@benji_w @violetmadder @petrillic no, you don't think it's evil.

funny you should specifically mention intersubjectivity, i was thinking the past few days that i should make something responding to Mackie's clarifications at the start of Inventing Right And Wrong, because they give entirely too much space for the acceptance of an intersubjective "bad" as a standard interpretation of "evil"...

in some areas, i agree with Mackie, like the delineation between hypothetical and categorical imperatives, and in the hypothetical sense, sure, something can be "bad" in the (almost aristotelean) sense that "this does a bad job of serving this purpose", and if the implied purpose is simply your own happiness, then something is subjectively "bad", to you, in the hypothetical imperative sense. but often "bad" and "evil" are simply synonyms, and i'm saying "bad" in the categorical imperative sense of the word is nonsense.

the problem with the post is that it uses moralism. it's rooted in moralism. it's all ABOUT moralism. there's nothing to say about it, other than point out the fact that it's nonsense.

i'm going to sleep and won't be checking back for a while, so i want to say this first.

it's absolutely crucial for everyone to understand that morality is entirely a product of oppression, and it does nothing except oppress marginalized people.

no one needs to convince others to oppose things that are actually harmful. describing something as torture is sufficient to make someone angry that it's happening. the purpose of morality is to make people angry about things that AREN'T harmful, and justify violence towards people who aren't a threat: the satanic panic of the 80s/90s. honor killings in the middle east. gender-variant american prisoners being forced off HRT right now. etc.

people oppose things that hurt them and their loved ones naturally. morality is a tool used to brainwash people into bigotry.

@benji_w @violetmadder @petrillic all of that is wrong. you do need it to be objective and universal to see it as "evil" because that's what defines morality. subjective values are preferences. objective imperatives represent morality. and no, since evil doesn't exist, you don't see those things as evil. you're deceptively and manipulatively using the word "evil" to coerce people into behaving in ways that conform to your preferences. you're probably inclined to respond to this by saying you're fine with coercing people to not torture or rape other people, but that would be simply missing--and proving--my point.

why would i say "i agree" with someone saying something is evil, when that's exactly the sort of rhetoric i want to abolish..? morality absolutely is a mental illness.

@benji_w @violetmadder @petrillic no, it doesn't. you're completely evading the point, being intentionally obtuse. nothing sounds evil to anyone. that's not possible. what's happening is, you're imagining that there is a concept we call "evil" which can be used to describe things you don't like.

it's not "declining to judge", it's an acknowledgement that the concept of a good/evil judgment is fundamentally illogical, and built on inherently oppressive frameworks.

@cy @petrillic @violetmadder what does this even mean

@violetmadder @petrillic and, it needs to be said - this is such an annoyingly lazy, unsophisticated, ridiculous, cliché response. for hundreds of years (at least), people have been denying the existence of moral truths, and putting forward still-undefeated arguments refuting moralism (Hume's Guillotine, Error Theory, Stirner's observation that religious morality is nothing but the subjective preferences of a being revered as a god, etc.), and every time the nonsensical nature of moralism is brought up, moralists simply fall back on the tired old refrain of pointing to cruelty and calling it evil, insisting "there are things i don't like, therefore evil must exist!"

@violetmadder @petrillic it's torture, rape, and bombing hospitals, obviously.

@petrillic evil is always a bullshit concept. anyone who uses words like that has serious mental problems.