Moral Equivalency: Or, How to Flatten Everything with the "Faults on Both Sides" Argument

Doug Wilson:

Over the years I have noticed a tendency to try to solve convoluted problems with an appeal to a psychological spice rack. This happens in counseling, and it happens with people trying to work through controversies and big snarls. Suppose a man snuck over to his neighbor's house in the middle of the night in order to shoot his dog. Suppose further that the dog-owner was a big personality who hardly ever let other people get a word in edgewise, who was an obnoxious bore at dinner parties, and who picked his teeth in an unsightly manner. When the whole story came tumbling out, the tendency I have noticed is that of trying to flatten the whole story so that there can be "faults on both sides." A theory of moral equivalence takes over, one that is manifestly unjust. "Yes, on the one hand, he shot your dog, which, frankly, he should have left undone. But you have to recognize that sometimes you made him feel awkward with your offers to share a toothpick."