Good people doing bad things?

[Biancadelrioisback]

Do you believe that a good person can do a bad thing and still be a good person?
Or do you think that even if you've been a good person and you do a bad thing, you are actually just a bad person?

Example?

Depends how bad it is?
Eat the last chocolate kinda bad?
Or
Rob a bank kinda bad?

I think a good person can do a bad thing and still be a good person if they acknowledge that what they did was wrong.
Everyone is allowed to make a mistake or not be perfect, it’s how they act afterwards that tell their true nature.

No person is 100% good or 100% bad.

Context and circumstance is everything here.

People are not all good or all bad, you’re setting up a false dichotomy. Actions often fall into a grey area too.

@GinandGingerBeer

Depends how bad it is? Eat the last chocolate kinda bad? Or Rob a bank kinda bad?

How about if someone robs a bank and then spends the next 10 years doing charity work, donated a kidney, helping others.

Are they a good person or a bad person.

Does the bad cancel out the good? Or the good cancel out the bad,

Why what have you done?

I haven't done anything but someone close to me has and it's changed the way I view them.
I can't and won't go into detail but what they have done is a serious crime.

No such thing as good or bad people, just people who make good or bad choices.

That type of thinking just sets you up for mistakes, whether it's because you think you're a good person so either have to be perfect or that all your choices are good, or you think you're a bad person so feel miserable and unable to change, or just lean in to that persona.

We're not 6 and there aren't goodies and baddies. If you've done something bad and you want to do better then try to fix it and/or own up to it and/or do better next time, as appropriate.

Depends what the bad thing is. Some people do things that people consider bad out of desperation.

@Biancadelrioisback

I haven't done anything but someone close to me has and it's changed the way I view them. I can't and won't go into detail but what they have done is a serious crime.

Sometimes it's the people you'd least expect.

Ignore a serious crime, do they genuinely think it was wrong, was it a total aberration? If the answer to either of those is no, or if they badly hurt someone physically or mentally, for their own benefit, then they'll probably do it again. They might love their mum or donate to charity but they're not likely to be very good either.

@Biancadelrioisback

I haven't done anything but someone close to me has and it's changed the way I view them. I can't and won't go into detail but what they have done is a serious crime.

I suppose it depends on whether they always had this about them.

If this was a once off spur of the moment irrational error of judgement of whether they are likely to have offended other times and not have been caught?

But I do believe good people can do really bad things. There is usually an underlying reason.

You don't have to forgive someone for what they did but it's still ok to love them or care about them. You don't wipe out all good memories.

Threads like these always remind me of finding out my co-worker stabbed her ex husband. Lovely lady, professional job. I was so shocked when she told me, and looking back she must have been wetting herself at my reaction.

She wasn't a bad person. Just a person who was pushed into a bad, bad situation.

Yes, they can. Just like a "bad" person can do something good. Nobody is purely good or bad.

It depends. If it involves the abuse of children for example then no I don't believe they could be a good person. That's despicable.

Yes I do believe that people can do bad things and still be good.

It depends on what they did, for what reason, and what outcome they wanted to achieve. I have done plenty of bad things, for ridiculous reasons and still consider myself ‘good’.

It also depends on the emotional fallout of other people. If the bad thing was rape, or murder I don’t think you can consider that person good any longer.

People aren’t good or bad. They are just people. Some people do more “good things” in their life, some people more “bad things”.
All people will do a combination of both.

I do a lesson on this every year before I start teaching Macbeth. Can't say I've ever got a definitive answer ...

Jean Valjean (Les Mis) is a good example of a good example (IMO)