Aeon 14: Admiral Senya from Bollam's World, who tries to capture the Intrepid at the end of Destiny Lost. When the fighting starts, she fires on the ship. The ISF intercepts her shots and Intrepid returns fire on the emplaced railguns that fired at her. Senya accuses Tanis of murdering hundreds of Bollers; Tanis retorts that if her shots had connected with Intrepid, thousands would have died.
Lampshaded in A Brother's Price: Ren admits that it is hypocrisy to tell Jerin he is allowed to reject women, after having seduced him against his (rational) wishes at the beginning of the novel. And the whole Whistler clan, whose grandfather was kidnapped, but who, of course, would be furious if someone kidnapped their brothers.
Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat: Jake is perfectly happy to assist in the rape and murder of Guardian Angels as long as Nephilim isn't threatened by then. He also seems to believe Nephilim would be okay with this despite her friendship with many of them.
The Chinese and Russians in Dale Brown books. To them, it's perfectly fine to throw their weight around, commit atrocities and break treaties. If the Americans remotely try to stand up for themselves? It's imperialist aggression! If Pat McLanahan shows them the error of their ways they whine like babies throwing a tantrum.
In a story from The Case-Book Of Sherlock Holmes, a man conceals his sister's natural death so he won't lose access to her fortune until after he cleans up at the horse races. He defends his actions to Holmes, insisting that he did nothing that was disrespectful of the dead, even keeping his sister's body safe within the family crypt. Nobody points out that he'd first had his servant drag a body that was already in the tomb from its rightful resting place, burn it in the stove piece by piece, and then throw the ashes out with the trash.
In Robert E. Howard's "The Phoenix on the Sword", Conan is shocked that the ghost of Epemitreus comes to him when he is an outlander and a barbarian; he helps Aquilonia. Epemitreus explains that Aquilonia's fate is tied to Conan. OTOH, what Epemitreus is doing is helping, so arguably isn't something an outsider could demand by right.
In "Shadows In Zamboula", the locals hide when their cannibalistic slaves rove for prey and don't care about the foreigners who get caught.
Confessions (Saint Augustine): When playing games with his friends, our saintly narrator would denounce any slight breach of the rules with all his ferocity; whenever anyone caught him cheating, he would react with equal ferocity in order to defend himself, with no moral qualm except whether his defense would help him win the game.
Vlad Tepes in Count and Countess. As a kid, he was fairly ethical, but as an adult, he seems to live by a bizarre code of standards that changes to fit whatever mood he's in.
Cradle Series: Due to the constant use of Asskicking Leads to Leadership, the vast majority of sacred artists are bullies who will do anything to get ahead, and then call an honor duel when someone else does the same thing to them. Lindon has, on multiple occasions, been called an honorless dog for the crime of not dying when someone much more powerful randomly attacked him.
In one book, witch Rhea sends her pet viper up a tree to drop down and kill Roland. It tries, but Roland's too quick and blasts it out of the air. Cue Rhea screaming with rage at him for killing her pet, while Roland quite rightly points out that she's the one who sent the snake to his death.
In the last book, a minor villain is angry at the heroes for surprise-attacking him and his friends and slaughtering them. Considering that he was in the business of slowly destroying all of The Multiverse, you'd think he would at least have expected his enemies to mention that one back at him.
Debt of Honor: One of the main arguments the Japanese make for the plan is that America has been gleefully making use of Japan to national All Take and No Give levels while never treating them with respect, and how would you like it if someone else did it to you?
Manny is totally fine with calling Greg a "ploopy", but absolutely loses it when Greg calls him by that name.
Susan is against Greg's lies, even though she has lied to him a few times.
In Hard Luck, Greg believes Abigail is only with Rowley to use him because she makes him help her carry her books, even though Greg himself did that a lot too.
Played for laughs; Nanny Ogg is proud to admit that one of her children was stealing lead off of the opera house roof because "It isn't a crime if an Ogg does it."
The same goes for the Ogg clan in general. While Nanny Ogg will stand for (and encourage) fighting, backstabbing and general competition within the family, the second anyone from outside the family tries this against them there'll be trouble.
Defied by Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. As seen in Night Watch Discworld, he is adamantly against the idea that "it's not bad if the good guys do it".
Lampshaded by Lord Vetinari in Jingo, when asked why Morporkian and Klatchian fishermen have occupied the newly-risen island of Leshp. Consulting his notes, the Patrician essentially states that the Morporkians are brave explorers pushing the boundaries of their civilization ever onward, while the Klatchians are greedy land-grabbers out for whatever they can get. This statement pleases the folks who've come to discuss the Leshp issue ... at least, until Vetinari glances down at his notes and admits that, oops, he'd read those two descriptions in the wrong order.
Explicitly spelled out for Senna of Everworld. She sees no problem with selling out the main four characters to Hel, but when her mother sells her out to Merlin, she...doesn't take it well.
The Executioner: Mack Bolan notes this tendency in one novel. A team of Mafia hitmen is sent to murder a certain undercover cop, but instead find their advance team dead. Bolan listens to them ranting and raging about how the would-be target will die a slow and agonizing death for this "treachery", reflects on the hypocrisy involved, then proceeds to slaughter the lot of them.
Falling Up by Brian J Bromberg: Alvaro grew up in Miami, where he ran with local Puerto Rican gangs, then moved to New York and joined the high art scene. Gregg's narration notes that the same unruly behavior of Alvaro's that would have been looked down on in his gang years is acceptable—even appreciated—coming from a high artist.
Alvaro smokes, drinks, fucks, and fights. In Miami, a boy in a Puerto Rican gang who does that is a thug. In New York, a European artist who does that is an eccentric whose work is worth purchasing. Go figure.
A Patrician general directs artillery fire where he knows Ghosts are, killing hundreds of them, after they captured in a day a fortress the Patricians had tried to storm for months. And if Gaunt was a normal Commissar he would have shot them all (which he can, he can kill a Lord General, as long as he has a good reason).
In Gifts, Ogge Drum steals two valuable cows from Caspromant, which Canoc Caspro politely but incontrovertibly calls him on when visiting Drummant (he has to "steal" them back anyway when the visit goes sour). A year or so later, Ogge attacks Caspromant for the "theft" of the cows.
In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Gods of Mars, the therns are horrified by the fate of thern women taken by black pirates (deduced by their never taking men alive).
"Is it not a just retribution?" I could not help but ask. "What do you mean?" "Do not the therns themselves do likewise with the poor creatures who take the voluntary pilgrimage down the River of Mystery? Was not Thuvia for fifteen years a plaything and a slave? Is it less than just that you should suffer as you have caused others to suffer?" "You do not understand," she replied. "We therns are a holy race. It is an honour to a lesser creature to be a slave among us. Did we not occasionally save a few of the lower orders that stupidly float down an unknown river to an unknown end all would become the prey of the plant men and the apes."
The Grace of Kings: Matu Zyndu was trained from birth to live like a Warrior Prince out of legend, so he doesn't understand how other people might have other motivations — like, say, living in peace and safety, or being free of an archaic caste system. He's described as a man who would cry for the death of his horse but not understand why his civilians might object to having all their food stores seized for his armies.
In Griffin's Daughter, Sadaiyo is convinced his younger brother Ashinji is the source of his unhappiness. Without him around, the people (and more importantly, their father, Lord Sen) would give him the love and honors he "deserved." Completely oblivious to the fact that the people hate and fear him because he's The Evil Prince.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone brings us this gem:note To be fair to Ron and the others, though, they were breaking the rules to stop Voldemort from gaining power again so it wasn't particularly morally dubious. But due to Ron having a poor way of phrasing a lot of things it comes across as this.
Neville: You can't go out, you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble... I won't let you do it. I'll.. I'll fight you! Ron: Neville, get away from that hole and don't be an idiot. Neville: Don't you call me an idiot! I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the ones who told me to stand up to people! Ron: Yes, but not to us!
Snape practices this a lot. He calmly defends his friend Mulciber's action as a "bit of fun" in a Noodle Incident that Lily claims was dark magic, while despising James Potter because he personally was on the receiving end of James's admittedly cruel but not dark or dangerous "bit of fun." He shows prejudice against Muggle-borns calling them mudbloods and planning to join the Death Eaters, who intend to pursue a genocide against them, while his own best friend is a Muggle-born witch whom he is horrified to have called mudblood in a fit of anger. As she later points out when he tries to apologize, he would call anyone of her birth "mudblood", so she should really be no different. His decision to turn against Voldemort is motivated not by the fact that the man is responsible for an unimaginable number of murders of innocent people and other horrific crimes, but because he specifically targets Lily Potter, the love of Snape's life. Dumbledore calls him out on this when Snape admits that he has asked Voldemort to spare Lily while killing the rest of her family.
Dumbledore: If she means so much to you, surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son? Snape: I have – I have asked him - Dumbledore:You disgust me. You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?
For example, in Echoes of Honor, a State Sec general eagerly anticipates a deadly vengeance on Hades's prison-breakers for killing his comrade and friend, willfully ignorant of the atrocities the wardens have committed.
Explicitly stated as a fact of official policy by the Solarian League. A prime example is the reaction to the destruction of Admiral Byng's ship. "Who cares if he just destroyed three of their battleships who didn't even have their shields up! They just attacked one of US! This is an act of WAR!!"
The Host (2008): To the Souls, having the host gain control of them and thus erase their identity is considered a Fate Worse than Death. The Souls doing this to their hosts is, of course, nothing of the sort. This comes with the territory for a race of puppeteer parasites.
Johannes Cabal: The titular Necromancer is a criminal and Doom Magnet who routinely kills people for annoying him. However, when someone's Driven to Suicide, he's appalled by the senseless waste of life; and he disdains career criminals as "parasites" on society.
The Fairy Godmother: Alexander starts off with a severe case of "anything a noble like me does is fine". Trying to trample a crippled old woman under his warhorse's hooves? A reasonable tactic. Being transformed by the not-so-crippled, not-so-old Godmother he just tried to kill, and dragged off for lessons in being a decent person? She's obviously a peasant, which makes this totally unforgivable. She quickly breaks him of this thought process.
In The Black Swan, a retelling of Swan Lake, nearly every major character thinks what they are doing is only right and fair, even though some of them are doing terrible things. The sympathetic ones get enough character development to grow out of it.
In the novel The Lies of Locke Lamora, the Big Bad manages to steal nearly all of Locke's possessions and fortune, as well as destroying his home and taking the lives of some of his close friends. Locke works himself into a fit of rage and misery over this, swearing revenge, and it never once occurs to him that this is how his victims must feel when he's conned them out of all their earthly possessions.
The Lord of the Rings: A couple of orcs engage in a case of it in The Two Towers. The orcs from two different strongholds come to check the path through Shelob's lair just after Frodo and Sam have fought her, and Frodo is apparently killed by her sting. When the leaders get together and talk things over, one reveals that Shelob's sting doesn't kill (much to the shock of Sam, who genuinely believed Frodo was dead), and then scornfully condemns Sam leaving his fallen comrade Frodo behind as "a regular Elvish trick." However, a few minutes later that same orc tells about how one of his men was stung by Shelob and a patrol encountered him soon afterwards, still alive and captive in her webs... but they didn't even try to rescue their fellow orc because it wasn't worth the time, effort, or the risk of fighting Shelob. Both orcs approve of this and laugh at the story without ever drawing a connection between the two incidents.
In Jane Austen's Love and Freindship, Sophia and Laura's concern extends solely to those they approve of — those, in fact, who act like characters in a novel. They abuse Sacred Hospitality by persuading a man's daughter to run off with a fortune-hunter and steal from him with clear consciences.
This discovery she imparted to me; and having agreed together that it would be a proper treatment of so vile a Wretch as Macdonald to deprive him of Money, perhaps dishonestly gained, it was determined that the next time we should either of us happen to go that way, we would take one or more of the Bank notes from the drawer.
New Jedi Order: This is the stock in trade of the Yuuzhan Vong. Jedi kills one of your family? Foul, heretical murder that demands vengeance in the name of the gods, usually in the form of slaughtering their friends, family and everyone they ever met. This is a direct result of their psychopathic religious teachings, and they get better. Eventually.
Discussed in the Mario Puzo novel Omerta. A mob boss and his daughter are arguing over whether the death penalty is right or not. While she takes the typical view that no one has a right to kill anyone else, he shoots back that they don't have a right to grant mercy either if they haven't been affected by the offender's crimes.
One of Us is Lying Simon defends his gossip app, About That, by saying they "bring it on themselves" by doing shady things. He refuses to consider that the gossip app itself is pretty shady. As is rigging the Junior Prom vote. And staging your suicide to ruin four people's lives.
Jake Riordan is on board with the fake murder plot to get revenge on Addy for cheating on him by ruining her life with a false murder charge. Because getting someone convicted for a murder they didn't commit is in no way worse than cheating.
Jared Jackson in One of Us is Next. Jared's brother is a Corrupt Cop arrested as a result of Eli's biggest case. Both of his parents are dead as a result. Which is sad and all, but doesn't exactly justify his plan to kill Eli and his whole wedding party with a bomb. It also doesn't seem to have occurred to him that his brother might bear some responsibility for sending innocent people to jail.
Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: This definitely happened in the book Payback. When three men wearing presidential gold shields give Jack Emery a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Jack goes to his girlfriend Nicole Quinn and gives her a What the Hell, Hero? speech. He basically accuses her of bringing this on him just because he snooped around on her business and tells her to go to hell. She in turn gives Charles Martin the same type of speech for calling in those men on Jack. Charles responds by pointing out that she only cares because they beat up her boyfriend, and that she wouldn't care if they did that to someone she didn't know. She ends up admitting that he has a point.
In Tanya Huff's Smoke and Mirrors antagonist Creighton Caufield expresses the disgust over protagonist Tony's homosexuality that one might expect from a moralistic person from the early-20th Century. Indeed, he explicitly states that "Homosexuality is against the law of nature". The fact that he's the ghost of a Necromancerwho feeds off the energy generated by tormentedcaptive souls as part of a bid to become a Lovecraftian Eldritch Abomination somewhat undermines his claim to rectitude however.
A Song of Ice and Fire definitely has a lot of this going on with most of the different factions, as is fitting for the Grey-and-Gray Morality of this Crapsack World full of Feuding Families and power-plays. Possibly the best example of this is the exiled Princess, Daenerys Targaryen. She is fiercely loyal and kind to those she cares about, and tries really hard to be a good ruler when she gets the chance to rule in Essos. However, she still wants to return to Westeros and reclaim the Iron Throne because she considers it rightfully hers, and wrongfully taken from her father. Never mind the fact that this means she therefore basically starts out treating cities in Essos as tutorials to get her hand in before heading to a home she doesn't even remember, rather than complex places with layered cultures deserving less of a disdainful attitude when they don't meet her Westerosi-based ethics. Also, never mind the other fact that her father was widely known as the "Mad King" and lost her originally Valyrian family's self-forged titles as a direct result of his own actions. The main instance where her conviction is shaken even a little about her automatic right to rule in either continent is when she confidently declares that she holds Ned Stark and Tywin Lannister equally responsible for the Lannisters' slaughter of her brother's infant children, despite Ned being furious at the murders. This is because "If a child is set upon by a pack of hounds, does it matter which one tears out his throat? All the dogs are just as guilty." But, then she hesitates when she remembers that one of her dragons killed a child of one of her own conquered subjects, and that, by her own standards, she is morally responsible for that, too — even though she had no full say in Drogon's action. Note that in this world of feuding nobles who get huge numbers of peasants killed for their honour or ambition, this counts as a moment of extreme self-reflection, and few of the other characters (even the "good" ones), ever seem to truly consider the damage they cause unless it affects members of their own family or people under their protection. Also, she claims the famously honourable Ned Stark had no honour for rebelling against Aerys II, even though the Mad King burnt Ned's father alive, strangled his older brother, then tried to have Ned and his best friend killed. The fact that Dany has responded just as forcefully (if not more so) to anyone attempting to harm people she cares about flies right over her head.
Fire & Blood: During the Dance of the Dragons, Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower pleaded to Rhaenyra to end the war because her grandchildren had been killed. Rhaenyra points out her sons have also been killed, and Alicent immediately dismisses them as "bastard blood". Note the first of Rhae's kids killed was done by Aemond, Alicent's son, on purpose for something done to him years before, not some heat-of-the-moment accident. Of the other, he was turned into a human pincushion by troops loyal to Alicent's first-born Aegon. Not surprisingly, then, Rhaenyra tells Alicent to shove it, and has her thrown back into a cell.
In Guy Gavriel Kay's novel Tigana: Brandin comes down with an epic-scale case of this. Punishing a person for killing his son? Would have been relatively OK. Punishing the country that was on the other side in the battle where his son fell? Not so much. Erasing the country's name from history and exiling or enslaving its population, for killing his son, in a battle that only happened because he was invading? Welcome to this trope.note It's also noteworthy that Brandin's favoured son was leading an army to kill the people that happened to kill him. And that he does get revenge against the man who killed his son. He just keeps going!
In Poul Anderson's "Time Lag", though they justify it because they are overpopulated, Chertkoi seizes planets without the slightest concern for the inhabitants. Bors derides the people of Vaynamo both for trying to negotiate and trying to fight back. (Though he does show some signs of Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, since he wonders why they do not seize the Alfavala land for their own use.)
Harry Turtledove: this is a frequent theme in all of Turtledove's work. You'll often have a character revile the actions of the others side when his side is doing the exact same thing. And just in case you missed it, he'll helpfully point out that the character doesn't notice his own hypocrisy.
The World War series has this as the hat of The Race, lizard-like aliens who come to Earth during World War II to add the planet to their empire. Because their kind are so slow to change, they think everyone and everything should fall within their own standards. For example, they refer to Earthly religions as superstitions, but believe in their own version of Heaven as fervently as any human true believer. Their justification for this? Because their entire species, as well as the two races they conquered, have believed this for tens of thousands of years. If they were wrong about their afterlife, don't you think they'd know by now?
One of the main Race characters is a "landcruiser" (i.e. tank) driver who revels in the thought of rolling along in his impenetrable armor and obliterating the savage Tosevites (their word for humans). Then a sniper kills the tank commander (who is looking out of the hatch), causing the driver to throw a fit at this injustice. It's perfectly ok for the Race to kill while invading, but not for the damned savages. Another lizard is a "killercraft" (i.e. fighter/bomber) pilot, who loves shooting down the comparatively slow and weak human aircraft and bomb the living shit out of humans. When he's finally killed by a nuke exploding nearby, his last words are "Not fair!"
In the final book in the series, when humanity sends ambassadors to the Race's home planet, and some mice (brought along as food tasters) get released, causing ecological damage, which makes the Race throw a fit. The Americans point out that the mice were released by accident (by a member of the Race, no less), but the Race had absolutely no problem importing their own flora and fauna to Earth, to the point of completely changing the ecology of some regions (primarily around the Middle East). Their response to this is "That's different, because we're the ones who did it."
This, naturally, happens in reverse too. A secret attack by Americans destroys several colonization ships of the Race with thousands of peacefully-sleeping colonists aboard. Sam Yeager, one of the series' focus characters, exposes the truth because he found the attack distasteful and cowardlynote explicitly calling it worse than Pearl Harbor because the colonists were civilians, and the Race retaliates by nuking Indianapolis. Because of his actions, Yeager gets treated like the next Benedict Arnold by pretty much everyone except for his small circle of friends and family; the general attitude is that he should have followed Species Loyalty and My Country, Right or Wrong rather than any sense of fairness or honesty.
Jeremiah Stafford, one of the two Consuls of the United States of Atlantis in Liberating Atlantis, is a conservative slave-owner from the southern part of the island continent and repeatedly voices his objections to the slave rebellion which forms the central conflict of the story, complaining about the slaves killing their owners and sometimes raping white women as revenge for decades of oppression. It's also pointed out throughout the story that slave-owning whites have been doing the same thing to their slaves for far longer and he always dismisses it as not being the same, firmly believing that whites running the world while blacks and Terranovan copperskins (the consistent term for Native Americans in this timeline) do all the menial labor is the natural order of things and it's unthinkable that it could ever be any different. He comes around by the end and has more of a healthy respect for the ex-slaves, even putting down the arguments of his own political allies when they debate abolishing slavery in Atlantis.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi: The Nihil hate the Republic for being "tyrants" encroaching on their "freedoms." The freedoms in question being the freedom to raid and pillage the entire Outer Rim. The tempest riders appear to just be paying lip service to the ideal as a means to control their people, but Marchion Ro seems to genuinely believe it at least to some extent.
Viceroy's Pride: The elves, naturally. They live for millennia and see humans, at best, as funny little animals that can be useful. One declares eternal vengeance on Dan for multiple crimes that basically boil down to "you made me look bad by not instantly dying."
The Ilse Witch in The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara wants revenge on the Druid, Walker, for supposedly killing her family (her Evil Mentor actually did it). She can't understand how anyone could want to help a murderer like Walker. And is totally oblivious to the number of orphans she is creating in her quest for revenge.
In William King's Warhammer 40,000Space Wolf novel Space Wolf, the Grimskulls were deeply embittered that the Thunderfists captured their settlement, enslaving their women and children. They went off, licking their wounds, and were lucky enough to find another settlement which they could overrun, killing all the men and enslaving the women and children, which they regard as a god rewarding their perseverance with a prize. They recovered there, and went back for revenge on the Thunderfists for their terrible crime.
A notable aversion in Watership Down. General Woundwort will call out the cowardice of his troops for fleeing from cats, other rabbits, etc. But when his troops are attacked he stands his ground. His last words? "Come back you fools. Dogs aren't dangerous".
The Marquis de Sade and his characters often complained of being denied the freedom to murder, rape and torture people for pleasure, given that it's just their way, only "natural", there's no objective morals preventing that etc. Yet what, of course, would be wrong in others punishing them for this by his philosophy, after all? Most people's nature is, after all, to also not like being murdered, raped and tortured. That would seem like a natural desire too. Nor of course would there be objective morals preventing this, assuming they are right.
It's somewhat hidden by the Unreliable Narrator, but Taylor herself is guilty of this.
The Slaughterhouse Nine gleefully, remorselessly torture and kill many people in sadistic manners while daring the heroes to stop them. But when they find themselves on the back foot they flip out and flip the metaphorical table. This is best demonstrated by Jack Slash; he loves to hear himself talk and doles out Breaking Speeches like one might give away candy at Halloween. But when one of his enemies tries to return the favour, out comes his knife.
Director Tagg shows absolutely no remorse about trying to harm Skitter through her father despite being a father of daughters himself.
