The FEID Principle
I would like to propose a new word: "FEID" (pronounced "fie'd"). This is of course an initialism for False Equivalence in the Interests of Diplomacy. It applies whenever you knowingly claim that two inequivalent things are (morally and/or factually) equivalent in order to avoid offending anyone.
A good example would be if you have two political parties, the Alicists and the Bobists. Prominent members of the Alicist Party routinely call for the extermination of members of the Bobists. Prominent Bobists respond by calling Alicists hurtful names such as "douchebag," or "distrubed elliminationist psychopath." Suppose that one day, an Alicist finally stopped moaning and actually went out there and killed several prominent Bobists and their constituents. If the Media were to claim, in their discussion of the slayings, that the Bobists were just as much to blame as the Alicists because they contributed to a negative political climate through their hurtful name-calling, this would be a fine example of The FEID Principle in action.
A good example would be if you have two political parties, the Alicists and the Bobists. Prominent members of the Alicist Party routinely call for the extermination of members of the Bobists. Prominent Bobists respond by calling Alicists hurtful names such as "douchebag," or "distrubed elliminationist psychopath." Suppose that one day, an Alicist finally stopped moaning and actually went out there and killed several prominent Bobists and their constituents. If the Media were to claim, in their discussion of the slayings, that the Bobists were just as much to blame as the Alicists because they contributed to a negative political climate through their hurtful name-calling, this would be a fine example of The FEID Principle in action.