General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What was the Specific Event that Made You Realise that Republicans Are Evil? [View all]JCanete
(5,272 posts)think of people more as forces of nature than evil actors, because they aren't simply deciding to not give a shit. They physically don't have the capacity.
Being capable of empathy and not having it is another matter, and forming a personal narrative that most allows one's self to pursue his own selfish desires IS what I do count as the closest thing to evil...but it is a condition of evil, I'm not so sure that at the root, we have an evil person. How a person develops the tools he or she does to survive, assuming we are talking about culturally and not clinically sociopathic tendencies, has to do with what has been learned...what lessons a person has taken during upbringing-- from his or her environment-- that developed this particular set of survival skills, and of course that is a mix of experience and genetics, but in both cases, its not like we choose our own genetics or upbringing. Which is why I'm not quick to label people evil. Maybe psychotic, maybe sociopathic, maybe murderous...etc. I can see just using "evil" to define people engaging in evil actions, but I think there's a lot of baggage there and it allows us to think of people kind of biblically and black-and-white, as fully conscious choosers of the dark side...and thus, foregone. The dark side is in the bible right?