Nazis and the Nature of Evil

[Yukaphile]

On the really big sins, yeah, this does apply.

[Dragon Ball Fan]

maybe but I still maintain that if someone does not have compassion, they are not a human being no matter what other traits they may have.

Yes, that's how easy it is to demonise. Different targets (ones I'd argue are far, far, far more justified), same mentality.

if you admit my targets of demonizing are justified, then what are we talking about?

[Riedquat]

Justified to the extent of portraying such people in a very negative light - they're thoroughly vile, but we're talking about the inability to recognise those we hate as fellow human beings - it's exactly what a lot of the people you hate do to justify their position, and probably believe it themselves. You claim that you've nothing in common but that's simply not true because you're thinking in a very similar manner, albeit with a more noble motivation.

[Yukaphile]

I understand they're human, but people go too far in trying to sympathize with them, paint them as "traumatized" or the victims of some kind of innocent mental disorder where choice is no longer an option for them, and only in the most EXTREME cases is that true. Otherwise, you're just looking at people making disgusting personal choices, often influenced by how they were raised in early childhood. I mean, preachers and then scientists and now psychologists have been trying to find out why a person does this for centuries, millennia and they STILL have not come to an answer. I just think it's that they are "missing" something in normal people who wouldn't cross that line even in the worst situation. Call it "good" or the right "genetic" stuff, whatever you want. Though I also tend to think it's similar to what Franklin said to G'Kar over on B5, about how maybe we're the puzzle so complex, even God can't solve it.

[Riedquat]

Such things can be a component of why people are what they are. Everyone has a choice in the way they act, unpleasant things in an upbringing don't excuse but neither can you dismiss that they may be part of the explanation. Some people might be finding excuses to sympathise and say "it's not really their fault", which isn't right, but neither is trying to find excuses to say "they're born evil and thus I can rest with an easy conscience because I couldn't possibly have anything in common with such people."

[Yukaphile]

Some people, even experts, can misrepresent them based on their own emotional biases. Trying to put together a framework for another person's psyche can be hard, especially when a lot of it has been covered up because of politics or a dictator state's propaganda. Yeah, this person did what he did out of "trauma," but can you say that for sure? Seriously? Maybe you're projecting. Something most people consider painful, know is hard, and just trying to humanize and sympathize with this person in a way you should not? Given that psychology is NOT an exact science. I'd even call it a pseudo-science. Shows great promise, sure, but it's yielded no practical results in the modern era. Nothing earth-shaking as to upend the whole civilization. And is it really inaccurate to say some kids ARE born evil? It seems like they have a specific "chemical component" missing, whatever you wanna call it, good parents, where they are emotionless except when blowing up fish, then they show genuine feeling, and that's scary as hell...

[Yukaphile]

Hey, DBF, I'd like your opinion on something, I really would. This part is the most horrifying. Imagine a serial rapist who preyed on children because he couldn't find women to do so with. Then several decades later, he confesses anonymously via text, and spins himself as the real victim, saying "now it seems hard to believe I could have done that, a good boy from a good home, but that was me." This is a man who won't give us his name, who will not let us see his face, and frankly his so-called "confession" feels half-hearted, lost to the madness of whatever problems he was facing at the time. Worst yet is that reading through The Guardian, this bastard could have married, had consensual sex, and fathered children. I really doubt his wife knows. He won't turn himself in, and he probably uses them as a shield for justification. "I want to protect my family." That's BULLSHIT and an insult to his victims. Why won't he divorce her if he feels genuinely sorry? Somebody who felt genuinely remorseful about using sex as a weapon to hurt CHILDREN should never want to engage in said action again. So why is he still with this woman he "loves" doing that? Probably that age-old bullshit excuse, "I'm a man, I can't help it." What do you think about all this?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

The fact that you're even considering reading his confession in some sort of sincere fashion is a mystery.

[Madner Kami]

Context?

[Yukaphile]

All we have is a text confession, so yeah, I doubt its sincerity too. But then reading that article by The Guardian was world-shattering. A man like that who then marries and has a wife... who has never known him as anything but loving. No, it's not the same man, but it's kind of frightening... to never know the secret life your husband or wife might have led prior to meeting you...