Religion likes to say evil is banal and its servants uninspiring. That arises from the notion that evil is only a gap not a thing. The notion is that God makes only good and so evil is a flaw and the good is real and evil is just good that is not good enough. But that totally contradicts our experience for we find demons, devils, evil people exciting and murder thrillers will always outsell the lives of the saints. It's just false. And it obscures any effort to try and reduce or end evil. Do you want to say, "Hitler was not a Nazi but rather a mistaken idealist"? Or, "John did not murder Jane but merely stopped her heart"?
Hannah Arendt spoke of the “banality of evil” but in a different way. She meant how evil emerges for the most useless reasons such as people just wanting to follow through a command or task. An authority must really be needed for authority in itself is gorged with risks and dangers. That is why a religion that is not needed is still evil no matter how harmless it seems. Let her expound, "Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the banality of evil."
If evil is banal, it will never satisfy for long which is why it will get worse. Christians have a similar idea when they say sin is never satisfied. The trouble is that view requires that you mistrust sinners and battle against them. It gives Christians away who pretend to love sinners and hate sins.
Intending to be evil leads to fear which is why evil leads to more evil for you feel you need it to protect yourself. It will not help you be happy for long.
Anything that exaggerates evil or condemns as evil things that are not in fact evil like religion does makes it worse. It is manipulating people to cause them to think of themselves and their actions as evil. It increases evil intentions.
The banality of evil idea tells us how ordinary evil people are. A Christian is going to find it hard to see Satan or a demon as ordinary.
Some say the banality of evil describes how you can do evil without being evil. But this sees evil in cartoonish fashion. The person has to be spitting hate and a psychopath. It confuses ugliness with evil. That is like confusing snow with sugar.
Even ugly evil gets banal and boring in time.
Why does evil get bored and keep trying to keep motivated by getting even worse? She did say it is because it has no real reasons for doing what it does. So that must be it.
If evil is banal and ridiculous that allows its doers to use cliches and superficial arguments to make excuses for what they do. We feel supportive of those who harm because they were bored or who say they were stupid.
If evil is banal, we don't need people to be clearly villains or obnoxious to know they may be evil. The troubling thing about that is how evil then is hard to differentiate in any important way from good for good can be banal and perceived as banal. If good is not banal then the victim is the one accused of being the true conduit of evil. Evil has to make good look dull and then present itself as another legitimate option or a better one.
I would add that religion saying prayer is the main good work is not helpful there. Most prayer is boring.
If evil needs sad excuses, then it is not all the evil person's fault. You only make such excuses if you think enough people are stupid enough to think they are enough. They did something to cause that perception. Now we have ended up with a doctrine of, "It takes one to know one".
If sloppy reasons fuel evil, it stands to reason that we must get rid of beliefs and superstitions that give us more of them. Trim things back and that trims back the excuses.
Religion can be summarised as in, "everything happens for a reason." This is rooted in karma and God. But unpack how evil a statement that is. "I put my baby in the crusher but I have to stop condemning myself and start praising myself for clearly the baby was going to grow up to be a sadistic serial killer or something. Everything happens for a reason and when God permits me to abuse my free will he steps in so even when I sin it happens for a reason despite my worst intentions." As an anti-theist I see faith in God as evil. The evil is hidden in nasty implications which makes it more evil not less.
Equating evil people with cartoon villains then is serving evil. It is evil to do that. It gives it more power and influence than it should have. Evil is more toxic than any grotesque demonic person!
The interesting thing about evil being banal is that it means you can be ordinary and yet pure evil. If evil is that dull then how do people stay in Hell forever? What is God doing to them to make them think it is fun?
Critics say that evil is many-faceted. So if it is banal one way, it is profound another. They argue that saying evil is banal and boring does not account for how many seem to do evil for its own sake in a brutal shocking way and to them it means something - even if only when they are doing it. They say the banality of evil is itself an evil thing to emphasise in the face of much horrific abuse that points to an existential even supernatural darkness and malevolence.
Conclusion
In the end, calling evil "banal" should not dull our awareness of its real impact. Whether masked in clichés, religious platitudes, or mindless obedience, evil thrives when left unexamined and underestimated. Recognizing its ordinary face doesn’t make it less dangerous—it makes it harder to see. And that, perhaps, is its most sinister quality. We have enough problems with evil without religion burdening us with its distinctive notions about it. Keep it secular, keep it human.