“The Halo Defense” by Mateusz Bagiński

Once upon a time, A Relatively Famous Guy On The Internet was accused of having been simultaneously dating multiple women, without those women's knowledge, those women (according to the accusation) having been convinced that they were his exclusive partners all along. Then, one of his friends, another Relatively Famous Guy On The Internet, defended him by claiming that he is "a great friend, a wonderful human being, and that his podcast was incredibly helpful to a lot of people".

This is a great example of what I came to call the "halo defense".

The halo defense involves "defending" someone from allegations by bringing up traits of X that are meant to be interpreted positively, without addressing the allegations on the basis of which X is being "attacked".

I'll give two more examples from my personal experience:

• A university professor (with a PhD in ethics!) is accused by several of his female students of sexual harassment. The dean demands that the faculty staff take the professor's side, because he is a "vital part of their community", not engaging to any extent with the validity of accusations.
• A (different) university professor is afflicted by a strange [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
July 16th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qzgqLQKHhwcTD9Mxo/the-halo-defense

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.