Epistemic status: Figuring things out.

My mind often wanders to what boundaries I ought to maintain between the different parts of my life and people who have variously committed bad acts or have poor character. On the professional side, I think it is a virtue to be able to work with lots of people, and be functional in many environments. You will often have to work with people you dislike in oder to get things done. Yet I think that it is not the correct call to just lie on your back and allow people in your environment to do horrendous things all the time without providing meaningful pushback (as per both Scott Alexander and Screwtape).

From one perspective, this a question of how much should you be exposed to other people's crazy beliefs. Suppose that someone comes to the belief that you are evil. Perhaps they think you secretly murdered people and got away with it, or have ruined many many people's lives in legal ways, or that you're extremely power-seeking and have no morals. What should they do?

I think it's natural that they might not want to work with you, and even may wish to impose [...]

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First published:
November 28th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jgWtEedLWXBMKNetY/should-you-work-with-evil-people

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Should you work with evil people?

LessWrong (30+ Karma)