You can't offend me into believing you aren't human. Offending me doesn't make me stupid or insane. You are human. Offense is irrelevant to that point.

So no, even the people guilty of the very worst things do not become inhuman in my mind. Maybe sometimes temporarily. The guy who decapitated a journalist for ISIS in 2014 - Jesus Christ. I couldn't/wouldn't watch that, and I felt something we can agree to call hate. But I recognized anger+disgust, two feelings put together, knew what this was, knew why, and moved on.

Hitler was human. I imagine I would dislike him if I met him. And I detest what he stood for and what he did with his time on Earth. But I am not one of these people who think the worst actions magically make him not human.

I find it important to say this kind of thing because I've learned that if you aren't very clear on it, most people will not get it. And that can actually hurt sometimes, temporarily, at least. It seems weird to me that someone wouldn't get it, but it's going to happen constantly, so you'd better get there early and do something about it.

If not, you'll have way too many conversations in which someone is angry with you because you are not acting as if some other person, guilty of one misdeed or another, is inhuman. No, you see, when you get angry with me about this, it seems you're focusing on the wrong thing. It isn't that I believe that person's actions weren't bad enough to be called thoroughly objectionable or possibly downright evil or completely fucking evil. It's that none of that makes me see a person as inhuman. Ever. When I say I see Hitler as human, if you think that has any iotas to do with approving of his evil, or with disapproving any less, then you are simply mistaken. I use Hitler as an example of the utmost evil. But there *is* no evil that means a human is not a human. That isn't how it works. (That's what I think, anyway.) That's all. I'm simply being honest about how reality appears to be when you stop trying to project your ideas on it and let reality speak for itself.

So I'm going to suggest an experiment. You may not like it, you may not do it, but anyway, I'm going to suggest it.

Imagine another version of yourself, the same in every way except one: this other version of yourself murdered someone.

You think that isn't possible?

You might think it's impossible. Or you'd grant it isn't impossible, but you would never choose that, so it isn't really possible. But it's possible, you just wouldn't choose it. You want credit for that. And - ok, good, I'm glad we got that out of the way. Credit given. Please, please deserve the credit always.

But the thing is, it's possible. You could be confused enough, your judgment or intelligence could be affected enough. And if it were your judgment that was off, you'd probably imagine today that you must have totally lost your mind - so much so that you'd no longer really be yourself. Right?

Well, that's a nice way you have of protecting your ego.

The truth is, it's possible. And losing your judgment in this matter could mean something subtle. Imagine a few nerves stop firing. Just... a few in the right places. Or the wrong places. With just the right links - or the wrong links - in your mind clipped away, you could look and act and feel just the same, yet... you'd also become a murderer.

We don't really want to imagine this, most of us, most of the time. That's more than understandable. I don't enjoy this thought experiment myself. At times it's made me very uncomfortable. Do I really enjoy telling you - and implying about myself - that we could be murderers without being much different? And we'd be just as much ourselves in every other way? It makes me uncomfortable to think, and uncomfortable to say. And I don't particularly want to make you uncomfortable, either. But I do think it needs saying.

I'm very grateful for whatever connections exist in my mind to prevent me from doing bad things, and make me want to do good things. They're enormously useful, and if I lost those connections, I really hope I'd be put in containment or out of my own misery... before I did any real damage.

But the thing is, I'm grateful because I know they - those brain connections - didn't have to be there. It could have been another way. I'm fortunate that it's this way. I myself am fortunate. My being a good person, a decent person, understanding, considerate, helpful, honest, non-judgmental, etc - all of these are things that in part were given to me. It could have been another way. And recognizing that makes me realize there are others less fortunate.

Just as some are less fortunate and born in poverty, or with an illness that prevents their earning a living, in much that same way, others are less fortunate because they are more likely by nature (sociopathy, etc) to become criminals. We have to hold people - and ourselves - responsible for actions. But that's a practical concern. It doesn't change the fact. Empathy, self-control, and moral judgment are natural capacities that are unevenly distributed among individuals. That it's inconvenient to consider the fact, or difficult from some policy or messaging perspective, doesn't make it the slightest hint any less a fact.

And ultimately, I think we make the most progress by understanding the facts, not from playing image games about what's acceptable to say out loud.