How do you defeat evil and the people behind it?

Susan Robinson3 said:Your perspective is beautiful; please stay true to yourself.👍

I actually recently sought revenge over something because I let my ego get the better of me, and I have regretted it deeply ever since. Revenge is honestly one of the most foolish and pathetic things you can do to another person; the moment I did it, it came back to haunt me twofold in the form of a guilty conscience that still weighs on me today. There will always be bad people and evil in this world, so just don't waste your energy or your nerves on them. A friend of mine, who knows quite a bit about these dynamics, once told me that malicious people actually feed off your suffering—so don't give them the satisfaction. Be stronger than them. Good luck! 👍

I’m not quite sure that hypocrisy or lying should ever be rewarded, though it sounds like you might be surrounded by the wrong crowd right now. It seems to me that you’ve been deeply let down by people lately, which is likely why you're feeling this way. Just know that there are still people out there who share your values; they might be rare, but they definitely exist.

Alexander Adams94 said:You can't truly defeat evil or bad people; you just have to distance yourself from them. But if they come after you, you absolutely have to strike back hard enough to make sure they regret it—so they take their little games somewhere else, somewhere where the roses don't have thorns.

Good grief, you are seriously exhausting and annoying. You stick your nose into everything and somehow always end up getting kicked out... honestly, do us all a favor and go find something better to do with your life.🙂

Betty Myers6 said:Zero. Honestly? It’s only gonna get worse from here. Just having the desire or the willpower to change isn't enough—it really isn't. Like, if people at work catch even a whiff that you're a pushover—and I mean that hypothetically, nothing personal—you're done. You'll become their favorite target for every little thing.

First off—I’m gonna lean more toward the philosophical side of things here. This isn't just some psychology deep dive, you know?

Look, there’s another side to this—because we have two genders, the way people interpret, define, and actually perceive good versus evil can take on thousands of different shapes. It's just how things work, right?

Thirdly—and I’m not even gonna get into the whole survivalist sub-problem here—because when you factor in that raw instinct to just stay alive (it's basically "me or them," right?), the line between good and evil gets pretty damn blurry.

Fourthly—look, a perfect example would be describing how things play out at some of today's workplaces. Around here, I’m basically equating evil with the concept of— Selfishness..

At work lately, people seem ready for anything—no matter how shady it is these days. We’re talking full-blown hypocrisy, blatant nepotism, and lies on top of lies. It’s wild.
Here’s the deal: someone is going to be sharing an office with you—and yeah, it’ll be fine at first. But they’re gonna try—and I mean *absolutely* try—to make sure you never feel like you actually fit in. Why? Because the boss decided you two have to share a space. Simple as that. The thing is, this person isn't even powerful enough yet—even if they got the job through some shady connection—to actually kick you out of the office. But still, you’re walking on eggshells. You never know where you stand. You try to be friendly, right? You try to build a rapport? Forget it. Anything you say in confidence just ends up being office gossip in the next cubicle over. It’s impossible to grab a coffee or just exist for eight hours a day without feeling the tension. And honestly? It gets even worse when you realize they’re low-key dumping their entire workload on you—with the manager’s blessing, no less. Then comes the kicker: you realize you’re way more competent than they are. You see exactly how much they *don't* know—and how hard they're working to hide that total incompetence—and man... it just makes you want to scream.

Look, I just feel like there’s gotta be some kind of balance—like good and evil need to exist side-by-side to make sense. But honestly? It feels like lately, that scale has tipped WAY too far toward the dark side.

P.S. Gotta run, out of time right now. I'll hit you guys up once I'm back.

That whole idea about balance hits the nail on the head. If we look at the primal, animalistic urges as "evil" and the higher, more divine impulses as "good," there has to be a middle ground because humanity is always dancing right on that line between the two. Honestly, though, I think it’s easier to just talk about positive and negative energies, since they’re really just two sides of the same coin—just different ways the force of change or evolution expresses itself.
Think about it like this: destruction might seem purely negative, but you can't build something better without clearing out the old stuff first. It's like a forest fire clearing the way for new growth; it's part of the evolutionary cycle. In that sense, the positive and negative are totally intertwined. Just a general observation.
You can apply this logic to basically anything in life, and once you see it, you realize nothing is ever 100% bad or 100% good.

I wouldn't say that negativity is actually winning right now, though. To me, it looks more like a massive shake-up—kind of like that classic American metaphor about separating the wheat from the chaff. Or, if you want to get all psychological about it, it’s like a collective purging of the subconscious. All the junk we've been hiding is finally bubbling up to the surface. Fewer and fewer people are staying in that comfortable gray area anymore. Those are the folks who try to stay neutral, maybe they'd do something wrong if they didn't fear the consequences, or maybe they've just got all this suppressed rage and trauma just waiting for an excuse to explode. And man, those excuses are popping up everywhere lately. People are swinging hard toward the extremes, so it’s easy to feel like "normal" has completely vanished.
Where this all leads? Who knows. I'm honestly pretty stoked to see how it plays out.

How do you actually escape people like that in a school setting? You’re forced to show up every day and just endure the insults, the bullying, and the pure malice. I went through all of it back in my school days; I saw the worst of humanity firsthand. It’s honestly terrifying that these types just walk around living normal lives today—they can say whatever they want, but in my experience, they never outgrow that spite or actually become decent human beings.

I ran into some of them years later, and that nasty look in their eyes hasn't changed one bit. They're still repulsive. The only difference is I'm not afraid of them anymore, because they don't have any power to hurt me!

Susan Robinson3 said:Your perspective is beautiful; please stay true to yourself.👍

I actually recently sought revenge over something because I let my ego get the better of me, and I have regretted it deeply ever since. Revenge is honestly one of the most foolish and pathetic things you can do to another person; the moment I did it, it came back to haunt me twofold in the form of a guilty conscience that still weighs on me today. There will always be bad people and evil in this world, so just don't waste your energy or your nerves on them. A friend of mine, who knows quite a bit about these dynamics, once told me that malicious people actually feed off your suffering—so don't give them the satisfaction. Be stronger than them. Good luck! 👍

I’m with you—revenge is a dead end. Even though when someone screws you over, your gut instinct is to hit back while your blood is boiling.
But once you get that payback, that conscience kicks in. You feel like crap because acting like a jerk isn't who you actually are. You try to be a decent person, so then you have to deal with the guilt on top of everything else.

Bottom line: don't go looking for revenge.
And if you're a good person, you can't really play the "eye for an eye" game either.

I’m still fighting those same battles myself, and honestly, there’s no magic fix. But I’ve noticed that just ignoring them works pretty well so far.
Like, don't let them get under your skin, or at least don't let them see it.
Basically, when someone tries to act tough or hurt you, just give them that look that says, "Nice try, but nope."
Just ignore the noise, hold your ground, and stay true to yourself.
And figure out who’s actually worth your trust.

copperseal said:I’m with you—revenge is a dead end. Even though when someone screws you over, your gut instinct is to hit back while your blood is boiling.
But once you get that payback, that conscience kicks in. You feel like crap because acting like a jerk isn't who you actually are. You try to be a decent person, so then you have to deal with the guilt on top of everything else.

Bottom line: don't go looking for revenge.
And if you're a good person, you can't really play the "eye for an eye" game either.

I’m still fighting those same battles myself, and honestly, there’s no magic fix. But I’ve noticed that just ignoring them works pretty well so far.
Like, don't let them get under your skin, or at least don't let them see it.
Basically, when someone tries to act tough or hurt you, just give them that look that says, "Nice try, but nope."
Just ignore the noise, hold your ground, and stay true to yourself.
And figure out who’s actually worth your trust.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm just not the type of person to seek revenge; it's not in my nature. I did resort to it once because I was deeply hurt and acted out of spite, but the guilt that followed was absolute hell. It was devastating. Since then, I've sworn off it entirely. It's better to just let karma handle things—I don't have the energy to play those games. Honestly, I'm convinced that the weight of what I did hurt me far more than it ever hurt the person I targeted.

driftinghound12 said:Rather than quoting everyone individually, I’ll just leave a collective comment based on everything discussed so far... Sure, I agree you should distance yourself from toxic people—absolutely—but if life forces you to live with them or interact with them, you inevitably get sucked into their games. I'm not entirely sure if malice is hardwired into someone's DNA, but there's definitely a connection; my own father was like that, while my mother wasn't, and he constantly belittled her because she didn't fit his narrow vision of what a partner should be. Also, I never claimed I do things for recognition; I do them out of pure passion. What really gets to me is how society tends to reward hypocrisy, lying, or those who tear down someone else's honest work just to get ahead. As for getting even with these types of people, I have zero interest in stooping to their primitive level or wasting my breath trying to strike back. But when you're forced into a corner where you have to react, you end up burning through all your energy on useless nonsense, which is the kind of pressure I was thinking about...🙂

This is a solid breakdown, really good—but it still makes it look like you're "unfit" for some people because of that naive positivity... all that energy you spend trying to maintain it, who knows how much it's actually draining you...

Raymond Anderson4 said:It’s a mix of both.
When looking at genetics, you have genes like MAOA or CDH 13. The first one regulates serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, while the second is linked to impulsivity.
I haven't found a definitive answer yet on whether having this specific combination always results in a "bad" person...
What I am curious about is why one person with both genes might commit a violent felony, while someone else with the exact same genetic makeup stays perfectly fine.
It seems likely that the environment plays a huge role here. Growing up in a supportive home could potentially suppress those genetic tendencies and minimize their impact.
For instance, it's possible that Adam Lanza carried both of those genes, but I also read he grew up in a very isolated, dysfunctional family.

I remember seeing a discussion on na rub znanost where a young researcher explained how the prefrontal cortex comes into play. They conducted studies where participants were shown violent imagery, and some individuals showed almost zero activity in certain parts of the prefrontal cortex—almost as if that section of the brain was essentially dormant.

Check out the thread below:

David Vaughn75 said:Not even close.
Psychopathy isn't some glitch in your DNA—it’s something that gets baked in during pregnancy.

Bad people? Yeah, they’ll always be around, unfortunately. We just need to get better at spotting them instantly and tossing them behind bars before they can do any damage.

Psychology basically just shoves everything they can't explain under the rug of "genetics" or "zinc deficiency."

Susan Robinson3 said:I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm just not the type of person to seek revenge; it's not in my nature. I did resort to it once because I was deeply hurt and acted out of spite, but the guilt that followed was absolute hell. It was devastating. Since then, I've sworn off it entirely. It's better to just let karma handle things—I don't have the energy to play those games. Honestly, I'm convinced that the weight of what I did hurt me far more than it ever hurt the person I targeted.

Revenge is totally fine as long as you aren't overdoing it compared to the original damage. Like, if someone steals your $33 and you take back a $33 of equal value, that's just leveling the playing field.

Look, I consider myself a hard worker, so I just don't get people who find it much easier to sit back and criticize than to actually step up and build something better... There's no shame in asking someone else for advice when you're out of your depth.🤣