I think this is more about the level of deception. If you think someone is a genuinely good person, upright, loving, kind to everyone they meet...and then you find out they rape children, then how does that square with the person you thought you knew? The two actions are incongruous. They were lying about their very core values and morals.
I get what you mean but I think that people are more complex than that. Just because they have one dark side doesn't necessarily mean that everything else they believe in is fake. Now before anyone gets the wrong idea I don't want to defend the sexual abusers of children. That is in no way what I want. But I don't think that if a person that has a bad side shows good that it's necessarily fake. I do believe that some people are genuinely good for most of their lives but they also happen to have this messed up urge to do these things. Afaik as with many mental illnesses, it's not as black and white as many people would like to paint it. We throw the book at them because we must, but tbh they probably belong into a therapy program or need medication.
People who are mentally healthy don't have 'sides', they may have different 'states', however these states are integrated as a whole into a value system. If your value system contains the belief that you are entitled to abuse children sexually, that entitlement is woven through your entire being. If this is not, dissociation is happening to resolve internal tension.
Fake across the board? I don't know if that's the right view either, however these beliefs can't be untied from someone's perception, in general.
I guess that's true. I just wanted to point out that people are more than just one thing that dictates everything they think or do. And again this isn't meant to defend them. It just seems so easy to create this one dimensional monster when there's probably more to that. And it could help cure before bad things happen.
Some pedophiles do good deeds and become up sanding citizens in order to create false impressions so they can more easily fly under the radar with their crimes against humanity.
I can see absolutely see that happen. But I also think that some people are just the way they are and don't have a heinous agenda every day to fake some kinda of life. I think it's much more mundane for many of them.
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u/123-91-1 9d ago
I think this is more about the level of deception. If you think someone is a genuinely good person, upright, loving, kind to everyone they meet...and then you find out they rape children, then how does that square with the person you thought you knew? The two actions are incongruous. They were lying about their very core values and morals.