I would encourage anyone to familiarize themselves with the "banality of evil" [1]. Interestingly, there's this quote that's very apropos today:
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule,” she also says, “is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction no longer holds”
Anyway, the idea of this is "evil" is an accumulation of small, otherwise inocuous actions.
Consider the recent movie "Zone of Interest" that was set outside Auschwitz and never showed any of the atrocities. The whole point was that even on the steps of mass murder, life still appeared in many ways "normal" [2].
Comments
I would encourage anyone to familiarize themselves with the "banality of evil" [1]. Interestingly, there's this quote that's very apropos today:
Anyway, the idea of this is "evil" is an accumulation of small, otherwise inocuous actions.
Consider the recent movie "Zone of Interest" that was set outside Auschwitz and never showed any of the atrocities. The whole point was that even on the steps of mass murder, life still appeared in many ways "normal" [2].
[1]: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/hannah-arendts-less...
[2]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/18/the-zone-of-in...