A common gambit: during a prisoner’s dilemma, signal (or simply let others find out) that you’re about to defect. Watch as your counterparty adopts newly hostile rhetoric, defensive measures, or begins to defect themselves. Then, after you ultimately do defect, say that it was a preemptive strike against forces that might take advantage of your good nature, pointing to the recent evidence.
Simple fictional example: In Star Wars Episode III, Palpatine’s plot to overthrow the Senate is discovered by the Jedi. They attempt to kill him, to prevent him from doing this. Later, their attempt to kill Palpatine is used as the justification for Palpatine’s extermination of the rest of the Jedi and taking control of the Republic.
Actual historical example: By 1941, it was kind of obvious that the Nazis were going to invade Russia, at least in retrospect. Hitler had written in Mein Kampf that it was the logical place to steal lebensraum, and by that point the Soviet Union was basically the only European front left. Thus it was also not inconceivable that the Soviet Union would attack first, if Stalin were left to his own devices—and Stalin was in fact preparing for a war. So Hitler invaded, and then said (possibly accurately!) that Russia was eventually going to do it to Germany anyways.
A common gambit: during a prisoner’s dilemma, signal (or simply let others find out) that you’re about to defect. Watch as your counterparty adopts newly hostile rhetoric, defensive measures, or begins to defect themselves. Then, after you ultimately do defect, say that it was a preemptive strike against forces that might take advantage of your good nature, pointing to the recent evidence.
Simple fictional example: In Star Wars Episode III, Palpatine’s plot to overthrow the Senate is discovered by the Jedi. They attempt to kill him, to prevent him from doing this. Later, their attempt to kill Palpatine is used as the justification for Palpatine’s extermination of the rest of the Jedi and taking control of the Republic.
Actual historical example: By 1941, it was kind of obvious that the Nazis were going to invade Russia, at least in retrospect. Hitler had written in Mein Kampf that it was the logical place to steal lebensraum, and by that point the Soviet Union was basically the only European front left. Thus it was also not inconceivable that the Soviet Union would attack first, if Stalin were left to his own devices—and Stalin was in fact preparing for a war. So Hitler invaded, and then said (possibly accurately!) that Russia was eventually going to do it to Germany anyways.