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There are no good people, only good systems. The German people didn't turn into monsters in 1938 and become decent people at the end of 1945, they were just par
by jdietrich 10y ago
There are no good people, only good systems. The German people didn't turn into monsters in 1938 and become decent people at the end of 1945, they were just participants in a broken system. The Rwandans didn't suddenly become the worst people in the world for a few months in 1994. Perfectly decent people are capable of utterly abhorrent things if their environment is sufficiently toxic.
US police officers aren't bad people, they're just poorly trained and held to very low standards of accountability. They do bad things because they're operating in a system that incentivises them to do bad things.
- adamnemecek 10y ago> "There are no good people, only good systems." Nice quote. Can you recommend some reading on this topic?
- jdietrich 10y agoThe Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo is a satisfactory primer. https://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/0812974441/ https://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-Peo...