There are at least five reasons why people mistakenly believe someone is evil if and only if evil-intentioned
The moral of the great democides is that they’re caused by communities who cannot fathom that their being good-intentioned does NOT entail that they are in fact doing good.
There are at least five reasons why people mistakenly believe someone is…
evil if and only if evil-intentioned.
(1) It rolls off the tongue. “Eating fat makes you fat” also rolls off the tongue, but is false.
(2) It DOES tend to be true for regular life criminality (theft, violence, etc.), where folks usually realize they’re violating the shared norms we were all taught as a child.
(3) The great historical evils are invariably recorded in the social narrative as led and carried out by cartoonishly wicked and evil-intentioned villains; so, we’re essentially taught this.
(4) It’s a lazy consequence of what one has epistemic access to:
“I know I’m good-intentioned, and so therefore I must be good.” Whereas to actually know one is *doing* good requires difficult philosophical and scientific analysis.
“I know you’re against me, so evil, and therefore you must be evil-intentioned.” Whereas actually arguing you’re not well-intentioned is very difficult (it requires getting into their mind), labeling you as evil “cuz you’re against me” is easy.
(5) It is highly counter-intuitive that sociopolitical communities always come to have sophisticated post-hoc ethical and scientific “justifications” for their beliefs and actions, even genocidal beliefs and actions. Understanding these forces requires an appreciation of evolution and complex emergent phenomena.
The moral of Covid — and the moral of the great democides and genocides — is that they are caused by communities who believe they are doing good, and who cannot fathom that their being good-intentioned does NOT entail that they are in fact doing good.
Societal Level Evil, the movie
A LooFWIRED piece on what DOES determine if they’re doing evil…
Evil at the societal level isn’t about bad intentions, but instead about these 12 things
THEM: Our enemies are evil-intentioned villains! ME: Don’t you think they say the same about us? THEM: But WE have good intent! ME: Agreed. We do. But does it worry you that people have a strong tendency to view those in their opposition as having evil intent? As being purposely villains?
A Playlist on understanding evil and culpability at the societal level
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmody2xNMCt6cZy_LDhBi2K_DZh20igB