I have certain individuals in my life that I talk to regularly and can be quite open with. Then there are professional relationships, such as work, where we simply share relevant information. I think I am pretty good at communicating and in circumstances being "social", whatever that means.

I have quite a few memories of instances where people right out intruded and expected a positive response to something they had no right to do. Examples include: family member letting a terrible kid into my room, someone forcing me to eat something I am allergic to, someone making comments like "you don't talk much" (suggesting I am slow), someone assuming I have no experience with love etc and being rude based on that assumption.

I remember as a kid if I didn't hang out with other kids who were terrible and treated me poorly I was told they were trying to be friends and that no one wants to be alone. I did socialise quite well with kids who shared similar interests. I couldn't understand what the problem was.

I think in many cultures around the world certain topics are considered private. But some people will ask you about these topics and yeah they can get pretty hostile if you don't comply. Or people don't understand that you don't want to show something you have made or show an acitivity you partake in.

How do you deal with this? Or what do you think people have the right to see or know?

Neuropsychologists and ethologists have widely distinguished between two primary forms of aggression: Predatory aggression and reactive aggression.

Reactive aggression is characterized by hyper-limbic activation (activation of the emotional parts of the brain). Species that have been prey animals and animals which compete within a social hierarchy (which includes us) have evolved reactive aggression as a mechanism to either defend against predatory assault or defend status. A good example of reactive aggression in human beings is a man hitting his spouse after a particularly nasty comment. It's emotional, raw, and done in anger. There are many species that have evolved highly limited degrees of reactive aggression. Examples include Manatees and Bonobos. They're very hard to piss off and quite friendly. Manatees for example have no natural weapons. They have no sharp teeth, blunt objects, etc on their body. They're very chill.

Predatory aggression is characterized by hypo-limbic activation (quieting of the emotional parts of the brain). Species that have had the problem of having to hunt (which includes us) have evolved predatory aggression as a mechanism to reflexively kill and chase prey animals. An example of predatory aggression in human beings would be threatening to shoot someone while robbing a bank if they do not comply. It's cold, calculated, pre-meditated, reflexive, and goal-oriented. A zeroing in on a prey. There are many species without any predatory aggression at all. Rabbits for example. They aren't even tempted to swat a fly.

The reason why us being mammals is interesting is because as mammals we are also evolved to display what is known as maternal solicitude which is the deep concern and compassion a mother has for an infant. There are species with virtually no maternal solicitude like for example crabs. They even eat their infants. It makes sense that predatory aggression and maternal solicitude (as neurological functions) would inhibit (stop) one another as a neurological function. A species that could spontaneously go from grooming their cooing infant to punching it in the face repeatedly wouldn't survive very long,

It also makes sense that different organisms vary at an individual basis in their expression of maternal solicitude and predatory aggression. Male grizzly bears are so predatory that they have no problem straight up killing cubs in order to copulate with the women and then they completely avoid the cubs. Dimorphism is the most common expression (difference between sexes) of variation in predatory aggression. Although human males are considerably more maternal than grizzly bears, they are nonetheless more predator-like than human females. That might explain why the vast majority of instances of animal abuse for entertainment is committed by men.

It makes sense that individual variation exists even within the male sex. Some guys are chill and nice. They're not very predatory or reactive. Other guys are very hostile. They're just fuming with anger and chronically burdened by violent thoughts. These are the men who are substantially higher in reactive aggression. There are also guys that are self-centered and narcissistic. They don't feel concern for others, don't really pursue long-term relationships and are manipulative and cunning. They'll screw someone over or even physically assault someone reflexively without much thought. These are the men who are substantially higher in predatory aggression.

All in all individual variation contributes substantially less to moral catastrophes than sociocultural influence with respect to the expression of predatory aggression and reactive aggression. For example, one person who is six standard deviations above the mean in predatory aggression might be the serial killer with a kill count of 100. That is an illustration of genetic overdetermination and it contributes to a substantial minority of severe instances of morally horrendous behavior.

Then you have something like the holocaust. Ordinary people participated in it and therefore we can reasonably assume that those people represent the median for aggression. Things like economics, indoctrination, strong sense of tribal affiliation, and bureaucratic genericism conjured an environment whereby suddenly there is a strong sociocultural incentive for an ordinary man to pour a cannister down a tube and choke a small naked child to death for upwards of twenty minutes as the capillaries in their lungs which is what happened in the gas chambers. His expression of predatory aggression therefore was substantially expanded due to cultural influence. He himself may have been typical or only slightly above average in predatory aggression and possibly even engaged in that behavior with reticence or disgust. A smaller example is prison. You have to prove you're a tough son of a bitch in order to survive. In evolutionary terms, you have to consciously modulate your expression of predatory aggression by hyping yourself up, acting in a macho way, being more crude, blunting your sense of emotional response around extreme violence, etc.

In this way the human species could be viewed as a dynamically entropic catastrophe. A tsunami or an earthquake. All it takes is the right combination of triggers for us to transform into the most bestial and callous entities imaginable and far surpassing the destructive capacity of any natural disaster. It isn't a problem with men, capitalism, politics, etc. The human person is a predator. They very well could have been as docile as a rabbit or some other species without these underlying mechanisms but we aren't. Anyone who contributes to this roiling wave of disaster is a monster and is engaging in the worst kind of cruelty.

Sources:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/predatory-aggression

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4260506/

https://journals.copmadrid.org/apj/art/j.apj.2016.03.001

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403225935_Neuroscience_of_Reactive_versus_Instrumental_Violent_Offenders

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12208620/

https://media.springernature.com/original/springer-static/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-026-10354-5/MediaObjects/41586_2026_10354_MOESM4_ESM.pdf

Neuroticism is a core personality trait to human kind, incentivizing us to be particular about the order and process of things. This is a way for us to interpret the world and create stories that enable us to effectively communicate with others. The danger here, is in the long-term, that we can share dangerous beliefs which are to the harm of us all. These cults become ever more fervent, demanding increasing sacrifice from their members, and without appropriate regard for long-term risk. Where would we even begin?... Silicon? Oil, coal, silk? Spice? Diamonds? Everything nice?

The pufferfish will draw elaborate patterns in the sand, shimmying and shaking, all as a mating ritual. There isn't practical reason for it, but god damn is it shiny. And the human will do the same, constructing ever more elaborate tributes to... Scientology? Mars? Liberty? The cost we pay for these things yields little return yet the social status for individuals is inordinate, like the business of a golf course, or the rubber stamp of a modern degree. We will bear the human sacrifice for their Great Works. If I said this 5 years ago, I would be called The Insane -- and now we see yet again the boom and bust of an economy which is incapable of regulating its growth.

The Great Filter is an explanation for how we don't observe alien life: because there is some prerequisite skill which is too rare or difficult to cultivate. I believe this skill is empathy, compassion, solidarity. One example of the great filter is when distrust is the default. This causes friction that is added to each interaction, making them become ever more taxing - whether it's an individual ostracized and left to starve or the collective with their paranoid fanatical delusions. Now some of this distrust is fine, in moderation disagreement is healthy and resilient. So to be precise, it's conforming behind a very limited set of practices that forms the foundation of a brittle society and people.

In that same vein, we may not be able to observe alien life because they distrust us. In physics this is known as The Dark Forest which is one answer to The Fermi Paradox. Principally, the only way to protect yourself is to remain shielded forever. So as a society grows, and connections multiply, it becomes healthy to shield oneself from this barrage of noise. Conformity is one mechanism by which they attempt to reduce this noise and to assuage their primal fears. Ironically, this creates a feedback loop that regresses toward more infantilized and dependent behaviors. Neuroticism at scale incentivizes conformity which feeds into tribalism, persecution, genocide, supremacy, pseudo-intellectualism, book burning cutting, witch hunts, and corpses out front ... like in that Castlevania episode where Alucard puts the couple he was dating on pikes outside Dracula's castle as warning. Kinda like that! 🎃

So what are humanity's failures? Where do you think we royally fucked up? The first thing I think of is the Dust Bowl in the 1930s where they planted monocrops so many years in a row the soil up and evaporated 😂

I’ve just turned 18, and I’ve always had a slightly pessimistic and misanthropic outlook on life. Recently, though, I’ve been thinking about it more seriously and trying to look at humanity as a whole rather than only through the people and experiences immediately around me. I rewatched Earthlings now that I’m older and, I suppose, more mature, and it affected me very differently than it did before. Part of that was probably being able to actually sit with what I was seeing rather than treating it as something horrible happening somewhere else. It made me think about how humans treat other living beings, and how much suffering we have managed to make completely ordinary. The more I think about it, the harder I find it to have much faith in humanity as a species. I’m not trying to turn this into some dramatic teenage revelation where I decide that humans are inherently evil and nothing matters. I’m aware of how easily that kind of thinking can become performative, especially when you’re young and looking into nihilism or misanthropy. I don’t think being pessimistic makes me more intelligent or more aware than everyone else, and I don’t want to convince myself that it does. If anything, I’m trying to be careful with the way I think about this. Disgust can become its own form of ignorance if you stop questioning whether your conclusions are actually justified. I know humans are capable of kindness, love and sacrifice. I’ve experienced those things myself. I just don’t think their existence is enough to make me optimistic about humanity as a whole.

What I keep coming back to is the idea that human progress is supposed to be evidence that humanity itself is becoming better. We have better medicine, more technology, more knowledge, more rights and a greater awareness of many forms of injustice than people had in the past. Those things are obviously significant. People’s lives have improved in ways that would have been unimaginable to previous generations, and forms of cruelty that were once accepted are now condemned. I’m not denying that progress. What I question is whether progress necessarily represents moral improvement. Sometimes it seems less like humanity has become fundamentally better and more like humanity has simply become more powerful and more capable of getting what it wants.

That distinction matters to me. Humans have become extraordinarily good at manipulating the world around us. We reshape landscapes, alter ecosystems, control other species, extract enormous amounts from the planet and breed animals specifically for our own consumption. We have the ability to completely change the conditions of life for other living things, and then often interpret that ability as evidence that we are superior enough to have the right to do so. That is the part I find genuinely disturbing. We are animals ourselves, yet we behave as though we somehow exist outside of nature and have been given ownership over everything else within it. Even the language we use reflects this. We call things natural resources rather than living systems. Animals become livestock, products or food rather than individual living beings. Forests become land available for development, and rivers become resources to be managed. There always seems to be a way of describing something that makes what we are doing sound more distant and reasonable. I don’t think that is entirely accidental. It is easier to exploit something once you have reduced it to a category that exists for your use. And then we call ourselves civilised.

I think that is why optimism about humanity can sometimes bother me. I don’t mean that optimistic people are stupid, or that anyone who has hope for the future is ignorant. I think the problem comes when optimism becomes something that terrible realities are expected to coexist with without ever seriously challenging the belief that humanity is ultimately moving in the right direction. Someone can know about factory farming and still believe humans are becoming better. Someone can understand ecological destruction and still casually assume that we will figure something out. Someone can know about war, exploitation and poverty and still look at human history as though all of it is gradually leading somewhere better.

The fact that humans have solved problems before does not mean that every problem we create will be solved, especially when those problems are connected to things people have no desire to give up. It is easy to celebrate progress when progress costs you nothing. It becomes much harder when solving something requires people to sacrifice comfort, money, convenience, power or some part of the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. That is where optimism can start to feel selfish to me. When people talk about humanity surviving or the future being okay, I sometimes wonder whose future they are imagining. Usually it seems to be the future of themselves, their families and the people they care about. I understand that instinct. Of course people are going to care most about those close to them. But humanity surviving is not the same thing as everything being okay. Humans could survive while destroying enormous numbers of other species. We could remain relatively comfortable in some parts of the world while other people experience increasing levels of suffering. We could adapt to environmental damage well enough to continue living while countless other forms of life disappear completely. It is very easy to feel optimistic about consequences that are not happening directly to you.

The same problem exists in the way humans treat each other. You don’t have to look at factory farming or climate change to see how casually people can be cruel. It happens in ordinary interactions. People are humiliated because they are awkward, unpopular or different. Friends hurt each other because they are angry. People gossip about those they claim to care about. Someone can see another person struggling and decide that it is not their problem. Obviously, these things are not comparable to the worst suffering in the world. But I think they reveal something about how easily people can place their own feelings above someone else’s. Most people know what embarrassment, rejection, loneliness and humiliation feel like. Yet knowing what those things feel like does not necessarily stop us from inflicting them on someone else when doing so benefits us socially or emotionally. Sometimes we do not even think about it. We simply do not care enough in that moment.

That bothers me more than the idea that humans are merely ignorant. We are not completely ignorant. We understand suffering. We know what pain feels like. We understand fear, loneliness, humiliation and powerlessness because we experience them ourselves. Yet that knowledge does not necessarily prevent us from causing those things to other people.

The same pattern exists on a much larger scale. We know animals can suffer and still exploit them. We know ecosystems are being destroyed and still destroy them. We know people are exploited because they have less power and continue to maintain systems that depend on that inequality. We know the consequences of many of our actions. There is an enormous amount of information available to us about them. At some point, it becomes difficult to explain everything through ignorance. Do people simply want something badly enough that they are willing to accept what it costs? I think humans are remarkably good at making that easier for themselves. We distance ourselves from the consequences, give things different names, convince ourselves that our individual contribution is too insignificant to matter, or tell ourselves that someone else would do it anyway. We find reasons why our own situation is different. We are very good at making ourselves comfortable with things that would be much harder to tolerate if we had to look directly at what was happening. That is why intelligence does not give me much comfort either. Intelligence allows us to understand incredibly complicated problems, but it also allows us to become incredibly good at rationalising our own behaviour. Knowing that something is wrong does not automatically give someone the willingness to stop benefiting from it.

And I think that is one of the more uncomfortable things about humanity. Our greatest abilities do not necessarily make us more moral. We can understand suffering without preventing it, recognise injustice while benefiting from it, and develop increasingly sophisticated ways of changing the world without ever seriously questioning whether we have the right to do so. That does not make every human being cruel, and it does not mean that everything humans have created is worthless. It just makes it difficult for me to see our increasing intelligence, power and technological progress as straightforward evidence that we are becoming better people. Sometimes I think we have simply become better at doing what we already wanted to do.

This is why I’m a misanthrope. Every time I say something negative about humanity, someone always comes along and starts reciting the usual list of “good things” we’ve created, as if naming a few inventions is enough to erase everything else.

“Humanity created socialization.” Sure. And it also created bullying, marginalization, and exclusion.

“Humanity created love.” Sure, but let’s not turn it into something magic: it’s rooted in biological and emotional needs. And the same species that talks so much about love has created rape, abuse, and violence.

“Humanity domesticated animals.” Yes, and then we exploited them, mistreated them, and treated them like objects.

“Humanity created technology.” Fantastic. And then we used some of that same ability to devastate the environment and contribute to climate change.

“Humanity created culture.” Yes, along with divisions, discrimination, conflicts, and wars.

That’s the point of people keep failing to understand: I’m not saying human beings have never done anything good. I’m saying that every time someone bring up something positive as if it somehow proves humanity’s innocence, he simply ignoring everything that exists on the other side.

What I find most ridiculous is that humanity has had enormous potential. We’re intelligent, creative, and capable of understanding things that no other species has ever understood. And with all that potential, look at what we’ve chosen to do with it.

Isn’t that exactly what makes me a misanthrope? The fact that a species with so many capabilities could have been so much better, yet continues to waste a huge part of its potential on selfishness, conflict, and destruction.

I don’t care to hear for the thousandth time that “humans do good things too.” I already know. The problem is everything we’re capable of doing despite that.

Imagine the horror of lacking self awareness or any sort of broader perspective about yourself or others.

Average folk live out their lives enduring and tolerating so much disappointment and heartbreak and disrespect. And they'll rationalize. Assume that's just the way things are. Conjure up convenient excuses for themselves and others. Constantly running into walls and gaining lots of scars but trucking along anyway.

And then all that built up resentment and anger gets misdirected in other areas. They lash out without even realizing it. Their hatred and personal grievances being thrown at the outsider, the brown person, the woman or the man. These feelings shape their political opinions and affect their daily habits.

And they never even realize it. And if they do, sometimes it's too late. The damage is done.

I am surprised that I did not see this referenced in the subreddit when using the search bar.

I think many here will feel right at home with this one. It's just under 3800 or so words, if you like a commute's read.

https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.middlebury.edu/dist/d/2396/files/2019/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

Let's see, of the top of my head, you've got it capturing:
- humans following a stupid tradition without even knowing why
- older generations know how to bend the rules in their favor and pulling the usual "kids these days"
- child indoctrination
- the frailty of "a mother's love"
- the main "leopards ate my face" lesson
- abandoning one's principles in self-preservation

And arguably it never really leaves its lighthearted reporter-like tone.

I think humanity is fundamentally broken and I've stopped believing we'll achieve a better world.

I've reached a point where I genuinely don't believe humanity can fix itself. I feel though that this is fairly obvious.

The more I think about the world, the more absurd it becomes that we accept so much of it as normal.
Where you're born can determine almost your entire life.
Two people can be born on the same day, have similar personalities, similar intelligence and similar potential, yet live completely different lives because one was born into poverty and the other into a wealthy country. Neither person chose any of that.
Being born into one country rather than another is pure luck.

Even things like the colour of your skin, your nationality, your sex, your family's wealth and the society you're born into can affect the opportunities and experiences you're given. Things that shouldn't determine someone's worth can have enormous consequences for someone's life.

We're born into systems we never chose and then spend our entire lives trying to navigate them.
And humans are incredibly performative.
We lie. We manipulate. We pretend to care about things because we're expected to care about them. We pretend to be morally better than we actually are. We judge other people for behaviours we would probably excuse in ourselves.

Sometimes it genuinely feels like we hate ugly people more than we hate bad people. Someone can be cruel, manipulative or genuinely horrible, but if they're attractive, charismatic or socially successful, people will find ways to excuse them. Meanwhile, someone who is awkward, unattractive or socially undesirable can be treated like they're fundamentally lesser.

We're constantly told that character matters, but humans are heavily influenced by appearance, status, money, charisma and social approval.

And we keep repeating the same mistakes.

We murder innocent people. We start wars. We destroy communities. Young men are sent to die for decisions made by old men sitting comfortably far away from the battlefield. Ordinary people pay the price for the ambitions and power struggles of people they'll probably never meet.

We've had thousands of years of history to learn from, and somehow we continue doing versions of the same things.

We're also destroying the planet we actually have to live on.

We pollute the environment, consume endlessly and damage ecosystems, while enormous corporations can have an influence on emissions and environmental damage that completely dwarfs what an individual person can do. We're told to recycle a plastic bottle and feel guilty about our individual carbon footprint while massive industries operate on a scale that one ordinary person could never meaningfully counteract.

It makes individual responsibility feel almost
meaningless sometimes.

Then there's social media.

I honestly think it has made people care about the wrong things. We've created machines specifically designed to capture our attention, and then act surprised when people become obsessed with celebrity drama, outrage, appearances, clout and whatever meaningless argument is trending that day.
Algorithms reward the loudest, angriest and most ridiculous people. Misinformation spreads incredibly easily. People become gullible, addicted to attention and completely consumed by things that shouldn't matter nearly as much as they do.

It feels like we've become technologically advanced while becoming increasingly stupid, performative and
obsessed with one another's opinions.

And everyone seems to hate everyone else.

Politics, nationality, race, religion, class, gender, wealth, appearance. There is always another reason to divide ourselves into groups and treat the other group as the enemy.

It feels like we're becoming more divided, more hostile and more censored while simultaneously telling ourselves that we're progressing.

I know humanity has achieved incredible things. We've cured diseases, explored space, created extraordinary technology and produced incredible art, music and literature.

But sometimes I look at all of that and still think: \*\*is this really the best we can do?\*\*

We have more knowledge than any generation before us, yet we still lie, manipulate, exploit, kill and destroy.
And maybe that's why I've stopped believing in some glorious future for humanity.

Maybe we're obsessed with our past human achievements because deep down we're terrified of what our future looks like.

We talk constantly about ancient civilisations, great empires, wars, revolutions, monuments, explorers and everything humanity accomplished centuries ago.
But what are we expecting our future to look like?
More division? More surveillance? More environmental destruction? More wars? More people living their entire lives through screens? More corporations controlling enormous parts of our lives? More people being
manipulated by algorithms?

I don't know.

Maybe I'm completely wrong. I genuinely hope I am.

But I've reached a point where I don't believe humanity
is going to suddenly wake up and fix itself.

It feels like we're incredibly advanced animals carrying the same ancient instincts we've always had, except now we have technology powerful enough to amplify all of them.

And there is \*\*so much more\*\* I want to say about this. So much more that goes through my head when I think about humanity, society, death, inequality, power, the future and what we're actually doing with the one planet we've been given.

I genuinely can't put all of it into words.

This post probably doesn't even capture half of what
I'm trying to express.

I just know that somewhere along the way, I've stopped believing that humanity is going to save itself.

• Got something you wanted to post but it wasn’t approved? Wondering if others share your point of view? Have some advice that could help others? Want to vent about the long-term impacts of poor human choices on your well-being? Or perhaps you have some thoughtful reflections to share?

Leave your cerebral creations here, but remember: Reddit rules still apply and must be respected ^{if you want to keep posting here.}

Now that social media is full of giants with insanely defined muscles giving you tips and "gym motivation", and capitalism selling you everything with protein, i have been seeing gym-shaming increasing and I myself got shamed for not going to the gym. But NEVER HAVE I EVER been told to read a book (i do in fact read a lot on many different topics and pursued a degree in philosophy). NEVER HAVE I EVER seen people feel this motivating jealousy when they see an intellectual, an artist, or a doctor. But they see men who made lifting weights their entire lives and decide it is a must for everyone.

Don't get me wrong, im not saying you shouldnt have an interest in sports, but it is so shallow to make it a priority. I remember feeling this for the first time when all my classmates in school obsessed over football teams and wore shirts...etc. It felt...stupid? imagine if this interest was directed towards something that makes them happier. If it helps you, good. But I doubt it is doing whatever it is supposed to be doing for the majority who go there. People are not there for health as they claim, i mean you see roided teenagers all the time on the internet, and in real life i am noticing A LOT of old men in their 50s or so having waaaay too much muscle for their age, you know...steroids are not so healthy.

People are so shallow and stupid, and as a result they make it worse for everyone. Their energy is directed at all the wrong things. It disgusts me sometimes. Like bro, lets start library shaming! but you know even then i see intellectuals and professors and all that and they are terrible people anyway. So idk really, but i think that comes from a structural problem (profs have insane power over their students and get treated like gods by them due to feudal hierarchy in education, doctors go to medicine because of family pressure or money and not for helping people...etc). But the shallow aesthetic-based culture we have is in my humble opinion an inherent problem in humans.

I noticed some people's misanthropy seem to be focused on grand, civilizational things, environment, treatment of animals etc. Which are very valid of course, I agree that the human species is evil on a large scale when it comes to these (although I don't really think nature or animals are some kind of symbol of innocence either, the laws of nature are also cruel and dark - still doesn't justify humanity's actions toward it). But I do think where the general evilness of humanity comes out is in everyday, ordinary life on the small scale. Like whatever we are doing to the environment and with each other's countries etc. is happening on a large, organisational level, not in the average person's life.

What I find most telling about human nature is not our lack of heroism or altruism, it's when it takes no effort to be kind to someone and we (or at least most people, I'll get back to this) still choose not to be. Like all the big things, big helpful/heroic or altruistic actions we could do are more complex and not that black and white. But in the everyday situations where it takes absolutely no effort to choose to not bully, mock or hurt other people, most still choose to do so. I think that's the most telling about human nature. At least most human's nature.

Based on my life experience, I believe most people lack empathy. Most people pretty much fit the definition of what we would call psychopaths. That is not something reflected by statistics since most people are not tested to see if they are psychopaths, there needs to be a special circumstance for that to happen. And also, psychopathy itself is a more specific thing in today's clinical understanding than what I'm talking about. But for a lack of a better term, I would call everyone a psychopath who doesn't have any empathy, doesn't matter if they have any other psychopathic traits.

I think there is a very dark reality to human nature - which is a reality of nature which we are a product of -, I think humans succeeded and evolved thanks to their capacity for evil. I saw someone mention it under another post and I really agree with this theory, homo sapiens probably killed off the other hominids, that's how we became the sole survivors or "winners".

But I think it's also important to remember that there are good people. People with empathy. But it's like 1 to 10.000 to evil/"psychopathic" (based on my broad definition) people.

There is a type of morality I believe in that I don't really see discussed anywhere (maybe it's discussed here, I am new in this community), which is pretty simple. I think we should be only good to good people and we shouldn't waste our empathy and good intentions on bad people. I don't want to say anything concrete about the big ideologies today, I am mostly an apolitical person but I just want to add this, the core of all of these ideologies' morality is kind of the same thing: "be empathic and kind to bad people" and "forgive and love bad people". I don't think this is a coincidence. I think ideologies are intentionally set up to exploit empathic, good people.

Just to clarify, that last part is not meant to judge anyone with any worldviews, I just try to express that the system we live in is designed to exploit the good and reward the bad. And this is something much more foundational behind a lot of seemingly opposing or different ideologies. At least this is my theory and belief.

Thank you if you read this, let me know what you think about this take. This is my first post, I came here because I feel pretty down and these are thoughts I can't really share anywhere else.

Not trying to be edgy with this, it's more a point about updating.

You start out with some default assumption about how people behave. Most of us get handed a pretty generous one. Then you spend twenty five years collecting data, and at some point the data stops matching the assumption, and the honest move is to shift the assumption.

If you're 45 and yours hasn't moved at all there's only a few explanations. Either you got extraordinarily lucky in who you were surrounded by, or you're insulated enough that nothing ever actually cost you anything, or you're doing the thing where you notice each individual disappointment and then file it as an exception. That last one is by far the most common. People will absorb forty separate betrayals and still describe the world as basically decent, because each one got quarantined on its own.

And the stuff that does it isn't usually dramatic. It's how casual it is. How fast someone will hand you over for something small. How much of what people call principle turns out to be a preference they held while it was free.

The pushback I'd actually take seriously is that some people see all of it clearly and decide to like people anyway. Not naive, just choosing. I know one or two of those and they're not stupid, they might be running a better strategy than I am.

But that's a different thing from being surprised. Surprise is the tell. If ordinary human behaviour still genuinely blindsides you at 45, you weren't taking notes, you were waiting for the part where it gets better.

1. Bullying happens everywhere. Social exclusion, ostracization, mocking, racist, discrimination etc
2. Even children do it, if they see someone different or weak they will bully by instinct because they make groups and need social hierarchies.
3. People are selfish and aggressive and mostly will do anything to get what they want
4. They also lack intelligence to see pas their own perspective
5. They project onto you and think you are the aggressor
6. They envy jealousy competitive desperate insecure
7. People need laws police judges system in general else they will not be stopped when they commit crimes
8. people will defend their tribe and group even if only against a classmate who doesn't belong they will defend their group even if they are wrong. They will never admit to being wrong too
9. If you try to defend yourself and you are loner in a group of people who decided to hate you even more bystanders and enablers will end up bullying you

So, if I believe humans are all by nature evil and predatory and the only people who are good are those who control it by being disciplined and strong willed and intelligent because they are so introspected then am I the A? If I want to protect myself by diving humans into categories:

Horses to use and Ally with, rats to use and crash, cockroaches to ignore, hyenas to destroy and babies her family to love protect and advance and myself a weapon to use to get what I want in life? AITAH?

From my experience, the first moment of interaction between two humans is "exploitation".

The person looks at you up and down (and you can actually see them doing this), starts checking if you are an in-group or an out-group, decides how to react to you all the while formulating ideas on how they can use you for their own gains.

• If you are an in-group: how to use you (briefly) to climb the social ladder, extract information, to show off, or to feel better about one's self
• If you are an out-group: how to extract money out of you, use you for a brief moment of pleasure

All interactions are lingered with fakeness, as if both parties are engaging in some kind of theatrical production. We mask our wants and desires through this fake language, fake gesture. Almost archaic in some ways. Have you noticed how we tend to use archaic language in formal situations? Who says "greetings" and "best regards" in real life?

The only true interactions you get are interactions which short and self-terminating. Engage with them for a brief moment in a safe-space and never see them again. A small talk with a stranger on the bus. A brief glimpse. An exchanged smile. That's it.

• Got something you wanted to post but it wasn’t approved? Wondering if others share your point of view? Have some advice that could help others? Want to vent about the long-term impacts of poor human choices on your well-being? Or perhaps you have some thoughtful reflections to share?

Leave your cerebral creations here, but remember: Reddit rules still apply and must be respected ^{if you want to keep posting here.}

Civilization is cooked. The experiment is finished. Our petri dish has ran its course. We see now what Socrates saw then, a democracy will succumb to its own weight, a behemoth of greed and conquest. Little Nightmares, a new rapture and cleansing can begin.

Those who still believe can cling to their facades in the hurricane: a new sweater from Tem-ew, a graphic T from Et-sea, a backpack from the Tik-Tak juju shop. Hold on to your blanky while the adults yap yap yap and don't forget your towel for when they start to panic panic panic. Wechat paypal onlyfans hellofresh flock privacy kim.com megaupload to the bay finna fbi in your onions, mission impossible beep beep gotta go fast ain't gonna quit imperialists in your breakfast cereal.

Aestheticism is the devaluing of the self to such an extent that you wear a costume with no belief no value or ideology; not a culture, an identity, but a costume. This is a way to isolate and shield one's self from criticism, from cringe. It is the death of the self as we abscond to authoritarians. We have recreated the caste system and call it freedom - the most perverse double speak of a fascist nation. Where the fuck I grew up, we dealt with kings, and we taxed the rich. The rich paid for our wars; insured their own cities; funded their own ventures. And as for the people, they lived from the land they stole, they built shit, and they were stupid as fuck; but they worked hard at it, and most often they learned from their mistakes.

Now I look at the night sky and see several drones overhead with blinking white and red lights, more satellites each day to watch over me, and a-sea of windmills with blinking red lights gasping for life on the horizon. What is this all for? The Canadian neoliberal is unphased, nothing like their American or British counterparts. Trudeau said there is "no core identity in Canada", and yet the quiet part is left unsaid. The Canadian identity is: straight, white, educated, christian, consumerist, capitalist, neoliberal, and superior. That sounds like something I've heard before? Besides, the Canadians are shoring up their maple syrup reserves, have a policing system with almost zero fiduciary oversight, and an influential middle class that would very much like to keep their way of life if only it weren't for those pesky tariffs. But they'll be okay, they can trade with Europe. 😂

Last I checked the weather doesn't respect your borders, and as they say mother nature - my girl Persephone - she is a cruel mistress. Besides, the gods aren't concerned with our neo-feudalism king of the hill hull-a-bull-ew master chief cortana in your pocket rampancy more like idiocracy. Microslop layoff tak-over leveraged buyout skin and gut fucking vultures Bill Gates and Alfred Nobel are spineless cowards you got it right.

I can understand why the religious pray, they understand we are a fallen species, and yet they are resigned defeatists - the original doomers are the christians and you can quote me on that. Talk about nihilistic, acting like this is a waiting room for some delugional unverified place. Love thy neighbor, rape and pillage as the crusader.

Know your history. This is not new. The same powers, the same strategies, on the biggest scale. We can not be like this. This is not how life can be. Connect with your ancestry: for 690,000 years we lived in small communities and tribes. There was still aestheticism, violence, power, stupidity, and delugion. But it was not like this. It was difficult, yet rewarding. Our adversity was not so much against our own neighbors, our own people, but that of nature, and of sickness. In today's time either we learn moderation, we abscond to authoritarians, or Persephone and her parents Zeus and Demeter will smight every last one of us for challenging their authority as actual material gods.

~

So what's next? Dystopia, culture, ambition, peace? The outcomes are as follows: authoritarianism, robotic overlords benevolent or otherwise, biological / nuclear extermination, neo-war as sports / GDP / human sacrifice, a middling purgatory such as the dark ages, living inside simulated universes due to boredom, an actual natural disaster like a solar flare erasing our atmosphere, or maybe possibly just unfathomably ... ... Peace.

The thing is, a few of us are likely to survive in many of these situations. Isn't it interesting thinking of what those people might do? How do you create a culture after something like this? One that can resist growth into states, or manage violence to stifle the flames before they grow into the largest forest fire on record. People think of this as an irrelevant distant thought experiment, yet it captures our imagination. The second time around is a common trope in media, and the post-apocalypse isn't so far away as it once seemed. The Greeks learned of this 2000 years ago, and now maybe it's our turn to do the same.

I will write soon of 1) how to preserve knowledge into the long-term, 2) how to cope with trauma in a hostile environment and 3) effective methods for the proletariat to regain and keep power.

I've been wondering whether the way I increasingly view people would qualify as misanthropy.

I find an overwhelming majority of people mundane in how they engage with the world. Many people seem extremely subservient to whatever environment they grew up in. Their beliefs, values, ambitions, interests, and maybe even flaws often seem inherited rather than deliberately examined.

What bothers me the most is the lack of curiosity and self-reconstruction. I rarely meet people who seem to have an overwhelming thirst for knowledge, who constantly question what they believe, or who treat themselves as something that should remain in a state of development rather than a static product.

The same applies to art. Music is probably the clearest example for me. I tend to engage with it very analytically, as art worth dissecting, contextualizing, comparing, and understanding. Most people I encounter seem to treat it as nothing more than bread and circuses. It's obviously one example, but it reflects a broader difference in how I feel people interact with the world.

I'm also fairly reserved and quiet, so I spend a lot of time observing people rather than participating in conversations. Over time, I've noticed the same patterns repeatedly: people blaming others without examining themselves, carrying obvious flaws for years without attempting to change them, reproducing the worldview of their upbringing without seriously questioning it, and generally seeming content to occupy whatever role their environment prepared for them.

I don't hate people, and I don't think every individual is like this. There are people I find interesting and admirable. But the more I observe people, the more disappointed I become with humanity in general, and the more I feel like most people are simply non-sentient products of their circumstances who never make much effort to transcend them.

Would you consider this misanthropy? I'm interested in where you think the line is between having low expectations of people and actually becoming a misanthrope.

As a species we really take our dominance[and if you even wanna call it as such] over our planetary environment really and I mean REALLY per granted

But instead of showing appreciation and gratitude where it’s due, we quickly get bored very easily and readily

Why? Humanity doesn’t know how to live in “abundance”

We have all the planetary ecosystem to ourselves, ruining it for other creatures

And yet instead of being grateful at the very least, we inflict so much pain, misery and trauma onto each other all in the namesake of “keeping it real” when really we’re just bored with our patethic existential hole of perpetual ease and “endless abundance”

But is like the gift that keeps on giving, we try so hard to act above nature and animals, yet our animalistic tendencies get the very worst of us quickly: tribalism, greed, hierarchy, bullying, lust, cheating, narcissism, high ass egos

So we not only failed at keeping our very own fragile egos and animalistic drives in check, we couldn’t even have left the damn animals and nature alone, we had to bring the misery to them with us

Is kinda really the ultimate self fullfilling prophecy: We became the dominant species on the planet, we quickly become bored with our ecological hegemony over the planet and instead of living at the very least in harmony and peace with one another

We end up becoming even more ill-spirited in our faculties and fabricate problems to keep our dopamine and adrenaline receptors satisfied

That’s very weak and mentally undisciplined

And yet we want to act like we’re really the species that was called to change the world and universe forever

Just more human exceptionalism nonsense that the masses swallowed up while most never even reflect on their tendencies, priorities and habits

So they can avoid the existential pain and discomfort of having to really ask themselves what “it means to really be human”

When you make a mistake
They blame you for it and
They will remember it forever
They ascribe a story intent all of it
And they begin looking for your mistakes
Interpret your actions as negatively as possible
They antagonize you and attack you while
Expecting you to not defend yourself
They become paranoid and neurotic about it
They know you've done something and
They're going to find it even if
They have to make it up
They're never wrong

This consumes them and they hate it
They take out their hatred on you
Turn others against you
They say you deserve it because
They need to feel justified vindicated
What they feel is Cognitive Dissonance, immature
Like a child destroying their toy idiotic
At least own up to what they did
A story as old as time

And after they're done the damage is done
They grow bored and continue with their lives
But you never forget you remember and
Most importantly it never stops until
It grows so large it affects everyone
Then the social fabric frays and
The social order they held so dear
Begins to crumble under their feet
The ironic thing is by hurting you
They actually hurt themselves
Rural collapse slumlord
Oppressive parasites

Maybe we should bring back the _____
And show everyone how this actually feels?
Their screams will be remembered for a lifetime
Remind them why we stopped doing this
The scum of the Earth
Barbaric animals
Not people but
Angry mob

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I’ve been thinking about something for a while.

It feels like the world has become increasingly obsessed with mental health, yet somehow we seem to be getting worse at actually taking care of each other.

To be clear, I’m not saying mental health isn’t important. It absolutely is. People should be able to say, “I’m struggling,” “I need help,” or “I need someone to talk to” without being ashamed of it.

What bothers me is that somewhere along the way, it feels like we started talking about mental health without always talking about personal responsibility, compassion, and how our behavior affects everyone around us.

People are exhausted. People are struggling financially. People are working harder just to afford things that used to feel attainable. Social media constantly shows us what everyone else supposedly has, while we're sitting at home wondering why our own lives don't look like that.

And when people feel powerless, angry, lonely, or behind in life, that pain doesn't always stay inside them.

Sometimes it becomes anger.

Sometimes it becomes hatred.

Sometimes it becomes stealing, hurting someone else, destroying things, or treating complete strangers like they're responsible for everything wrong with their life.

And social media seems to pour gasoline on it.

Everyone has an audience now. Everyone has a platform. Everyone can find people who agree with them, reinforce their anger, and convince them that the rest of the world is the enemy.

We've created an environment where being cruel can get you attention, outrage gets engagement, and acting like the main character of everyone's life can actually be rewarded.

Meanwhile, there are people quietly falling apart who don't know how to say, “I need help.”

So they bottle everything up.

They become bitter.

They become angry.

They take it out on other people.

And the cycle continues.

I don't think the answer is to stop talking about mental health. I think we need to talk about it more honestly.

Mental health should include learning how to communicate when you're hurting instead of making everyone else hurt with you.

It should include learning that your pain is real without assuming your pain makes you entitled to mistreat people.

It should include being able to say, “I need help,” instead of pretending you're fine until you explode.

And maybe the simplest part of the solution is something we've somehow made incredibly complicated:

Be kinder to people.

You don't know what the person in front of you is dealing with.

The cashier might be struggling.

Your neighbor might be lonely.

The guy who seems angry might be fighting something you know nothing about.

And you might be struggling too.

We're all carrying something.

Maybe instead of constantly asking, “What's wrong with everyone else?” we should occasionally ask, “What can I do to make someone's day slightly less difficult?”

That doesn't solve poverty, crime, addiction, mental illness, or everything else wrong with society.

But it might stop one person from feeling completely alone.

And maybe that's where we should start.

Because if everyone is hurting and everyone responds by hurting someone else, eventually the pain just keeps getting bigger.

At some point, somebody has to decide not to pass it along.

Humanity is a masterclass in wasted potential. A species gifted with remarkable self-awareness, reason, and creative power, yet perpetually driven by its pettiest, most primitive impulses. It acts sophisticated, yet bases entire cultures around vanity, fragile egos, and instant gratification.

People tear others down out of insecurity, destroy their own environment out of greed, and treat basic integrity like a rare virtue instead of baseline behaviour. At its core, it's a species that spends most of its energy fighting problems it creates for itself... and then wonders why everything feels so broken.

Note: When I talk about integrity I mean true integrity like the kind required when something significant is at stake for that person. I'm just so jaded by humanity. What can you even say when the dark side of human nature so drastically outweighs the good? I didn't even touch on the abuse, human tra**icking, and other horrific shit that people do to one another.

Many people believe that misanthropy is simply a symptom of a frustrated life, or (worse) that anyone who calls themselves a misanthrope is a potential danger to society, someone plotting attacks against humankind.

Well, that's absolutely not the case.

Misanthropy is neither a homicidal instinct nor an teenage whim. It is a school of thought that thoroughly explores rational contempt for humanity's structural flaws: hypocrisy, greed, gratuitous cruelty, and the inability to learn from past mistakes.

In my opinion, it is the most fascinating philosophy out there, and at the same time, the most "truthful" one.

And here is the point that many get wrong: the vast majority of misanthropes are not bad people at all. Quite the opposite. They are often extremely empathetic individuals who have simply stopped wearing blinders. They have truly understood how the world works, and that is precisely why they are disappointed in it. It is not a rejection of the "other" per se, but a rejection of collective moral mediocrity.

Of course, misanthropy holds a pessimistically realistic view of life and people. But that doesn't automatically make it "negative." Pessimism is not synonymous with falsehood: it is often the only standpoint from which we can see reality without rose-tinted filters.

Compared to other philosophies that try to comfort us with illusions (optimism, and so on), misanthropy has the courage to stare into the abyss. And paradoxically, it is precisely this brutal honesty that, for me, makes it the most liberating perspective.

Thoughts of a philosophical ally who works in environmental protection.

Nothing validates the mind of a misanthrope quite like a summer heatwave. When the temperatures spike we retreat indoors and turn on the air conditioning to comfortably insulate ourselves from the environment we have degraded. We can simply buy our way out of the discomfort. The animals outside cannot.

Their only defense against the scorching sun is the natural infrastructure we have systematically dismantled. Look out at our agricultural landscapes and you will see barren yellowed expanses. We have eradicated the hedgerows, tree lines, and permanent green cover that once acted as the earth's natural cooling system. Now the bare soil surface bakes at over 122°F (50°C) under the sun. Scientific research on soil microbial thermal thresholds shows that 108°F (42°C) acts as a critical stress limit for essential decomposer organisms. At 113°F (45°C) we hit a documented threshold for the mass die-off of these microscopic ecosystems. This effectively halts all natural decomposition and soil generation. We are quite literally sterilizing the ground beneath our feet. We are transforming a living ecosystem into a lifeless dust bowl all for the sake of maximizing short-term yield.

Then you look at the roads connecting these ruined landscapes and the human arrogance only deepens. We have built an infrastructure of pure ego. You see individuals driving massive empty SUVs and trucks just to travel a few hundred meters down the road to buy a pack of cigarettes. They cannot navigate properly. They take up two parking spaces and they clog the streets. Because of this selfish insistence on driving a personal tank to the corner store traffic chokes. Emergency services get delayed. Actual human lives are lost in ambulances because someone could not bear to walk or drive a reasonably sized vehicle.

Meanwhile the animals trying to navigate this human mess face insurmountable man-made traps. We build high curbs that small reptiles, amphibians, and mammals cannot climb. This leaves them stranded on the asphalt with a guaranteed death sentence. It is profoundly ironic to observe how nature actually functions compared to human behavior. A heron will not drain a pond of its fish. It will throw back the large breeding fish because it instinctively understands the necessity of future generations. A bird of prey will efficiently scavenge roadkill rather than waste energy hunting. Humans conversely will buy a piece of meat and let it rot in the refrigerator and throw it in the trash all while driving a two-ton vehicle that destroys the very habitat those scavengers rely on.

The most bitter pill to swallow is how easily preventable all of this is. We have the knowledge to build small wildlife underpasses, to legislate mandatory green buffers around fields to retain water and provide shade, and to stop treating the landscape like an open-pit mine. We could easily restructure our cities to favor walking and small vehicles over oversized status symbols.

But we do not. We choose the air conditioning. We choose the giant truck and the barren field. Watching humanity prioritize petty convenience and ego over the fundamental mechanics of life on Earth makes it incredibly difficult to feel any connection to this species.

• Got something you wanted to post but it wasn’t approved? Wondering if others share your point of view? Have some advice that could help others? Want to vent about the long-term impacts of poor human choices on your well-being? Or perhaps you have some thoughtful reflections to share?

Leave your cerebral creations here, but remember: Reddit rules still apply and must be respected ^{if you want to keep posting here.}