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> The people posting there aren't evil. They're scared. One can be both evil and scared. You can always argue we're all what circumstances make us. You, me, M
by varjag 9y ago
> The people posting there aren't evil. They're scared.
One can be both evil and scared.
You can always argue we're all what circumstances make us. You, me, MLK, Mother Theresa, that ISIS fighter and 9/11 hijackers. However, some people end up in the ranks of evil, while others, even facing enormous adversity in their lives, don't. So we can pick onto finer ontological distinctions, or agree to more crude yet practically significant behaviouristic description.
- naasking 9y agoLabelling anyone evil immediately shuts down debate given its connotations. "Evil" is frankly a less than useless term. It simultaneously includes everyone and no one.
- varjag 9y agoPointing out evil leaves no wiggleroom for moral relativism, this is perhaps why people try so hard to redefine it as to exclude about everyone.
- naasking 9y agoYou can label something morally wrong without employing inflammatory language like "evil". It yields far more productive dialogue.
- varjag 9y agoThat's a huge assumption. E.g. I reckon Dr. Mengele is evil, and I would not have any dialogue about it. That's not the point. We have a word for 'blue', 'wet', 'stupid', 'awesome'. We have one for evil too. And for certain things, saying 'morally wrong' is downplaying it. It puts casino cheaters and Auswitz guards into the same conceptual spot.
- naasking 9y ago> We have one for evil too. Not with a well-defined meaning. Go ahead and try to nail down a specific definition of evil that includes only "heinous" moral crimes while excluding "non-heinous" transgressions. I guarantee I'll be able to drive 15 trucks through the holes in your definition. And without a rigourous definition, people are way too cavalier in labeling others "evil", which is simply not conducive to progress. > And for certain things, saying 'morally wrong' is downplaying it. It puts casino cheaters and Auswitz guards into the same conceptual spot. No more than the word "fall" places sky diving and tripping into the same conceptual spot. The differences in degree aren't so nuanced that people will struggle to grasp them.