". This is moral licensing in effect. Many on the social-justice-left are pious true believers with a victimhood complex, they believe that they act solely in service of the greater goodââjusticeââand thus have the moral license and a âblank checkâ to do whatever is necessary, including peddle outright lies and use deception.
Pious Fraud and Social Justice
The social-justice-left frequently utilize pious fraud. They believe that though a particular claim they use to advance their goals may not be literally true, it does reflects some larger truth, and thus this pious fraud can be used as a weapon in their crusade to "improve" mankind and facilitate "social justice". Therefore, in their minds, because their lies are true in spirit if not in actual fact, then the ends justify the means.
For example, pious fraud was used by Jussie Smollett, and those who continued to support him, when he faked a hate crime against himself. While Jussie and his supporters know that his claim is false (the pious lie), they believe that white supremacy and homophobia are ubiquitous (the larger "truth" reflected by the lie), and that Jussie was merely attempting to bring attention to this larger truth, to fight racism, and improve mankind. Therefore, in their minds, his lie was justified. This is not an isolated case. There was the Nascar hate crime found by the FBI to be a hoax, the mass graves hoax in Canada, or the numerous hoaxes documented by the political scientist Wilfred Reilly, who documented hundreds of hoaxes in his book. Reilly says:
"The deeper I delved, the more it seemed that this phenomenon of fake hate crimes did not appear to be small-scale or regionally isolated. I put together a fairly large database of hate-crime allegations...A majority of these incidents, which were almost all initially reported with a great deal of fanfare and breast-beating, were later exposed as hoaxes. Well, in truth, âexposedâ is a gross exaggeration. Evidence demonstrated that they were fake hate crimes. But that fact got very little exposure in the pressâparticularly in comparison with the initial publicity they generated. The headlines that had touted each case as a horrific example of contemporary bigotry vanished from the Internet".
If you followed the discourse around many of these hoaxes, you would have seen a surprising amount of continued support for the 'victims', and a desperate clinging to the narrative from the social-justice-left. Many activists exhibited the typical rationalizations of the pious fraudster: "well this case might not be true, but society is racist and homophobic", and thus the pious lies were justified. The ends justify the means, even if the means are widespread deception and exaggeration.
There are many examples of these pious lies sold by the social-justice-left (and it must be noted that I once considered myself a member of the political left). Claims of widespread large discriminatory pay disparity between men and women; the denial of the sex binary; and claims of impending 'genocide' against trans people, the claim that black babies fare worse under white doctors, are just some examples of pious lies sold by the left. They think that such false claims are justified because they can be used to âimproveâ mankind and facilitate cosmic justice in the form of equity. Look at almost any major social issue fixated on by the social-justice-left and you find distortion, lies, or misleading half-truths. Truth is sacrificed in service of their holy war against "injustice" or "inequity".
It must be noted, in fairness, that I donât think the Right has any special claim to universal honesty (humans in general are prone to lying), but the nature of the social-justice worldview, which is one of a moral crusade against cosmic injustice, currently lends itself more to this kind of pious deceptiveness. Additionally, because of the political leanings of major institutions and media platforms, leftists pious lies receive much more support and less criticism.
A further example of pious fraud by social-justice-left (climate justice is now a huge aspect of the SJL program) is the reflexive, baseless insistence that every extraordinary weather event, storm, hurricane, or fire is a result of climate change. Extreme weather events have always occurred, humanity has always had to contend with unexpected floods, fires, and storms. And while I do agree that human activity may be affecting the climate and is certainly harming biodiversity, to claimâas climate alarmists doâthat every extreme weather event is directly a result of anthropogenic climate change is so baseless as to constitute a lie. But again, the logic of the pious fraudster is applied: "so what if there is no way to know if this storm or fire is not directly climate change related, climate change is happening (and having disparate or unequal impacts on favored groups), therefore we are justified in making these false claims if it promotes climate action".
Stephen Schneider, a leading member of a climate working group for the IPCC, displayed some subtle logic of the pious fraudster when he said:
"On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but â which means that we must include all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people weâd like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change. To do that we need to get some broad-based support, to capture the publicâs imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have⌠Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both."
This reflects the commitment of the pious fraudster to the end goals of his ideology over truth. Although he did add that he âhopesâ they can be honest, this is not very reassuring. He said that they âhave toâ emphasize simple, scary, dramatic statements with doubts and uncertainty omitted. Clearly, he acknowledges that, in the pursuit of climate action, there are goals above truth or honestyââgenerating supportâ and âcapturing the publicâs imaginationâ among them. This behaviour distorts the entire information ecosystem, and creates supposedly truth-seeking institutions and cultures which are completely perverted away from their missionâengaged now in advocacy and propaganda, not committed to delivering the full picture.
The Problem with Pious Fraud
The problem with pious fraud is that attempts to bring about some 'improvement' through deception often makes life worse for everyday people. Pious lies, while ostensibly in the service of a greater good, harm the people whom the social-justice-left supposedly care about. If the pious lies are believed, they can create social movements and social panics which are largely based on a web of fabricated events and exaggerations. Entire worldviews and movements can be built, in large part, on a body of interconnected falsehoods. This destroys common sense-making, impedes effective policy design, andâgiven the social-justice-leftâs focus on race and gender specificallyâerodes social trust and cohesion.
Fundamentally, the pious improvers of mankind lie and exaggerate because they believe it is their job to make decisions on behalf of others, they believe that they know best, that they act solely in the service of some greater goodâand that truth and transparency can be sacrificed in the service of their holy mission. In reality, Nietzsche would say, many of them are simply acting out their resentment, through which they can achieve some form of retribution for perceived cosmic injustices.
"This is the great, uncanny problem which I have been pursuing the longest: the psychology of the 'improvers' of mankind. A small and modest factâthat of the so-called pia fruas [pious fraud]⌠the heirloom of all philosophers and priests who "improved" mankind. [They] have never doubted their right to lie." (Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols).
