I agree that no one is “intrinsically” evil.

However, sadly, I’m personally convinced that we are all defacto evil by a secular definition. That definition being that evil is any action that causes unnecessary suffering to any other being.

Now, one can ask nuanced questions like, is any suffering necessary? But such lines of thought commonly degrade into silly trolly problems that are just dilemmas which only arise in pre-existing systems of unjust social order based on domination of others.

Nevertheless, it seems inescapable that most people live their lives within societies which require a tacit complicity in crimes against humanity. This appears to be the case at least in the Imperial core and most of the empire’s vassal states.

“Escaping” such systems to preserve not just one’s own dignity, but also one’s own humanity and innocence seems like the only reasonable course of action. And yet almost no one seems to be actively engaged in such escape. One can deduce likely explanations for such an observation. It is probably really difficult to escape such systems. It is also probably really difficult to even recognize that we exist within such systems, given that those systems are often characterized by their saturation of simulacra and consumerist hyperrealism.

But perhaps the simplest explanation is that the ideologically individualized subject living in such states are simply too inured by the treats offered by their so-called civilizations, and selfishly choose to continue participating in these societies – which, I will be honest, seems pretty deliberately evil to me, so long as the consequences are easily enough visible.