What is "True Evil"

[Brandon237]

A D&D alignment?

*Puts on his bottle-bottom glasses and whips out his calculator* AAACTUALLY! It's "chaotic evil"!

I don't think "true evil" exists. It's a human concept and perceptions of evil (and good for that matter) are purely subjective. It's a matter of perspective, really.

Nope, the players handbook describes neutral evil as "true evil".

Hmm, I suppose that's true, but I'd dare to say that "chaotic evil" fits best to the "true evil" description. Neutral evil is more "out for themselves" type of people.

EDIT: Although, your mileage may vary.

This, as lawful evil is often simply in subservience, or good in its own ways.
Neutral evil is greed.
Chaotic evil, that is some F***ed up s***. That is where nothing matters, where you don't care, all you enjoy is pain, and lots of it. That is the ultimate, untainted evil.

And I must resist the TVT... Must... res... *dies on the spot with mouse cursor millimetres away from the search button after TV tropes is entered in the edit-bar...*

 

[GraveeKing]

-Something with NO good reasoning.
-I'm not defending rapists here BUT at least with rape they'll do it because THEY enjoy it, it's a basic chemical in the brain after all - we ALL have it, most of just learn to repress it though. It's still evil, don't get me wrong but they have a reason. Torturing someone you hate and killing them slowly is evil but there's still a reason behind it, hence not true evil.
-Now when there's no reasoning at all, it's madness - in which case it's not the fault of that person, hence not true evil.
-If a mugger steals your money then he'll probably be spending it on something, be in drugs, alcohol or whatever point being is there IS still a reason you could see from the criminals point of view.

TRUE evil consists of a reason being there (hence sanity intact) but it being so minimal or out of the way it's just completely wrong. I.E Someone going into a store and killing everyone inside, then taking the money - which is then spend on new guns, it's built up evil which is true cruelness. To the point that killing ALL the people was without a good reason (I.E to get something that naturally they won't enjoy). That would be true evil. Since there's evil, reasoning with no point. I.E True Evil.

 

[Robert Ewing]

True evil, Lord Voldemort is a prime example of being evil. He is far more evil than Satan, or Darth Vader for example

Lord Voldemort is visibly a deeply evil and corrupted character from a very early age, with no real reason behind it, except for being left with no parents, but not all orphans are so demonically evil. He is just evil for the sake of being evil, he wants to cause pain and suffering both long term, and short term. Without a second thought he splits his soul into 7 (8 if you count the time he didn't mean to) pieces, to ensure that his reign of evil did not stop. He doesn't want to rule the world, he wants to influence it in his own image, for maximum oppression, mental instability, fear, anguish and pain. The way he feels towards un-pure witches and wizards are also very extreme, as it's racism. He believe's that all of them should be destroyed. Thats, the half wizard/witch humans, and humanity itself.

Satan isn't evil at all really, if you go for the original Satan, and not the Gothic pop culture version- Then Satan was the lord of music, who was cast of of heaven and into hell for questioning god. That's it, nothing more! And then we damn him as the lord of all evil for having free will? Tbh, I'd say god was more evil, for damning his life to a eternity of fire and anguish for having free will.

Darth Vader, isn't evil. He is weak, he fell to the lure of the dark side, and with no direct control over himself, he blindly did the emperors bidding. He was a good Jedi to start with, but was weak with the thought of revenge on the sand people. And not to mention he redeemed himself, overall not very evil

 

[MBergman]

What is and what is not evil will always depend on one's point of view so it's therefore impossible to brand something as evil. There will always be someone who disagrees and why should your opinion be worth more than theirs?

 

[Indeterminacy]

As an unashamed sociopath, I would like to fiercely resist several claims made thus far that True Evil and Sociopathy are one and the same.

A sociopath is someone for whom violation of social norms and rules does not bring guilt, and for whom social pressure to that effect is not a catalyst for reform. Emotion and empathy are bundled in with this - "feeling" a particular way in response to the cues and manipulations of other people is a struggle for the sociopath.

Morality is not about doing what everybody tells you. WW2 Germany is a case study to that effect. Nor is it about emotion, as anyone who's had to make a critical judgement over the distribution of resources will understand first hand.

It is entirely possible to have an abstract idea, perhaps even a well-formed theory, of the right thing to do whilst nonetheless dismissing the consensus or emotive opinions of the world you live in. In fact, if you are unable to do that, it seems clear to me that you are extremely susceptable to control by those with a wider agenda.

 

[Richard Po]

Subjective

 

[Angry Camel]

True evil is causing pain for everyone around you by any means necessary, purely for your enjoyment, whilst having a full grasp of the consequences.

 

[Buleet]

Technicly There is no such thing as "evil"
There are things that are morally unaccepttable but the person that did it tends to be horrified with himself or totally fucking coocoo-banana nuts.
Hitler didn't wake up every day thinking mohahaha what will kill today.
He thought what he was doing was the right thing to do.(It proberbly helped he was crazy.)
So according to me there is no such thing as true evil.
The commiter will not look at himself and proudly say that he's evil without being insane or TERRIBLY terribly misguided.

I really hope that this will not get interperted that i think that criminals shouldn't get punished.

 

[sumanoskae]

Evil, is when someone else violently disagrees with the standard.

Good and evil are constructs entirely of our creation, one is defined only by the other.

Are there things I personally find reprehensible?, yes. Will I fight against those things?, yes. Do I operate under the delusional pretense that my point of view is somehow an objective truth that cannot be denied by the word of some transcendental entity or law?, no, no such ting as an objective truth exists, as the very idea of such a thing is of the origin of the space between the pit of our fears and the summit of our knowledge, our imagination.

 

[Angerwing]

Rape is one of the few crimes with literally no justification.

Sorry, but if you can justify murder, you can justify rape.

Evil is, convincing the person you love to murder what is a threat to your relationship knowing that fail or win, they will go to jail and you wont have to actually break up with them.

Evil is Staying in a loveless relationship, because you cant be bothered to care for your children or work to pay your bills, so you let someone else do it because you cannot be bothered to disrupt your WoW time.

Evil is accusing the person you love of cheating on you with CJ from GTA: San Andreas for no other reason to sit back and enjoy their reaction as they try to make sense of that accusation.

Evil isnt how its portrayed in video games. What is considered evil is typically just being either disagreeable or douchey. Some of the most "good" chars in video game history are actually true evil.

Meh, under normal circumstances I could come up with better examples, but Ive got money to go spend and school to reregister for.

You are absolutely incorrect. You can kill people for a good reason. It's justified. Of course, it does come down to morals, but it's still possible to have legitimate purpose behind a murder.

Rape has no moral justification.

As for the rest of your post, whatever. That's not really relevant to what I'm saying.

 

[Haelium]

Rape is one of the few crimes with literally no justification.

Sorry, but if you can justify murder, you can justify rape.

Please, go ahead, try.

Let's say you had just invaded a country, and the soldiers wanted to rape the Dictator. Or maybe just the dictators wife who had many opportunities to kill the dictator.

Or Bankers who move assets to their wives so they cannot be seized by the state. I think it would be OK to rape those men and women.

 

[Skallagrimm]

Considering something wrong by your own moral standards and doing it anyway. Someone who kills or rapes because they think it's right is not doing "evil". Their actions may be dispicable, but not "evil". If someone thinks "Rape is wrong, but i'll do it anyway". That's "evil". They know something is wrong, evil, bad, whatever you want to call it, but they do it anyway.

 

[Pinkamena]

"True evil" implies that evil is objective, something universal. But it's just a construct made by humans, and is very subjective, so I don't think a "true evil" exist.

 

[Soods]

I don't really believe in moral of any kind, so I'm gonna go with stupidity. Pure evil = doing something that is harmful to everyone, even you, while knowing exactly how harmful it is.
Smoking is a good example of pure evil, you lose money when you buy ciqarettes and harm everyone around you, including you.

 

[AdamG3691]

Rape is one of the few crimes with literally no justification.

Sorry, but if you can justify murder, you can justify rape.

Please, go ahead, try.

Let's say you had just invaded a country, and the soldiers wanted to rape the Dictator. Or maybe just the dictators wife who had many opportunities to kill the dictator.

Or Bankers who move assets to their wives so they cannot be seized by the state. I think it would be OK to rape those men and women.

"I'm going to rape you because you didn't kill your husband" ?

 

[Cipher1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJW5cNHCoOA

Thats real evil right there and hilarity.

 

[IceStar100]

Hurting other and finding enjoyment. No not the S&M stuff heck true S&M the M has more power then the S.

True evil is ripping the legs off a grass hopper just to make them suffer. What the heck did that Grasshopper ever do to you?

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

If you do something for your own enjoyment while it has negative effects on everything else.

 

[blackmath]

Morality is relative.

 

[irani_che]

neutral evil (DnD)
means someone who is evil just for the sake of being evil, they do not want to rule the world, or bring chaos or destroy everything they see just for the sake of it
they just go about their unpleasant business