In order to 
get through life we all have certain psychological defense mechanisms that we use more or less depending on the person and the situation. A very common one is rationalization which is defined as:
‘Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of “the facts” to make an event or an impulse less threatening. We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses. But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies.’ 1
When psychologists talk of defense mechanisms, they are typically speaking of the individual. However, humans practice defense mechanisms as a group. While there are many areas that we practice rationalization, a frequent one in the United States is gun violence. Whether the killing is en masse or an individual, we continually hear comments Continue reading “Flags, Deflection, Guns, Rationalization”