> You need not intend for your actions to be malicious, for them to be. If you are willfully ignorant of malicious consequences of your actions, your actions are still malicious.

I think this is almost the same point as parent, albeit slightly askew from that one.

The hint is in your use of the word “willfully” — that is, you know what you are doing will result in harm, and you choose to do it anyway.

A difference is that “intending to harm” may be a differently intractable behavior because it is effectively sadism. That is a tighter reward loop than “pretending it doesn’t harm” which can just be avoidance.

Of course whether or not you can ever learn which of those (if it isn’t both) you’re dealing with is an entirely different matter.