8/ Here is a picture I made of 'shades of red" theory
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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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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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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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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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14/ Stanford prison experiments: almost all of us are capable of finding pleasure in causing/witnessing pain
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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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16/ Worse, most moral philosophy is obsessed with defining evil primarily to find targets for justifiable pain-causing.
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17/ Enemies give life meaning and purpose. Moralizing is overtly about trying to do good, but covertly about prepping victims for pain
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18/ The most common form is NIMBYism/tribalism. For many, the ingroup is _formed_ in order to create an outgroup it's ok to hate and hurt
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19/ As a mostly-apathetic, I only came very reluctantly to this conclusion: that many actively enjoy causing/witnessing pain
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20/ It's an ugly theory of humans, but unfortunately very plausible evolutionarily. Finding pleasure in pain is adaptive in scarcity.
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Yes if the last year has taught us anything it's that tribalism is a far FAR bigger actor in modernity than most thought

