The Evildoer’s Self-Delusion Bubble

Some may wonder how evildoers can live with themselves given how terrible they are and given how much suffering they cause. There are multiple explanations, one of which is the evildoer’s self-delusion bubble. This self-delusion bubble is a bubble of delusion that many evildoers create for themselves that continually tells them a lie that they are okay people no matter how bad they are. This bubble of delusion allows the evildoer to look into the mirror and see an angel instead of a devil.

To build and maintain this self-delusion bubble, the evildoer has a large selection of techniques and tactics at his/her disposal. This article discusses many of the ways that evildoers build and maintain this self-delusion bubble.

Denial that their intentions were bad

After it has been confirmed that the evildoer has done a bad deed that has caused suffering, you may hear evildoers explain that they did not realize they were causing so much pain. Here, the evildoer may or may not be telling the truth. Even if the evildoer is telling the truth and really did not know how much pain he/she was causing, it does not mean that he/she is innocent. When evildoers go about their every day business and fulfill their selfish ambitions, they place little to no consideration as to how their actions affect others. Because they think so little about the effects of their actions on others, they are not as likely to know what effects their actions have on others, hence the expression “I didn’t realize I was causing so much pain”.

When people say that they were not aware of the pain that they was causing, we should consider whether these people would have known if they had common sense and common decency. If common sense and common decency are all that would have been necessary to know how much harm others would incur, then there is reason for doubt that the person in question is innocent.

There are other methods evildoers can use to go into denial that their intentions were bad. One method is perversion of the definition of right and wrong. As is discussed in the Subjectivity article, evil flourishes in an environment where the definition of right and wrong is subjective. When the definition of right and wrong is subjective, you can label as “right” any destructive behaviors that you do. No matter how much harm a behavior causes, there is always a way of rationalizing it so that it seems right.

Denial that they cause harm

Another way that evildoers build and maintain their self-delusion bubble is by denying that they are the cause of the harm incurred by others. Even when people around them are suffering because of them, they may say to themselves that these people are suffering because they are human, and all humans suffer. To them, suffering is just a part of life, so why blame suffering on a specific person?

Sometimes when bad deeds cause harm, the harmful effect is delayed. The larger the time delay between the bad deed and the harm taking effect, the easier it is for the evildoer to go into denial that he/she was the cause of the harm. For example, let us say that the evildoer smokes around a child on a regular basis. A little smoke won’t kill them they figure. However, second hand smoke does have devastating consequences, especially for children. When the harm does take effect many years later in the form of an illness such as cancer or macular degeneration, it will be easy for the evildoer to conveniently avoid making a connection between the second hand smoke and the illness. Many factors cause such illnesses, and because there is such a large time delay between the smoke exposure and the illness, it is easy to look the other way and ignore the connection between the bad deed and the harm incurred.

Even when harmful effects are not delayed, they can still be hidden, as is the case with many forms of mental abuse and ill health effects.

Invalidation of the whistleblower’s testimony

When people do acts of evil that harm others, some people do speak up; but the self-delusion bubble can still prevail. There are many methods an evildoer can use to invalidate or discredit the testimony of another person speaking out.

Let us say that you are confronting someone about something terrible that he/she did. If you look too hysterical and upset, this could give the evildoer an excuse to render less valid your testimony. The evildoer may claim that you are being far too emotional to think clearly, and that perhaps you will change your mind about his/her actions when you “calm down”. Of course being told to calm down would likely make you more angry, which the evildoer doesn’t mind.

In some contexts such as in an altercation between family members, an evildoer may invalidate the family member’s testimony by questioning the family member’s state of mental health. Even if the family member has no history of mental illness, the evildoer, in his/her delusion, may figure that the family member simply never had a psychiatric evaluation. Perhaps if this family member saught help and received a psychiatric evaluation, an abnormality would be found. Of course if there were any history of psychological issues, even if it were just generalized anxiety disorder, the evildoer would have a venue through which to invalidate the other person’s testimony. “I think your anxiety issues are getting too out of hand” the evildoer may say.

Both of the examples above — making issues out of the person’s mood and the person’s mental soundness — at the very least have the effect of making it take longer for the other person’s testimony to be taken seriously. For example, if the evildoer claims that you only have a problem with his/her behavior because you are in a bad mood, then you are in a position where you would have to wait until you are in a “good mood” before you are taken seriously. Ironically, even if you are perfectly calm when explaining to the evildoer the wrongness of his/her actions, the evildoer, in his/her delusion, may figure that because you are so calm, the bad deed could not possibly be that bad.

Another way of invalidating the testimony of another person is by claiming that the other person simply has special pet peeves or perhaps idiosyncratic preferences. For example, let us say that a guy named Jerry likes to smoke in his apartment. He doesn’t care if his cigarette smoke gets into the air ventilation system and seeps into the other apartments. When a neighbor complains, Jerry tells himself that the neighbor is just being fussy. In Jerry’s delusional mind, the neighbor just has a pet peeve. Perhaps this neighbor is a health nut who won’t touch processed foods either. What Jerry is conveniently ignoring is the fact that cigarette smoke has been officially labeled as a health hazard by the Surgeon General, and has been banned from all public buildings.

Sometimes acts of evil can be as small as not listening to someone when he/she is talking. Not listening to someone is one of many ways of conveying disrespect, and evildoers don’t tend to have respect for their victims. Let us say that Nancy has little respect for her brother, Craig. Because she has little respect for Craig, she does not pay much attention to him when he is talking. Why would she listen to someone she does not respect when she has better things to do, like fulfilling her selfish ambitions? To justify her disrespect for Craig, Nancy tells herself that Craig is simply unworthy of respect. After all, Craig has been unemployed for the past few years. He has a stutter. He is not married.

In the example above, Nancy comes up with reasons to believe that Craig is unworthy of respect. In this way, she can disrespect Craig as much as she wants, and go into denial that she is doing anything wrong. On top of that, even if Craig were to speak up and complain that Nancy does not listen to him when he talks, Nancy can simply tell herself that Craig has an idiosyncratic preference, where the “preference” is to be listened to. “Craig just wants to be listened to, bless his heart…” Nancy says to herself and others. What Nancy is conveniently ignoring is the fact that we are supposed to listen when someone is talking. It is common decency. Almost everyone who talks wants to be listened to. Therefore, Craig’s need to be listened to is not an idiosyncracy, it is a basic human need.

In some religious settings, a person may try to confront the evildoer and reveal how wrong his/her behavior is with a Bible verse. Even if the evildoer identifies as a follower of the Bible, the evildoer can still find ways to invalidate the other person’s assertions, even if he is quoting scripture. One way is by using John Howard Griffin’s famous quote Every fool in error can find a passage of scripture to back him up. The evildoer may also falsely accuse the other person of taking the Bible verse out of context. Here, the evildoer is leaving the other person with the burden of having to provide a detailed and scholarly explanation as to why he believes that the Bible verse says what he thinks it says.

Imperfections and shades of gray

As discussed in some previous articles, evildoers sometimes blur the line between being imperfect and being an outright bad person. Sometimes they may even remove this dividing line entirely. As such, they will view their bad behaviors not as evidence that they are a bad person, but rather as simply imperfections.

An evildoer may even deny that there are any “good people” or “bad people”, figuring that nobody is completely good or completely bad. While it is true that nobody is completely good or completely bad, some people consistently make an honest attempt to do what is right while other people would rather do whatever they feel like regardless of the harm that others may incur.

Some people may figure that as long as they never robbed a bank, killed someone, molested a child or committed acts of terrorism, they are generally good. Meanwhile, they may still be doing acts of evil on a regular basis such as harassment, microaggressions, slander, sabotage or deceptive schemes. Such behaviors are done with wicked intentions, but usually do not lead to trouble with the law or prison time.

There is another excuse evildoers sometimes use to do evil — just being alive. Take the character Ani from the TV series 13 Reasons Why. Upon her entrance into the TV series, Ani declares that “if you are living and breathing, then you are a liar”. As the TV series progresses, Ani frames someone for murder, allowing the actual murderer to go free. She also tells her mother that she is a member of several clubs at school that do not actually exist. She then writes Clay’s college admissions essay for him and turns in the essay in his name and without his permission.

Did Ani frame someone for murder simply because she is alive and breathing? I don’t think so. Even though we all have told a lie at some point in our lifetimes, it does not mean that we have to continue telling lies until we die.

Assumed similarity bias

Another way that evildoers maintain their delusion bubble is by assuming that their evil nature is more common than it actually is. This article discusses the phenomenon called assumed similarity bias. The article defines assumed similarity bias as the “tendency for individuals to overestimate the extent to which other people’s thoughts, beliefs, values, characteristics, and behaviors are similar to their own”.

When we convince ourselves that our bad behaviors are the norm, it can give us the illusion that the bad behaviors are not that bad. Nonetheless, an evil intention is going to be just as evil when it is common as when it is uncommon. Also, a behavior that hurts people is still going to hurt people just as much whether it is common or uncommon.

When you try to stand up to an evildoer who has adopted the assumed similarity bias mindset, you may hear him/her say things like “you would have done the same thing…” or “everyone is like me, so get used to it”. Even if you convince the person that you are not like him/her, he/she may try to convince you that you are the weird one while he/she is the norm.

Television

Television creates a breeding ground for these self-delusion bubbles by normalizing and even promoting many destructive behaviors. This article and this article discuss the many ways that television promotes evil and entices viewers to laugh at things that people should not be laughing at. Below is a list of behaviors that television normalizes and trivializes:

• Sexual harassment and sexual molestation
• Sexual promiscuity
• Breaking into someone’s home
• Disobedience to authority figures (parents, police, senior ranking officers, etc)
• Habitual lying
• Laughing at people being mean to each other
• Being entertained by turmoil and abuse within another family (also known as scandals)
• Apologizing for doing the right thing

On the other hand, some good behaviors that television condemns are telling the truth, being “too nice” and maintaining one’s chastity.

The list above shows that you can be a pretty rotten person, and yet in the land of television be considered normal. In the land of television, if you sexually harass women, nobody bats an eye. In the land of television, no matter how mean you are to your friend, your friend is supposed to always forgive you afterwards and then continue to be your friend. When people are fighting and/or being mean to each other, you are permitted to laugh and see it as free entertainment. It also is okay for you to lie to your friends and family members all the time. They may not like it, but they will get over it. If you are male, you can view women as mere sexual entertainment. In fact, you are supposed to view women as sexual entertainment because you are a guy.

I suspect that many television producers are bad men. Testimonies from former child actors have stated that the television industry has many sexual predators. Indeed, television is made by bad people for bad people.

Manipulating the conversation

When you try to tell people something that contradicts the lies of their self-delusion bubbles, you may find yourself running up against a wall. First, the person may intentionally misunderstand what you are saying, and you may find that you have to keep repeating yourself. Sometimes, the person will assume that you are joking. Even after explaining to them how unacceptable their behaviors are, you may find them asking if you are joking ten minutes into the conversation. Why would they think such a serious matter is a joke? Because you are contradicting the lies of their delusion bubble, and in their delusions, it is hard for them to believe that you are serious and mean every word that you are saying.

Sometimes, to avoid a truth they do not want to face, people try to deflect the conversation. Changing the subject is what people think of most when it comes to deflecting the converstation. However, there are other ways of deflecting a conversation, such as sarcasm, flattery and humor. Humor in particular can serve as a crafty way of lightening the mood of what otherwise would be a serious conversation. By manipulating the conversation into one that is less serious, the person can maintain the delusion that the issue at hand is not a big deal. Sarcasm, combined with humor, can have a similar effect, only with an extra sting of disrespect. Phrases like “you got me there” and “guilty as charged” are forms of sarcasm that may be used to diminish the weightiness of what should be a conversation that exposes evil for what it is.

Evildoers have networks

Evildoers obviously can make friends with each other and form their own social networks. When they do so, any messages of truth that you try to send their way can easily be refuted within their network. Some things they may say to each other include “she said that to you? Well, she said that to me, too. I wouldn’t take it personally. She says that to a lot of people…”

Summary

Bursting the evildoer’s delusion bubble can be pretty hard. When they decide to erect a delusion bubble that tells them what they want to believe, they will put effort into maintaining it. Simply having an honest talk with them may not do much. They may even believe that being “thick skinned” is a virtue and a sign that they are strong-minded.

The evildoer’s self-delusion bubble is harder to maintain when a larger number of people speak out. The larger the number of people that speak out, the harder it will be for the evildoer to invalidate their testimonies. In addition, the more people shun them, the more they will be likely to change and turn away from their evil ways.