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Grey and Gray Morality (view source)

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{{quote|The concept of portraying evil and then destroying it - I know this is considered mainstream, but I think it is rotten. This idea that whenever something evil happens someone particular can be blamed and punished for it, in life and in politics is hopeless.}}
** Though [[Studio Gibli]] films usually tend a bit more towards [[White and Grey Morality]], this ''is'' generally true. ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' is one of the best examples (with the two sides having both good and bad qualities), and ''[[Spirited Away]]'' protagonist Chiho is prone to the fallibilities of being a child rather than a perfect angel. It's nonetheless worth noting that Miyazaki's earlier films were more [[Black and White Morality]], so retroactively even the ''writer'' developed a better understanding of this trope's existence.
* [[Truth in Television|Pretty much any conflict in reality can be boiled down to this]] - everyone has their own motivations for their acts. Among the most notable being:
** Case in point, theThe English Civil War. On the one hand you've got the Roundheads, democratic ([[Fair for Its Day|for the times]]) Parliamentarians led by elected MPs, who also believed in forcing their own brand of repressive Puritanism down Britain's (or rather England, Scotland, and Ireland's) collective throat; and on the other, the Cavaliers, a group of cheerful, fun-loving, relatively liberal unelected nobles, lead by Charles I, who believed he had a God-given right to randomly declare war on other European nations, and demand massive tax revenues to pay for them, with no legal obstacles whatever. They were both fairly dark shades of grey.
** The war between the Spanish and AztecAztecs; both sides had strengths but also had abominable elements. One recurring theme with nativeNative americanAmerican history is that the natives are always portrayed as peace-loving pacifists who were just fighting back...however, with the war between the Spanish and the Aztec, over ''twice'' the army conquering the Aztecs were in fact natives (Especially the Tlxcalans) who sided with the Spanish. The Aztecs weren't exactly popular. Likewise, a moral strength of Spain that tends to get glossed over is the fact that Cortes had wanted to maintain the social structure of the empire, and had he gotten his way, the Aztecs basically would have been Spanish Citizens.
** The [[Arab-Israeli Conflict]]. Both sides are sympathetic, but at the same time, both have committed atrocities. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|That's all we'll say about this]].
*** Likewise, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan after [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]], which quickly turned ugly for both sides with ethnic massacres all around, and was started thanks to [[Joseph Stalin]] some 50 years prior when he gave a mostly Armenian-populated province to the Azerbaijani SSR. The fact that the conflict has been frozen and unsolved since 1994 has just given time for the hatred between the two countries to fester.
** [[World War I]] is generally seen as a premiere example of this as in contrast to [[World War II|the sequel 20 years later]], which could be considered a case of [[Black and Gray Morality]].
* Piracy. Most people on both sides of the issue believe that it's really [[Black and White Morality]] (with themselves always being the white) but it's really more shades of grey. Yes DRM has been intrusive, often turning away people and even having ''virus-like behaviour''...but it really doesn't look very good for pirates when [[The Witcher|games]] [[World of Goo|with]] [[Demigod|no]] [[DRM]] have high piracy rates. Or when musicians and developers release stuff with prices as low as a dollar or less wind up pirated.
** It looks even worse when something like the Humble Indie Bundle comes around that gives you 5 or so DRM free games that you can pay any amount you want, and people still pirate it, despite the fact that they can pay as little as a penny for it.
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