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Just Following Orders is a justification for morally questionable actions that a character may invoke when questioned about the rightness or necessity of such actions. This justification holds that the (bulk of the) responsibility for such actions falls upon those who make such decisions and give such orders within a (military) hierarchy; by extension, those who obey and act upon such orders cannot be held (entirely) accountable for their actions. Often invoked with the exact phrase "I was Just Following Orders." Also known as the Nuremberg Defense, this is the Stock Phrase motto/mantra/defense of the Punch Clock Villain, as well as most bureaucrats (obstructive or otherwise), Mooks, and just about any of us during failures of nerve, nous, job security, heroic fortitude...

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  • Just Following Orders
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  • Just Following Orders is a justification for morally questionable actions that a character may invoke when questioned about the rightness or necessity of such actions. This justification holds that the (bulk of the) responsibility for such actions falls upon those who make such decisions and give such orders within a (military) hierarchy; by extension, those who obey and act upon such orders cannot be held (entirely) accountable for their actions. Often invoked with the exact phrase "I was Just Following Orders." Also known as the Nuremberg Defense, this is the Stock Phrase motto/mantra/defense of the Punch Clock Villain, as well as most bureaucrats (obstructive or otherwise), Mooks, and just about any of us during failures of nerve, nous, job security, heroic fortitude...
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  • Just Following Orders is a justification for morally questionable actions that a character may invoke when questioned about the rightness or necessity of such actions. This justification holds that the (bulk of the) responsibility for such actions falls upon those who make such decisions and give such orders within a (military) hierarchy; by extension, those who obey and act upon such orders cannot be held (entirely) accountable for their actions. Often invoked with the exact phrase "I was Just Following Orders." Also known as the Nuremberg Defense, this is the Stock Phrase motto/mantra/defense of the Punch Clock Villain, as well as most bureaucrats (obstructive or otherwise), Mooks, and just about any of us during failures of nerve, nous, job security, heroic fortitude... But we all expect everyone to be a saint. It seems justifiable if you put yourself in their shoes. If your life and/or your family's life was threatened if you disobeyed orders you knew to be morally reprehensible, what would you do? For reference, the concentration camps also housed those convicted of treason. Many of those who used the Nuremberg Defense knew what was waiting for them whether they followed orders or not. Of course, this trope is by now usually not played straight but instead ironically, sarcastically or self-hatingly. Still, it's one of the tropes that cycles between Dead Horse Trope and Undead Horse Trope, because it always sneaks its way back somewhere, even if you did not mean to invoke it...And even if everyone should know by now that playing this straight (even when fully sincere, which is not always the case) is likely to meet with skepticism and ridicule. Often also turns up in or close to other guises: My Country, Right or Wrong, people claiming they were Just Doing My Job or "I Did What I Had to Do". Often prefixed by "Nothing Personal", usually said by an assassin. Examples of Just Following Orders include:
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