Mental Gymnastics

Mental gymnastics describes the complex or convoluted reasoning people use to justify questionable beliefs, actions, or opinions. The term comes from physical gymnastics, where athletes contort and stretch their bodies in impressive but sometimes unnatural ways. Similarly, mental gymnastics involves bending, twisting, and stretching one's logic to ignore facts and achieve a desired outcome, regardless of whether it makes sense.

People often use "mental gymnastics" negatively to highlight how far someone will go to rationalize a stance that seems unreasonable or inconsistent, whether in debates, during disagreements, or in defense of controversial opinions online and in person.

For example, an X user may accuse another of mental gymnastics when they are making a simple issue unnecessarily complicated. Or, you may call out your friend's mental gymnastics when he's trying to give reasons for getting back with his toxic ex.