Tropes A to B (Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole, Arc Villain, Berserk Button, Beware the Silly Ones, Big Brother Instinct, Bowdlerise, Break the Cutie) | Tropes C to D (Call-Back, Chekhov's Gun, Cliffhanger, Combat Pragmatist, Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, Curb-Stomp Battle, Dark and Troubled Past, Deconstructed Character Archetype) | Tropes E to F (Early Installment Weirdness, Famous Last Words, Foreshadowing) | Tropes G to J (Heart is an Awesome Power, Hypocrite) | Tropes K to M (Laser-Guided Karma, Logical Weakness, Mass "Oh, Crap!", Moral Myopia, Muscles Are Meaningless) | Tropes N to P (Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, Oh, Crap!, O.O.C. Is Serious Business) | Tropes Q to S (The Reveal, Shout-Out, Spanner in the Works, Superpower Lottery) | Tropes T to Z (Wham Episode, Wham Line)
- The World Government is a bunch of hypocrites in every sense of the word. A phrase they love to use is "Absolute Justice", which means using an "eye for an eye" approach to punishing criminals. But they consider themselves exempt in several ways:
- For instance, they claim "unawareness" of the still existing slavery (despite "abolishing" it over two centuries ago, it still exists due to the World Nobles), making any form of Justice that the Marines claim to have hypocritical since slavery and its practices are ultimately the antithesis of justice. Moreover, not only are they okay with being tasked and required to recapture slaves who were lucky enough to escape from the Celestial dragons, but they had no problem with getting several Marine officers and Cipher Pol agents as mere children from Mother Carmel, a slave trader posing as the head of an orphanage.
- Also, they often ignore the concept of "justice" altogether and the term can sometimes be as questionable as the morals that drive their opinion of 'Justice'. Because of all this, the people who follow Absolute Justice can be seen just as bad, or even worse, than the criminals. The Battle of Marineford is a good example, where the Marines refused to give up and continued fighting the pirates, even though their goal had been achieved.
- Most notably, the World Government often recruits powerful and influential criminals (specifically pirates) to become their allies, such as the Seven Warlords of the Sea. The government pardons all the past crimes committed by these pirates, along with any other criminal who works directly under them, and allows them to continue their illegal activities (to an extent), willing to look the other way simply to maintain their hold on society's faith in the strength of "justice". The World Government then had no choice but to abolish the system after the pirates (unsurprisingly) used it to terrorize the islands they were in charge of.
- One of the biggest examples of the World Government's hypocrisy (that's really saying something) is that it is founded on one basic principle: "There should be no absolute ruler of the world." It's taken so seriously that the World Government's symbol is the Empty Throne, symbolizing the tenet, and the Kings and the Marines (independent of how good or bad they are personally) follow this rule with respect. Even their top heads, the Five Elders, symbolize the division of power. But, there is a secret ruler named Imu, who governs the world and sits on the Empty Throne, and whom the above-mentioned Five Elders bow to. It basically shows that the Five Elders (the supposed 'fair' rulers) are no more than (witting) puppets to the absolute ruler of the world, and that everything the World Government stands for are ultimately nothing more than murderously-enforced lies.
- For an individual example, Absalom from the Thriller Bark Saga has called Sanji a pervert many times; this coming from a guy who has used his Suke Suke no Mi Devil Fruit power to spy on women who are bathing and molest them, having done it to both Nami and Robin.
- Arlong is also revealed to be this in the flashbacks of the Fish-man Island arc. For all that he spews about Fish-men superiority to the human race, the flashbacks reveal that the real reason he settled down in the East Blue is because he got his ass kicked by the very human Vice-Admiral Borsalino (the future Admiral Kizaru), an experience that scarred him and made him realize how far below he was from the real top tier fighters of the world. Ultimately, he's too much of a coward to try and hack it with the true monsters of the Grand Line (most of who are, pointedly, human), so he ran off to the weakest sea in the world to live out his ambitions there.
- Donquixote Doflamingo calls Luffy and Law "brats" that an adult like him doesn't have time to deal with, even though he is little more than a Spoiled Brat throwing a thirty year-long temper tantrum over the fact that his (former) fellow World Nobles didn't allow him to return to Mariejois.
- Doflamingo also espouses the value of 'family' to his crewmembers, who all have Undying Loyalty on him due to this. Not only does he not iron out Baby 5's weakness due to the convenience it presents, but during the Birdcage, when called out that he would be killing his crewmembers, Doflamingo happily decides to let them die, claiming he can just make a new one.
- At the end of the Water 7 arc, Genzo (the village policeman and mayor of Nami's home village) is shown trying to complain to the World Government for using a photo of Nami in a bikini on her "Wanted!" Poster... while having the same photo blown-up to wall size inside his own home. However, unlike the examples above and below, this is Played for Laughs.
- Vinsmoke Judge is the biggest hypocrite in One Piece next to the World Government (and possibly Doflamingo). He torments and abuses his third son Sanji for "weakness" i.e compassion, refuses to save Sanji from his sadistic brothers while he cries for help, saying if Sanji can't defend himself he deserves to be beaten, and he spites Sanji for having emotions since he made sure his brothers were born without humanity. Cut to the Whole Cake Island tea party where Judge's been captured and held at gunpoint by Big Mom's children and he dissolves into Inelegant Blubbering, sobbing about how unfair it is to the point where Perospero along with Ichiji, Niji and Yonji (his own sons) mock him for being so pathetic in the face of his death. Ironically, Judge has his worthless hide saved by Sanji, the son he considered his greatest shame. Also, when he needs to suck up to Big Mom in the Arranged Marriage which ended up causing this in the first place, he treated Sanji like a beloved child and not someone he's been tormenting from a early age.
- Judge admonishing Sanji for being weak is even more ironic, as he can't even fight his son without using a Raid Suit and, even then, still uses a Human Shield just so he can get the jump on his super strong son.
- Kurozumi Orochi is just as bad as the World Government and Judge when it comes to hypocrisy. He shills himself as Wano’s courageous saviour who saved the country from the “traitor” Oden, when, in actuality, he took over by force with Kaido’s aid and is a Dirty Coward when it comes to his own life. He maintains Wano’s isolation and kills anyone who breaks it, but has no qualms making shady deals with CP0, essentially breaking Wano’s isolation to fit his own needs. He gets even worse in Chapter 932, as he goes into a Unstoppable Rage when poor little Toko laughs at him and tries to kill her, when the only reason she’s Laughing Mad is because Orochi infected her by feeding her a defective SMILE fruit. Also, when Komurasaki — whom Orochi has a Villainous Crush on — seemingly gets killed protecting Toko from him, he becomes enraged and blames everyone (especially Toko) for her death, ignoring his part in the matter. No wonder Kaido attempted to kill him once he became a liability.
- Black Maria has a big moment of this. Similar to Kalifa, she delightfully mocks Sanji for being unable to hit women when she has him in clutches and delights in beating him up while he's immobilised. Yet, when Black Maria does get struck in the face herself courtesy of Robin, what's her reaction? Immediately whining that her new opponent dared hit her in the face.
- Kaido himself has a moment of this after Big Mom is defeated, entering his weepy drunk phase, he cries that he and Linlin swore they conquer the seas together, saying it was their dream. Luffy quickly points out he has no business talking about dreams, when he spends his life crushing the dreams of others.
