Selective rationality makes it likely he will do bad things for bad reasons and be sincerely unaware that he is doing bad things. He can probably rationalize embezzling my money as glibly as he can rationalize avoiding a “bad school”...
But that's not what I observe in reality. As Konkvistador said, common problems generate commonly accepted solutions. A strong discrepancy between respectable beliefs and reality leads to a common problem, and a specific mode of rationalization then becomes a commonly accepted and socially approved solution. And in my experience, the fact that someone suspends rationality and adopts rationalizations in a commonly accepted way doesn't imply bad character otherwise.
In fact, as a reductio ad absurdum of your position, I would point out that a complete rejection of all pious rationalizations that are common today would mean adopting a number of views that are shared only by an infinitesimal minority. But clearly it's absurd to claim that everyone outside of this tiny minority is untrustworthy and of bad character.
On the other hand, I agree with you when it comes to rationalizations that are uncommon and not approved tacitly as an unspoken social convention. They are indeed a red flag as you describe.
Selective rationality makes it likely he will do bad things for bad reasons and be sincerely unaware that he is doing bad things. He can probably rationalize embezzling my money as glibly as he can rationalize avoiding a “bad school”...
But that's not what I observe in reality.
It is what we observed in the recent banking crisis. To take an even more extreme example, Pol Pot was a true believer who glibly rationalized away discrepancies. One of his rationalizations was that the bad consequences of his policies were the result of comrades betraying hi...
This is thread where I'm trying to figure out a few things about signalling on LessWrong and need some information, so please immediately after reading about the two individuals please answer the poll. The two individuals:
A. Sees that an interpretation of reality shared by others is not correct, but tries to pretend otherwise for personal gain and/or safety.
B. Fails to see that an interpretation of reality is shared by others is flawed. He is therefore perfectly honest in sharing the interpretation of reality with others. The reward regime for outward behaviour is the same as with A.
To add a trivial inconvenience that matches the inconvenience of answering the poll before reading on, comments on what I think the two individuals signal,what the trade off is and what I speculate the results might be here versus the general population, is behind this link.