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‘Nice,’ Evil Aren’t Necessarily Mutually Exclusive
The Daily Signal ^ | September 13, 2022 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 09/14/2022 1:15:23 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

It can be said that gaining wisdom is a process of gaining some dark insights into life.

One such insight is this: A lot of evil has been abetted by nice people.

By “nice,” I am referring to the way people comport themselves in the personal realm. We refer to people as being “nice” if they are friendly to strangers, more or less honest in their dealings with others, take care of their families, support friends, and are pleasant to be around.

We all want nice neighbors.

To put it another way, “nice” generally refers to the micro—the personal—realm. It does not generally refer to the macro realm; that is, to the views and values people hold about moral and social questions.

The human being is composed of two moral components: the micro and the macro. In a truly good human being (“good” is not the same as “nice”), one is good in both realms. It is therefore quite possible to be nice in the micro and hold awful values for society, and it is quite possible to have excellent macro values, and not be a particularly nice person.

Take communism, for example.

Communist regimes killed some 100 million people in the 20th century—none of them combatants in war. Add to that number more than a billion devastated lives: the friends and family of the murdered, the generations deprived of elementary human rights, and the countless number of innocent people imprisoned and tortured, and you have as pure an evil as is imaginable.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bloggers; communists; evil; good; ideology; nazis; nicepeople; personality; slavery
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1 posted on 09/14/2022 1:15:23 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I watched several segments of Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman.” The most bats**t insane leftist child mutilators that he interviewed were very “nice” on the surface, while they spewed their vile poison. They smiled and spoke in creepy sing-song voices as if they were talking to preschoolers. But they were witches.


2 posted on 09/14/2022 1:20:17 PM PDT by fwdude (Racism is not dead, but it is on life support - kept alive by politicians….” — Thomas Sowell)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
By “nice,” I am referring to the way people comport themselves in the personal realm. We refer to people as being “nice” if they are friendly to strangers, more or less honest in their dealings with others, take care of their families, support friends, and are pleasant to be around.

Bullshit!

You cannot be "more or less honest" and be evil or support evil policies at the same time.

They are mutually exclusive behaviors.

Furthermore, God Himself gave each of us a Conscience which is standard equipment for the Humans He has created.

There is on excuse for anyone.
3 posted on 09/14/2022 1:26:15 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Not much to study here after Jesus’ commandment to love one another.


4 posted on 09/14/2022 1:26:47 PM PDT by nicollo (arbitrary law is not rule of law)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Ann Barnhardt on Niceness.

https://vimeo.com/139201424

In classic Ann Barnhardt, no holds barred style.


5 posted on 09/14/2022 1:27:54 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: SoConPubbie

That’s right.

People cannot compartmentalize their lives to that kind of degree. Whatever they are in private, they can and will be in public. They may hide it well for a season when it’s to their benefit, but corruption of character will infiltrate ALL aspects of life.


6 posted on 09/14/2022 1:30:24 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

7 posted on 09/14/2022 1:36:59 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

(What they do?)
(They smilin’ in your face)
All the time, they want to take your place
The back stabbers (Back stabbers)


8 posted on 09/14/2022 1:38:27 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: SoConPubbie

I always thought Bernie Sanders was the most honest of Democrats running for President. Although I loathe what he believes and stands for, at least he was honest and open about it, compared to his comrades who were as bad or worse but covered it up with lies and deception that independents and moderates fell for.


9 posted on 09/14/2022 1:40:41 PM PDT by Rusty0604 (" When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." -Ronald Reagan)
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To: Rusty0604
I always thought Bernie Sanders was the most honest of Democrats running for President. Although I loathe what he believes and stands for, at least he was honest and open about it, compared to his comrades who were as bad or worse but covered it up with lies and deception that independents and moderates fell for.

While he maybe more open and honest about what he stands for, he still stands for what is evil, Socialism.

In addition, since he does not honor God in his life, he is left with no controlling authority in his life which means that in his communications, he is completely content to lie to you and me in the furtherance of his goal of implementing Socialism in the US.

When you willfully choose to do evil, it permeates your whole life, your whole character.
10 posted on 09/14/2022 1:53:23 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: metmom

gotta love Ann...


11 posted on 09/14/2022 2:01:21 PM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks


12 posted on 09/14/2022 2:10:25 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Ted Bundy was nice.


13 posted on 09/14/2022 2:18:27 PM PDT by lurk (u)
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To: metmom

Thank you so much. Love Ann, she speaks the truth!


14 posted on 09/14/2022 2:35:44 PM PDT by Rusty0604 (" When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." -Ronald Reagan)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Postscript: After saying these things about nice people who support evil on my radio show, the left declared that I think slave owners were nice people and that I support slavery. One of the most popular left-wing podcasts, “The Young Turks,” spoke about me above the chyron: “Pro-Slavery Prager: Religious radio host argues slave owners were nice people.”

And the left-wing English publication The Independent headlined, “Far-right radio host Dennis Prager sparks outrage by saying there were ‘undoubtedly many nice slaveholders.'”

Intellectual honesty and morally sophisticated thought are not hallmarks of the left.

15 posted on 09/14/2022 2:44:38 PM PDT by lasereye ( )
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Jimmy Carter, Jeff Sessions, and Mike Pence come across as nice fools who advance great evil without being aware of it.

It could just be an act.


16 posted on 09/14/2022 3:17:58 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism.)
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To: SoConPubbie

Not honoring god in a politicians life does not mean they are an evil or bad person. I will support a politician that tells the truth and follows thru on their promises. Their religious beliefs are of a secondary importance to many voters.

An individuals religious beliefs should not be a litmus test to support them. Yes I know many people will not support someone who does not express a religious belief and that is their right. Just as it is mine to support those whose beliefs and actions are acceptable to me.


17 posted on 09/14/2022 3:26:32 PM PDT by hopefullamerican
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To: SoConPubbie; metmom

“...You cannot be “more or less honest” and be evil or support evil policies at the same time.

They are mutually exclusive behaviors.

Furthermore, God Himself gave each of us a Conscience which is standard equipment for the Humans He has created.

There is no excuse for anyone.” [SoConPubbie, post 3]

“...People cannot compartmentalize their lives to that kind of degree. Whatever they are in private, they can and will be in public. They may hide it well for a season when it’s to their benefit, but corruption of character will infiltrate ALL aspects of life.” [metmom, post 6]

Without knowing anything about the professional and social circles any of you move in, I’d have to say your assertions run exactly counter to every experience I’ve ever endured, when I have clashed with others, or I’ve opposed their goals and policies.

I say every one of us can be exactly as compartmentalized, which you insist isn’t possible.

A common belief among conservatives runs thus: people who do bad things, or who support bad policies, simply cannot be so stupid, so oblivious to the factual consequences of what they are doing, or advocating. Therefore, their motives have to be bad, and they are being sneaky about their “true objectives.”

To make matters worse:

The left has for generations struggled to conceal the real-life consequences of all those “compassionate” social-welfare programs they advocate and implement. Instituted for the most admirable of reasons, those programs work in exactly the opposite way. Program advocates - willing dupes - are all too ready to be bamboozled, hoping and wishing that the next program will somehow bring dazzling success, ushering us all into a worldly paradise.

A large number of liberal-leaning citizens are members of the chattering classes, professionals within the non-technical intelligentsia. They feel all the socially approved feelings, but (owing to their status) they are thus insulated from the impact at street level of the programs they stump for, on those people they insist they are “helping.” And they aren’t employed in any of the bureaucratic organizations that implement and administer these programs, so they never get their noses rubbed in the grubby realities engendered and given force by their good intentions.

Humans have one thing in common: the capacity for self-delusion.

To put it in a more lighthearted way:

“Once again, evil triumphs because good is dumb.” (from the film “Spaceballs”)


18 posted on 09/14/2022 7:41:38 PM PDT by schurmann
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To: schurmann

What I meant was that if a person is not honest or moral in their private lives, they will not be honest or moral in their public lives.

If they have no problem lying, they cannot have integrity in other areas of their lives. They would have no problem with stealing, for example. Or conversely, if they are thieves, I would not trust them to tell the truth.

Their moral character is evident in all arenas. You cannot have moral integrity in every area of your life but one.

That was the kind of argument used when Bill Clinton was being criticized for his sexual antics. His personal morals have no bearing on his ability to do a good job as president, in a public office.

Well, yes they do because the lack of moral integrity in his personal life will also be a lack of integrity in his public life as well.


19 posted on 09/14/2022 8:03:59 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: schurmann
I say every one of us can be exactly as compartmentalized, which you insist isn’t possible.

Sorry if my posting was not clear enough.

Let me clarify.

If you are going to call yourself a Christian, better yet, if you are GOING TO BE A Christian, you cannot compartmentalize a section of your life and live it in an un-Godly manner.

It makes your profession of being a Christian a lie. Particularly because this is a choice, it is not by accident, you cannot pretend it was an accident or you did not understand. It was a choice.

In more general terms, you are not an honorable, honest person, when you choose to do evil. That choice, taints everything else you do.

I am know people compartmentalize parts of their lives all the time. That's not what this conversation is about.
20 posted on 09/14/2022 8:04:49 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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