Hamas terrorists have managed to stoop lower than even the Nazis on the moral scale.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html

The videos captured by the Hamas terrorists on October 7th have been kept under lock and key, presumably because they're so graphic that they would violate the terms of service of every media outlet on the planet.

I can't help but think that the world would benefit from rounding up every "From the river to the sea" person on the planet, and showing them the footage in an A Clockwork Orange type manner.

Some specific individuals who I do trust have seen the footage. One of whom is Douglas Murray.

Murray has made the observation that there were several accounts of Nazi officers having to get blind drunk every time they got off duty to cope with what they were being ordered to do to their Jewish captives. As he reports, and it makes sense given that the terrorists decided to record and share their actions, the Hamas terrorists committed their crimes against the Jewish people with absolute jubilation.

Murray's assessment seems to be that the Hamas terrorists have managed to stoop lower than even the Nazis on the moral scale.

To an extent, I think he's right.

Still, there remains an ethical problem in this assessment.

If the Nazis had to get blind drunk to cope with their actions, that's an indication that they knew that they were doing something wrong, and doing it anyway. Yeah, they felt conflicted, and tried to drown their guilt; but, they woke up the next morning and did the same evil with the same knowledge that it was wrong.

As a matter of simple statistics, it's nonsensical to assume that the Hamas terrorists were all clinical psychopaths. So, given their behavior, it seems that they were acting on their genuine beliefs. They believed that they were doing good. They believed that they were carrying out Allah's will.

So, who is really the worse person? Is it the Nazi who does evil, knowing that it's evil; or, the Hamas terrorist, who does the same evil while believing that it's good?

To insert my humble opinion -- it's complicated.

I think that people who do evil while knowing that it's evil worse people. It's the whole concept of mens rea.

However, the people who do evil while believing that they're doing good are much more dangerous. As CS Lewis said, they'll never be deterred by their conscience.