Comment on Why do some racist, classist, homophobic ect people do "good" things sometimes?
GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 8 hours agoThere are no objectively good and bad people. Never have been, never will be. Every one of us is a grab bag of contradictions. Objectively good people are not rare, they’re fictional. If you seriously look under the surface, we’re all both monsters and angels on some level. Some of us just have better self-control and/or fewer opportunities to be actively transgressive.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
right, so criminal psychopaths and such are sometimes good people?
and someone who never harmed anyone in their life, must also be terrible in some way? they are just ‘lucky’ that life never goaded them into violence or hate…
you are clinging really hard to this relativism. i notice people who do that are usually shitty folks who are trying to normalize their history of repeatedly bad actions, like cheaters, drunk drivers, and folks with who are violent or abusive.
funny thing about my violent exes, they always took this relativist stance on ethics, because to them ‘good’ was only what benefited themselves and the notion there is something more important than them and their immediate feelings was considered evil to them.
GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
I mean if your go to is to personally attack anyone who disagrees with you I don’t know why anyone would bother to have a serious discussion with you, but for the cheap seats I’ll try.
Yes, Criminal Psychopaths can, in certain circumstances be good people, other than the fact that they brutally kill some people. No mass murderer has ever been arrested that their neighbours weren’t standing there saying “but he was such a nice guy!” That doesn’t mean I don’t think they should be dealt with harshly, but the reality is, there are people who are good husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and friends who also do absolutely monstrous things when no one else is looking. While we’re at it, there’s no such thing as someone who has never harmed anyone. We’ve all done things that hurt people, and no, just apologizing doesn’t make it all go away. Some harms are more serious than others but no one is blameless. There are absolutely people who tend more toward good, and some that tend more toward bad, but I’ve also watched “good” people rationalize and try to justify some absolutely wild levels of cruelty under the wrong circumstances.
Look, I get it, you’ve been through some shit. I’ve been there and the idea that some people are good and some people are bad and as long as you find the good people you’ll be safe is really comforting. Unfortunately it’s not true. There’s no such thing as someone who is always cartoonishly evil, and there is no one who is perfectly safe, not even you.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
No I do totally understand. For you everything is relative, and everyone is equally innocent and guilty of all things at all times. That’s why it’s moral relativism.
Non relativism holds that certain acts are irredeemable, and that being nice to your kids wild murdering millions does not qualify you as ‘somewhat good’, anymore than getting a parking ticket makes a non-murdered ‘somewhat bad’.
It’s not a personal attack, it’s an observation that people who morally relativistic views tend to do some out of their own self interest in the world. Just like psychopaths and sociopaths tend to be amoral. I don’t know any ‘good’ people who believe in moral relativism… they rightfully avoid people who have shown themselves to be bad actors.
There are tons of people who cartoonishly evil, do you even read the news? Half of our political class are cartoonishly evil people.
We clearly live in totally different realities. You seem to like as long as Pol Pot was a nice guy to you, than you can’t condemn him. lol
GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
And now you’re completely characterizing my statements and lying to make yourself feel better. Good day.