this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 3 points 13 hours ago

Existence. It's also a paradox because without existence it's impossible to be either evil or necessary.

[–] DioramaOfShit@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago

Luigi mangione

[–] BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago

Violence against fascists.

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 1 day ago

Killing hitler and the nazis. Not just the top guys. Also the bottom layers of the system.

Killing is bad. But...its nazis.

Same also goes to all other dictators and their helpers. Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Putin, Assat, Lenin

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Tax. Noone wants their money to be taken away. But it's probably a good idea to have at least some government funded stuff.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I mean, corrupted administration aside, is it really even "evil" to fund a institution that forsee the development of your surrounding? If anything it's simply quid pro quo, and people who generally against any taxation is always fishy to me.

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[–] callouscomic@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For the general masses that lack fucking brain cells. Some people actually comprehend the value of society and central public resources and WANT their money collectively put to good use.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Polarization is causing a lot of people to doubt that the collective money actually will be put to good use. In a lot of places (like my country, Israel) they're damn right, it's not.

[–] Emi@ani.social 13 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I might be wrong but I think people would gladly pay 50% of their income as tax if it meant they would get their basic needs met and see the money be put to a good use. Imagine getting just half your pay but be able to fully use it on whatever you want and not have to worry about food and rent. Or at least that's what I'd like to believe.

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

The Blackfoot nation on which Maslow based his hierarchy of needs would actually have a celebration each year where they'd give everything they'd amassed away.

The actual basis for the "hierarchy" of needs is essentially that a community takes care of each other so that all needs are met, and this is found not just in Blackfoot but along the majority of indigenous cultures. (I write in quotes because it was never really a hierarchy, it was more of a cyclical chain of getting needs met)

There's a really good read on what inspired the Hierarchy of Needs here. Most of the changes that Maslow made to his findings were actually due to him wanting to make it more palatable for his individualistic colonial audience.

[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The tax being on your income and not entirely on corporations always felt like a fairly biased distinction. If companies paid the entire income tax long before it got to you, and you were simply paid ~2/3rds as much, I feel like people’s opinions would be different despite not much changing.

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Tax laws are usually made to make it easy to collect, hard to dodge taxes.

If companies pay all the tax I could create a company, invoice my current employer, pay myself a salary that is equal to the entire profit margin. There is nothing left to tax.

You could try to patch the loophole but then you'll break down something else.

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[–] notabot@piefed.social 41 points 1 day ago

Surgery, especially on animals.

In any other context, someone cutting you open, slicing bits out or rearranging them, them sewing you shut would be considered horrific, but we do it because we know that the short term suffering out weighs the long term harm of not doing it. When you choose it for yourself it might not be too 'evil', but an animal would not understand, even if you know it will mean they get to live a long, happy life, free of the pain and suffering that issue would otherwise cause.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Prison seems the obvious one. It's obviously (to me, that is) not desirable to deprive anyone of their freedom, but for persistently violent people I don't think there's a better solution, unfortunately.

[–] Mastema@infosec.pub 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I agree that separating people who do not abide by the contract of society is necessary, but I think we (America) are wrong to make it a punitive experience. Separate them and let them live their lives as comfortably as they can. Causing additional suffering does not seem to be necessary.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Currently trying to lock up as many of the populace all the numbers show cause less crime. At some point we are going to have to question if there is a higher percentage of psychopaths out of prison than in.

Edit: note, a large group of people would say "we need to lock up more people to solve it" and a large group of people would say "we need to let out all the not-psychopaths who aren't a threat to society and then only arrest those who are a threat". And somehow both would think they were humane. And propoganda would role out to convince the first group they should lock up the second group. Because compassion or empathy is a threat

[–] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Agreed. I don’t even believe in free will, so prison makes even less sense to me - in the sense that we’re punishing people for doing something they couldn’t not have done. That said, I have no doubt that the fear of imprisonment acts as a deterrent - at least to some extent. And just because someone can’t help themselves doesn’t mean they should be allowed to roam free, harming others.

Ideally, we’d place people like that on a private island with no one to harm, where they could still live a good life. But since that’s not realistic, prison it is. I still think prisoners should be treated well, no matter the crime. Punishment itself doesn’t make much sense to me - but the fear of punishment does. And that fear isn’t credible unless we follow through.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I remember listening to an episode of hardcore history about capital punishment, it detailed public executions throughout the ages, and the takeaway is this:

You could literally publicly rip people limb from limb with horses and rope, people are still going to steal, assault, and rape.

If seeing someone getting skinned alive isn't enough of a deterrent, I don't know why prison would be.

[–] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure, but the fact that fear of punishment doesn't deter everyone, doesn't mean it doesn't deter anyone. Good example from my own life would be speeding; the fear of losing my license is the main reason I don't do it.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Sure, but I wouldn't exactly categorize speeding as an 'evil' act - just reckless.

But then there are malicious crimes. These kinds of crimes are driven by motivations which regularly transcend punishment.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've been meaning to read some stuff about how to approach criminal justice if we don't have free will, but I keep reading other stuff instead. So many books, so little time!

I still think prisoners should be treated well, no matter the crime.

Yes, absolutely. Even for the worst of the worst, their should be rehab attempts, whether it's anger management, getting them away from gangs - whatever it is they need. I think there are only small numbers of people, if there are any at all, who are really irremediably violent and dangerous, but even for them I'm not exactly happy about putting them away indefinitely.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Its simply a matter of harm mitigation.

It simply isnt fair to the rest of society to place people who actively seek harm onto others, back on the street.

I think this is less of a case of 'dont keep them in prison for the rest of their lives' and more of a 'we should improve prison conditions' type of argument.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

Right, but we mitigate that harm (good) by depriving people of their freedom (bad). It is necessary to do it, for the exact reasons you suggest - to reduce evil overall.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 2 points 17 hours ago

I can't think of a single one.

Evil that's necessary isn't evil, just painful.

Anyway, my example: a fever? 😅

[–] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I bought a Pixel so could install a degoogle OS on the phone. This largely removed Google from my life.

[–] Laristal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Shame they're making that harder going forward by removing pixel specific info from the build tree

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I considered that risk before getting a Pixel 8 and it burns a little yeah. I'll use it like every other phone that stops getting updates for a few more years in the worst case scenario, then move to FairPhone I guess.

[–] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The updates will take a little longer that is all. GOS is not in the same boat as other custom rom devs - they don't have build trees either.

GOS is talking to a couple of OEMs about getting a GOS phone produced.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

If it's just longer update gaps that's fine. The news last month was pretty doomer so I didn't take it too seriously.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Mosquitos.

Fuck them. But without them most ecosystems would fail

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 5 points 14 hours ago

But without them most ecosystems would fail

a minor hiccup, at most. Many ecosystems wouldn’t even notice.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

Is there any evidence for that?

[–] T3CHT@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Lobotomy, electroshock and castration are historic treatments for various extreme mental disorders that were, probably mistakenly, considered necessary evils lacking other treatments.

These days prozac, benzos and lithium fall into a similar category.

[–] rumimevlevi@lemmings.world 4 points 1 day ago

When your only option to make people talk about your cause and occupation is comitting attrocities

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] medicsofanarchy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Not sure why anyone's downvoting this. If someone you've never met thinks that you have to put your life on the line, and therefore may possibly die, to further a cause - let them explain that cause. If they can't convince you it's more important than your life, then maybe it isn't.

See: Vietnam, etc.

Edit: My bad, I was thinking, "What's a good example of evil?" - Conscription should never be "necessary". The only thing conscription does is protect the status quo. Keep the upvote - it was an honest mistake on my part.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 23 hours ago

Vietnam is a good example of a bad example. WWII is a better example of the necessary evil part, especially countries that were invaded.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

Go to your room and close door.

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