i ain't any philosopher, but i think yall are missing the point.
cruelty IS easy. evil IS but a simple human impulse. but it'd be especially unfeeling too if you just dismiss someone else as "not special at all" for choosing it. you're not wrong, we ALL know pain, and we ALL respond to it on selfish instinct most of the time - and many of us don't even realize it. but this thread of posts is distinctly missing the true duality of man:
we've had and always will have incredible capacity for great evil; but we've also had and always will have incredible capacity for great good.
such is the push and pull between not only entire factions within the broader human race, but also the great internal conflict within an individual that can indeed make choosing good SO difficult and that much more interesting, as this post initially poses.
if you think evil is easy to understand, i encourage you to take that understanding to the next level and sit with the tragedy of how some people feel so alone and afraid and hurt that they feel like those evil human impulses and instincts are the only way to survive. don't just dismiss them. dismissal of those people btw leads to demonization, which is a HUGE mistake in its own right for a multitude of reasons. really think about this nuance though: they may or may not know any better, but they feel so trapped and ashamed that they feel they have no choice.
now think about how some people really are just fueled by hate and blame others for EVERYthing and take it out on everyone else. behaviour that only serves to feed their own cycle of isolation, but they can't admit to their own wrongs and choose to not see another way. that's tragic too in its own way, where they do know better, but don't choose it. why do they choose this? what circumstances have lead to this? some are easier to extend sympathy toward than others. now bear in mind, extending sympathy for the person does not mean you are excusing the crime. that's where holding accountability comes in. but doesn't this situation make you wonder too?
now think of when you choose wrong. what circumstances could you think of in your life that would help myself or another understand why you chose that? do you regret it? did you receive grace and kindness when you wanted it? not nicencess, which is polite and sugar-coats or appeases and shallowly soothes and even excuses/rationalizes. real kindness, that is firm and honest but still loving, and holding accountability on ALL sides, not just yours. don't you want that compassion? well, you're not unique either: we ALL want and need that.
that's part of the big draw toward sympathetic villains and anti-heroes nowadays. i see this especially strong among many kinds of minority groups with strong internet presences like here on tumblr, oftentimes because their current in-person lives are hostile environments toward anything that deviates even a little bit. but it's hard to articulate this and it's a hell of a lot easier to just give sympathy or empathy.
a note for the chronic users of social media - a little something i myself have learned by disengaging and taking more agency in my own actual life: both sympathy and empathy stop just short of taking loving and selfless action for another, and stay at simply feeling for someone. sympathy/empathy are the ONLY things that we can give our favorite characters on the screen or the page, because they're not real people, as much as they may be representative of real people. so practice it with these characters - even the ones you're trained to despise - then take that to real people you actually engage with, be it online or face-to-face. KEEP practicing empathy, find ways to take the next step PAST it and take loving action for another. even if it's a small thing! don't just stop at the catharsis of giving sympathy to a fictional dude, mkay? that's not enough to bring the change in the world you may want to see.
this is all why mainstream media and internet discourse bore or even frustrate me a lot of the times, by the way. we keep oversimplifying and then picking SIDES in a conflict and hovering by the shallows of justifications and rationalizations, rather than practicing perspective-taking. it's a mistake made by SO many writers and audience memebers, encouraged also btw by our heavily ego-centric lens by which we all view the world which is both human impulse AND cultural in america especially.
BOTH sides fascinate me personally, because there's so much depth to be discovered and potential growth to be had in both sides. so much of this nuance gets lost though when we prioritize only the hero's triumph, or only the villain's tragic fall and how wronged they were by the rest of the world. it all gets lost when we focus too much on the external plot and spectacle of movies especially -
which, as much as i seethe about this limitation of movies, i recognize it as just that: it's a limitation, it oftentimes cannot be helped. this is my plug for you to go back to the literary classics too, by the way. pick up a damn book that's actually GOOD every once in awhile, okay?
but anyway, i think that's why evil is boring in one story, but fascinating and even compelling in another. both are true of choosing good too: boring in one, fascinating and compelling in another. and what this comes down to is, as i've found it, how compassionate the audience/writer(s) are, and how thoroughly-written a full narrative is - and this applies to media AND real life. real, consistent empathy and curiosity and receptiveness to complexity takes emotional energy - which is a hard reality to the kiddos who want everything easy and for free - but they all make for a far more interesting lens by which to see stories AND the world.
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