Being wrong and being mean can have identical consequences but they are different problems with different solutions.

A doctor who continuously kills 10 patients by accidentally giving them the wrong medication is just as dangerous, and unfit to be a doctor, as a doctor who murders 10 patients by deliberately giving them the wrong medication. But you treat an incompetent very differently than you treat a murderer.

#a good ethical distinction #on one hand if you didn’t MEAN to do it #it was still done. the consequences to the person or people you hurt are the same. #on the other hand i do think it makes a difference— a person who did something bad in ignorance #is a lot more likely to be able to change their behavior than someone who knowingly does bad things #i think that’s important— not ‘what has this person done’ but ‘what are they going to do’ (lia aprilwitching, knocking it out of the park as always)