Although philosophers who embrace moral realism will have different views, my takeaway is that it is much harder to be a virtuous moral agent than the layperson assumes.

That said, if I find that a person often puts their own interests above those of everyone else, this is a good indication of questionable character.

Easy. By what they say and do.

I assume everyone is good by default, and I’ll usually let a tasteless joke slide once, because we all occasionally put our foot in mouth.

If their actions and words don’t mesh with my own moral compass, they aren’t a person I associate with any more than necessary.

I don’t judge persons (because I’m not in their head), I look at their actions.

Also, I tend to steer away from the ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ (persons, thoughts, sexuality, religion, and so on) that were and still way too often used to hurt people one doesn’t like or agree with.

Louis Rossman had a video years ago that really got me looking at people differently. An obvious sign for him is how they treat animals. animals sadly are often the ultimate litmus test for ones morality. I find that respecting an animal, its boundries and its emotions is a thing only possible when youve developed a (imo) basic sense of empathy, that for pets and animals cant be expressed verbally.

Think of times when a person was trying to force an animals to behave in a particular way purely for self intrest. Or if someone you know outright denies the complex emotions of animals. I am by no means an animal rights activist and i often can be heard yelling at my dog to stop barking or etc. But i think even if we “own” them most good people dont think of pets as propperty, status symbols, or entertainment.

the moment i see behavior like this I try to correct and if they actively fight me on it or make no attempt to improve. I will disconnect from them entirely, not worth it. If thats how you treat family, i dont want to see how you treat friends.

If they lie all the time, they are probably willing to do other awful things as well.

If they are willing to steal outside of a desperate situation, if they treat someone who’s been good to them awful, if they treat those beneath them awfuly, if they judge based on location, race, etnicity, etc. If they put whatever fantasy world they live in, over reality (antivaxxers and such, and yes religious people).

If they co-operated with Jeffrey Epstein, they only belong in the woodchipper.

Good people:

• Take time to listen to others even if it’s something they don’t agree with, they want to understand the other person before they want to performatively argue.

• Treat others with kindness, and everyone equally, no matter their age, race or social standing.

• Make sure people are treated fairly by others even if it’s very small gestures like noticing you said something nobody heard and calling attention to it.

• Care about how they make other people. I mean, it should be obvious but apparently a LOT of people took all the wrong lessons from their saturday morning cartoons and care more about being emotionally vindicated and somehow still think they’re the good ones, a tendency that covers every side of every population or group.

I don’t like to think of people as immutably good or bad, but I get what you meant.

There’s a bunch of factors.

• are they honest?
• are they kind?
• do they care about things other than themselves?
• do they try to make the world better?

So, someone who lies, is cruel, doesn’t care about anyone else, and leaves the world a mess is being a pretty bad person.

Someone who just keeps their head down, goes to work, and is polite to people they meet is kind of middling.

If a person operates as if nothing is unconditional and they expect something in return or else you are deemed worthless, they’re a fucking cunt.

If a person continually makes a situation about themselves even when it’s 100% not, that’s a red flag.

If they whine and complain to get what they want or have others do for them, they’re a bad person.

Yelling at a newborn baby in a punishing manner as if they have any understanding of anything.

I’ve always struggled with it, so I’ve learned to ask someone better at character judgement than I.

I used to check with my dog. Then I met my wife and found out over a year how moral she was and how consistently she applied those morals. Now I ask her.

You really don’t know until you need something from them.

But even good people may not be able to help you if they’re not able to right that moment.

Finding good willing people seems to be more of a numbers game.

In addition to some of the other criteria mentioned, some other indicators of a bad person are:

• Using bad-faith argument techniques, such as tone policing
• Endorsing or demanding conformity for conformity’s sake

The [fundamental attribution error)[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error] explains why we perceive people to be good or bad.

I know you said to just downvote, but I really strongly believe the world would be a much better place if people tried to understand the motivations of others, rather than trying to categorise them as good or bad people.