Yes, I agree that Lex has arguably done some selfless things, but most of them are pretty early on
Early on or not, they show Lex's essential nature. There's also, as I mentioned above, the more recent incident from "Scare" in which, despite the fact that he'd been exposed to the virus significantly later than everyone else and thus had more time than they did, Lex used an untested and potentially lethal vaccine on himself rather than choose someone else to use as a guinea pig. (And also turned down Clark's urgent offer to experiment on him, which effectively shows up Clark's later insinuation that Lex would do anything for the chance to experiment on him.)
Yes, it was Zod, not Lex. But it was Lex's choices that put him in that position, and he continued making those choices even when it became clear that Fine might not be particularly trustworthy. No one just randomly picked him out of a crowd and said 'hey you, you'll make a good tool for Zod,' he did place himself in those cross-hairs under his own steam.
Fine wanted to work with lethal viruses. Should Lex have let him do that with someone else -- someone who might not have looked beyond the surface or suspected that Fine had a hidden agenda? Lex had every reason to believe that Fine was hoping to destroy the human race with a supervirus; in response, Lex kept an eye on him and a hold on the project and created enough supervaccine for everyone in an attempt to save the entire human race from Fine's machinations. Hardly a selfish or evil plan on Lex's part! And it is in no way Lex's fault that Fine's true goal was to free Zod, since Lex had no way to know that Zod even existed. (Clark and Chloe and Martha and Lionel knew about Zod, and about Fine's intentions toward him, but naturally none of them bothered to give Lex enough of the truth to warn him. I'd say a lot of the blood from Dark Thursday is on their hands.)
Don't forget, either, that Fine's first attempt was to use Clark as Zod's vessel, and that it was Clark who 'placed himself in those crosshairs.' Does that prove that Clark is also 'evil'?
The proto-Justice League sees Lex as the Big Evil, and is working to destroy him (rather inefficiently, as has been said elsewhere) by destroying his 33.1 operations. Lex sees the return of Zod, or someone like him, as the Big Evil and is using his 33.1 operations to prevent that. Considering Zod's stated goal was to wipe out the human race and replace it with his own offspring, I'd say he and others like him pose a far greater risk that Lex Luthor, who clearly has no desire to kill off humanity (hence his making enough supervaccine to save everybody). Moreover, and as I have said before, Lex is apparently locking up only those people who would otherwise be locked up by the authorities anyway for having committed crimes; and doing it Lex's way means that those in captivity may do some actual good toward saving people beyond just not killing anyone while they're locked up. So how is that bad?
To paraphrase a writer I greatly admire, Lex knows that some of what he's doing is unethical, but he's doing it for a greater good -- the survival of the human race -- and, for that greater good, he's willing to get his own hands dirty when necessary. Which, really, is yet another example of Lex's willingness to sacrifice himself for others.
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Early on or not, they show Lex's essential nature. There's also, as I mentioned above, the more recent incident from "Scare" in which, despite the fact that he'd been exposed to the virus significantly later than everyone else and thus had more time than they did, Lex used an untested and potentially lethal vaccine on himself rather than choose someone else to use as a guinea pig. (And also turned down Clark's urgent offer to experiment on him, which effectively shows up Clark's later insinuation that Lex would do anything for the chance to experiment on him.)
Yes, it was Zod, not Lex. But it was Lex's choices that put him in that position, and he continued making those choices even when it became clear that Fine might not be particularly trustworthy. No one just randomly picked him out of a crowd and said 'hey you, you'll make a good tool for Zod,' he did place himself in those cross-hairs under his own steam.
Fine wanted to work with lethal viruses. Should Lex have let him do that with someone else -- someone who might not have looked beyond the surface or suspected that Fine had a hidden agenda? Lex had every reason to believe that Fine was hoping to destroy the human race with a supervirus; in response, Lex kept an eye on him and a hold on the project and created enough supervaccine for everyone in an attempt to save the entire human race from Fine's machinations. Hardly a selfish or evil plan on Lex's part! And it is in no way Lex's fault that Fine's true goal was to free Zod, since Lex had no way to know that Zod even existed. (Clark and Chloe and Martha and Lionel knew about Zod, and about Fine's intentions toward him, but naturally none of them bothered to give Lex enough of the truth to warn him. I'd say a lot of the blood from Dark Thursday is on their hands.)
Don't forget, either, that Fine's first attempt was to use Clark as Zod's vessel, and that it was Clark who 'placed himself in those crosshairs.' Does that prove that Clark is also 'evil'?
The proto-Justice League sees Lex as the Big Evil, and is working to destroy him (rather inefficiently, as has been said elsewhere) by destroying his 33.1 operations. Lex sees the return of Zod, or someone like him, as the Big Evil and is using his 33.1 operations to prevent that. Considering Zod's stated goal was to wipe out the human race and replace it with his own offspring, I'd say he and others like him pose a far greater risk that Lex Luthor, who clearly has no desire to kill off humanity (hence his making enough supervaccine to save everybody). Moreover, and as I have said before, Lex is apparently locking up only those people who would otherwise be locked up by the authorities anyway for having committed crimes; and doing it Lex's way means that those in captivity may do some actual good toward saving people beyond just not killing anyone while they're locked up. So how is that bad?
To paraphrase a writer I greatly admire, Lex knows that some of what he's doing is unethical, but he's doing it for a greater good -- the survival of the human race -- and, for that greater good, he's willing to get his own hands dirty when necessary. Which, really, is yet another example of Lex's willingness to sacrifice himself for others.