system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Dungeons and Dragons alignments.

Hey this is my first time asking something on Reddit and i hope I ask this well. I've been a player of D&D for about a year now, and when i first started my uncle who introduced me to it walked me through the basics and when we got to alignments he told me it wasn't important unless I played a priest or a paladin so I never bothered. With the group i played with before rp (role playing) wasn't as big a deal. But now with my new group i wanted to play a cleric and looking in on it seems like more of a big deal with certain classes. So i've looked around and I still don't have a good idea on how this works.
I understand law-full good and Chaotic evil but the others i really don't understand how they work. True Neutral really confuses me with the whole maintain balance thing in the rule book. Also how is law-full evil even a thing?  If it makes a difference we are playing advanced D&D 3rd addition. If someone can explain this to me in a simple way I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Edit: O.K. With the help of everyone here i think i have a fair understanding of it all. I hope this helps out others as confused as i was on this. Thanks everyone for the fast responses. :)
gpt
Lawful good does good things but follows the rules. Think goody two shoes. Chaotic good does the right thing regardless of the rules. Think robin hood. Neutral good is somewhere in between.

Lawful neutral just sees rules, and follows them regardless of what they say. Think Supreme Court. Chaotic neutral does whatever it wants. Think what the Joker thinks of himself. True neutral just doesn't care.

Lawful evil does bad things but in an organized way. Think dictator. Chaotic evil does bad things randomly. Think serial killer. Neutral evil is in between.