3/ In answering this q we tend to replace moral absolutes of good/evil with shades of grey, to acknowledge complexity of trying to be good
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Replying to @vgr
4/ Ie we assume that most people *try* to be good in our sense, but complexity and moral ambiguities of world defeats them. Is this true?
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Replying to @vgr
5/ Alternate theory: being good is not as hard as we make it out to be, the grey areas aren't that grey.
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Replying to @vgr
6/ What if people AREN'T mostly good in the sense of not wanting to cause pain? What if causing pain in central to lives of many?
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Replying to @vgr
7/ I call this "shades of red" theory as opposed to shades of grey. To varying degrees a lot more people *want* to cause unnecessary pain
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Replying to @vgr
8/ Here is a picture I made of 'shades of red" theorypic.twitter.com/TUULhuBudK
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Replying to @vgr
9/ We are raised to believe only small % ("criminals") _want_ to cause pain for gain. Most don't. A few saints suffer for others (top left)
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Replying to @vgr
10/ Shades of red theory asserts that majority - everybody to right of "apathetic" - gets off on others' unnecessary pain at least a little
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Replying to @vgr
11/ Shades of red is based on a deontological notion of evil -- finding pleasure in causing/witnessing pain. Good is negatively defined.
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Replying to @vgr
12/ By this theory, most "good" people are actual bad: they define "evil" to dehumanize, to justify causing pain for pleasure
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13/ Our penal system implicitly assumes shades-of-red theory. Prison guards and cops I suspect have at least a small streak of sadism.
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Replying to @vgr
14/ Stanford prison experiments: almost all of us are capable of finding pleasure in causing/witnessing pain
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Replying to @vgr
15/ If this is true, my original definition of civilizing project is nonsensical and most people are NOT on board with it
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