(October 9, 2017 at 9:24 pm)Tres Leches Wrote: I guess I would say I think I'm generally a good person. Even though I mutter "fuck" under my breath on occasion and eat ice cream over the sink after 10pm, my kid seems to like being around me and I try to be a good role model for her.

Also, I've turned in two lost bank cards that I found on the street instead of going on spending sprees. Does that count towards my good-ness too? lol

-Teresa

Ice cream over the sink after 10 PM?

(October 9, 2017 at 8:39 pm)paulpablo Wrote: If it was judgment like this has been a computer game and I'm adding up my score so far, and it's based on suffering/pleasure or well being I've given to others,  I've done pretty good.  I never murdered or raped anyone and I'm really not a cruel person, not very cruel to animals except I do eat meat.  I can be pretty kind and thoughtful.

But I don't think it takes a mentally ill person to do very bad things.  I've been listening to a lot of podcasts recently that are sort of about this subject, more specifically dealing with the importance of knowing how potentially evil you can be.
It's also about moral superiority doesn't come from avoiding doing things you couldn't do anyway.  Just a few examples off the top of my head, I couldn't say Tiger Woods is a horrible womanizer, I'm better than him.  I'm not tempted by anywhere near the number of women he is, just because I don't womanize possibly to the extent he did, it doesn't mean much.
I couldn't say I'm better than a slaver who took slaves as a way to make a living a thousand or so years ago.  I've never had the opportunity to take a slave, I don't deal with any stress I imagine ancient people had to live with, I've never come close to having to make the moral decision to take a slave or not.

There are somethings I could really never imagine doing no matter how hard I try, I suppose it's just not in my genetics.  A lot of things like rape, murder, cruelty are more easy for me to imagine, especially as a teenager when I feel like I was less morally stable and when hormones run wild.  If I'd been put into a situation like a 3rd world country war zone instead of just a pretty bad area in the north west of England in my teenage years I could have been capable of a lot of evil.

What podcasts? Sounds interesting.

Hammy Wrote:I myself also love attention-seeking

If you had a glass of clean water and someone polluted it a little bit then it would be a glass of polluted water, not a glass of mostly clean water. That's how I see things. That's not to say I'm calling everyone a bad person, I do consider the majority of people as good people otherwise we wouldn't be living in peace in this time and age, however limited it may be. Acknowledging that I have sinned and that I somehow need to redeem myself is how I found my way back to church but that's not to say I consider everybody else bad or myself morally superior. Everybody has got to do what they think is best for themselves without any fear of harassment.

I don't yet, but I aspire to be one. I'm a work in progress.

This is an interesting question and it really made me think.

I think I’m generally a good person, but sometimes I do awful things. I have caught myself muttering, “Wow, Ivy. This time you really outdid yourself,” and not in a good way. Sometimes when this happens, I lose sleep. When I do something fit for a bad person of bad intentions, I don’t like myself, I punish myself, and I do what it takes to either fix it when it’s possible, or face the consequences. Sometimes.

I notice that the worst things I’ve done have derived from a place in my head where I have cultivated fear, resentment, and trauma. I have learned to identify my triggers, so when I still act upon my impulses after being triggered, I consider this bad (sometimes). Since I have identified the issue, there should be no excuse. I feel that I should control myself more, because sometimes I can be wrong and I don’t realize it until after I have done the harm. I have to admit that there have been times when I have been purposefully mean due to these triggers, and I know it, and I feed it, and I don’t take it back. This is why I consider that sometimes I do awful things. I don’t always regret the things I do wrong. I know it’s wrong, but I’m so angry that I think, “I don’t care if what I’m about to say is hateful. I know it is and I’m about to say it anyway.”

But my darkness tends to focus on those triggers.

Other than that, I think I’m a person with a good heart and sometimes I take my kindness and patience too far. I forgive too easily. I let people step over me, if that prevents them from suffering. I go without, so others have it. Even when it hurts, I give another chance, because omg I don’t want to imagine them hurting instead. If anything, I’m a very mean and cruel person to myself.

Speaking of which, people that remind me of me get in my nerves. A lot. A fucking lot.

In conclusion, I’m an awful person who does a few things right once in a while and deep down has good intentions.  

(October 10, 2017 at 1:55 am)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: I don't yet, but I aspire to be one.  I'm a work in progress.

All heavy metal dudes are evil! They worship satan, listen to the devil's music backwards and rape and all that stuff! Right CL?

(October 10, 2017 at 1:55 am)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: I don't yet, but I aspire to be one. I'm a work in progress.

I think you are. Why don't you think so?

If I didn't think that by my own standards I was a good person, I doubt I'd be able to get out of bed in the morning.  Don't mistake me - I'm not laying claim to be some idealized pinnacle of virtue and moral rectitude, but I try to treat people decently and to be as fair as my nature permits. 

Boru

(October 9, 2017 at 6:51 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: By your own standards, do you consider yourself to be overall a good person?

Why or why not?

This question is superfluous and highly subjective to point of view.

How about reality instead of loaded questions.

How about OUR species has always displayed BOTH acts of compassion and cruelty. 

I love my species POTENTIAL to be compassionate and display empathy, but our collective history also shows that we are in competition with each other and we get violent as groups with each other. 

I am sure Mystic thinks he's got the right morality, I am sure you think you've got the right morality. The problem with human's perceptions is that we can think we are on the right side, but we can be dead wrong at the same time because our species perceptions of reality are notoriously flawed.

You can only say that individuals show compassion and empathy and others don't so much.

(October 9, 2017 at 6:51 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: By your own standards, do you consider yourself to be overall a good person?

Why or why not?

I'm a bitch. Life made me that way. 

Actually, I'm The Bitch. I made me that way.