Argthtjtr

What do you call it when you profess inauthentic sympathy for past behavior when that behavior has directly benefited you? Hypothetical Example: my family members from 175 years ago burned down some rival family's house so that my family could build a house in that spot, and, 175 years later, I discover oil on that land. Of course, I would be very wealthy etc.. What is the word to describe this action: I say to people that the house burning from 175 years ago was a "tragedy." Of course, in my mind I would say to myself "I am really glad that they burned that house down! Otherwise I wouldn't be rich!" How do you describe that type of hypocrisy?

Someone might say that you’re crying crocodile tears, false or affected tears, a hypocritical show of sorrow.

This doesn't express that the behavior benefited you, but comes close to your meaning. Still, Merriam Webster provided two recent examples of the expression “crocodile tears” on the web, and I wondered whether the idea of benefit would be present in the articles. (Your suggestion was not that the tears were advantageous, but rather that they were shed over past events that were advantageous.)

The first article was unbearable, so I doubt I will ever know more about that one.

But the second article was a tolerably interesting story about the Menendez boys who murdered their parents. The article mused:

Was greed at the heart of this crime—are Lyle and Eric the most
extreme spoiled brats in Beverly Hills? ... Over the course of those
those six months, they reportedly spent $1 million on parties, travel,
and shopping... Lyle dropped over $15,000 on three Rolex watches...
Then he wondered aloud to another friend in the car how he could
obtain tickets to the U.S. Open.

So while Merriam Webster did not include this idea of benefit in the definition of "crocodile tears," it does (at least sometimes) show up in the cited uses.

As in:

He feigned sympathy for past behavior, as that behavior had directly benefited him.

to feign TFD

• To give a false appearance of: feign sleep.


• To represent falsely; pretend to: feign authorship of a novel.


• To imitate so as to deceive: feign another's voice.


• To fabricate: feigned an excuse.

Feign comes from the Latin fingere "to devise, fabricate."