He maintains that the first justification for oppression is no justification at all. The first justification is that the specific act violates a religious precept. This is the sanction of an absolute authority, such as God or the Church. But if such an absolute authority must justify itself, then it appears not to be an absolute authority. An absolute authority should be absolute and in no need of justification.
Religious justification has less influence today than it had in the past.
The game itself of oppression of social deviancy has not changed all that much, but the rules have changed and the reasons for the rules has changed. What has occurred, according to some observers, is that psychiatric oppression of social deviancy has replaced religious oppression of it. There are, according to Dr. Szasz, three main justifications for oppression of those who dare to deviate from the moral or social sanctions of a particular society. The trick here is to turn the group to be oppressed into something other than human. By doing so, any member of that group is immediately removed from moral consideration.