What do I mean when I say "bad actor?"
A quick definition, and a warning about pride.
When I use the term “bad actors” in trainings and elsewhere, I am broadly referring to people who manipulate others in order to hoard power and/or wealth at their expense.
Commonly discussed examples of bad actors include shady politicians or political operatives, agents of hostile governments, terrorist groups, or unethical corporate executives. On a smaller, more personal scale, they include bullies and abusers of all kinds.
But less frequently discussed, something I learned the hard way while reckoning with it in myself and the professional spaces I’ve spent most of my life in, is that pride can turn even otherwise well-meaning people into bad actors. This is why I also reference “irresponsible activists and organizations” when offering examples of bad actors when I do talks and trainings about political manipulation.
Reminder: pride is a sin, not a virtue, and for good reason. Pride fosters the perfect conditions for (self-)deception and groupthink to thrive. Among other problems, pride encourages us to overestimate our and our allies’ inherent goodness or competence, while underestimating people and information that challenge our inflated self-image.
When we refuse to acknowledge, account for, and counter-balance our selfish tendencies or our shortcomings in knowledge and perspective, we set ourselves up to function as bad actors in situations where we have power or influence over others’ lives. This is precisely why checks and balances are so important; not only to minimize the damage caused by intentionally malicious people, but also to limit the damage any of us is capable of causing just by being fallible humans.
Along with linguistic manipulation, deliberate bad actors — as distinguished from those of us who unwittingly get suckered into aiding and abetting their efforts — frequently exploit our pride to accomplish their ends. It’s pride in ourselves, extended to our in-group, that often lures us into participating in bad actors’ divide-and-conquer attempts. It’s pride in our perceived intelligence and knowledge that stops us from questioning whether we might be misinformed or misguided in some area bad actors profit from. It’s pride in our presumed moral superiority that tempts us into silencing or cutting off dissenting colleagues and friends, whose critiques and divergent perspectives could help us avoid bad actors’ traps.
Speaking (as always!) from experience and not judgment, when compared to the long-term costs to ourselves, our relationships, and our societies, the short-term ego satisfaction pride offers just isn’t worth it. If you’re someone who truly wants to do the right thing, cultivating humility, curiosity, and self-awareness — particularly a healthy vigilance toward our innate tendency to try to rationalize and justify our own bad behavior — needs to become a daily practice.
(If you’re looking for cheat codes on this front, I highly recommend devotion to God and viewpoint diversity in your close relationships!)