I would call this "understanding" and reckon it you could use it as a reply to pretty much any comment. Unless you see things exactly as they are and apply no interpretation, then this is the mechanism by which humans "make sense" of the world.

I guess you mean that the story is harmfully reductive or demands further critical examination, but I just want to defend telling oneself stories as a thinking tool.

I agree that as human beings we can’t live without stories as thinking tool. Although I wouldn’t call it “understanding” but “interpreting”.

I wanted to say that good vs evil are hardly absolutes. No one at a large corporate comes to work saying: today I will be evil again.

Instead they tell themselves they’re helping investors getting a good return, or that they’re “smashing Google for copying iOS”.

There is a great quote by Shakespeare saying: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

I’d say storytelling makes it so!

People committing genocide also presumably don't wake up saying they're going to be evil again. Being able to justify an act to yourself doesn't make it not evil.

You don't have to presume, you can interview them!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Act_of_Killing

But then what does make something evil? Nature clearly doesn’t distinguish good vs evil. We humans do.

That's a much bigger question than whether one can commit an evil act without considering it evil.

No. It’s the exact same question. Good vs evil are created in your head. Unless you believe in God or something similar.

Think about recent Boeing adventures. I will put these doings definitely in the evil category.

I brokered some portion of the omnibus agreements between the big 4.

The many parts of the agreements were clearly net negative outcomes for markets and users. Basic forms of collusion and cartel making were common.