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Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by berberous on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:30PM (#18637645)
I tend to be a bleeding heart and agree that many cases of criminal behavior are mental illness or environment/circumstances, but I still think there is a spectrum of morality out there -- not sure what you mean by "evil" exactly, but certainly a spectrum where people can range from high on empathy and kindness to those who care much less about others and are more amoral or even sociopathic.
Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by hnuser1234 on Saturday December 08, 2018 @08:22PM (#18638648)
I agree, but let's go deeper... I'd wager is there is a way to rank "empathy/kindness" in a more objective way, and that the current social environment is distanced from that objectivity.

Now even if we could perfectly, objectively rank it, should we immediately jail the bottom 1/3/10%, or should we wait for them to commit a crime? Should we give lighter sentences to more empathetic people who commit crimes, assuming they had better reasons to do it?

Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by tonyedgecombe on Sunday December 09, 2018 @02:52AM (#18639879)
We are starting to understand the parts of the brain that empathy originates from. The whole question gets more complicated when you realise that these regions could be diminished through no fault of the individual.