I found myself among some Mister Rogers quotes and artifacts yesterday, of all possible things.
So just for today I’m gonna push back on this one a little bit. I think the goodness is out there, but unfortunately much of our society is kinda designed to separate us from our humanity and mental peace.
A sentence I rarely deploy, but has the ability to stop most adults in their tracks is, “You aren’t being the neighbor that Fred Rogers knew you could be.” It works on Americans. I’ve never felt the need to deploy a social nuke on any foreigners.
But I’m not just an American who watched his show. I’m local to his area and I’ve been to the actual studios at WQED multiple times, on top of all the show artifacts I just saw the other day.
I almost used a Fred Roger’s quote for evil, before I caught myself. It was a thread about maga groupies abusing government power for personal agenda. Someone was lamenting how the Supreme Court made this administration above the law, so I almost said “Look for the helpers”. All those groupies and minions are NOT above the law and should face justice for their actions. As long as the charges are brought in three years, it could happen.
Perhaps mass jail terms for everyone depriving human rights or violating the constitution or enriching themselves at our expense or following personal agendas will keep this situation from happening again
Depends. A lot of people build bubbles and spend the rest of their lives reinforcing their walls. They will deeply interact only with very few hand-picked people, and their mutual trust keeps getting stronger. Also, you might be surprised that a lot of people never even read or watch the news.
From this POV, your faith in what you think represents humanity might as well increase over time.
I’ve started spotting more examples of goodness too, not just evil. I rather think society is polarising, with some people becoming more visibly selfish (out of desperation, I think: the more you worry about your future, the less charity you’re willing to extend) and others making a point of being nicer to counteract the negativity.
Part of that will be the influence of media. Outrage apparently sells better than kindness, and particularly where corporate influences are a factor, despair and division are useful to make the populace more pliable. If people are shit anyways, why bother trying to fix anything?
Lemmy is no saint either: It’s easy to jump to conclusions and throw accusations over what might just be genuine error or civil disagreement rather than fundamental hostility.
So instead, let’s also make a point of being nicer and more charitable to each other, and to others elsewhere. Good people aren’t gone, they’re just cowed and overshadowed. Let’s fix that, you and me and everyone else who wants a nicer world. The indifference wins if we stop, so let’s keep going!
I hope you have a nice day, a pleasen start into your year, and I hope you can find that faith in humanity again.
Someone else suggested that the rise in belief in human goodness is a function of the rise in belief of human incompetence. When you start recognizing that people frequently do stupid bad things not because they are bad, but because they are stupid, your heart softens a bit with regards to their intent.
Anti-abortion is a great example. The majority of anti-abortion people genuinely believe that a zygote is an innocent human life, and terminating it is literally murder. If that’s what they believe, why wouldn’t they do everything in their power to stop it? People are murdering innocent babies!
The more you get to know people, the more you start believing in Hanlon’s razor. Most of the “bad” people aren’t bad, they’re just good people with stupid beliefs.
people frequently do stupid bad things not because they are bad, but because they are stupid,
I get that, right up until you start talking about MAGA. Those people didn’t grow up being ignorant of MAGA’s evils, and then were seduced by them. MAGA gave voice to the evil that was already brewing in them, so they enthusiastically joined in.
Some people may do bad things out of ignorance, but MAGAs do bad things because it’s fun for them. They may be ignorant, too, but that’s no excuse, they don’t get a pass because of it. Some people are just bad people, who have lost the benefit of the doubt.
The majority of anti-abortion people genuinely believe that a zygote is an innocent human life, and terminating it is literally murder. If that’s what they believe, why wouldn’t they do everything in their power to stop it?
But they’re NOT doing that.
They’re not promoting sex education, which drastically reduces teenage pregnancy and thus abortions. They’re not working to increase financial and social security for mothers to ensure having a child isn’t a massive risk. They’re not doing to reduce sexual assault of women leading to unwanted pregnancy.
They’re not doing everything in their power, not even remotely close. They’re literally just doing one single thing, and that’s the thing that hurts women the most, in the most ways and empowers terrible men the most.
So, given that they’re actually not trying very hard, and doing things that benefit themselves, one has to wonder if that’s truly a surprising of highly specific incompetence, or intentional.
One has to wonder if that’s truly a highly specific incompetence, or intentional.
I’ll apply Hanlons razor again: These people are stupid, therefore doing “everything in their power” involves using woefully ineffective means to achieve their goal. I have no problem believing that most anti-abortionists genuinely believe that they’re trying to save innocent lives. However, being relatively dumb people means they are primarily driven by feelings rather than logic, and are easily manipulated. This results in them using the means that they “feel” should be effective, rather than proven methods. It also means that the few people that actively are looking to oppress others can manipulate their feelings to make them support means that hurt the people they’re trying to help.
Complementary the believe should rise that some adults know what they do. It’s not bad luck or human nature. Some people really know how to manipulate the masses.
Human goodness should plummet as well
Someone had a very sad childhood to not believe in human goodness as a kid
Childhood is when I learned that it is rare
I found myself among some Mister Rogers quotes and artifacts yesterday, of all possible things.
So just for today I’m gonna push back on this one a little bit. I think the goodness is out there, but unfortunately much of our society is kinda designed to separate us from our humanity and mental peace.
A sentence I rarely deploy, but has the ability to stop most adults in their tracks is, “You aren’t being the neighbor that Fred Rogers knew you could be.” It works on Americans. I’ve never felt the need to deploy a social nuke on any foreigners.
Ouch, that line sure as hell would work on me!
But I’m not just an American who watched his show. I’m local to his area and I’ve been to the actual studios at WQED multiple times, on top of all the show artifacts I just saw the other day.
I almost used a Fred Roger’s quote for evil, before I caught myself. It was a thread about maga groupies abusing government power for personal agenda. Someone was lamenting how the Supreme Court made this administration above the law, so I almost said “Look for the helpers”. All those groupies and minions are NOT above the law and should face justice for their actions. As long as the charges are brought in three years, it could happen.
Perhaps mass jail terms for everyone depriving human rights or violating the constitution or enriching themselves at our expense or following personal agendas will keep this situation from happening again
Depends. A lot of people build bubbles and spend the rest of their lives reinforcing their walls. They will deeply interact only with very few hand-picked people, and their mutual trust keeps getting stronger. Also, you might be surprised that a lot of people never even read or watch the news.
From this POV, your faith in what you think represents humanity might as well increase over time.
I’ve started spotting more examples of goodness too, not just evil. I rather think society is polarising, with some people becoming more visibly selfish (out of desperation, I think: the more you worry about your future, the less charity you’re willing to extend) and others making a point of being nicer to counteract the negativity.
Part of that will be the influence of media. Outrage apparently sells better than kindness, and particularly where corporate influences are a factor, despair and division are useful to make the populace more pliable. If people are shit anyways, why bother trying to fix anything?
Lemmy is no saint either: It’s easy to jump to conclusions and throw accusations over what might just be genuine error or civil disagreement rather than fundamental hostility.
So instead, let’s also make a point of being nicer and more charitable to each other, and to others elsewhere. Good people aren’t gone, they’re just cowed and overshadowed. Let’s fix that, you and me and everyone else who wants a nicer world. The indifference wins if we stop, so let’s keep going!
I hope you have a nice day, a pleasen start into your year, and I hope you can find that faith in humanity again.
The world is getting dumber and meaner, so good morality stands out more.
I dont think it is, just the dumb and mean people are given the spotlight more and more.
Someone else suggested that the rise in belief in human goodness is a function of the rise in belief of human incompetence. When you start recognizing that people frequently do stupid bad things not because they are bad, but because they are stupid, your heart softens a bit with regards to their intent.
Anti-abortion is a great example. The majority of anti-abortion people genuinely believe that a zygote is an innocent human life, and terminating it is literally murder. If that’s what they believe, why wouldn’t they do everything in their power to stop it? People are murdering innocent babies!
The more you get to know people, the more you start believing in Hanlon’s razor. Most of the “bad” people aren’t bad, they’re just good people with stupid beliefs.
I get that, right up until you start talking about MAGA. Those people didn’t grow up being ignorant of MAGA’s evils, and then were seduced by them. MAGA gave voice to the evil that was already brewing in them, so they enthusiastically joined in.
Some people may do bad things out of ignorance, but MAGAs do bad things because it’s fun for them. They may be ignorant, too, but that’s no excuse, they don’t get a pass because of it. Some people are just bad people, who have lost the benefit of the doubt.
I started feeling a bit this way when I saw that many Trump voters were genuinely confused and angry that Trump didn’t release Epstein files lol
I love your optimism, but its rather misplaced.
But they’re NOT doing that.
They’re not promoting sex education, which drastically reduces teenage pregnancy and thus abortions. They’re not working to increase financial and social security for mothers to ensure having a child isn’t a massive risk. They’re not doing to reduce sexual assault of women leading to unwanted pregnancy.
They’re not doing everything in their power, not even remotely close. They’re literally just doing one single thing, and that’s the thing that hurts women the most, in the most ways and empowers terrible men the most.
So, given that they’re actually not trying very hard, and doing things that benefit themselves, one has to wonder if that’s truly a surprising of highly specific incompetence, or intentional.
There we go, next level Critical.Thinking. Nicely done.
I’ll apply Hanlons razor again: These people are stupid, therefore doing “everything in their power” involves using woefully ineffective means to achieve their goal. I have no problem believing that most anti-abortionists genuinely believe that they’re trying to save innocent lives. However, being relatively dumb people means they are primarily driven by feelings rather than logic, and are easily manipulated. This results in them using the means that they “feel” should be effective, rather than proven methods. It also means that the few people that actively are looking to oppress others can manipulate their feelings to make them support means that hurt the people they’re trying to help.
Complementary the believe should rise that some adults know what they do. It’s not bad luck or human nature. Some people really know how to manipulate the masses.
I disagree I’ve seen people doing horrible things to eachother for decades
That’s what I mean. Somebody made them do it, one way or the other.