It really depends on your intentions, I mean there are a handful of dark wizards from each of the houses. It really doesn't matter on who you are and what house you are sorted in. It's the intentions, like what Sirius Black said,"
We've all got both light and dark inside of us, what matters is what part we act on, that is who we really are." So it's all about the intentions, so in conclusion, not all Slytherins are evil and bad and slimy.

 

Means nothing.

To this day, there's a city in my home state I hate and despise, as do my friends. Kids pick up on that, and it becomes the butt of jokes, etc. Why do we hate it?

They were rivals in hockey.

Albus Severus being scared he'd get sorted in Slytherin doesn't mean it's a slimy house or everyone in it is irredeemable. It means Harry and Ginny, and probably Ron and Hermione as well as other family have passed on a dislike for Slytherin. In fact, it might mean Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione are less redeemable in the long run, because they can't get over their teenage prejudice.

 

Also that, not everything is based on fact, it is like prejudices you could say. Like a grudge, because of Draco Malfoy, because he was in Slytherin.

 

Ok, let's put this into simple terms:
Nobody is entirely good or evil; in fact, the definition of both is up to personal opinion. Someone might think that raping a child, raping their parents in front of them, raping them again and physically/mentally damaging them and leaving them rotting in a relative's coffin is the definition of good. Of course, anyone who does think so is what I classify as evil.
So no, Slytherin does not =evil

 

You're replying to a banned user.

 

I sincerely hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting this (if I am, please delete the post but don't ban me pls) but I made a video a few years ago on the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3-SkEQokw

Ultimately, my argument(s) boil down to the idea that firstly, the belief that Slytherin is the house for evil wizards leads to a self-fulfiling prophecy where good inclined wizards avoid Slytherin out of fear of being labelled evil/being placed with other evil students, and where evil inclined wizards either are neutral or positive towards Slytherin, as they do not mind being seen as evil/being around other evil people. So, from the time of Voldemort, the stigma will have been self-perpetuating. The good guys will do what Harry did and avoid Slytherin, while the bad guys will do what Malfoy did, and go there gleefully. As a result, Slytherin will produce disproportionate amounts of bad wizards, proving the stigma valid, and on we go to infinity.

Another thing to consider is that House affiliation is very strongly correlated with inheritance, insofar as almost all the characters we know details for are/were placed in the same house as their parents/close family, to the point of those who buck the trend (i.e Sirius Black) being notable for NOT being in the same house as their family. This means that once the first iteration of Voldemort's circle was set, and drawn primarily/entirely from Slytherin, the next generation of Slytherins would by default be pro-Voldemort, and the next generation of Voldermort's cronies would by default be drawn from Slytherins, being the children of his current followers. Meanwhile, those who fought for the Light side, such as the Order, come predominantly/entirely from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and to a lesser extent Ravenclaw, so the next generation of Order members/light wizards will be from those houses more often than not, further accentuating the gap between Slytherin and the other houses.

Another interesting thing to consider is the question of why Tom Riddle drew his initial inner circle from Slytherin (as it could be that Slytherin really was the evil house all along). I think there are a few things to consider. Number one, exposure. In your first 2 years (pre OWL choices) you spend EVERY lesson, EVERY mealtime, and EVERY bit of time in your dormitory/common room, surrounded by your house. On the other hand, you spend only some lessons with each other house, and do not sit with them at mealtimes or spend hours in the common room/dormitories with them. That means that Tom Riddle will have had a much easier time worming his way around the Slytherins, simply because he'd have had more time and exposure to do so. Next, I think that Slytherin's qualities (whilst not necessarily evil) do lend themselves to Voldemort's purposes. He can appeal to the ambition by offering greatness and power, and appeal to the cunning simply with the argument of "I'm going to win with or without you, so you may as well join and be on the winning side" (which, until prophecy bullshit nobody could have predicted, he definitely was going to be) whilst he'd have a harder time twisting "race war" into something brave, noble, hardworking(?), loyal, intelligent or wise. Finally, the historic blood prejudice, as well as Riddle's emotional/biological/cultural tie to Slytherin and Salazar Slytherin in particular, will have given him both more reason to target Slytherins for conversion, and more ability to. A Ravenclaw is not going to be as interested in following the Heir of Slytherin as a Slytherin is, obviously.

Another consideration is the environment after sorting. Once sorted into Slytherin, assuming you're not evil, what happens? Well, the other 3 houses hate you and think you're evil, so you can't make friends outside very easily, and your house is either going to think you're evil and like you, or realise you're not and then you have no friends even in your own house. As a result, the logical thing for a kid to do is keep his head down, pretend to be evil, or even be pushed into evil by such circumstances. I could go into far more detail here, but this is a year old thread that I've already written far too much in, so I'll leave it at this.

Final point: In order to break the Stigma, either a really notable evil wizard would have to come from a different house, and convert enough of his housemates to set the same heritage cycle into action (a "Voldemort 2: This time it's Hufflepuff", if you will) or alternatively a really notable good wizard (cough cough Harry) would have to come from Slytherin. But, anyone going into Hogwarts with the evil intentions and character is likely to be persuaded Slytherin is the place for them so the chances of Voldemort 2 are quite low (and certainly it would take a long time to happen anyway, after all we only know of 2 major dark wizards in recent history, and one wasn't even British). Equally, a good hearted 11 year old who is either raised in an environment of other good wizards (like Ron Weasley) and in the process been raised on the idea that Slytherin is a bad place for bad wizards, or who was raised in the muggle world and has only had their first exposure to Slytherin be what they've gleaned in between Platform 9 3/4 and the Sorting Hat (which, from Harry's experience, we can assume would be a massively negative (and false) set of claims such as "there's not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin, which is a lie due to Pettigrew. (Whilst Hagrid thought it was Sirius who was evil, he was still a Gryffindor, so Hagrid outright lied, though I doubt it was malicious in intent) unless you happened to be seated with Slytherins (and assuming they didn't find out you were a muggleborn and make you feel intensely unwelcome, cementing a negative impression in your mind), is very very unlikely to accept or desire sorting into the "evil house". So we'd need an 11 year old smart enough to recognise the stigma as self-perpetuating, moral enough to be the beacon that breaks the stigma, and self-sacrificing enough to endure 7 years of shit (or however many years it takes to get that reputation as a beacon of light), who was also close enough to Slytherin for the Hat to consider/allow that as his/her place. Which is very very very unlikely indeed.

TL;DR/TL;DW: Voldemort's first Inner Circle was Slytherin, for reasons that go beyond "Slytherins are evil", and that set in place a perpetual cycle which both makes Slytherin the evil house, and reflects the fact that it is. So no, Slytherin is not "the evil house" it is simply the house from which the majority of evil characters are drawn, due to very understandable social and environmental reasons.

 

I don't think that even Salazar Slytherin was some evil moster. I have never read the he hated muggleborns. He simply didn't trust them. They were something new. He would be probably ashamed if he saw what Voldemort is doing.

 

I think Slytherins bad reputation is what makes them bad. People view you as evil eventually you start being evil.

 

Yeah, that's why Harry turned into a murdering psychopath after people started to think he was a bad apple during the series.

If you're going to dredge up a shitty thread then at least come up with something decent to say rather than inane nonsensical bullshit.

 

The thing that leads me to think that canon Slytherins as evil and Gryffindor good (by the way I don't think this, this is just what would make me think it) is Dumbledore's saying that he thinks the sorting is done too soon in reference to Snape- saying that he is actually a good guy and therefore should have been in Gryffindor.

As in, the good people in Slytherin shouldn't have been in Slytherin in the first place, and leading on from that evil people in the other houses should have been in Slytherin.

 

The one thing that is clear is that Slytherin is a fucking mess from a pedagogical point of view.

 

I don't think that's even true given the full quote:

It's a pretty direct reference to his bravery specifically rather than him being good instead of bad.