History Main / CultureJustifiesAnything

For good, neutral and neutralish forms of cultural relativism, see instead GoodVersusGood, BothSidesHaveAPoint, and BlueAndOrangeMorality. Compare AgreeToDisagree, AppealToInherentNature, AppealToTradition, MyCountryRightOrWrong, and AgainstMyReligion, where someone uses religion to avoid taking a certain action. NobodyEverComplainedBefore is when this has apparently never caused a major disagreement that the culture remembers.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} of Creator/AAPessimal, the Guild of Assassins School is extremely sensitive to the cultural needs of its students. A [[UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}} Klatchistani]] student is allowed to grow a full beard, despite being only sixteen, and he wears a culturally approved turban in School black. A Zulu student argued the case for her to be excused the silly hat force on Assassin schoolgirls and for her to wear a full headdress of ostrich feathers (dyed black). Pupils from weapons cultures, where not wearing a weapon would be shameful, are -- reluctantly -- allowed their cultural weaponry. Provided they promise not to actually use it on anybody.

** The Batarians practice a very brutal form of slavery, which they justify because they view it as an inextricable part of their culture. Since slavery [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil is condemned by nearly all Council races and is illegal in Citadel space]], the batarians claim that the Council aligned races are prejudiced against them. However, this argument completely falls apart when you consider that the batarians regularly raid the colonies of other species for slaves. As a result of these tensions, the Council races have developed a distrustful attitude towards batarians, and batarians in turn retain simmering hostility and aggression towards the Council races. The tension between the batarians and humanity in particular has exploded due to a territorial dispute between the two. [[note]] The basic gist of what happened is that humans began expanding their territory after FirstContact into a sector of space that the batarians claim belonged to them despite not having any physical presence in the area. The humans pointed this out and when the batarians complained to the Citadel Council, the Council agreed with the humans, granting humanity sole colonization rights to the sector, which enraged the batarians enough to sever all ties with the Citadel and become an isolationist rogue state.[[/note]] As such, humans have developed a large amount of hostility toward batarians due to the aforementioned territorial dispute erupting into a ProxyWar between the Batarian Hegemony and the Human Systems Alliance. A conflict that is mainly characterized by various criminal groups controlled by the Batarian government with PlausibleDeniability being sent to conduct frequent raids on human colony worlds in order to acquire slaves. For most of the trilogy, the [[EnforcedColdWar Citadel Council is the only thing keeping the cold war between these two powers from escalating into a full-scale war.]]

** Like Tevinter, the batarians practice slavery, which they view as a cultural right and an inextricable part of their caste system. Since slavery [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil is condemned by nearly all Council races and illegal in Citadel space]], batarians have claimed prejudice and oppression, severed official ties with the Citadel, and adopted an isolationist government. As batarians regularly raid the colonies of ''other species and cultures'' for slaves, these claims are plainly absurd. Council races have developed a cool and watchful attitude towards batarians, and batarians in turn retain simmering hostility and aggression towards Council races and humanity in particular for snatching up promising colony worlds that would have otherwise been open to them. Humans, in turn, have quite a bit of hostility toward batarians due to frequently raiding those colony worlds in order to abduct humans for slaves. At the start of the first game, the Council has been the only thing keeping the Terran Alliance from declaring war on the Batarian Hegemony.

** There are also the male werewolves, who tend to "imprint" on female humans ... some of whom are ''toddlers'', or even ''babies''. The ensuing WifeHusbandry is portrayed as ''cute''. As the werewolves all belong to a specific Native American tribe, the UnfortunateImplications include some racism. Even worse, it is considered the werewolves' ''right'' to rape the women they imprinted on. One of the pack attacked a woman for rejecting him, and then started a relationship with her that began when he [[StockholmSyndrome visited her in the hospital.]]

-->-- '''[[Blog/RaceForTheIronThrone Steven Attewell,]]''' [[http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2015/02/01-laboratory-of-politics-part-vi/ A Laboratory of Politics, Part VI]]