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.