 Despite this widespread squeamishness about “evil” in both scientific culture and common parlance, there are moments when the pull of the ancient lexicon is irresistible—at the very least expressively, in the mode of both condemnation and lament. Premeditated mass shootings aren’t just bad or traumatic; rather, they are something else: here people still reach for “evil” or even “radical evil”. The years-long imprisonment and rape of children by their parents is a misfortune that produces negative utility, to be sure, but the transfixing horror of it seems only to be captured by the invocation of “evil”. The same is true of most instances of genocide, sex-trafficking, torture-slaying, terrorism, serial killing, and slavery: these are one and all bad, harmful, and traumatic activities, but they are also something else—something excessive, mesmerizing, and revolting all at once (see Stone 2009 for a psychologist’s account). In the face of such acts, we—along with our spiritual leaders, newscasters, and politicians—are still willing to speak, preach, and tweet about “pure evil”.