Evil Subjectivity Debate

Comments discuss the philosophical nature of 'evil', emphasizing its subjectivity, relativity, and how individuals rarely see themselves as evil while labeling others.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Politics & Society
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#1563
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Keywords

BOTH USA ISIS evil bad things bad doing good subjective bad guys thinks good things guys good bad

Sample Comments

tjwebbnorfolk Jul 19, 2025 View on HN

Being evil doesn't make them necessarily wrong.

pluma May 17, 2017 View on HN

As opposed to "evil", which is extremely subjective already?

armini May 21, 2012 View on HN

If that's not evil then I don't know what is.

parliament32 Oct 30, 2020 View on HN

The keyword is "evil", which is subjective, therefore an opinion. A Nazi Officer, for example, would disagree with your opinion whether what they did was evil.

SideburnsOfDoom Feb 27, 2016 View on HN

"evil" people are pretty rare, most people believe they're doing the good thing. Sometimes they're correct.

genericone Feb 27, 2021 View on HN

Nobody thinks of themselves as evil, but freely dole out that term for others. How do you mind your own business when there is evil about?

wavefunction Nov 3, 2014 View on HN

Doing evil is being evil. End of discussion.

hajile Jun 25, 2024 View on HN

Most reasonable people would denounce BOTH. You seem to be pushing toward the idea that "if they do something evil, my evil is no longer evil".

SubmarineClub Nov 16, 2025 View on HN

I guess we have different definitions of ‘evil.’

DeathArrow Mar 4, 2025 View on HN

If bad guys do something, it's bad. If good guys do the same thing, it's good.