Does anyone else empathise and sympathise with villains a lot? Idk I guess part of me sees this as a good thing because if I can feel bad for someone so evil, I guess I must be empathetic and open minded. It’s just really hard when it happens in real life situations. Like I’ll feel bad for terrible terrible people and sometimes see things from their point of view and it makes me feel evil and guilty.

Input please. Whenever I have a thought or come across something like news about pedophilia or other awful things, I feel like I try to make it okay in my head. Like I am trying to explain it away, excuse it. And when I look at that from a more compassionate lens, I think maybe I am just trying to process something bad. Maybe I am trying to make something horrific feel a little less horrifying so I can keep existing in a world where it happens. Because the truth is, whenever I hear about something terrible, it does not just go away. I do not have that ability to shove it aside and move on. I have to live with it. I carry it. I live my life alongside these awful things that exist. But then, when I look at it through a different lens, it gets darker. Maybe I am not trying to process something bad. Maybe I am actually trying to justify it. Maybe I am trying to convince myself it is not that bad… because deep down I agree with the people who do it. Or maybe I am afraid that if it were not so stigmatized, I would somehow be okay with it. And that thought worries me. I know that why someone holds moral values is not as important as the fact that they do. I know that what matters is your actions and your commitment to being a good person. It still scares me. I keep asking myself: am I trying to justify something awful just so I can mentally survive it, or am I trying to justify something awful because some part of me agrees with it?

Right now I’m obsessing about the meaning of the world evil, and if anyone really is truly “evil”. It started when I was thinking about Judas from the Bible and how I don’t think he is really evil, but a flawed person with flawed thinking that made him make a decision he thought would be for the best. There are tons of people who would call Judas outright evil but is that really the case? Then there’s the case of if anyone is really evil in the first place. Take the most heinous act you can think of, there must be some underlying problem that is making this person do what they do. The action itself is evil but is the person also “evil” as a result or just really flawed. My ocd is trying to make me think I’m defending these people or actions by saying all this, but I know that’s not the case. I’m not sure if my ocd is making me think about this in the first place though. I definitely overthink a lot and it ends up with me thinking about all these philosophical ideas, but maybe that’s just who I am and not a result of ocd. Sometimes my ocd really makes me feel the need to find an answer, which is really hard to do with topics like these, so I suspect it plays some role.

I got obsessed again in researching crime and its relation to race and socioeconomic conditions. While looking up a bunch of opinions and statistics I came across one opinion in a subreddit for black men saying that crime is a good thing and seemed to encourage it because there’s no other way to get by. Not every black person would resort to crime obviously but the comment seemed to be supported by a lot of other people. I got a thought saying “this is why black people get a bad rep” and I immediately questioned my thinking. I really started thinking about the ethics of crime in general and how it may be acceptable in certain situations. Still I feel like crime should be avoided when it can, not encouraged. I feel terrible for having this thought and even more terrible that I agree with it if that makes sense. I feel like I’m being racist by having this perspective. I feel like I shouldn’t be allowed an opinion on this because I’ve never faced these conditions before, but I’m trying really hard to understand.