For a quick change of place. "HELP PEOPLE DON'T TREAT ME LIKE A NORMAL PERSON BECAUSE I IDENTIFY AS A POKEDEX"

submitted by Alienhunter糞大名 from (reddit.com)

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[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

In this troubled economy, won't you sublet your brain?

That said, I don't think this is a new phenomenon. Plenty of accounts of people possessed with legions of demons and shit. Seems a mental illness that has withstood the test of time, somehow.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That said, I don't think this is a new phenomenon. Plenty of accounts of people possessed with legions of demons and shit. Seems a mental illness that has withstood the test of time, somehow.

Yes, you make a good point. I think you are probably correct that this is the same old nonsense in a different guise

[–]LyingSpirit472 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Even then, when people claimed someone was possessed by legions of demons, it was usually done to explain away examples like people who break bad and commit an atrocity, while people who wanted something to make them interesting were told "sit the fuck down and just be a good person, you don't HAVE to be interesting to have a good life."

Now, on the other hand, we claim these people who make shit up to seem interesting (and 99.999999999999999999999999999% of the time people like this are openly making it up to be interesting) are given their way and it's seen as respectful, and when a person commits an atrocity, it's seen as "well, what'll you do, it's all our designated boogeyman's fault."

[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Well it's the classic "the devil made me do it!" Defense. So old even the first Bible story references it. It's not my fault that I ate the apple god! A talking snake made me do it! By telling me to do it.

Yeah most people making this shit up are just looking for some excuse how they aren't at fault for the shit they did.

Same with the people who break bad and commit an atrocity. Demonic possession seems a better excuse that admitting to ourselves that we are capable of comitting great evil and that the only thing between us and becoming the next school shooter or Hitler or whatever is that we choose not to.

People always say dumb shit after every atrocity. "Who would just go and shoot up a school or kill random people?" A murderer would. It's really that simple I think. Someone hates life so much they simply kill because they can. Doesn't seem complicated. Why they hate life is the more interesting question.

[–]LyingSpirit472 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I wholeheartedly agree with you, but that also ties to the slight difference for it. Even the demonic possession- which at least is closer to saying "Normal people DO NOT DO SHIT LIKE THIS. This person was FUCKED UP. They were a monster, and they showed it by being a mass shooter/Hitler/etc. For the love of God, Buddha, Allah, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whoever you believe in or don't believe in, DO NOT FOLLOW THIS PERSON'S EXAMPLE. But also don't think everyone is just as bad as this person. This person was a monster and let's never speak of them again."

Is it kind of weird? Yes, but it is still a kinder thought than that Joker meme bullshit of "every single person is capable of committing great evil, all it would take is just one bad day and you can snap just like that, someone could cut you off in traffic tomorrow and it'd turn you into a school shooter or Hitler within the hour, it takes constant vigilance and actively choosing not to at any given second to not be like that"- which is also kind of dumb and shortsighted. No, normal people don't do shit like this. That's why they're atrocities that pretty much everyone, no matter what their beliefs otherwise, AGREE are atrocities.

Even then, it ties to the same problem with that viewpoint said where "the people possessed by demons with some mental illness are cool and should be lauded", while people do go to the related "the atrocity is the fault of my boogeyman"- which sidesteps both of those to "every single person I dislike or who disagrees with me is an absolute monster, every single one is just waiting in line to commit an atrocity, I am the only good person in all of existence, worship me as the God of this new world or you will commit an atrocity too."

[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think part of it kinda plays back into the idea presented in the Genesis myth. The fruit eaten in from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Someone who eats of it becomes "like God" in the sense that they now know the difference between good and evil. Adam and Eve eat it, achieve enlightenment, realize they are naked, and are cast out of paradise, but really they do become like God in a sense. They know how to make life, which is why they realized their nakedness, they also know how to take life. And that really is the difference between humans and animals is that we know what we are doing and can project our will onto the world albeit through what limited resources are available to us. I very much doubt that a Lion has a crisis of conscience when it kills it's rivals cubs. Whereas we see that and think it's terrible.

I do think everyone is "capable" of comitting evil though. It doesn't mean that they will, we properly recognize that murder is horrible, we won't do it. But given the right context and prompting just about anyone can be "corrupted" into comitting unspeakable acts. The acts themselves are unspeakable because we understand that by describing these acts we are in some way allowing for the idea of evil to come into existence, and then it is only a matter of time before someone will take that idea and attempt to make it a reality. I think people are rightly scared of confronting their own inner darkness because it makes us uncomfortable to see that part of ourselves. But I also think that if we don't confront it, it can grow and cause us to justify otherwise what was once "unthinkable".

I think in some way the essence of being "human" not in the physical sense but the "spiritual" sense is a certain adherence to what we'd describe as "good" and that we can in our own ways, trade our souls either all at once or in pieces for "power". Essentially making a deal with the devil. It rarely works out to our long term benefit but it is in the short term an exchange many will be willing to make. Fiction deals with this concept quite a bit as the Faustian exchange.

Society exists in some way to counter these "evil" impulses but can easily become the evil actor as well.

For a less extreme example, we all know that when we visit a friends house, we can probably just steal their shit when they aren't looking. Almost nobody will do this, or even think of the possibility because it's entirely counter to the development of friendship. And clearly if we are "human" the risks outweigh the reward. But if we choose to trade our friendship for free shit we can make that Faustian exchange at the cost of our own soul.

[–]LyingSpirit472 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I do think everyone is "capable" of comitting evil though. It doesn't mean that they will, we properly recognize that murder is horrible, we won't do it. But given the right context and prompting just about anyone can be "corrupted" into comitting unspeakable acts. The acts themselves are unspeakable because we understand that by describing these acts we are in some way allowing for the idea of evil to come into existence, and then it is only a matter of time before someone will take that idea and attempt to make it a reality. I think people are rightly scared of confronting their own inner darkness because it makes us uncomfortable to see that part of ourselves. But I also think that if we don't confront it, it can grow and cause us to justify otherwise what was once "unthinkable".

Honestly, on this part I'd go in the exact opposite direction from your logic: Where you think not confronting your own inner darkness can cause people to justify what was once unthinkable, I would argue that accepting your own inner darkness will lead to the prompting you mentioned to make people do what was once unthinkable. By accepting you have an inner darkness and impulse for evil in yourself, it leads to these unthinkable deeds being desensitized to, and accepting those unthinkable deeds as something that just happens, and anyone or anything is capable of doing it...and anyway, your life is just as bad as this person who committed the atrocity's was, so really there but for the grace of god go you...and what makes you think you're so much better than this person who did it, anyway? If they could break like that, surely you could as well, and you have so many better reasons to break than they did- why, you really ARE on the side of right when you do this and it really is society that has to pay for it, so really you doing this is the most just and heroic thing anyone could ever do...and when the smoke clears someone staring into the abyss has caused them to break bad to do it as well. (We're seeing this with how many incels are the ones committing these atrocities, and it starting due to Elliot Rodger becoming a folk hero to them instead of the monster he was- the abyss stared back at them, and it caused this to occur.)

This really ties into the same point- it's not just "people have the power to not commit an atrocity", but rather "they are powerless NOT to commit the atrocity because they're just as bad as the person who did it." Your less extreme example worked, but for a less extreme "positive" example of this side, you'd have, for example, Alcoholics' Anonymous and its related groups using the "you have a disease that you are powerless to fight yourself, and only the help of God/a higher power will help you cure yourself of this disease." Now, there's nothing inherently STOPPING an atheist/agnostic person from trying to cure themselves of drug/alcohol addiction or succeeding at this, and if they do so more power to them, but by the rules of AA it flat-out says "you MUST start believing in God to be cured of your disease, and if you do not you will be a drug addict/an alcoholic forever because you're just not strong enough to do it yourself". Regardless of the chances of the atheist/agnostic having success on their own, it doesn't matter. The self has no power to know right or wrong itself, it's only through this that you can do right or wrong.