History Main / CultureJustifiesAnything

** 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Pre Vizsla and the Death Watch]] justify their murderous, warmongering ways by claiming that to do otherwise would be to dishonor their Mandalorian heritage. Uniquely deconstructed in that, initially, they're a fringe group, as most of their own society had ''actively ended'' those traditions due to deciding they no longer suited the galaxy they lived in. It takes a brilliant and long-running scheme involving political manipulation and strategically applied terrorism to discredit their peoples' ActualPacifist ruler to the point the other Mandalorians are willing to take them back.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':

-> ''"This raises the question -- why is the authentic culture...that of the masters and not of the slaves?"''

* {{Series/Brimstone}} defied this. Before the rise of Christianity and Islam, all souls were judged in the afterlife by the deities they followed in life, after Christianity and Islam rose to dominance, they are all judged by the standards of the Abrahamic god. Interestingly, and unexpectedly, the series does not take sides. While it is portrayed as a bad thing that a lot of people are sent to eternal torment for failing to adhere to the tenets of a religion they did not follow and may not even have heard of, it is also portrayed as bad that countless people throughout history were able to commit atrocities (burning children alive, eating people and forcing women into prostitution at the low end of the scale) in the name of their respective deities and get away [[KarmaHoudini scot-free]], because the only beings that could judge them were the same beings that ordered the atrocities in the first place.

** This is a thorny issue that frequently crops up throughout the entire ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe, mainly because none of the writers ever precisely defined the Prime Directive and its tenets. In the broadest sense, it states that no society has the right to judge another society's values or interfere with their natural course. The room for interpretation is large enough to accommodate several small planets: DependingOnTheWriter, what constitutes "interference" varies greatly, as does which societies the Prime Directive applies to (sometimes it's just pre-warp civilizations, other times it extends to warp-capable civilizations that aren't Federation member states). The concept has been frequently Deconstructed in TNG and [=DS9=], with characters often accusing the Federation of avoiding responsibility for the problems of the larger universe by refusing to even try to affect them.

** This especially comes up a lot with Worf, who's both a Klingon warrior and a Starfleet officer (and implied to posses some sort of dual citizenship). Of particular note was the episode "Ethics", in which Worf becomes paralyzed and agrees to undertake a potentially-life-threatening procedure to restore use of his legs. The reason is that Klingon society demands a person commit ritual suicide upon becoming crippled, which Worf fully intends to do if he can't regain full functionality. The crew, understandably, responds to this with a sort of collective horror as suicide is unheard of in the Federation, with the ever-diplomatic Picard being the only person willing to play devil's advocate and reluctantly respect Worf's wishes in the matter. Riker eventually shames him into trying an experimental surgery instead by pointing out that, according to the ritual, it's supposed to be Worf's blood relative who helps him carry it out -- the only one available being Worf's very young son Alexander. Dr. Crusher is also guilty of it in this episode. Since her culture disapproves of suicide (and she considers the experimental surgery too risky to be an option) she's prepared to lock Worf in sickbay under constant guard for as long as it takes to get him to forswear his suicide plan. She doesn't seem to think keeping him imprisoned for possibly the rest of his life is a violation of his rights.
** Worf gets it again in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Sons of Mogh". His new CO, Captain Sisko, chews him a new asshole when he attempts to assist his DeathSeeker brother in committing ritual suicide (he's stopped by Jadzia mid-ritual).

** There are also the male werewolves, who tend to "imprint" on female humans ... some of whom are ''toddlers'', or even ''babies''. The ensuing wife husbandry 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.]]

%%** Similarily deconstructed in another episode of the original series, with a culture that served as a blatant stand-in for the Pro-Life movement. After witnessing them stoning a girl who got an abortion, Kirk furiously points out the hypocricy of claiming that they "respect all life" when they murder anyone who disagrees with them.

** "Victim's Rights" has a Romanian Roma mother defend arranged marriages for twelve or thirteen year old girls (which she herself underwent) on the basis that its their tradition, and that some American customs offend her too.

This trope is about someone directly or indirectly using "culture" as a way of trying to get themselves or someone else off the hook for truly heinous acts or structures -- either justifying the crime with a reference to culture, or insisting that the case should not be properly investigated out of respect for the culture. Frequently, this is also a characteristic of the StrawNihilist. Their logic being: "Morality is nothing more than a fanciful lie our culture made up. So on what authority do we have to judge those who don't follow our "morality" nonsense?"

Note that the claim that "Culture Justifies Anything" is usually done by a ''character'', not by the narrator. The character being portrayed as wrong is still a straight example, not a subversion. For this trope to come into effect, it must be clear that the setting or at least the author treat the act thus defended as morally questionable at best. Otherwise it's merely YourNormalIsOurTaboo. If the setting in general agrees with the objectionable act, this trope does not have to be used, since the act is simply considered normal and doesn't have to be defended by reference to culture. If the trope is used anyway, its purpose might be to [[LampshadeHanging highlight]] the DeliberateValuesDissonance. Keep in mind that culture has never been static or unchanging, not in any part of the world nor in any point of history, and when confronted by someone using culture as their justification, one must not make the assumption that these spokesman and their practices represent that culture as a whole.

* [[NebulousEvilOrganization Black Claw]] in ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' is a group of Wessen united behind their claim that what they consider to be important Wessen traditions are being oppressed by humans, even though said traditions generally consist of brutally dominating, killing (and sometimes [[ToServeMan eating]]) humans -- and also [[MonstrousCannibalism other, weaker Wessen]].

* First series ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Aztecs" fell into this. Barbara, a 1960s history teacher, is mistaken for the reincarnation of an Aztec priest, and uses the clout this gives her to attempt to end human sacrifice. The Doctor is furious with her for doing this, as human sacrifice is their culture and changing it is imperialistic of her, to which Barbara holds that pointless murder is objectively wrong. Meanwhile, Ian has been taken to become a warrior and is being forced to fight someone to the death, which he understandably is not enthusiastic about -- but he eventually accepts that it is part of the culture and kills a person. The eventual resolution is that Barbara's attempts to change the culture fail, driving them out of the time period and forcing the separation of the Doctor from [[GirlOfTheWeek his fiancée]], and the Doctor seems to hold to this trope -- but admits to her that he's strangely proud that Barbara did successfully change the mind of one of the Aztec priests about the morality of human sacrifice.
* [[NebulousEvilOrganization Black Claw]] in ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' is a group of Wessen united behind their claim that what they consider to be important Wessen traditions are being oppressed by humans, even though said traditions generally consist of brutally dominating, killing (and sometimes [[ToServeMan eating]]) humans -- and also [[MonstrousCannibalism other, weaker, Wessen]].

* First series ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Aztecs" fell into this. Barbara, a 1960s history teacher, is mistaken for the reincarnation of an Aztec priest, and uses the clout this gives her to attempt to end human sacrifice. The Doctor is furious with her for doing this, as human sacrifice is their culture and changing it is imperialistic of her, to which Barbara holds that pointless murder is objectively wrong. Meanwhile, Ian has been taken to become a warrior and is being forced to fight someone to the death, which he understandably is not enthusiastic about -- but he eventually accepts that it is part of the culture and kills a person. The eventual resolution is that Barbara's attempts to change the culture fail, driving them out of the time period and forcing the separation of the Doctor from [[GirlOfTheWeek his fiancée]], and the Doctor seems to hold to this trope -- but admits to her that he's strangely proud of Barbara for changing the mind of one Aztec about the morality of human sacrifice.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In [[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E10Believers "Believers"]] an alien child needs a surgical procedure that his parents believe will detach his soul, Dr. Franklin wants to perform it anyways but Commander Sinclair has to deal with the diplomatic ramifications. While Franklin and Sinclair are debating the parents go to the other major races' ambassadors for support and the only one who respects their culture is Delenn, who would [[AlienNonInterferenceClause not want to impose her beliefs on the humans]]. [[DownerEnding In the end]] Sinclair forbids the surgery but Franklin does it anyways, and then the parents kill what they believe is an EmptyShell.

* In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', the watchmen use this as an excuse not to try to break up the brawls that regularly erupt in dwarf bars, believing this behavior to be their "ethnic folkways". The truth is, dwarfs go wild in Ankh-Morpork specifically because they're away from the harsh discipline and austerity of dwarf mines. [[NewMeat The rookie]], himself ethnically a dwarf, if not biologically, is able to get them to stop by [[DontTellMama reminding them of their poor old white-bearded mothers back home]]. Another truth is that since the Night Watch consists of three guys, none of whom are in tremendous physical shape, they're also afraid of being mobbed and killed by brawling dwarfs and do as little as possible to get involved so as to minimise the loss of (their) life.

* ComicBook/TheInhumans of Marvel ran into this problem in the post-''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' period. The [[Comicbook/XMen X-Men]] were being killed off by their mutagen cloud and any attempt to do anything about said cloud was seen as a massive affront to the Inhumans and an act that gets one compared to Hitler. Needless to say very few Inhumans are popular with readers and their books struggle to stay afloat outside of [[Comicbook/MsMarvel2014 Kamala Khan]] and [[ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur Moon Girl]], who do not live with the main Inhumans that cause these issues, and everyone was cheering for the X-Men during ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen''.

Note that the claim that "Culture Justifies Anything" is usually done by a ''character'', not by the narrator. The character being portrayed as wrong is still a straight example, not a subversion. For this trope to come into effect, it must be clear that the setting or at least the author treat the act thus defended as morally questionable at best. Otherwise it's merely YourNormalIsOurTaboo. If the setting in general agrees with the objectionable act, this trope does not have to be used, since the act is simply considered normal and doesn't have to be defended by reference to culture. If the trope is used anyway, its purpose might be to [[LampshadeHanging highlight]] the DeliberateValuesDissonance. Keep in mind that culture has never been static or unchanging, not in any part of the world nor in any point of history, and when confronted by someone using culture as their justification, one must not make the assumption that these spokesman and their practices represent that culture on the whole.

* An episode of ''Series/ThePractice'' featured a couple taken to court because their son died and they could have saved him if they called for medical help but wouldn't because of their religion. The main characters ''did'' try to convince a jury to accept religion as an excuse to let the child die. Is there anyone surprised they lost that case?

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': [[CrapsackWorld Where do we even begin?]] Boiling down a ''lot'' of story, it becomes clear that while this ''definitely isn't the case'', drawing the line can be very, very tricky. Forcibly intervening [[spoiler: as Daenerys found out]] is ''not'' going to help in the long run, especially when the victims are ConditionedToAcceptHorror, said horror is InherentInTheSystem, and that destabilizing said system will leave its people [[NiceJobBreakingItHero even worse off than they were when they were under it]]. Also, cultures [[HereWeGoAgain have a way of bouncing back from forceful extermination]]. The Ironborn in particular don't get along with the rest of Westeros because their culture not only "justifies" [[RapePillageAndBurn raiding everyone else]], it attaches ''divine mandate'' to it.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': [[CrapsackWorld Where do we even begin?]] Boiling down a ''lot'' of story, it becomes clear that while this ''[[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped definitely isn't the case]]'', drawing the line can be very, very tricky. Forcibly intervening [[spoiler: as Daenerys found out]] is ''not'' going to help in the long run, especially when the victims are ConditionedToAcceptHorror, said horror is InherentInTheSystem, and that destabilizing said system will leave its people [[NiceJobBreakingItHero even worse off than they were when they were under it]]. Also, cultures [[HereWeGoAgain have a way of bouncing back from forceful extermination]]. The Ironborn in particular don't get along with the rest of Westeros because their culture not only "justifies" [[RapePillageAndBurn raiding everyone else]], it attaches ''divine mandate'' to it.

* ComicBook/TheInhumans of Marvel ran into this problem in the post-''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' period. The [[Comicbook/XMen X-Men]] were being killed off by their mutagen cloud and any attempt to do anything about said cloud was seen as a massive affront to the Inhumans and an act that gets one compared to Hitler. Needless to say very few Inhumans are popular with readers and their books struggle to stay afloat outside of [[Comicbook/MsMarvel2014 Kamala Khan]] and [[ComicBook/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur Moon Girl]], who do not live with the main Inhumans that cause these issues, and everyone was cheering for the X-Men during ''ComicBook/InhumansVersusXMen''.

* 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 headress of ostrich feathers (dyed black). Pupils from weapons cultures, where not wearing a weapon would be shameful, are -- reluctantly -- allowed their cultural weapnory. Provided they promise not to actually use it on anybody.

* Patroklos, of ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soulcalibur V]]'', believes that his self-appointed title of "holy warrior" ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion in an era when such "warriors" were commonplace]]) makes it okay for him to kill anybody he suspects (read: [[KnightTemplar assumes]]) of being [[DealWithTheDevil malfested]]. Notably, no-one else in the game agrees, and several heroic characters try to stop him from claiming more victims -- even though murder is ''technically'' legal in their culture, that doesn't mean it's ''encouraged''[[note]]indeed, one of the reasons Pyrrha is despised so much is because Iira framed her for murder[[/note]]. Patroklos himself eventually [[HeelRealization realizes]] [[spoiler:when one of his loved ones shows herself to be malfested]] that his beliefs weren't based on "holiness" or "righteousness" so much as arrogance and hypocrisy. [[spoiler:He's way less gung-ho about "holy" murder when someone ''he'' cares about could become a victim of it.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "The Itis" has Granddad using this as a justification for his soul food restaurant, when Huey takes objection to the idea by claiming that [[NutritionalNightmare the food is unhealthy]] to the point of destroying the local neighborhood. One of the staff interjects by providing more meaningful context, explaining that most soul food dishes were created by slaves using essentially the leftover garbage parts of the animal, and suggests that while it may be a legitimate part of history, it isn't a pleasant one, and it shouldn't make up the majority of a person's meals.

* In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', the watchmen use this as an excuse not to try to break up the brawls that regularly erupt in dwarf bars, believing this behavior to be their "ethnic folkways". The truth is, dwarfs go wild in Ankh-Morpork specifically because they're away from the harsh discipline and austerity of dwarf mines. [[NewMeat The rookie]], himself ethnically a dwarf, if not biologically, is able to get them to stop by [[DontTellMama reminding them of their poor old white-bearded mothers back home]].

* ''Franchise/MassEffect':