Yabutter (poetic license)
Comfort, when built on someone else’s suffering, is a fragile illusion.
noun | ya·but·ter
Definition:
A person who reflexively responds to moral clarity, suffering, or undeniable truth with a deflective “Yeah, but…” often in an attempt to preserve their own comfort or avoid cognitive dissonance. The Yabutter uses hesitation as a shield, moral nuance as camouflage, and conversation as delay.
Origin:
Contemporary slang fused with archetypal psychology. Derived from the phrase “Yeah, but…,” transformed into a symbolic persona through poetic license.
Examples:
1. “Children are starving.”~“Yeah, but it’s complicated.”
2. “International law calls that a war crime.” —~“Yeah, but both sides…”
3. “We could help.” ~ “Yeah, but what difference would it make?”
Archetypal Note:
The Yabutter appears in two forms: the Outer Yabutter, who lives in public discourse, and the Inner Yabutter, who lives in each of us. One defends the status quo. The other defends our safety. Both interrupt the flow of moral action.
The Outer “Yabutters”
There’s always one in the room. The yabut person.
You know the type. The moment you name atrocity, they twitch. They can’t sit with it.
“Yeah, but…”
There’s no yabut in genocide.
There’s no yabut in weaponized famine, in the bombing of hospitals, in children dying while the world scrolls.
There’s no yabut in the breaking of every law written to protect the sanctity of life.
The Yabutter lives in a strange borderland — halfway between denial and self-preservation.
They crave nuance not to understand, but to escape.
They use reason as camouflage for fear.
They want to stay comfortable while pretending to care.
The Yabutter is fluent in false balance.
They say, “It’s complicated,” when it’s not.
They say, “Both sides,” when only one side has the power to stop the killing.
They mistake empathy for moral anesthesia…a way to feel kind while doing nothing.
The Yabutter’s favorite weapon is time. Delay.
If they can’t win the argument, they’ll slow it down until the urgency dies out.
Until the bodies are buried deep enough that silence sounds reasonable again.
But here’s the truth: the world is burning through its excuses.
The Yabutters can’t hold the line forever.
Their words rot faster than the lies they protect.
There’s no “yeah, but.”
Only “yeah, and what are you doing about it?”
Back-to-Back: The Outer and Inner Yabutters
Every archetype has a shadow twin.
The Outer Yabutter protects the world’s illusions. The Inner Yabutter protects our own.
One shows up in headlines and comment sections. The other whispers inside our own chest.
Both are terrified of change. Both confuse comfort with safety.
And both dissolve the moment we choose to look — really look — at what they’re guarding.
The Inner “Yabutter” (poetic license)
I want to say there’s no yabut in me. I want to believe that.
But sometimes it whispers. Soft. Almost reasonable.
“Yeah, but you’re tired.”
“Yeah, but you can’t save everyone.”
“Yeah, but you’ve done enough for today.”
That’s the Inner “Yabutter.” The ego’s comfort reflex.
It shows up when the soul is asked to stretch beyond what feels safe.
It bargains with conscience the way a child bargains for five more minutes before bed.
It calls itself balance. It calls itself self-care. Sometimes it even calls itself realism.
But realism without compassion is just a polite surrender.
And comfort, when built on someone else’s suffering, is a fragile illusion.
The Inner “Yabutter” hides inside good people. Inside me.
It hides behind overwhelm, burnout, fear, even spiritual language.
It says, “Everything happens for a reason,” when what it really means is, “Please don’t make me look.”
To do shadow work is to turn toward that voice and name it.
Not to hate it, but to recognize its trick.
It’s probably the inner child trying to hold on to safety while the self expands into the unknown.
It’s not evil. It’s human. It’s the tender part that still believes comfort means survival.
So I listen… and then I choose differently.
I tell the Inner “Yabutter”: Thank you for trying to protect me. The world does need protection — but what it needs most right now is participation, presence, and persistence.
Because silence is not neutrality.
And neutrality, in the face of atrocity, is just a quieter form of violence.
“Yabutter” is an original archetype coined by Jacquie Daigle, as part of the Underlight Sessions Series on Moral Psychology and Shadow Integration.