History Main / CultureJustifiesAnything

* Ishboo from the TV sketch comedy ''AllThat''.

** Of course, the fact that batarians regularly raid the colonies of ''other species and cultures'' for slaves -- whom they then treat so badly that just seeing the after-effects drove a veteran military officer to insanity -- really doesn't help their case any.

* When the Arabian Fables join Fabletown in ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'', they are told they will have to free their slaves. The Arabian Fables object, claiming that slave ownership is part of their culture. King Cole then says that Fabletown will honour their custom of owning slaves, if they agree to honour Fabletown's custom of executing slaveholders. The Arabian Fables agree to free their slaves.

** This exchange is something of a [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged trope,]] since despite Vriska defending her morality with 'cultural differences', other trolls seem to find her actions reprehensible too.

%%The example is his rhetoric, not the actual social situation in India. Besides, it's over a century old.

This nastiest form of cultural relativism is to honour people's "right" to be murdered, raped, and subjected to any kind of horror against their will. A "right" they get burdened with for belonging to a certain culture... or even simply because their ''abuser'' belongs to a certain culture, never mind that they have no connection to it themselves.

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.

For good, neutral and neutralish forms of cultural relativism, see instead GoodVersusGood, BothSidesHaveAPoint and BlueAndOrangeMorality. Compare AgreeToDisagree. Contrast AgainstMyReligion, where someone is sticking to his values in a honorable manner.

* In the ''{{Gor}}'' novels, the author goes out of his way to point out that Gor is a different planet and that earthly cultural values thus doesn't apply. This include the fact that pretty much everything is presented as being "of Gor", to the point where it can get really annoying to read about how the sheep of Gor grazes the plains of Gor to produce the wool of Gor.

* ''Sideshow'' by SheriSTepper takes place on a planet with a whole bunch of tiny states, each of which tends to have some abhorrent custom like baby-sacrificing. The protagonists start out working for the Enforcers, whose job it is to maintain the cultural diversity of the planet.
* In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', the watchmen uses 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 an honorary dwarf, is able to get them to stop by [[DontTellMama reminding them of their poor mothers back home]].

* In [[AlastairReynolds Alastair Reynold's]] ''ThePrefect'', this is taken to an extreme in the "Glitter Band", an anarchist collection of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, where the only guaranteed right is the right to vote. The individual habitats are free to vote and institute whatever laws they like, and thus have specialized into extremes, with some attempting to become utopias, while others became "voluntary tyrannies".

[[AC:Music]]
* Referenced in Music/{{Weird Al Yankovic}}'s song "Weasel Stomping Day, about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a holiday devoted to stomping weasels to death]]. One of the lines in the song is, ''It's tradition; that makes it okay!''

* Batarians in ''MassEffect'' practice slavery, which they view as a cultural right and an inextricable part of their caste system. Since slavery 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. 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.

** This exchange is something of a [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged trope,]] since despite Vriska defending her morality with 'cultural differences', other trolls seem to find her actions reprehensible too.

* An episode of ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' featured the ''Enterprise'' crew running into a civilization of two planets that were locked in an eternal war. To limit the devastation and preserve their culture, both civilizations agreed to stop shooting real weapons and use giant, inter-linked computers to simulate shooting at each other. When the computers recorded "hits", it also listed who was "killed" by the "attack". Those "casualties" were then rounded up and sent to actual death chambers. The war rages, people die, but no actual damage to either world. At the episode's climax, the planet's top leader tries to trick the entire crew of the Enterprise into beaming off the ship because the computer recorded a "hit" on her. At the end of the episode, Kirk severs the radio link between the two planets, which brought down a threat of a war with real weapons and real destruction coming down on both worlds. Kirk leaves the planet saying that this could be the consequence, or they could negotiate a much needed peace.

->''"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."''
-->-- '''Charles James Napier''' (attributed), during his governorship in British India

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has [[ChaoticEvil Belkar]] [[SociopathicHero Bitterleaf]] defending his right to a cultural heritage of murder and evading the Detect Evil spell. Made funnier by the fact that the context make it quite obvious that he made up this "cultural heritage" on the spot.

* Elves are treated liked crap in the ''DragonAge'' universe because, well, they're second-class citizens. I mean, it's okay to treat elves like second-class citizens because they're ''elves''! The player has the option of treating elves as actual people, but this doesn't really have a great effect on the game world.

This nastiest form of cultural relativism is to honor people's "right" to be murdered, raped, and subjected to any kind of horror against their will. A "right" they get burdened with for belonging to a certain culture... or even simply because their ''abuser'' belongs to a certain culture, never mind that they have no connection to it themselves.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has [[ChaoticEvil Belkar]] [[HeroicSociopath Bitterleaf]] defending his right to a cultural heritage of murder and evading the Detect Evil spell. Made funnier by the fact that the context make it quite obvious that he made up this "cultural heritage" on the spot.

* In Shirley Jackson's short story ''TheLottery'', the titular competition is constantly defended with such statements as "It's tradition." A particularly horrific example in that the characters use this defense not on outsiders but on ''themselves''--even they can't explain ''why'' they go through this brutal ritual every year, but it's so ingrained in their culture that they carry it out regardless.

** This exchange is ultimately something of a subversion, or at least a [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged trope,]] since despite Vriska defending her morality with 'cultural differences', other trolls seem to find her actions reprehensible too.

* When the Arabian Fables join Fabletown in ''{{Fables}}'', they are told they will have to free their slaves. The Arabian Fables object, claiming that slave ownership is part of their culture. King Cole then says that Fabletown will honour their custom of owning slaves, if they agree to honour Fabletown's custom of executing slaveholders. The Arabian Fables agree to free their slaves.

* ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'' has [[ChaoticEvil Belkar]] [[HeroicSociopath Bitterleaf]] defending his right to a cultural heritage of murder and evading the Detect Evil spell. Made funnier by the fact that the context make it quite obvious that he made up this "cultural heritage" on the spot.

This trope is about someone directly or indirectly using "culture" as a way of trying to get himself 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.

* In Shirley Jackson's short story ''TheLottery'', the titular competition is constantly defended with such statements as "It's tradition."

* An episode of ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' featured the ''Enterprise'' crew running into a civilization of two planets that were locked in an eternal war. To limit the devastation and preserve their culture, both civilizations agreed to stop shooting real weapons and use giant, inter-linked computers to simulate shooting at each other. When the computers recorded "hits", it also listed who was "killed" by the "attack". Those "casualties" were then rounded up and sent to actual death chambers. The war rages, people die, but no actual damage to the planet thus their civilization and culture is preserved. At the episode's climax, the planet's top leader tries to trick the entire crew of the Enterprise into beaming off the ship because the computer recorded a "hit" on her. Fed up with what he saw, Kirk destroys the computer and the episode ends with him saying, "If you want to kill each other, use a REAL weapon."