If you think everyone’s goal is to not hurt someone, you are naive. Malevolence is real. Ignorance making other’s suffer is real.

>So no one’s goal is to hurt you. Because that doesn’t help them. They might hurt you to reach another goal, but you simply getting hurt isn’t it.

That's hard to believe, when considering how some "Christians" seem to revel in depriving human rights to anyone that isn't them.

For the most part I really agree with this. There are a few truly cruel people or cruel actions, but for the most part we are social, empathetic, aware, pleasure-seeking creatures - we want to be around other, we feel what they feel, and we know that - so to act cruelly to others is to hurt ourselves.

Most people just want to get along because, it the end, that's where a lot of happiness is.

It reminds me of this quote:

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”—Diogenes Laertius

If people knew enough, they’d do the right thing.

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I mean, if someone has to hurt you to reach their goal, then yes, they willingly did wrong. If my goal at work is to do as little as possibly without getting called out for it, then I am willingly hurting my company for my own benefit.

I think first you have to define “wrong” and whether its ever ok to hurt someone, in what context, to what degree, etc.

Personally, I think that if a person is hurting people in their life bc they are trying to reach goals, then the original person is selfish and doing wrong willingly. (Of course, there is wiggle room even in my statement.)

Another example is speeding. Lots of people willingly speed and some of those people get in car wrecks that injure others. So is speeding not wrong as long as no one gets hurt? Or is it always wrong? And while the driver may have been willingly speeding (to get to work on time! Or to pick up their kids! Plenty of “good” reasons.) they most likely did not willingly hit the other car. So was the speeding ok then bc the injury was an accident?

Cognitive distortions and maladaptive behaviours can be pretty powerful. A lot of people that do harm don't believe they're doing so or have warped perceptions that justify their actions.

If you look at the rates of mental illness and mental disability in prisons it's clear that a lot of people do bad things because they were in a bad place themselves.

The amount of people that go through the Justice system (or preferably justice diversions or restorative justice considering the harm prison causes), are remoseful and turn their lives around I think is a testament to the fact that people don't want to do wrong or harm but do sometimes need help to do the right thing.

Some people absolutely enjoy hurting other people intentionally. Ever heard of a serial killer?

Willingly or not, whatever the self-serving goal might be, when a shark is about to sink its teeth into you, your compassion in that moment is not going to help.

Too much compassion towards wrong-doers enables wrong-doing and erodes justice. Without justice, motivation to do right/good will never hold as much sway as motivation to do wrong/evil.