A Buddhist was saying to me that anything bad that happens to someone is deserved because they must have had bad karma as a result of having done something bad, either in this life or a previous incarnation. I don't believe in any of this personally, but I think it would be helpful to understand the idea of karma a bit better,...
That's a populist belief marred by just world fallacy.
The end goal of Buddhism is to achieve Nirvana, which means no more Karma and no more continuous rebirth amd suffering whether they're "deserved" or not. It can be implied that continued rebirths are itself suffering. So the only peaceful path is to stop it somehow.
I've stopped being Buddhist a long time by now but I did discuss a lot of it's philosophy with some studied Buddhists and monks.
Also a lot of populist Buddhists are actually scared of Nirvana. They just want to be reborn into a nicer life than they have now.
Bodhisattva is one of the first beliefs where Mahayana (East Asian) and Hinayana/Theravada (South/South East Asian) sects differed.
While precursors to Mahayana tradition held belief that anybody can achieve Buddhahood by becoming Bodhisattva, the conservative Theravada sects claim layman can only achieve the status of Arahat at most.
Who is a character you feel is overhated and despised too much ?
In Buddhist view: If all misfortune/suffering is deserved due to bad karma of past actions in a prior life, why advocate ahimsa/nonviolence?
A Buddhist was saying to me that anything bad that happens to someone is deserved because they must have had bad karma as a result of having done something bad, either in this life or a previous incarnation. I don't believe in any of this personally, but I think it would be helpful to understand the idea of karma a bit better,...
Ghost in the Shell comes to mind ( lemmy.world )