Most people at their core are good people
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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I don't remember where I read this quote originally and I can only paraphrase it, but observing people living in a capitalist society and concluding that human nature is self-centeredness and greed is equivalent to observing workers in a factory that is poisoning their lungs and concluding that human nature is to cough.
That's a nice quote, thank you. I looked into it. It's by Andrew Collier:
To look at people in capitalist society and conclude that human nature is egoism, is like looking at people in a factory where pollution is destroying their lungs and saying that it is human nature to cough.
Primary goal is to survive in the environment you are in, how many might have a desire to escape that environment but lack the ability to do so? Leave it all behind and live in a cabin in the woods isn't exactly an unheard of idea.
The issue, as I see it, is that most people struggle to envision a society beyond capitalism. Capitalist ideology is embedded in every aspect of our lives. It appears in our mindset, in books, movies, and even in children's television shows. The narrative that anyone can succeed if they work hard enough, and that poverty is simply the result of laziness, is both powerful and pervasive.
The idea that everyone should live in isolated cabins is neither a realistic vision nor a desirable goal for society.
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Damn, ya beat me. I'm not good people to so I know from first hand experience.
Don't worry, people can change.
Trust me, I used to be a huge piece of shit
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I think βgoodβ and βbadβ are hard terms to apply to people objectively, but I do believe that most people value social coherence and are willing to do (the minimum amount of) something to maintain it. If you canβt believe at least that it means that all of those thin blue line people are right, and Iβm just not willing to believe thatβs true.
I was gonna go with "most people give a damn", but I think you phrased it a bit more positively.
I would say most people are good. However, the human brain is pretty shit and easy to manipulate. It's easy to make people view other people as not human or other to them, or to not think about them at all. Maybe that is "not good" in some definitions though. When face-to-face, I will bet every time on someone treating someone well. I'll lose the bet occasionally, but I'll be right more than wrong.
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Karma - there are way too many shitty people who just continue to be shitty because nothing ever comes back to bite them. Meanwhile, people who actually try to help are kicked around the most.
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That humans can survive the climate disaster they created.
It's ok the earth will survive.
Gosh I hope not. I donβt dislike you, I dislike humanity. Iβm sorry you got caught up in this mess, but you gotta go.
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That our benevolent alien overlords are gonna show up aaaaaany minute now...
Fucking seriously... I wish there were aliens that could save us from ourselves, but it's just oligarchs all the way down...
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Showing people irrefutable proof of something will change their minds.
There are only finitely many prime numbers and I will not hear otherwise.
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Religion, mythology and probably anything mystical. It's very easy why people believe in them, they're so alluring and genuinely wish they had truth to them. Unfortunately the only truth to be found is ancient wisdom, and even that can be very iffy sometimes.
you may be interested in mysticism then.
I've always held that the true purpose of religion is to create atheists, and not in the modern edge lord I reject your god way.
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U.S. democracy
The notion that "facts matter".
I've spent my entire life believing that facts don't care about feelings. That scientific truth doesn't require your belief in it in order to be true. That at the end of the day, reasoning will beat emotion...
By far the most dis-heartening thing about the last few years (to me) has been accepting the idea they "facts" are "whatever is shouted the loudest".
It, more than anything else, makes me feel helpless. If the enemy isn't even playing with the same fact-sheet... How do you even begin to fight that?
I recommend reading False Witnesses and following it up with Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing." People license themselves to believe what's convenient, not what's true.
Reincarnation - Iβd like to believe Iβve met others before, maybe even many times. It would explain some stuff like why youβre irrationally drawn or repelled by certain people.
The thing that's always gotten me about reincarnation is the lack of memory of past lives. Even if it were true and some small part of a person lives on, is it functionally different than a permanent death if they retain nothing from their past lives?
The average person having empathy
The 'common' part of 'common sense'
The falseness of it has been well theorized by Antonio Gramsci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony
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Ghosts. My 18 year old cat passed end of last year and she was one of my best friends. I just wish that instead of me knowing that the shades of her I see are actively produced by my mind (i notice me doing them) that she'd really spook around me, that i could just embrace the little shade and show her that i still love her. Well now I'm crying at work
The world will recognize the good deeds you do
Hanlon's razor. It's pretty clear some people can be stupid and malicious simultaneously, or will even feign stupidity to hide malice.
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That people are inherently good. This not being the case is reinforced near daily by people's behaviors.
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Heaven. Or just the idea that some part of the consciousness outlives the body. I really hate that this is all I get, there's so much I'll never get to do just because my parents decided when I was too young to decide for myself.
Magic
Aliens visiting Earth.
I know it's a statistical impossibility that we're the only life out there. I just don't believe they've ever been here. Since we haven't been either conquered or uplifted yet.
That rational and empirical evidence would cause people to reconsider their intuitive perspectives and lead into constructive conversation.
@ParlaMint Afterlife.
Death is boring and awful. I don't want it. Nobody really wants it. If you think you do, a) get help and b) you really don't.
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There is a gospel passage about how much will be expected of those whom have been given much. I've always heard this interpreted as how church leaders will be judged harshly in the afterlife. I wish this and hell were true, just for the sheer shock and disbelief of all the hypocritical religious leaders who've done so many terrible things and continued to preach hate.
diskworld. I specially like the city watch
That life is fair.
That there's a place for the hopeless sinners who've betrayed all mankind just to serve their own beliefs.
The world was ruled by the Illuminati and they were compassionate about it. Because what we are ruled by is a bunch of assholes.
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That Democracy can be an effective check on Capitalism. Liberalism is my favorite fairy tale. If all the propaganda I was fed as a kid in the 90s was actually true, I'd be in paradise.
A thing beyond our understanding on this world, I wish that thoses humans on top of the world would understand at least once that they can't control everything, and that the world stays full of wonder.
I would have said also yΕkais, but i actually believe in them so it doesn't count i suppose.
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