@sky-cow0 When I say “evil isn’t a choice”, the thing that I mean is that literally no one wakes up in the morning to do something wrong because they’re a cackling, puppy-kicking bastard. Everyone who does bad things is doing them for reasons that make sense to them. These reasons are often either the result of a big systemic problem, or Some Fuckshit they learned before, like, third grade, because someone hurt them very badly. (And it’s usually both.)

Like, in your example, the dictator who’s declaring a war is probably doing so because he thinks it will make his country look Strong. The Some Fuckshit he’s working off of is that if you don’t look As Strong As Possible At All Times, someone will Hurt You, usually Badly. You have to hit other people, first, loudest, and all the time, or you will get Hurt. So, dictator declares a stupid war to make his country Look Strong. And then there’s a big systemic problem: he’s a dictator, no one can stop him, and people have to do what he says, because he runs the state and the entire job of the state in a dictatorship is to keep the idiot in charge happy. And so a lot of people die, over Some Fuckshit and a bad system.

This does not mean that that dictator shouldn’t be held to account for what he did. His actions had horrific consequences. At the very barest minimum he should never be in a position where he holds any amount power over people again.

But it’s like… there’s a saying among EMTs that, in a crisis situation, most people fall to the level of their training. I think that’s true for moral decisions, too, even if you’re not in A Life Or Death Crisis.

If you are not trained on how to handle a moral decision, you are going to be afraid. You are going to fall back on what you know will keep you from getting hurt. And that’s usually Some Fuckshit.

“I’m going to make myself look big and strong so that no one can hurt me!” (And “being rich” and “being the smartest guy in the room” is a way of doing this.) “I’m going to make myself small and hide so that no one can hurt me!” “I’m going to be Ever So Nice and Agreeable so that no one can hurt me!”

….And when you get enough people in the same room playing out these patterns, you get a system that’s built to make people keep doing it. People will enforce these roles on each other because the alternative is terrifying. If you’re not allowed to keep chasing power at any cost, Someone Will Hurt You!

…….And this has implications for how we deal with it when People Do Bad Things, because a lot of the time, the ways that we try to deal with it make the problem worse. If people to bad things when they’re afraid… and you put harsh punishments in place explicitly to scare people away from doing something bad… well, you see the issue here, yeah?

I don’t have a good answer for how to apply this to the big horrible social systems we live under, but it is a much better way to look at and handle small-scale interpersonal conflicts. When someone starts pulling Some Fuckshit, it’s almost never about you- it’s because they’re afraid. You don’t need to let them hurt you- it’s not kind to do that, it just lets them keep lashing out- but you don’t need to take it personally either.

Learn to be less afraid. Teach yourself to be curious and humble and to stay calm in a crisis. Learn some kind of physical self-defense, if it would help you. Teach your children to be curious and compassionate, if you have them.

Be a person other people don’t have to fear.