thejoanglebook:

pla-a-nt:

disasterbisexual:

if you’re ever scared you’re not a good person, remember that bad people don’t care about being better 

This is actually very important, so I’m gonna hit that reblog button again

I’m don’t want to rain on the parade, but I don’t think this is true at all. Someone can be bad for a period of time, recognize that they’ve made horrible choices, and change for the better. A lot of “bad people,” don’t even know that they’re doing anything wrong. I think this oversimplification puts you at risk of dehumanizing flawed people, or people who’ve made some mistakes because you perceive them as bad.

If you think you might be a bad person right now– that’s okay because everything is liquid. Your life is going to take on a completely different shape ten years from now– your life might even look completely different ten months from now. We should encourage people with the prospect of changing for the better– not the idea that bad people are inherently bad and they like being that way. I don’t think that’s a positive way of thinking.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the good thing that the original post brings up is that it can be a good sign that you might not be a bad person if you’re asking yourself the question “am I a bad person?” because self-awareness is a positive quality. Brief, related aside: there’s a man named Christian Picciolini who used to be neo-Nazi– the worst thing a person can be. He’s since withdrawn from the Nazi movement and he co-founded a non-profit organization that councels members to help them disengage from hate groups. So he’s now helping to reduce the amount of Nazis in the world. In order to get where he is today, he once had to ask himself the question “am I a bad person?” and he most certainly was at the time. Christian had to make some serious changes to his life, and he had to right a lot of wrongs. Asking yourself if you’re a bad person, or wanting to be a good person doesn’t automatically prove that you are a good person; sometimes asking that question is just the first step in someone’s journey to becoming a better person.