Comment on The only difference between a monster and a decent human being is the privilege of a support network.

Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  ‘Plenty of monsters with support systems’ - so were they inherently monsters? If yes, then they couldn’t help it, like a polar bear can’t help hunting. We don’t call polar bears ‘monsters.’ We call them predators, which is what humans become when their ‘support’ teaches them cruelty, not care.

  ‘Plenty of decent people beaten down by life’ - same logic. No inherent goodness, just luck: someone, somewhere, showed them ‘don’t be cruel’ before it was too late.

  I don’t believe in inherent good or evil.

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  • GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I think the point they were making is that a decent support system is not the determining factor as your post suggests.

    Even your counterarguments rest on the assumption that this is true. You suggest that if it’s not a support system they just be “inherently” good or evil, completely ignoring the more likely possibility that there are countless other variables that could factor into what kind of person someone is.

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    • SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Even your counterarguments rest on the assumption that this is true. You suggest that if it’s not a support system they must be “inherently” good or evil, completely ignoring the more likely possibility that there are countless other variables that could factor into what kind of person someone becomes.

      Like what? You have inherent factors (genes) or environment (the support network, “the village that raises the child” etc.).

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      • ageedizzle@piefed.ca ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        A lot of this comes down to people’s free will. If you could perfectly analyze the reasons for every decision a person makes then those decisions would hardly be free.

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  • Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You don’t have to be shown. All it takes to be a good person is empathy. All it takes to be a bad one is its lack.

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    • SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      That statement dangerously oversimplifies human behavior and stigmatizes neurodivergent individuals, particularly those on the autism spectrum, who may experience empathy differently but are not inherently “bad.”

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      • Anuttara@leminal.space ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        omg thank u!!!

        i was bullied for being “evil witch” when i was in school cuz i was autist and there was the meme that autists “can’t feel empathy”. i was like… watching cartoons and saw the “bad guys” and i thought i wasn’t like them… but then at school they told me i was?? it was awful

        thank u for saying this

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      • Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        They may experience it differently, but if they can act on it, they will be good people. Without being able to act on empathy, no matter how you perceive it, you cannot be good, and refusing to act with empathy towards people and other lives on earth is bad.

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• morto@piefed.social ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Plot twist: op was ironic, meaning that with a large enough support network, even mosters can manipulate the public opinion to appear as decent people, while without such network, even decent people can be unjustly flagged as monsters and will be helpless to prove their innocence

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  • SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I wasn’t ironic but you make a very important point: “even mosters can manipulate the public opinion to appear as decent people,”

    This, or, “monsters” can manipulate the public to the point that what their opinion of what is “good” is accepted as a fact. See: religious extremism. See: fucking TRUMP.

    Which then leads to: “even decent people can be unjustly flagged as monsters and will be helpless to prove their innocence”

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    • essell@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      A person cannot control their reputation, but they can control whether it’s true or not.

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