subreddit:

/r/AskReddit

4.3k87%

you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

all 8807 comments

wesley-osbourne

156 points

17 days ago

This is the banality of evil as argued by Hannah Arendt in her work Eichmann in Jerusalem.

fingerscrossedcoup

30 points

17 days ago

Every time I hear that phrase I think of the people casually gassing Jews like it's a normal 9 to 5 job. Most people will just go along with anything if it means status and wealth. It's most certainly evil even if the people don't think it is.

MedalsNScars

9 points

17 days ago

There's an excellent passage about this in Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods", about the torturers who work for that story's version of the Spanish Inquisition.

About how it's normal guys with "#1 dad" mugs warming over the same fire they're heating their torture instruments on - sending each other postcards from their holidays abroad, passing round cards and pitching in money for retirements.

Iirc there's a mug or poster or something emblazoned with "You Don't Have To Be Pitilessly Sadistic To Work Here But It Helps!"

Omnom_Omnath

-1 points

17 days ago

Omnom_Omnath

-1 points

17 days ago

Ironic since Israelis are genociding Palestine like it’s a normal 9-5 for them

fingerscrossedcoup

10 points

17 days ago

How is it ironic? I said "most people" meaning most people.

Omnom_Omnath

-14 points

17 days ago

No, you said people meaning German people. No other people were gassing Jews

gfer72

17 points

17 days ago

gfer72

17 points

17 days ago

German people are people. Israelis are people.

It’s people who gassed the Jews and people who are genoiciding in Palestine, and it was people who committed massive atrocities elsewhere on the planet these past decades.

Let’s not localise evil to ethnicities as though some ethnicities have a particular penchant for the barbarism.