How evil are we??

I think I'd like to moot a potentially shocking social experiment here, after seeking the approval of the mods, and after some of the intellectual and moral heavyweights that frequent these pages have weighed in, of course.

I'd like to pose the question, for anyone who cares to answer, "what is the worst thing you have ever done?"

And by creating a short term identity here, with a published password allow people to reply in complete anonymity...

Now, the very real danger is that, as happened to me once when I asked a new acquaintance that very question is that someone will confess a murder!*

But, I doubt it very much. I suspect that like my own "worst ever" act, you guys will turn out to be mostly pretty harmless.

But I don't know, it's only a hypothesis, need more data...

How safe for the participants would it really be?

Well we have some I.T expertise on this site as well as my own "dawn of the internet" experience, and I think we will all agree that unless this site logs ALL of it's traffic, it won't be traceable back to you, by any but the most complicated and forensic analysis conceive-able, and a simple murder probably won't even justify the resources need to investigate.

(You'd need to have stolen a lot of money or blown up a masonic lodge probably...)

Bad idea, or fascinating opportunity?

EDIT: Thank you all for making this such an interesting and illuminating thread.

The size of the response was unexpected, and I've not had the capacity to respond to all comments that perhaps I would want to. I keep having to get up and do stuff.

Parents

Kate Kestrel over 2 years ago

Really interesting question.
I’m not keen on the word ‘evil’ because it can mean any number of things to different people with different perspectives in different societies etc.

From my own perspective the worst most ‘evil’ thing I can think of would be deliberate cruelty to another person or to animals. To deliberately cause distress to another living thing is an abhorrent act. This can be through personal interaction but also Governments can do this. I would argue that the current U.K. government inflicts suffering to both people (and animals).

I try my best to not to cause suffering to others - so I don’t consider myself evil. I do feel though that I would be capable of killing a person in extreme circumstances - for example if they were inflicting severe harm to a vulnerable person. If I knew I wouldn’t get caught though! My family need me so I wouldn’t want to end up in prison!
I would also be prepared to help someone who was terminally ill end their own life - and some (particularly religious) people might consider that to be very wrong if they felt it was immoral to hasten someone’s death.

I’ve even sometimes been watching Boris Johnson on tv and hated him so much that I’ve felt I wanted to kill him! I can feel rage against people sometimes and feel I really hate them.

ultimately it’s all quite subjective.

As for the worst thing I’ve ever done - I’m not really sure I’ve done anything really terrible. I certainly don’t break rules or laws. I try to be a good person. So I don’t think I’m evil at all to be honest!

Reply

Kate Kestrel over 2 years ago

Really interesting question.
I’m not keen on the word ‘evil’ because it can mean any number of things to different people with different perspectives in different societies etc.

From my own perspective the worst most ‘evil’ thing I can think of would be deliberate cruelty to another person or to animals. To deliberately cause distress to another living thing is an abhorrent act. This can be through personal interaction but also Governments can do this. I would argue that the current U.K. government inflicts suffering to both people (and animals).

I try my best to not to cause suffering to others - so I don’t consider myself evil. I do feel though that I would be capable of killing a person in extreme circumstances - for example if they were inflicting severe harm to a vulnerable person. If I knew I wouldn’t get caught though! My family need me so I wouldn’t want to end up in prison!
I would also be prepared to help someone who was terminally ill end their own life - and some (particularly religious) people might consider that to be very wrong if they felt it was immoral to hasten someone’s death.

I’ve even sometimes been watching Boris Johnson on tv and hated him so much that I’ve felt I wanted to kill him! I can feel rage against people sometimes and feel I really hate them.

ultimately it’s all quite subjective.

As for the worst thing I’ve ever done - I’m not really sure I’ve done anything really terrible. I certainly don’t break rules or laws. I try to be a good person. So I don’t think I’m evil at all to be honest!

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