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a fundamental part of cultural Calvinism that I often see in radical spaces is the idea of ontological evilness - that is, the idea that, if someone does evil, hurtful things, then the impetus to do those things must necessarily stem from a fundamentally evil, hurtful essence that that person was born with. and, if someone is fundamentally evil at heart, then that necessarily means that anything done to them, even something that would be evil when done to a Good Person, is ethically justified.

some of this encroachment is simply due to a failure to engage in inner work. some of it is also due to our respective traumas, because it's all too easy for us to split on someone whom we see as having revealed their Evil Essence through words or actions.

in reality, of course, there are no Good People or Evil People. there are just people who, for some reason or another (and it's always something that can be explained, though an explanation is different than an excuse), either accidentally, or make the decision to, do evil, harmful things.

it's only when we stop seeing people as Ontologically Evil, and begin to see them as human beings who have the capability to do both good and evil, that we begin to truly deconstruct carceral systems of justice and the evils that those systems perpetuate. it's only then that we find ourselves able to reorient our actions when someone does a hurtful thing toward protecting the victim(s) and our communities, and (where we're able, when that first goal has been achieved) allowing the hurting party to learn and grow, and away from simply doling out retributive harm to the offender.