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this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
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I think the unfortunate truth is that many non-evil people would be just as evil if given the opportunity. Or to frame it slightly different: I believe that too much money and/or power is what turns most people evil over time.
If they would do evil given the chance, that makes them evil. It's like a poorly forged piece of metal with a crack built in, that holds together until put to the test. The crack was always there.
There's more angles to it of course - mistakes, temporary dispositions, the average of all behavior, etc.
From a philosophical perspective, I find it quite difficult to measure a person's evilness objectively.
Assuming a person is born evil due to their genetic material, is it then actually their fault? Shouldn't that be considered rather as a medical condition?
Assuming a person is not born evil, but they turned evil due to outer influencing factors (parents, society, economic situation, luck, bad luck...), is it then actually their fault? Or are the outer factors the ones to blame in such a case?
I agree to the 'the crack was always there' statement. But personally I think that all of us humans naturally have this crack. Given the right parameters, this crack can heal to a level where it's barely notable. But under less optimal conditions I guess more or less every human can turn (be turned) into a monster.
In terms of billionaires my opinion is that a) we should implement measures to avoid them in the first place and b) find ways to take away their power.
But other than that I would prefer a way to heal their (often abnormal) crack and try to make them again valuable members of society again. Revenge and punishment (especially death penalty) should never be the focus of corrective measures, no matter the crime or misdemeanour.
evil does exist, some people are too far gone to be saved...the world would be a much better place without Theil or Murdoch (and his chosen heir) in it, for example.
far as "dehumanizing"...kind of an irrelevant argument around semantics to me, they're a massive net negative for society as a whole, simple as
It's nearly universally learned behavior, and it's just a metric of people's disposition to act selfishly or malevolently versus selflessly and benevolently.