How do you define a good person or a bad person?

[Kfox]

Ah, yes, the tried and true debate tactic of "let's invoke Hitler!"

The reason I invoke Hitler (I could have invoked Amin, Stalin, Mao, or countless other monsters to make my point) is because it makes my point.

I'm just gonna let out a long sigh over here and say if you, personally, enjoy black-and-white, either-or thinking with no room for nuance or both-and, you are more than welcome to practice it.

My thinking involves black, white, and every shade of gray. To pretend everything is either black or white is just as foolish as pretending everything is various shades of gray IMO
Again; do you consider mankind too complex to call the best of us good?

 

[YoursTrue]

The reason I invoke Hitler (I could have invoked Amin, Stalin, Mao, or countless other monsters to make my point) is because it makes my point.

My thinking involves black, white, and every shade of gray. To pretend everything is either black or white is just as foolish as pretending everything is various shades of gray IMO
Again; do you consider mankind too complex to call the best of us good?

The question really is: what is the standard definition for good? Or bad. Who sets those standards?

 

[Quintessence]

The reason I invoke Hitler (I could have invoked Amin, Stalin, Mao, or countless other monsters to make my point) is because it makes my point.

Does it?

My thinking involves black, white, and every shade of gray. To pretend everything is either black or white is just as foolish as pretending everything is various shades of gray IMO
Again; do you consider mankind too complex to call the best of us good?

In some respects, complexity is irrelevant because this all boils down to how some human wants to spin the narrative. It can be spun in innumerable ways regardless of complexity, whether it's about mankind, womankind, or nonbinary kind. Moralizing says very little about that which is being moralized and a great deal about that which is doing the moralizing.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Some say a person is good. Or bad. How do you figure good vs bad, or simply good and bad?

Not sure I'm qualified to judge others, but I know when I have been bad (and I have, but often realised later), and I know in general that I believe myself to be good (and I have been this too mostly), plus I have known so many who might be regarded as good or bad and they seem much the same apart from the circumstances in which they find themselves so often. But then I don't tend to mix in either extreme realms - apart from having so many friends who would be classed as being in the 'good' category - from my perspective at least. And I am sure I have gained from having such friends.

 

[Ella S.]

I shouldn't and I'm trying to get better at not doing that.

I would like to get to a point in my life where I don't make value judgments about the external world at all and instead reserve judgment for picking what actions to take from a set of circumstantial opportunities. In other words, there are "good" and "bad" choices but not "good" or "bad" people.

Ideally, whether I evaluate a choice as "good" or "bad" depends on whether it is rational in accordance with decision theory.