A broader cultural variant of legal groupthink that extends beyond professionals to a society that comes to venerate The Law as an infallible, almost sacred system. This mindset conflates "legal" with "right," assumes complexity signifies wisdom, and treats any critique of the legal system as naive or anarchic. It creates a populace that accepts unjust outcomes because "the process was followed," and distrusts extra-legal forms of justice or community problem-solving. The law is not seen as a human tool, but as a natural force whose dictates must be obeyed without question.
Lawothinking / Law Groupthinking *Example: When a person is evicted due to an obscure clause in a 50-page lease they couldn't understand, public reaction shaped by Lawothinking is: "It's a contract; they should have read it. The law is the law." This groupthink dismisses the power imbalance and predatory nature of the contract, framing the issue solely as one of individual responsibility within a neutral legal framework, thus absolving the system of critique.*
by Dumuabzu February 5, 2026
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