What is Your Definition of a Good Person?

[J. Starke]

Just do no harm to others and don't be a burden on society and you're good in my book.

 

[Lark]

First do no harm. That goes a long, long way actually to my definition but its not the whole of it. This could be the "negative" sense.

There's a positive sense too. Which is pro-social behaviour. Begins with not being complicit in anti-social behaviour. Altruism, maybe, but not neuroticism. Reciprocity is a better idea.

 

[Frosty]

Idk

 

[anticlimatic]

A good person is determined with how obsessed someone is with being a good person, and also how much they virtue signal with collectivist efforts.

 

[Saturnal Snowqueen]

"Dear Diary. I believe I'm a good person. I believe there's good in everyone."-Veronica Sawyer.

It's hard for me to really classify someone as a bad person. I look at a person and see that they have good features, and that they have bad features. If I see a person's bad features, I can often times laugh at them, chalk them up as petty, or respect that there's a reason they are acting that way. Everyone has a little darkness inside, it feels inhuman for anyone not to. I think though, it's hard for me to imagine pervy, inconsiderate people as good people. I think part of it is that they feel so inhuman, like they're always wearing a mask, that I can't break through them. They're just laughing, smile, mocking, standing proud. It's the human feeling that allows me not to see someone as a bad person.

I think in terms of basics, a good person is someone who knows how to forgive. I'm not saying that a person should be walked all over, but they need to let bygones be bygones. Not let silly things ruin their relationships, and realize that people make mistakes and have circumstances they are going through. They also should be considerate of others, remember that other people exist too. It's fine to be selfish to an extent, we need to take care of ourselves. But we need to respect that other people have their needs, and either they should help them with those needs or let them take to time to recharge and fulfill their own needs.

 

[Mole]

One of the hardest things I have had to face is actual evil people, that is, those who are pathological liars and who delight in harming others, and who are skilled in turning people against a victim.

I found it difficult to deal with an evil person because they respond to goodness with evil, they are practised predators and seek the weak and vulnerable and take advantage of goodness. So the only way to deal with them is to be evil yourself. This is very hard for a good person to do. However the difference between a good person and an evil person is that the evil person is always evil, while a good person in dealing with an evil person is only evil for a while.

 

[Lark]

One of the hardest things I have had to face is actual evil people, that is, those who are pathological liars and who delight in harming others, and who are skilled in turning people against a victim.

I found it difficult to deal with an evil person because they respond to goodness with evil, they are practised predators and seek the weak and vulnerable and take advantage of goodness. So the only way to deal with them is to be evil yourself. This is very hard for a good person to do. However the difference between a good person and an evil person is that the evil person is always evil, while a good person in dealing with an evil person is only evil for a while.

Really? How often do you encounter that Mole?

 

[Lark]

A good person is determined with how obsessed someone is with being a good person, and also how much they virtue signal with collectivist efforts.

I see, like wearing maga hats and chanting about QAnon in a massive big group, a collective if you will, of Covid deniers?

 

[Mole]

Really? How often do you encounter that Mole?

Very rarely, Lark, most of us are mostly good with some bad. In fact I have only met one person who is completely evil. The worst thing was I could finally see the only way to deal with them was to return evil with evil, and my fear was I would become evil myself. In fact it is a vey difficult bridge to cross, but thankfully I didn't have to be evil with everyone.

 

[Mind Maverick]

One of the hardest things I have had to face is actual evil people, that is, those who are pathological liars and who delight in harming others, and who are skilled in turning people against a victim.

I found it difficult to deal with an evil person because they respond to goodness with evil, they are practised predators and seek the weak and vulnerable and take advantage of goodness.

Welcome to what I grew up literally surrounded by from 3 family members in a family of 4.

So the only way to deal with them is to be evil yourself. This is very hard for a good person to do. However the difference between a good person and an evil person is that the evil person is always evil, while a good person in dealing with an evil person is only evil for a while.

No, you cut them out of your life even if it means having no family because the rest, or extended family, several of which actually are decent people, are what they called "winged monkeys" in narcissism psychology, even if being alone that way is your worst fucking nightmare.

Frankly, I don't think it's as rare as most people think it is, and it is on the rise.

 

[Mind Maverick]

I need to get off of this thread, I'm seeing everything from an overly personal angle. It's true that narcissists aren't as rare as people think and are on the rise though. It's just tied into too much personal shit like why my education and therefore life is fucked up, why I've had to do so much work on my psyche, why I thought abnormal was normal to the point of being taken advantage of even more outside of family, why etc etc more shit nobody needs or wants to know.

Btw, just to throw it out there, I say I strive to be a good person because I genuinely do, not because I'm fucking hiding something. Not everyone is weak like my brother, turning into what hurt him in order to cope with the shit.

Hell, what I've been through isn't even that improbable because all the research proves that narcissists are attracted to each other initially but end horribly (my parents).

 

[anticlimatic]

I see, like wearing maga hats and chanting about QAnon in a massive big group, a collective if you will, of Covid deniers?

No. Not like that.


What's a QAnon?

 

[Mole]

I need to get off of this thread, I'm seeing everything from an overly personal angle.

Yes, often enough it is easier to see things from an intellectual point of view rather than a personal angle. It is important to try to integrate the personal and the intellectual. It is the essence of integrity.

 

[Merced]

Anyone who doesn't intentionally harm others and isn't apathetic to their effect on others. Good and perfect are not synonymous.

This is almost exactly my definition

 

[Lark]

No. Not like that.


What's a QAnon?

Oh OK.

I guess its not virtue signalling when you do it.

 

[anticlimatic]

Oh OK. I guess its not virtue signalling when you do it.

When who does what?

 

[Lark]

When who does what?

Troll sayz what?

 

[anticlimatic]

Everyone wants to be a good person, because everyone has a conscience that they are duly enslaved to. And it's not that hard to obey, on the day to day. Of course we don't always, but we do pay the price for it one way or another (and we know it, whether or not we understand exactly how it works). Most of us know what to do to be good on a very basic level- use your manners, don't impose on people, etc- but it's the broader philosophy beyond where people start getting in trouble.

Morality being relative as it is, who do we trust to tell us how to be good in more complicated human ways that our dull signal of a conscience can't manage? Typically this is where religion steps in, and it usually steps in during upbringing in the forming of values. Even if an adult is not religions, religious values instilled during youth can remain a part of them. When most of the western left rejected the Judeo Christian religious framework, nothing as satisfyingly complex was ever erected in its place- just a dull conscience based faith that "morality can be built anywhere, automatically, without it."

This turned out to be true, unfortunately it didn't grow as intended. From the vacuum instead arose Wokeness, and not for the first (or even 30th) time in history I might add. It's the religious prophet of The Void- all the worst fears of the unknown, compulsions for safety that come with that, the need to seize control from an entropic expanse spinning out of place- and of course the conscience required need to be good, all sort of cobbled and spun together with intuitive connections and social reinforcement.

Everyone wants to be good, and everyone mostly succeeds in their own eyes, but the better question is what type of "good" is the best, objectively speaking?

 

[Mole]

Everyone wants to be a good person, because everyone has a conscience that they are duly enslaved to. And it's not that hard to obey, on the day to day. Of course we don't always, but we do pay the price for it one way or another (and we know it, whether or not we understand exactly how it works). Most of us know what to do to be good on a very basic level- use your manners, don't impose on people, etc- but it's the broader philosophy beyond where people start getting in trouble.

Morality being relative as it is, who do we trust to tell us how to be good in more complicated human ways that our dull signal of a conscience can't manage? Typically this is where religion steps in, and it usually steps in during upbringing in the forming of values. Even if an adult is not religions, religious values instilled during youth can remain a part of them. When most of the western left rejected the Judeo Christian religious framework, nothing as satisfyingly complex was ever erected in its place- just a dull conscience based faith that "morality can be built anywhere, automatically, without it."

This turned out to be true, unfortunately it didn't grow as intended. From the vacuum instead arose Wokeness, and not for the first (or even 30th) time in history I might add. It's the religious prophet of The Void- all the worst fears of the unknown, compulsions for safety that come with that, the need to seize control from an entropic expanse spinning out of place- and of course the conscience required need to be good, all sort of cobbled and spun together with intuitive connections and social reinforcement.

Everyone wants to be good, and everyone mostly succeeds in their own eyes, but the better question is what type of "good" is the best, objectively speaking?

Interesting, it made me think that we all respond unconsciously to our environment and if our environment is evil, most of us are evil too. Germany in the 1930s and 40s was evil, and Soviet Russia was evil, and North Korea is evil today. Parts of Islam, parts of Russia, and China, are evil and evil grows under their influence.

So good and evil is more than a personal matter, it is also a social matter. A good example is public health, which is a social and medical matter. There is only so much we can do personally, and we need to address our social environment to grow good or evil.

 

[Firebird 8118]

For me, it ultimately boils down to this: don’t do to anyone what you wouldn’t want done to yourself.

The boundaries become clear to me the moment I remember that we’re all connected.