The Problem of Good: Why I'm Skeptical of Good People - And What it's Like to be "Evil"

A long time ago, I learned that "If it's politically correct, it's probably a lie".

What I mean by that is that time after time I've noticed how ideas that are deemed "politically" correct have been either revealed as lies, or have not worked well in practice, if at all.

If a word is politically correct, it usually means that it's a euphemism for something that makes people feel uncomfortable. Instead of "genital mutilation", we call it "circumcision"; instead of "a cripple", we call them "physically challenged". Before long, fat people will probably be called "horizontally challenged".

Also, if an idea is politically correct, it the politically correct nature of it reveals that the feelings that the idea evokes are more important than the idea, which more often than not means that the idea is worthless.

"Politically correct" is generally another word for "dishonest". The actual fact of the matter has been decided to be too ugly, and therefore it needs to be covered with the blanket of feel good.

This is a part of a larger issue that I've noticed about the world: my problem with "Good", in general.

Basically, every ideology that's ever been in existence has painted those who believe in said ideology as the good guys, and everybody else as the bad guys. From the early days of Christianity, to nazism, to socialism, to feminism. The ones believing in the ideology have always been the oppressed fighters for good, the only hope left for mankind.

Ideologies clearly divide people into good and bad, making everything a good vs. bad scenario. Liberals are the good people, conservatives are the bad people; Christians during the crusades were the good people, non-believers were the bad people; nazis were the good people, fighting a good fight against capitalist Jews. And so and so forth.

It's often the case the people make the mistake of thinking that other people classify themselves as evil. Obviously they don't; everybody thinks they are siding with good, everybody has a way to rationalize their belief systems in a way that writes them as the hero of the story.

Conservatives don't disagree with liberals because they're evil. They simply disagree on what makes for a good and functioning society.

I personally represent what is considered bad and evil by today's standards.

I'm pro capitalism, I'm anti-feminism, I've been called racist, I'm generally conservative-leaning, don't like abortion and find the idea of gay marriage to be annoying, and pretty much the only "good guy" quality that I have is that I'm an atheist. If I were a Christian on top of everything else, I'd win the Royal Flush of Evil Person Qualities.

I'm completely used to getting lambasted by the good people of the world as a piece of sh*t, as someone who's opinions are worthless, someone who should never be listened to, someone who's only worth is as that of a target of ridicule. All of this completely despite the fact that I have reasons for my beliefs, none of which have been born out of a dark desire to be evil. But the liberal movement of the left has been able to completely monopolize what is considered good.

People are afraid to be critical of immigration and feminism, since they will be branded a misogynist or a racist, which are two of the most harmful labels that can be given to a person in today's society. They are the labels of an evil person. A person who wants to harm people and see them suffer, and the only motivation behind his beliefs and actions is a pure, unadulterated will to do bad things. Nothing short of kicking little puppies to death.

This becomes ridiculous once you realize that the one thing all people share in common is the desire to have a good society. People actually agree on 90% of things, I'd argue, but the good people of the world are dead set on tearing people apart by deciding that some people are plain bad and their ideas evil.

The good guys vs. bad guys mentality has been an effective tool of democracy ever since the inauguration of democracy, and it has always worked as a mechanism to dehumanize the people in the opposite camp. It becomes way easier to harm, and ultimately even kill, people when you don't see them as people, at all, but rather harmful beings that need to be eliminated. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw racist internment camps in the near future - or worse.

The reason I've grown skeptical of the so called good people is that everybody is always lured into an ideology by marketing it as a fight for good.

Whenever someone presents himself to me as someone who "only stands for what is good", my Spider Sense starts tingling because it gives me an impression of a gullible, brainwashed person who has been hired to do someone's dirty work - and who is looking to dehumanize people.

The good vs. bad setting brings forth a problem of "the end justifies the means". Just take a look at the so called tolerant people. They commit the exact same crimes that they judge other people for all the time: they're intolerant, they discriminate, they attack, they demonize, they constantly instigate hatred, etc.

But it's okay because they only do it to the bad people, and the end game of getting rid of the bad people will justify all means. Just like the end of evil capitalism justified nazism. It's an extreme comparison, but when you really think about it, it's the same mechanism: you dehumanize the people you oppose, and other people start to see them as less than humans, and are more accepting of violence, and worse, towards them.

I mean, hey, you're only saving the world, right?

The idea of being on the good side is also a reason why these people are so feelings-oriented, I think. The great feeling that you gt from fighting alongside the forces of good is something that is hard to put a price tag on. We all want to be the hero. This is made even stronger by the fact that people live and die by movies and televisions shows, each of which includes a protagonist, and the reason tv shows and movies are popular is the fact that people want to live vicariously through these heroes.

But real life is hardly as interesting as the world of Star Wars or 24 (Sorry, my knowledge of movies and TV shows is next to zero), so the story where one can act as a protagonist needs to be looked for in the world of identity politics, wealth inequality and offensive internet posts.

I've been fascinated with people with unpopular opinions. My logic for this is that if someone has a popular opinion, he simply adapted to, well, a popular opinion, and it most likely required little to no intellectual workload from himself; whereas when someone holds an unpopular opinion, it's more likely that he spent some time forming that opinion, disregarding the social pressure to adapt to the popular views of the time. There's a big social cost in disagreeing with whatever is popular, so the person was willing to pay that high price in order to stand up for what he believes in.

If the Pope gives a speech about how God exists, the Pope is doing his job, and it's hardly interesting. But if the Pope comes out and says "You know what, I'm not so sure about this whole God deal", he gets my attention, because I'm thinking, okay, it's probably required some work and effort from the Pope to come to that conclusion, let's hear him out.

I was also just thinking about it the other day that it's pretty funny how I represent the evil, hateful and intolerant tropes of the modern human being in today's society, but I actually have numerous black friends, a gay friend, a hispanic friend.. And no, not as trophies to show off what a great, good human being I am, but rather as people who are my friends, and that's it.

One thing that they have in common is the fact that they agree with me on this topic, and feel that the tolerant left does not represent them in any way.

Try to challenge yourself: the next time you hear someone holding an unpopular opinion, hear him out. Hear out his reasoning behind the beliefs. You actually may learn something. You may find out that the person is not a hateful bigot, but rather someone who wants well being for people, but may suggest a different route to get there, one that differs from the popular truth. He may be right, he may be wrong, but you're doing yourself, as well as the entire society, a huge favor by not getting into a ridiculous shoutinng contest and throwing your legos at him, like is the common thing to do nowadays by the good people of the world.

@schattenjaeger