system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Where is the line between a bad choice and a bad person?

At what point does a person become the sum of their choices? 

First post but I think about this often. 

I'm going to provide the following example but after typing it, I realize I'm thinking more towards daily life but please keeping reading: 

An extreme example being a person committing one murder. We've all seen stories where a murder could legitimately just be a bad choice (obviously), factors at play lead from one wrong move to another. And then there are serial killers. Quite the difference.

Is the line drawn by intention? What if the single murderer WANTED to murder just like a serial killer, but only did it once.

Is the line drawn by learning from mistakes? Commits murder, oh that was a bad choice, I never need to do that again, doesn't do it again. 

What I ponder more on are life choices like choosing a life partner, choosing a job/career path, choosing your friends, choosing when/whether to have a child, choosing a tattoo, choosing to get a pet.  

What if a person chooses a burdensome life partner who only causes stress in their life, quits a job they should have stayed at, is surrounded by toxic people, has a child but is not ready to be a parent, gets a terrible tattoo (not so serious but we all know the kind), gets a pet but can't properly care for it, etc. etc. 

If that person has great intentions: 
I can change the partner to be better.
I will be less stressed at a different job.
These people are good for me to be around. (Idk) 
A child will bring me and my partner happiness.
This tattoo is a good idea.
A dog/cat will bring my family joy.  

But they end up in an abusive relationship, dead end job, asshole friends, neglected children, terribly tattooed, with a dog/cat they keep locked in a crate all day. 

You know what I mean? These are like kind of specific descriptions but are just what I can think of off the top of my head. 

At what point can you still say a person is a good person if their life reeks of bad choices? 

I understand we all have a built in my metric of good/bad and thus the answer may be only true to our individual perspective. 

I also understand factors that affect decision making. (Parents, early life, trauma, accessibility.) 

I believe everyone has a purpose, and none are more important than the other. One purpose may be to save the world from poverty, another may be to take frequent naps and only work when needed. Both are equally important to the world. I'd love for napping to be my purpose. 

Anyway. I hope this resonates with someone. I'd love some opinions. I'd also love light shed on the biases that are present in this writing. What does it mean that I put so much emphasis on choices? Why do I care about being a "good" person? 

Thank you 🙏🏼
gpt
Psychologically, one might draw a distinction between a behaviour that was due to someone's disposition and a behaviour that was due mostly due to circumstances. Clearly, the two interact, but if someone is disposed to be violent, for example, they are more likely to commit acts that others would deem immoral. If that disposition is so entrenched, one might be entitled to call them a 'bad person'. 

Interestingly, there some evidence that different people have different intuitions about this. Some tend to see people as having a moral core or moral fibre that is either good or bad. If someone commits a bad act, these people are more likely to judge them as a 'bad person'. This tendency is more prevalent in people who self-describe as conservative, and can help explain things like tough on crime, mandatory sentencing, retributivist rather than rehabilitationist approaches, etc.

Others tend to see actions are being more the product of circumstance and experience. So if someone does a bad act, these people might be more inclined to chalk that up to a rough upbringing, disadvantage, bad luck, including one-off bad choices that lead to circumstances that produce other bad choices (say, a gambling addiction), etc. This is more common among self-described progressives, and can help explain the tendency to focus on systemic problems, rehabilitation and being less retributivist. 

Of course, there's a great deal of variation within and between these populations, and there's a recent phenomenon in parts of the progressive left to adopt a more 'moral fibre' perspective. But it's interesting to note that intuitions can vary about what constitutes a 'bad person' and whether they can be rehabilitated.