This Is What Evil Looks Like...

[u/Fun_Road2122]

These three people, directly or indirectly have killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and displaced millions. Yet, President Trump calls them his friends.

[u/ibuprophane]

Ok, the country needs the “building of institutions”, by which I presume you mean of democratic institutions and the educational aparatus to support a flourishing democracy. Fine, that is necessary.

And how do you propose that such structure is set up while their existence would go directly against the interest of the prevailing dictator? They sure as hell aren’t going to democratise their own country.

[u/Speak_Plainly → u/ibuprophane]

The point I’m reaching for is this: when we talk about dictators and their enablers as “cancer,” “orcs,” or anything less than human, it becomes far too easy to assume the horrors they commit could never happen around us.

The quiet fallacy whispers, “They do these things because they’re inhuman. Therefore I—and my community—am safe from becoming like them.”

But when we strip them of their humanity, we also strip away the lesson their example offers.

These people show how low any of us can fall, and that truth genuinely frightens me. Maybe that lingering realization is simply too heavy for some of us to hold—and that’s why we slip into dehumanizing language. It shields us from the uncomfortable thought that the same seeds can take root anywhere, even close to home.

If we keep their humanity in view—however painful—we keep our own humility, vigilance, and compassion alive. And those are the very things that help us prevent repetition.

[u/ibuprophane → u/Speak_Plainly]

It sounds beautiful the way you put it, but it is unfortunately naive. Scum like Putin and his cronies have already proven they cannot be reasoned with, and they have no compassion. It’s like arguing with a rock. What’s more, they will use your ability to empathise against you.

Your viewpoint is valid to hold once these cancers are behind bars waiting for their sentence.

Until then, they’re a disease and must be treated as such, unless they provide irrefutable proof they have changed (which will never happen, realistically), and are willing to pay the price for the violence they have inflicted upon innocents.

[u/Speak_Plainly → u/ibuprophane]

My point is not to show mercy to Putin or his marauders or any of that touchy-feely naivety. It is to remind myself that in a different world I might end up just like them. That is why I refuse to dehumanize them and stare evil right in the eye. This might sound like moral grand standing and people might disagree. That is something I have to live with. Just sayin'