Yeah, a description that is given to others that we can then use to justify doing bad things to them.
“It’s not the people committing the inhumane and cruel acts society collectively describe as evil who are actually evil. It’s the people using the word evil to describe their actions who are really at fault.”
That’s about as deep as a spoon. The word is not a spell that automatically ends conversations, it doesn’t automatically magic people’s brains into believing any accusations. If I called Mr Rogers the most evil man who had ever existed, you would scoff. Because it doesn’t resonate with the truth it is easily disregarded as any other false accusation. The reason the label bothers you is because there is at least some truth to saying capitalism is evil, or America is evil.
That doesn’t change the fact that they are more than just “evil”. By labeling them as such, I can say they’re deserving of scorn and hatred and can safely be placed somewhere away from my identity. I no longer have to think about them because they are evil and far away from me, since I’m not evil.
What? Maybe you are projecting some personal quirks on the descriptor evil, but most people do not treat words like magical commands. It’s not a damned word of power, it’s an adjective. Do you object to al adjective, or just specifically the word evil, like some kind of shitty holy paladin?
Does this logic work…? I see a guy punch someone in the face. "That was violent, but I’m not violent so I don’t have to think about that anymore. "
I’ve seen Marxist Leninists fall into this trap as well. Even in this discussion. I bring up concerns of oligarchy, they say that that’s minimalized capitalism so it’s “evil contained”.
You do know that we are discussing topics in an open forum and not playing dungeons and dragons, right?
Oligarchy pops up everywhere (literally called The Iron Rule of Oligarchy) and isn’t caused by capitalism, it’s just that capitalism is rife with it.
The iron rule of oligarchy is political theory even if it labels itself as law. It also only pertains to democracies, especially liberal democracies as capitalism helps organize hierarchy to extract wealth from labour.
People aren’t falling into some trap, they just don’t agree with your claims. There is a reason Marxist countries are described as a dictatorship of the proletariat. There is some hierarchy organized democratically, but it is better insulated from oligarchic forces that work to influence the democratic process through the same economic controls built into liberal democracies.
They treat the two evils as being related because they must be because they’re evil.
Because liberal democracies are built around a capitalist economy, and are meant to be oligarchic in nature. What do you think the Senate was created for? Not all oligarchy are capitalist economies, but all capitalist countries are at least oligarchic or sometimes dictatorships.
“It’s not the people committing the inhumane and cruel acts society collectively describe as evil who are actually evil. It’s the people using the word evil to describe their actions who are really at fault.”
That’s about as deep as a spoon. The word is not a spell that automatically ends conversations, it doesn’t automatically magic people’s brains into believing any accusations. If I called Mr Rogers the most evil man who had ever existed, you would scoff. Because it doesn’t resonate with the truth it is easily disregarded as any other false accusation. The reason the label bothers you is because there is at least some truth to saying capitalism is evil, or America is evil.
What? Maybe you are projecting some personal quirks on the descriptor evil, but most people do not treat words like magical commands. It’s not a damned word of power, it’s an adjective. Do you object to al adjective, or just specifically the word evil, like some kind of shitty holy paladin?
Does this logic work…? I see a guy punch someone in the face. "That was violent, but I’m not violent so I don’t have to think about that anymore. "
You do know that we are discussing topics in an open forum and not playing dungeons and dragons, right?
The iron rule of oligarchy is political theory even if it labels itself as law. It also only pertains to democracies, especially liberal democracies as capitalism helps organize hierarchy to extract wealth from labour.
People aren’t falling into some trap, they just don’t agree with your claims. There is a reason Marxist countries are described as a dictatorship of the proletariat. There is some hierarchy organized democratically, but it is better insulated from oligarchic forces that work to influence the democratic process through the same economic controls built into liberal democracies.
Because liberal democracies are built around a capitalist economy, and are meant to be oligarchic in nature. What do you think the Senate was created for? Not all oligarchy are capitalist economies, but all capitalist countries are at least oligarchic or sometimes dictatorships.