What makes a person bad?

[Exian]

I think a person would be considered "bad" if they keep repeating the same action. For example, I wouldn't call a person that did cocaine once or twice a drug addict, but if they used it every day I would. Although I will admit that some actions, to me, are unforgivable even if they were only committed one time. Pedophilia comes to mind.

Even drug use is debatable. What if I put it to you this way:

1. A person who uses drugs on a regular basis has an addiction. An addiction so strong that, despite the harm to the person's life and those around him/her, despite the law, this person can't help but to feel driven to seek out and use whatever drug it may be.

2. A person without an addiction and knowing full well the laws against the purchasing and use of drugs, seeks out and uses whatever drug.

It almost seems like #2 has the more deplorable action. Although, we don't know their full story. Could be systemic- could be a mental breakdown do to a strenuous life situation?

[Rob216]

I think a person would be considered "bad" if they keep repeating the same action. For example, I wouldn't call a person that did cocaine once or twice a drug addict, but if they used it every day I would. Although I will admit that some actions, to me, are unforgivable even if they were only committed one time. Pedophilia comes to mind.

Even drug use is debatable. What if I put it to you this way:

1. A person who uses drugs on a regular basis has an addiction. An addiction so strong that, despite the harm to the person's life and those around him/her, despite the law, this person can't help but to feel driven to seek out and use whatever drug it may be.

2. A person without an addiction and knowing full well the laws against the purchasing and use of drugs, seeks out and uses whatever drug.

It almost seems like #2 has the more deplorable action. Although, we don't know their full story. Could be systemic- could be a mental breakdown do to a strenuous life situation?

I wasn't arguing that being an addict is worse than buying drugs in the first place. I was just trying to compare being "bad" to another situation in which someone would be given a label. In this case: addict.

Plus, I'm a smoker so I'm not really in any position to cast aspersions onto someone that may be addicted to something.

[psychoslice]

No one in this thread can be right or wrong, because there is no such thing.

[Losty]

It very well could. From a personal perspective, when I was symptomatic (I have type 1 bipolar disorder, asymptomatic for about 3.5 years now), I did some dreadful things. A great many dreadful things, things I am not proud of, things I would not care to recount.

Was I a bad person? I suppose so, depending on how you measure it. Am I a different person now? Yes and no. I'm fundamentally the same person, with the same values - when I was ill, I didn't act consistently according to my values (and when I was sick, I acted without remorse, though I had periods of lucidity where I certainly did feel remorse greatly).

I'm the same person, but I'm not - the person who did those things no longer exists in one sense.

I suppose you could say I was a bad person with a good person inside screaming to be free.

---

To add to the above - one of the ways my mental illness manifested itself was a dulled sense of empathy. That was a result of past trauma, and it took a lot of therapy to overcome - but that capacity for empathy was always there, just suppressed, and not intentionally.

Would that have made me bad? I don't know. My actions were, and I take full responsibility for them. Psychology is a slippery fucker.

You see it's things like this that give me pause every time someone does something that seems wrong to me. Who am I to call a person bad? Especially when I have no insight into their mind. I having an overwhelming urge to vomit and cry when people touch me. I can't help it. I don't want to feel that way, but I just do. I would hate for someone to think badly of me for something that I have no control over. I hate to think badly of people. I am so much more inclined to watch them and listen to them for hours and hours trying to understand who they are and what makes them act that way.

[bennyboy]

No one in this thread can be right or wrong, because there is no such thing.

Wrong.

[Whateverist]

No one in this thread can be right or wrong, because there is no such thing.

Wrong.

Right.

[FatAndFaithless]

Wrong.

Right.

Left?

[Whateverist]

About 5 minutes ago.

[Jenny A]

Wouldn't that suggest some mental disability or imbalance?

I see that you clarified this as a practical definition; a way to use a person's actions as an indicator that they should be locked up or treated (I agree), but does this mean they are bad?

I mean, what else would describe a bad person? Maybe somebody who acknowledges the ability to feel remorse, guilt, and empathy, but admits to practicing the suppression of these feelings in order to commit more appalling crimes? This seems absurd. Too many stars would need to align, but what else would make a safe categorization? A bot fly? That's a bad person.

It very well could. From a personal perspective, when I was symptomatic (I have type 1 bipolar disorder, asymptomatic for about 3.5 years now), I did some dreadful things. A great many dreadful things, things I am not proud of, things I would not care to recount.

Was I a bad person? I suppose so, depending on how you measure it. Am I a different person now? Yes and no. I'm fundamentally the same person, with the same values - when I was ill, I didn't act consistently according to my values (and when I was sick, I acted without remorse, though I had periods of lucidity where I certainly did feel remorse greatly).

I'm the same person, but I'm not - the person who did those things no longer exists in one sense.

I suppose you could say I was a bad person with a good person inside screaming to be free.

---

To add to the above - one of the ways my mental illness manifested itself was a dulled sense of empathy. That was a result of past trauma, and it took a lot of therapy to overcome - but that capacity for empathy was always there, just suppressed, and not intentionally.

Would that have made me bad? I don't know. My actions were, and I take full responsibility for them. Psychology is a slippery fucker.

I guess the point of a practical definition is that I lack an ultimate definition for many of the reasons you both described above. People change for better and worse. Persons suffering from a variety of things---mental illnesses, drug influences, dementia, and even things like low kidney function--can do things they might not otherwise do. And people can be taught from childhood that things I think of as bad are right and good.

My definition tells me who to avoid dealing with and who to warn others against.

[Rob216]

I guess the point of a practical definition is that I lack an ultimate definition for many of the reasons you both described above. People change for better and worse. Persons suffering from a variety of things---mental illnesses, drug influences, dementia, and even things like low kidney function--can do things they might not otherwise do. And people can be taught from childhood that things I think of as bad are right and good.

My definition tells me who to avoid dealing with and who to warn others against.
[/quote]

So rather than describing the people you'd want to avoid as "bad" would you instead describe them as destructive or harmful? The point I'm getting at is I think we are just squabbling over terms.