[katzgrau]

It’s not really subjective if you don’t believe it’s your place to judge the human to begin with.

If you were in their exact life circumstance and environment you would do the same thing. You aren’t going to magically sidestep cause and effect.

The act itself is bad.

The human performing the act was misguided.

I view people as inherently perfect whose view of life, themselves, and their current situations as potentially misguided.

Eg, like a diamond covered in shit.

Just like it’s possible for a diamond to be uncovered and polished, the human is capable of acquiring a truer perspective and more aligned set of behaviors - redemption. Everyone is capable of redemption so nobody is inherently bad. Thinking otherwise may be convenient but is ultimately misguided too.

So the act and the person are separate.

Granted, we need to protect society from such misguidedness, so we have laws, punishments, etc.

But it’s about protecting us from bad behavior, not labeling the individual as bad.

[WalterBright]

> If you were in their exact life circumstance and environment you would do the same thing.

I don't buy that for a moment. It presumes people do not have choices.

The difference between a man and an animal is a man has honor. Each of us gets to choose if we are a man or an animal.

[katzgrau]

> It presumes people do not have choices.

No, there are choices. It states that given the exact same starting parameters and sequence of events, you would make the same choice.

[Dylan16807]

If free will doesn't exist then you "shouldn't" judge people for their choices but also you can't stop yourself from doing so.

If free will does exist then yes you can judge people for their choices.

Everyone is capable of redemption but saying they need redemption is judging them.

[katzgrau]

A few things:

1. You can't judge the person, you can judge the behavior

2. To judge the person requires the ability to quantify the unquantifiable (circumstance, sequence of events leading to the outcome, going back to the literal beginning of time).

3. To judge the person implies a superiority to that person

Sure, one can take/justify simplistic shortcuts for practical reasons. But some forget that's what they are - shortcuts that bypass the nuances/reality of the situation.

[philipallstar]

> The human performing the act was misguided.

What does this mean? If someone rapes someone else, they were inherently perfect but misguided, in your view?