Line #14 Main/AppealToInherentNature


1	->''Then [the devil] let [the goats] go to pasture alone, but it came to pass that the Lord God perceived how at one time they gnawed away at a fruitful tree, at another injured the noble vines, or destroyed other tender plants. This distressed him, so that in his goodness and mercy he summoned his wolves, who soon tore in pieces the goats that went there. When the devil observed this, he went before the Lord and said, "Thy creatures have destroyed mine." The Lord answered, "Why didst thou create things to do harm?" The Devil said, "I was compelled to do it: inasmuch as my thoughts run on evil, what I create can have no other nature, and thou must pay me heavy damages."''
2	-->-- ''[[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm Grimm's Fairy Tales]]'', "The Lord's Anmals and the Devil's"
3
4	A subset of AppealToNature; if something is naturally predisposed to a certain act or state, it must be accepted. Snakes bite, bears maul, poisons kill, babies scream, sociopaths torture, and [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] [[FinalSolution commit genocide]]; but those are their natures, so we should not hold it against them.
5
6	This is usually a fallacy, but there are cases where it isn't. The key is consistency: if someone/something always reacts a particular way to a situation and always will, simply describing this is fundamentally correct. For instance, a computer will always do what you tell it to do [[LiteralGenie (although not necessarily what you want it to do)]]. Naturally, this is very difficult to do with people without implicitly denying that they are human or getting involved in tautologies: saying AllGaysArePromiscuous is offensive, but saying that [[ShapedLikeItself all Portuguese speakers speak Portuguese]] is [[CaptainObvious stating the obvious]]. It's saying something is good ''because'' it's inherent to them that is the problem.
7
8	Used as one of the JerkJustifications. For when a man is appealing to his sexual nature, see ImAManICantHelpIt. TheFarmerAndTheViper is similar, about how evil will always be evil so you shouldn't waste time on them. Compare to CultureJustifiesAnything, where somebody argues that one shouldn't hold an action that is "part of my culture" against them, and ItsWhatIDo, where characters justify their actions by saying it's what they do naturally.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
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12	[[foldercontrol]]
13
14	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
15	* The God Hand of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' use this to convince Griffith to make a DealWithTheDevil. Using illusion and metaphor, they convince him that he's been stepping over the corpses of his followers to get what he wants all along, and that it is in fact in his nature to do so.
16	[[/folder]]
17
18	[[folder:Comic Books]]
19	* In issue #3 of IDW's ''ComicBook/GodzillaKingdomOfMonsters'' series, the NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Music/LadyGaga said that humanity shouldn't hold it against [[{{Kaiju}} giant monsters]] for rampaging and destroying cities; it's just what they do, and it would be wrong to kill them for it.
20	* This trope is cited numerous times in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''. A good number of the series' deities subscribe to this, particularly the AnthropomorphicPersonifications, since it's implied that they [[DeconstructedTrope might not have much identity beyond their jobs]]. [[ScrewDestiny Or do they?]]
21	** This turns up in "A Dream of Thousand Cats", as an older cat expresses doubt that the utopia (which requires a thousand cats to literally dream it into existence) promised will ever happen as it's not in cats' nature to do what they're told.
22	* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'':
23	** Mr North (AnthropomorphicPersonification of the North Wind,) is loathed by his son [[TheBigBadWolf Bigby]] for abandoning his mother and causing her [[DeathByDespair to die of a broken heart]], to which Mr North replies that it is in the nature of winds to change direction. A generally very nice goblin named Mr Brump drunkenly eats a sentient squirrel and is put on trial for murder, during which his lawyer produces the scorpion (from "the scorpion and the frog" story under folklore below,) as a defence witness, and argues that it is in the nature of goblins to thoughtlessly devour any meat they can, regardless of who or what the meat comes from. In both these cases [[spoiler: their interlocutors call bullshit; Bigby argues that Mr North may be no different from a normal fickle deadbeat and is just using his "nature" to make himself feel better, but even if Mr North is right, any entity with so little control over himself that he can't take responsibility for his own actions is a dangerous monster that should be put down anyway. Mr Brump's argument gets rejected by the judge in light of the fact that Brump is a fully sentient being who is thus responsible for his own actions, though in private the judge mused that his reason for condemning Brump had as much to do with setting a dangerous precedent that excused murder as Brump's culpability in that particular instance]].
24	** A more minor example of a character excusing his own dubious behaviour in this way is [[TheCasanova Prince Charming]] and his perennial lack of fidelity, though by the time of the series it's such common knowledge that he can't sustain a relationship that hardly anyone bothers to call him out on it any more.
25	* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'': [[BloodKnight Bludgeon]] uses this argument to strand the Autobots on a dying Cybertron, then go find a nice peaceful planet, and slaughter every living thing on it. After all, the Decepticons are conquerors. Why fight what's in their energon?
26	* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': Used to suggest why Loki is Loki, because he just can't help being bad (and BecauseDestinySaysSo). In recent years, Loki took offense to the idea, since it makes him predictable, and has tried very hard to be good. Several characters have noted their belief that sooner or later, he'll go back to being the villain. For what it's worth being extremely {{rebellious\|Spirit}} and [[{{Determinator}} stubborn]] are also part of Loki's inherent nature so the more people question their ability to change ''the harder they try to'' (basically their approach to be good is the very same obsessiveness they used to try to conquer Asgard and/or defeat Thor with time and time again no matter how many times they failed).
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder: Comic Strips]]
30	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': This is a favorite argument by both Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin claims that since his innate desires are towards selfishness and destruction, it's wrong for his parents and society to try and squash them and turn him into a productive member of society, and he should be allowed to run rampant and do whatever he wants. Hobbes, being a wild animal, has a slightly better case, since he's a predator, but since he's also ''intelligent'', he's got a choice whether or not to follow his instincts, something he refuses to acknowledge.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder: Fairytales]]
34	* ''[[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm Grimm's Fairy Tales]]'': In "The Lord's Anmals and the Devil's", when God demands of the Devil why he made goats to harm useful plants and deprive others of their fruits, the Devil replies that it in his nature to do evil and can only create harmful things. Furthermore, since he cannot prevent himself from doing this, he claims that he is owed recompense for God's destruction of the goats.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder: Fan Works]]
38	* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Subverted in "The Coyote." Title character Charlie, initially seen as an untrustworthy trickster, tells Bolt that he spared the dog's life by going against his natural instincts.
39	-->'''Charlie:''' Y'know, most members of my species woulda gone for your throat and made a fast meal of you when you're down like that.
40	* In ''FanFic/PrinceCharming'', Plagg warns Adrien that, even though he truly doesn't mean Adrien any harm, he ''is'' the spirit of Misfortune and it is not in his nature to give gifts without a double edge. Calling on his power to strip Adrien of his blessing is going to come with some costs, no matter what.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
44	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax2012'', the Once-ler has a VillainSong with the line "How ba-a-a-ad can I be? I'm just doing what comes naturally."
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
48	* ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' provides an alternate rendition of the below entry:
49	-->Once upon a time, a woman was picking up firewood. She came upon a poisonous snake frozen in the snow. [[TheFarmerAndTheViper She took the snake home and nursed it back to health. One day the snake bit her on the cheek.]] As she lay dying, she asked the snake, "Why have you done this to me?" And the snake answered, "Look, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]], [[GenreBlindness you knew]] I was a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil snake]]."
50	* In ''Film/CarlitosWay'', Carlito is confronted by his girlfriend Gail about leaving the criminal life behind, saying the only way that road ends is with her crying in an emergency room as Carlito dies. Carlito defends his adherence to the "code of the street" even as he goes clean by means of this fallacy, saying something to the effect of, "That's who I am. I can't change." It does not work out well.
51	* ''Film/TheCryingGame'' includes a character telling "The Scorpion and the Frog" to discuss this topic, and ultimately tries to use it to convince his interlocutor that he's not a bad person.
52	* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', Calypso justifies her failure to meet Davey Jones again after ten years with "It's my nature". She then points out that her flighty, tempestuous nature as a sea-goddess is the reason he'd loved her in the first place, so expecting her to behave otherwise for that love's sake is hypocritical.
53	* ''Film/ThorRagnarok:'' The way Loki attempts to justify his crimes in the InUniverse play he wrote: "I just couldn't help myself. I'm a trickster!" Thor contests it later in the movie when he notes that Loki could ''both'' be who he is (the God of Mischief) and change for the better.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Literature]]
57	* In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', "71-hour Ahmed" points out that if this is a valid excuse for people to do bad things, then it's an equally valid excuse for those with a sense of justice to punish them:
58	--> Oh, no doubt the man would suggest there were mitigating circumstances, that he had an unhappy childhood or was driven by Compulsive Well-Poisoning Disorder. But I have a compulsion to behead cowardly murderers.
59	* Creator/AmbroseBierce put the same point in another way in regards to free will. Even if a murderer can't help what they did, who's to say the person punishing them can either?
60	-->"There's no free will," says the philosopher;\
61	"To hang is most unjust."\
62	"There is no free will," assents the officer;\
63	"We hang because we must."
64	* Akma from "Earthbound" of the Homecoming Series teaches his followers that the way God wants them to act is whatever way they feel compelled. If you are hungry, it is because God wants you to eat. If you want to have sex, it is because God wants you to produce children. Therefore, if you feel repulsed by the company of "diggers" (a species of rodent-people used as an allegory for an oppressed race), then you have every right to exile them from the empire.
65	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': A favorite tactic of the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] to silence people who protest against their parasitic enslavement of any alien race they come across is to claim that they evolved as parasites and are just doing what parasites do. Aftran 492 compares it to human predation of cows and pigs, but the only person she manages to convince is Cassie.
66	* In ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series (the book ''Literature/WizardAndGlass''), Eddie uses a combination of AppealToAudacity and LogicBomb to disable a malevolent AI with silly and nonsensical riddles. Roland, a very serious and straightforward StraightMan who had previously derided this tactic, is forced to apologize. Eddie waves it away saying that "you can't help your nature."
67	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
68	** Harry's first meeting with [[TheFairFolk Mab]] ends with her telling him the story of the scorpion and the frog, to illustrate that, even when carrying out her mission will be extremely dangerous and put him through a lot of pain, she is quite certain that he will do it anyway, even when he knows it will likely kill him [[MortonsFork as refusing will be his death anyway]].
69	** This is also brought up by Archangel Uriel with regards to Harry. Uriel can see the multiple paths people can choose to make as well as all the choices they made to this point, but by a certain point in their lives Uriel has a very good sense of what their nature will drive them to do. This isn't to say he is overriding their free will, which is forbidden by Him, but rather anticipating the human will be true to himself. In regards to Harry Uriel knew in three minor events he would help change things for the better, after he was kind to a woman whose child was nearly hit by a car, hexed some construction equipment so a drunk worker could sober up, and gave a heartfelt talk with a young girl who didn't know what to do in life, Uriel tells Harry that, respectively, [[spoiler:the observation of a bruise on the child will snap the mother awake to the abuse her husband is doing and move out with the child ending a hundred year cycle of abuse in that family, the drunk worker's child will become sick and her only hope is a transplant and the father is a perfect match, and the conversation with the young lady will inspire her to be a counselor who will help thousands of people]]. All that said, Harry does shock Uriel by wanting to send Uriel a bill for services rendered (Uriel first thought Harry was trying to bill Him but Harry isn't that prideful). When Harry threatens to not help people if he isn't compensated, Uriel chuckles warmly and tells him, "No. You won't." Harry then notes Uriel is probably right.
70	** The spirit of this trope is often in play whenever Harry tries to have a civil conversation with the Fae; their particular nature gives them an inability to tell a direct lie, but serious discomfort from making clear, unambiguous statements and a compulsion to obey their rules and principles of balance, meaning that any conversation with them (even when they're genuinely trying to be helpful,) will be full of ExactWords, riddles and guesswork. Infuriating as he finds it, Harry eventually accepts that he just has to put up with it, and that a Fae who appears to be being obstructive may actually be doing everything to help him that their nature allows.
71	* {{Discussed}} in the ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' series, where it is pointed out that magical creatures are not (generally) "good" or "evil" so much as "light" or "dark". Goblins are not cruel because they're evil, but because they are goblins and that's how goblins act. Of course, it's also pointed out that just because it is in a creature's nature to act a certain way, doesn't mean that we have a moral obligation to let it act that way. By all means lock up the goblins so they cannot express their cruelty on the innocent.
72	* Laura E. Richards once wrote a story about a man who received a visit from the "Angel-Who-Attends-To-Things", who criticizes his work as slapdash and lazy. The man concedes to the criticisms, but tells the angel that he should have realized that the man can't help the way he was made. The angel then throws him bodily into a ditch, and, when the man complains, [[ExcuseBoomerang he answers that this was the way]] ''[[ExcuseBoomerang he]]'' [[ExcuseBoomerang was made]].
73	* The Creator/MarquisDeSade often had his libertine characters claim they couldn't help being sadistic murderers, rapists, torturers and so on-that's just their nature. He supported this by also saying there's no free will. They also claimed ''everyone's'' like them deep down, but have just been indoctrinated to think differently, despite the fact that this contradicts the first argument.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
77	* In a crossover between media and real life, this fallacy often shows up on reality shows, with at least one contestant each season [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance declaring proudly]] [[JerkJustifications "That's just who I am," when called out for acting like a bigot, an asshat, or a bitch]].
78	* When Aeryn in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' says that John Crichton is obsessed with sex, he says, [[AllMenArePerverts "I'm a guy!"]]
79	* In the ITV series ''Series/{{Primeval}}'', a character who has been raising an orphaned sabretooth since it was a cub insists that the now fully grown cat would never attack her. Which, naturally, it does. This is TruthInTelevision for the caretakers of dangerous wild animals.
80	* ''Series/{{The Sandman\|2022}}'', "[[Recap/TheSandman2022S01E11ADreamOfAThousandCatsCalliope A Dream of a Thousand Cats]]": The cat prophet tells her audience that if as few as a thousand cats dream of utopia together, they can change the world. One of them remarks afterward to a friend that it's a nice idea, but he can't imagine anyone managing to get that many cats to obey instructions at the same time.
81	* Summarized quite nicely in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' by the 217th Rule of Acquisition: "You can't free a fish from water."
82	* Mary in ''Series/DowntonAbbey'', who argues that she's inherently contrary and that it would be against her character to want to marry anyone who anyone else wanted her to marry.
83	* The general aesop of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', that "Life is unfair", is really only possible because of the fallacy that nothing can be done about the way people are. The sub-Aesop is that there will always be authority figures in your lives that are unfair, and there's nothing you can do about it...''nor should you'', because that's just who they are. This, of course, means that the authority figures on this show can behave like jerks and use this justification as an excuse to avoid having to change their behavior; after all, it is in authority figure's ''nature'' to be unfair, so they are not to be subject to criticism when they behave so. (Also, when Malcolm calls out the various adults on using this excuse, the show wants us to think Malcolm is being an EmoTeen.)
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Music]]
87	* The old vaudeville tune "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life?".
88	* In''Music/TheSnake'' by Al Wilson it's the story of the woman who revives a poor frozen snake, who then bites her.[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
91	* In the form of ''The Tale of the Scorpion and the Turtle'', it dates back to an ancient Sanskrit collection of folklore that was first translated into English in 1570.
92	-->A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."\
93	"My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the sense in that?"\
94	"You're right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said, "Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there'd be no sense in your stinging me. Why did you do it?"\
95	"It has nothing to do with sense," the drowning scorpion sadly replied. "It's just my nature to sting."
96	* A similar tale about a jackal and a camel uses this trope twice. The jackal wants to get at some tasty crabs on the other side of the river, but he's not a strong enough swimmer to beat the current. A camel comes along to get at the sugarcane that's ''also'' across the river, and agrees to ferry the jackal across. So the jackal eats his fill, but being much smaller than the camel he finishes before the camel has a chance to get more than a couple of mouthfuls; and, being full and happy, he prances about, yipping at the top of his jackal lungs, alerting the farmers to his presence and that of the camel. As the camel is swimming back across, he demands, "What the hell was that?!" "Sorry," says the jackal, "when I'm full I just feel like dancing around and yapping. It's just how I am." So the camel starts rolling over and over in the river. "What are you doing?!" cries the jackal. "Oh, sorry," says the camel, "But whenever I finish eating something I just feel like rolling over and over and over. It's just how I am."
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
100	* One of the most universally despised yet virtually ubiquitous excuses for bad behavior in role-playing games is "I'm just doing what my character would do" (and its little brother "I'm just acting my [[CharacterAlignment alignment]]"). As if once one has written "ChaoticNeutral" on his character sheet (through no fault of his own, presumably), it would be a sin against role-playing not to do something random, disruptive, and, if possible, [[ChaoticStupid stupid]] every now and then. Because that's what Chaotic Neutral people do! And it's not just players - more than one party has been betrayed and attacked by an [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC]] they were currently in the process of helping simply because the [[GameMaster GM]] noticed its race's alignment was [[AlwaysChaoticEvil evil]], and why would an evil person pass up an opportunity to do something nasty?
101	** The most infamous example would have to be the Paladin class in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', holy warriors who were required to be LawfulGood. So many players - many of whom were perfectly capable of playing non-paladin Lawful Good characters as reasonable individuals - felt that the ''only'' acceptable characterization for a paladin was the aggressively evangelistic KnightTemplar whose only possible reaction to any situation was to demand [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill everyone share his beliefs]] and kill anyone who didn't immediately fall in line, so that the phrase "LawfulStupid" was coined to describe the class as a whole. The 4th Edition of D&D removed the alignment restriction, but many players familiar with earlier editions still act that way, because "that's just how paladins are."
102	*** Not helped by the source books openly encouraging players to operate this way in earlier editions: other lawful good characters are just required to respect any oaths or promises they make during play, but Paladins start with a pre-written set of oaths, written by the GameMaster from the perspective of a bellicose and wrathful god, which they must enforce to the utmost of their ability or lose their powers outright and be reduced from one of the more powerful combat classes to a weaker version of a fighter (fighter already being the least powerful class in the game). Essentially, Appeal To Inherent Nature was an intentionally-added class feature.
103	** The obvious problem with applying the trope under these particular conditions is of course that a tabletop [=RPG=] character is simply a figment of its creator's/controller's ''imagination'' with no independent existence or "inherent nature" in the first place. There are few if any claims of "I can't help it, it's my character's fault!" that cannot be countered with a variation on the question "Well, who wanted to ''play'' him/her that way?".
104	*** There's also the standard counter of killing the person and stating "It's what my character would do if he's being harassed by an insane person."
105	** This complaint is complicated by the fact that your character basing his actions on the character's motivations and not the player's is what you're supposed to do in a "role playing" game, it's the definition of the term. And, in-character, you should in fact feel the actions are justified and rational. It only really goes beyond being exactly how it's supposed to work if the player insists that there shouldn't be consequences for acts consistent with his character.
106	* Thoroughly mocked in ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings''. While this is a setting based on traditional Japanese ideals of cosmology (and thus, Advantages and Disadvantages tend to [[InTheBlood run in family lines]]), the fact that this isn't ''overall'' true causes a lot of unneeded misery in setting, since a lot of samurai believe it. For example, the great sage Shinsei told the founder of what would become the [[TokenEvilTeammate Scorpion Clan]] the folktale of the scorpion and the frog... except he changed the ending. When the frog asks why the scorpion stung the frog in the middle of a river, drowning them both, [[ConsummateLiar the scorpion]] replied "[[IAmNotLeftHanded Little frog]], [[ForTheEvulz I can swim.]]" And indeed, the Clan as a whole is untrustworthy and dishonorable... as is their purpose, since their explicit title is "Underhand of the Emperor", the people who do the things Bushido prevents. Individual Scorpions are trained ''specifically'' how to spin this logical fallacy to their advantage; since everyone expects a Scorpion to be untrustworthy, [[SarcasticConfession they can lie by telling the truth]].
107	* This is one of the aspects of Green mana in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', due to how it is inspired by nature and its creatures, many of them being bound by instincts they did not choose to be born with; applied to sentient beings, however, it may cause problems for the color when it comes to take responsibility or holding others responsible for their actions.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Theater]]
111	* In Creator/WilliamShakespeare[='s=] ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'', Don John excuses his actions by saying that it's in his nature to be a CardCarryingVillain.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Video Games]]
115	* Used in the Extended Cut ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', whereupon Shepard argues against the logic that [[spoiler:the Catalyst]] chose to solve the problem of the RobotWar by building robots that specifically ''start'' Robot Wars. [[spoiler:The Catalyst]] refutes this statement by saying that its creations are only doing what they were programmed to do, and thus are not truly interested in war. Of course, seeing as they are ''his'' creations, [[spoiler:the Catalyst]] is basically saying that the war occurs because organic civilizations refuse to sit back and allow themselves to be annihilated. Shepard can call him out on this.
116	** But [[spoiler:the Catalyst]] has a justification to being called out on, as well: his logic is that his machines aren't actually ''killing'' organics, they're ''preserving'' organics by grinding them into goo and preserving them in machine form, so their civilizations can live on in the form of knowledge. So, [[spoiler:the Catalyst]] argues, it's ''not'' hypocritical to prevent synthetics from killing organics using these methods because he ''doesn't'' violate his own principle: he ''preserves'' organics, which, to him, isn't quite the same thing.
117	** It's rather poignant that Shepard can convince [[spoiler:a Reaper]] that they are the same thing. It shuts down when it realizes it is nothing more than a twisted mass grave.
118	* Often used in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' on role-playing servers by trolls. "I ''am'' role playing. My character is a jerk!"
119	* One of the shifts in Garrett's character between the original ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' trilogy and the 2014 reboot is that, whereas in the original he needed to take burglary jobs to cover rent and other living expenses, Reboot!Garrett steals things because "It's what I do." [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw's]] review of the reboot pointed out that this removed a lot of the complexity from the character, countering, "No, it is ''what you are currently doing''!"
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Web Comics]]
123	* A ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' [[http://ninja.lhost.de/wiki/index.php/2009-10-21_Normal_3 strip]] illustrates the problem with this type of thinking when Fuchsia kicks dirt on Monique's shoes.
124	-->'''Fuchsia:''' You deserved it, walking around like you're all that!\
125	'''Monique:''' It is my ''nature'' to be all that. It can't be helped.\
126	'''Fuchsia:''' Well, it's ''my'' nature to torch things!\
127	(''they fight'')
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Web Original]]
131	* [[http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/grandfather-scorpion Grandfather Scorpion]] from ''Website/TheWanderersLibrary'', which directly references the tale of the scorpion and the turtle.
132	* Dan Olson of ''WebVideo/FoldingIdeas'' refers to a version of this as the "[[Film/GalaxyQuest Thermian]] argument", a common line of discussion in pop culture where people excuse incredibly offensive subject matter in SpeculativeFiction by declaring that that's the way the story's world works. The name of the argument comes from [[CannotTellFictionFromReality the fact that it treats completely invented material as an unchanging real world]]. As he points out, it's absurd to claim that anything in a story ''has'' to be a given way, because barring pure historical fiction or biography, the worlds of stories are entirely invented by their writers. He gives the example of trying to excuse criticism of a female character wearing {{Stripperiffic}} armor by saying that it's the armor of her tribe, when said tribal culture is entirely an invention of the author.
133	* Shows up in Ian Danskin's video "There's Always A Bigger Fish" as the different between right wingers and left wingers, namely that the latter believe that human beings are by nature equal and the former believes they are by nature ''unequal''. Leftist societies are democratic, and conservatives favor hierarchies, and reject the others' idea as unnatural. Danskin then retorts that all societies are constructed, and the one we have is the one we ''chose'' to have.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Western Animation]]
137	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' involved around an AnimalWrongsGroup defending Mojo Jojo against the titular girls because they believed it was his natural instinct to do everything he did (including acting human, building complex machinery, and trying to conquer the city). According to the DVD commentary, this whole episode was a TakeThat against people in real life who ''actually did'' think it was cruelty to animals to have Mojo get the crap kicked out of him every few episodes.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Real Life]]
141	* In his confession, SerialKiller H. H. Holmes (who killed several dozen women around the time of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair) "justified" his murders this way.
142	-->"I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing."
143	* Those born with mental illness such as psychopathy often justify their actions this way. However, while you can't control everything, plenty of psychopaths have lived moral lives such as Dr. Robert Hare. Dr. Hare studied the brains of psychopathic murderers and found their minds were different than a "normal" person's. When he scanned his own mind out of curiosity, he found that, he too, was a psychopath. Yet, while his family knew he had empathy issues, they raised him well enough that he [[DefiedTrope never]] became a criminal or an immoral man.
144	* This is one of the founding principles of the United States. Referenced in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the Bill of Rights is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law idea]] that all people have basic rights inherent in their humanity; they're not granted by the government and therefore the government can't justly revoke or suppress them. The writers claimed justification in [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution rebelling against the king]] because of his interference with these natural rights.
145	--> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights ... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...
146	* Skeptical theism is a theodicy that basically uses this as the main argument: since GodIsGood, evil is not in His nature, so whenever God does or allows something that appears evil to humans, this must be only because we lack the knowledge to understand how it is really good.
147	* This is sadly a reason why [[AdultsAreUseless some adults can be useless]], claiming there's no point helping toddlers/children/teens treat others well because "it's not in their nature". Yes, KidsAreCruel, but can be taught kindness (and without intervention or positive role models, are far less likely to grow out of bad behaviour).
148	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / AppealToInherentNature