I met my first "truly bad person" about ten years ago. He was the roommate of a friend of mine. In the brief time I knew him, he -

- wrecked his car in a hit-and-run DUI

- raped his girlfriend's little sister (and stood trial, and mistrialed)

- stole his roommate/best friend's fiancee

- erased his roommate/best friend's server just for laughs

The roommate found out about this the night he threw a going-away party for his best bro. Dude timed his disclosures for maximum pain. Why? Because it amused him.

I have great faith in the general humanity of humanity. I think all people are fundamentally good and that nearly everyone you meet would rather hurt you than help you. The entire study of behavioral economics bears this out, and the existence of civilization supports it.

But there are people who are evil. There are psychopaths in the world, and some of them are not well-adjusted to pantomiming empathy.

I do not think that Roger Ailes was a psychopath. I'll bet he loved his children and the people who surrounded him mattered. But I also think that Roger Ailes managed to circumscribe the definition of "person" in his head to exclude the majority of humanity. I think Roger Ailes managed to craft a personal universe in which a select few were people and the rest didn't matter.

Hitler was a person. But he was an evil person. He believed that the most victorious race needed to exterminate all other races, and if the Germans weren't the most victorious, they deserved to be exterminated.

I don't feel anyone deserves to be exterminated. I also feel that this maxim defines humanity and anybody who disagrees should be treated carefully.