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

• ageedizzle@piefed.ca ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  How else can you judge someone’s character if not by their actions?

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  • SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    How about not judging? How about just asking if they cause harm or not, and how to prevent that harm.

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• Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  🤷‍♂️ Yeah, kinda. What metric are you using?

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  • SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    First I can look at my own values and discover that I happen to value human well-being. I like it when people are happy, healthy and free of suffering. It doesn’t make me a “virtuous” person, I’m a human too so I could be purely guided by self-interest.

    Then I can look at science and reason and conclude that by those things, I can generally figure out what kind of things impact human well-being and how.

    Then I can look at someone’s behavior and conclude that it’s either beneficial or detrimental to human well-being.

    Then I can look at science and reason again to find out how to address that behavior in order to reduce (or even entirely prevent) harm.

    I don’t need a moral framework for any of that, and I certainly don’t need to judge people as essentially “good” or “evil”.

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    • Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But why is it a beneficial for other humans to be happy? Why do you like that? That is empathy.

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      • SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        My capacity for empathy has nothing to do with anything.

        Again: I just happen to value human well-being, and as literally everybody in the universe, I will seek to act in accordance to my values, which usually easily puts me in the same camp as other people who value human well-being.

        There are people out there who value “the word of the lord” or something like that more. Like they would prefer to kill wrong-believers because they value their religious text more than human life. They think they are “good” too. I don’t agree with them, but if MOST people did, then they would get to decide what “good” is.

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