It can certainly feel that way. And I do think there is no such thing as an ethical billionaire, if by favouring assholes you mean rewarding monetarily.
I argue though, that without kindness there would be no societies. Even if the parable of the Margaret Mead’s healed femur isn’t true, the fact remains that there are in fact those who help, and they are probably more plentiful than those who hurt. They’re just harder to spot, because media makes money off emotions and fear and anger are stronger than hope.
To quote Mr Rogers “look for the helpers”, because they are there. And if you’re not seeing them, maybe it’s time for a news break. Including social media, just for a week. And then see how you are feeling. I have to take breaks now and then, and I promise it helps.
The system isn’t formed based on the wills of individuals, nor is there an inherent “nice” or “mean” quality to people. If we all decide we want to live in a perfect utopia, that still won’t take form, because that’s not how societal progression works. We live in capitalism, because capitalism emerged from preceding modes of production like feudalism. It wasn’t a choice people made, but an economic progression on the basis of private property and free-moving capital, which leads us to today where a tiny handful own the lion’s share of production.
Capitalism is riddled with contradictions, however, and these contradictions sharpen over time. We move onto socialism by organizing, where we can actually take control of production and run it along a common plan to suit the needs of the people.
Edit: figured it’s a good chance to plug my introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list, if what I said makes sense to you!
More and more I see that a lot of people who think they’re “nice” are just lazy and largely uprincipled people who assume that they’re doing good simply because they have good intentions and they’re not actively creating problems.
Gork, what is capitalism?
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.
No. We live in a society that favors good people for the most part and it’s getting better, just not for the US and it’s toadies.
And all the bad people from the good countries move to the US so that they can beg the US to invade their own nation in order to become toadie leader #53.What’s happening right now is that this US hegemonic system is falling apart.
Nice people are unwilling to do the things necessary to stop assholes. Nice people won’t berate them, most won’t call them out, etc etc.
The assholes bought everything up, including the law and politicians. They rigged the game so no one else can climb the same ladder they did. But, also, death throes look like this. They positioned themselves so that the entire populous of the earth can’t sustain life, unless they don’t. That imbalance is about to be corrected. It’s gunna get a little bit worse before it gets better though, hang on.
Sure I care but what can I do besides voting?
Organizing, which is far more important, and it isn’t close. Voting is less than the bare minimum.
You can do propaganda
I don’t think that there’s more assholes than decent people. I think the assholes just stick out more.
Unfortunately society encourages and glorifies shitty behaviour. So this behaviour is completely normalised for the majority of people who see it as a thing to be desired, rather than something thats shitty.
A bummer because im naturally nice and i get upset at people who aren’t. I just dont get it. I feel awful if I’m mean or something by accident or get misinterpreted. I wonder what it is, because my parents are not very nice people.
It damages my calm on a daily basis. Our society rewards sociopathy. It’s that simple. And I fucking hate it.
There are more assholes than good people because assholery typically delivers better results in terms of wealth, power, and status, and good people have to accept a lower social status in order to maintain their goodness, but most people don’t fall into either category.
But the vast majority of people fall into an apathetic middle ground where they don’t really think too much about any kind of moral consistency and act according to paths they’re already on and the rules those paths require.
People who don’t realize that tolerance is a social contract will tolerate assholism, which abets the assholing.
That’s got to stop.
Yeah. Now stop being afraid and stand up to the fucking bullies. Now watch as they change the definition of “intolerant”.
“Standing up to a bully that wants to kill you? That’s Intolerant!”.
Sound familiar? The nazi with the giant hole in his neck? Oh no, I’m being intolerant. The christian terrorist nazi psychopath with the giant hole in his neck.
You won’t have a chance to be intolerant of the nazis very soon, if you don’t start fighting against the nazis in effective ways.
Ok but how do we deal with… you know… those people who destroy community for profits, who undermine us by exposing us with global competition, the people who promote laws like “right to work” and “no child left behind” to break our organizations against their power asymmetry while making us dumber and weaker, the people who rig the system with a smile without saying even one slur ?
Do we have to tolerate them if they duck us by the rules ?
I do wish we could stop confusing tolerance with active support though. I don’t need to be on your team to tolerate you or your lifestyle. In fact, we don’t even need to acknowledge each other’s existence to be tolerant of one another. We just need to let each other exist unimpeded.
That makes sense actually
WTF didn’t Popper include that obvious fact ?
Was it just taken for granted in the post world wars that assholes catch bullets ?whoa, I just realized this is basically the left-lib equivalent of the NAP.
Sadly, I think that’s the way it’s been since the beginning of humanity and I don’t see it ever changing.
Richard Dawkins lays this out nicely in The Selfish Gene.
Education is the best way to fight ignorance. Yes, there wasn’t much education more than a hundred or two years ago.
There are plenty of places on Earth right now that are functioning societies with mostly happy people. So stop being a defeatist pig headed asshole, please.
Get some education. Get others education. Keep educating if you want the world to act educated, and not barbaric. It’s really that simple, and it’s why the barbarians always gut all education first.
Seems like I struck a nerve.
Considering you know nothing about me , it’s interesting that you call me uneducated. Yet haven’t bothered to educate yourself about me.
I think you 2 might be 2 sides of the same coin. You started with “Sadly” which would infer you don’t think it’s ideal but simply the reality. You’ve probably been called a pessimist more than once for expressing your realistic opinions.
On one side we want progress and equality, on the other, we recognize that tribes, cities, and nations, were built on conquering others. That mindset idealistically should be in the past but we of course still see too many examples of how relevant those issues are.
