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Do you think that humanity is inherently good or bad?
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Inherently bad, but goes for other animals too. Well, there's no objective good or evil, but the fact is we're glorified apes that fight for resources, bully, rape, enslave and murder for reasons that sadly make sense from an evolutionary standpoint. The machine I'm typing this on very likely had slave labor involved at some point in its manufacture and that thought isn't going to stay with me for another 10 minutes.
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If we're talking on a greater scale with morality and philosophy then good and bad are subjective and not universal. What may be considered as good in one group/society can be considered as very bad in another. For that I'm going to go with neither.
From a more individualistic perspective, we can have a mix of good and bad that can be presented to the world. Many people put on facades that can make them seem better than what the reality may be (narcissists are masters at convincing others with their charms for it) and it can be seen through different individuals encountered seeing different sides/perspectives of that person. While it is once again subjective, it shows the innate nature of how humans want approval, which can be good, and to what expense it will take for some to gain it, where bad can come in if harm is being done.
From a more individualistic perspective, we can have a mix of good and bad that can be presented to the world. Many people put on facades that can make them seem better than what the reality may be (narcissists are masters at convincing others with their charms for it) and it can be seen through different individuals encountered seeing different sides/perspectives of that person. While it is once again subjective, it shows the innate nature of how humans want approval, which can be good, and to what expense it will take for some to gain it, where bad can come in if harm is being done.
LOL 😂…….yep, what Zonebox said!!!
I would say that for me personally I tried impartial to morality, tried real hard to believe it didn't exist and winded up hurting someone with just the mere words of that cold heartlessness. In the end the thing that tethers me to my humanity is the fact that what pain on others I may do, for me personally it comes back at me as emotional pain, karma, regret, and I just hate injustice in general.
Can I be a piece of **** when it comes to being selfish? Kind of but it has it's limits as I do have empathy for others. It really depends what emotional cords play at my heart as I think I can think something is right emotionally but logically I know it's bad.
Can I be a piece of **** when it comes to being selfish? Kind of but it has it's limits as I do have empathy for others. It really depends what emotional cords play at my heart as I think I can think something is right emotionally but logically I know it's bad.
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I think we're a clean slate for the most part. Obviously the younger we are, the more our environment shapes us. Although there are the very rarities where a person with a positive environment will still somehow fall into very sadistically deviant behavior. I guess those are the people aren't born with a "clean slate".
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I don't care enough to really think about it in some philosophical sense and I mostly don't believe in an objective good/bad too. So the rest is personal preference.
Humans have destructive instincts, this can usually be argued against until you consider certain groups of people that most people look down on and react to with violent ideation (like pedophiles,) I don't consider that to be a positive/good trait even though it's super common. Most people would argue that reaction is good though right. So then you have the subjectivity.
I think environment can mitigate the destructive tendencies to varying degrees for different people. For some people it won't at all. Also it's probably easier to shape behaviour than anything else.
I think controlling for the numbers of Humans which is ridiculously large, and the interaction with 'intelligence' I'd probably rank us above the other great apes except bonobos. I think bonobos are better than us. But trees are better than most living things. And again that's subjective.
Humans have destructive instincts, this can usually be argued against until you consider certain groups of people that most people look down on and react to with violent ideation (like pedophiles,) I don't consider that to be a positive/good trait even though it's super common. Most people would argue that reaction is good though right. So then you have the subjectivity.
I think environment can mitigate the destructive tendencies to varying degrees for different people. For some people it won't at all. Also it's probably easier to shape behaviour than anything else.
I think controlling for the numbers of Humans which is ridiculously large, and the interaction with 'intelligence' I'd probably rank us above the other great apes except bonobos. I think bonobos are better than us. But trees are better than most living things. And again that's subjective.
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good and bad is my knee jerk answer.
but yeah nothing is inherently good or bad lol. and humanity is an over-generalisation, I dont think it makes much sense. morality is a way to tell people apart more than it is a way to lump them all together.
although if you're talking about the average, that's gonna be bad, because what is moral is generally an exception to what is normal. if it was just the normal or easy thing then it doesnt have any merit really.
but yeah nothing is inherently good or bad lol. and humanity is an over-generalisation, I dont think it makes much sense. morality is a way to tell people apart more than it is a way to lump them all together.
although if you're talking about the average, that's gonna be bad, because what is moral is generally an exception to what is normal. if it was just the normal or easy thing then it doesnt have any merit really.
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I would have to think of myself as inherently good in order to judge the entire human race as inherently bad. Or, perhaps not. But if I acknowledged that I myself am inherently as bad as all the rest, what would even be the point of putting everyone else under one blanket?
I'm being silly, of course. I think our goodness or badness is irrelevant to the majority of universe. It doesn't even know we exist (because it can't). We are "blessed" with the gift of self-awareness. Given to us by the rotten apple from the malevolent snake.
I'm being silly, of course. I think our goodness or badness is irrelevant to the majority of universe. It doesn't even know we exist (because it can't). We are "blessed" with the gift of self-awareness. Given to us by the rotten apple from the malevolent snake.
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I think there are good individuals but humanity in it's aggregate is decidedly not good. We've completely trashed the Earth, we've engaged in countless wars over wealth, power and resources that have resulted in millions of deaths, we exploit each other unfairly via the political and economic systems we've created, we've annihilated countless species, we threaten most of the ones remaining including those with high degrees of both intelligence and emotional awareness like elephants and gorillas, and we mistreat the ones we raise to feed ourselves. We have not been good citizens or shephards of this planet.
Humans are awe-inspiring in the power we possess but we have absolutely no idea how to use this power ethically or purposefully.
Humans are awe-inspiring in the power we possess but we have absolutely no idea how to use this power ethically or purposefully.
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I can understand how people that may have been bullied or mistreated think that most people are terrible and are out to get them. Plus of course it gives them a legitimate excuse (in their own minds) to hide away even more from people.
Most people aren't out to get you. They're just living their lives - having families, doing whatever they do, getting by.
It's interesting that topics like this only ever come up on sites like this - or in avoidant personality groups. People just generally trying to rationalise their fear of other people.
Most people aren't out to get you. They're just living their lives - having families, doing whatever they do, getting by.
It's interesting that topics like this only ever come up on sites like this - or in avoidant personality groups. People just generally trying to rationalise their fear of other people.
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I don't call them murder apes for nothing!
If you're the right kind of person, or know the right kind of people, many people will be good to you. If you're the wrong kind of person, or know the wrong kind of people, many people will be bad to you. In both cases, people are acting naturally, based on their inherent tendencies.
Think it was pretty ****ty to design a world where organisms have to eat each other to survive. That's the real evil here.
If you're the right kind of person, or know the right kind of people, many people will be good to you. If you're the wrong kind of person, or know the wrong kind of people, many people will be bad to you. In both cases, people are acting naturally, based on their inherent tendencies.
Think it was pretty ****ty to design a world where organisms have to eat each other to survive. That's the real evil here.
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I dislike a "good or bad" debate on ANY topic because those terms are highly subjective and typically informed by belief and value systems that I categorically reject. "Good" or "bad" according to who, exactly?
The dichotomy between "good" and "bad" is too extreme to generalize humanity with IMO; I personally believe that the vast majority of people are neither good nor bad, and that that's okay. Moreover, I feel like the classification of people into categories of "good" or "bad" creates a self-fulfilling prophecy situation: being labelled "bad" can lead an otherwise good person to do bad things simply because they feel like they can never live down that negative label. On the flipside, being labelled "good" can go to a person's head and grossly inflate their ego, which can lead to bad behavior.
I also believe that people who do bad things can't always help it. Of course everyone has choices but who can say to what degree those choices are influenced by biological and/or environmental factors? Some philosophers posit that "free will" is actually an illusion because everything we do is directly influenced by our pasts, and while I wouldn't go quite that far I think they have a valid point.
The dichotomy between "good" and "bad" is too extreme to generalize humanity with IMO; I personally believe that the vast majority of people are neither good nor bad, and that that's okay. Moreover, I feel like the classification of people into categories of "good" or "bad" creates a self-fulfilling prophecy situation: being labelled "bad" can lead an otherwise good person to do bad things simply because they feel like they can never live down that negative label. On the flipside, being labelled "good" can go to a person's head and grossly inflate their ego, which can lead to bad behavior.
I also believe that people who do bad things can't always help it. Of course everyone has choices but who can say to what degree those choices are influenced by biological and/or environmental factors? Some philosophers posit that "free will" is actually an illusion because everything we do is directly influenced by our pasts, and while I wouldn't go quite that far I think they have a valid point.
To question our morality would be to question the morality of life, we're basically the same as all other life as regards primal instincts.
Only we have the intelligence to get more creative & elaborate with the good or bad should we be so inclined making it seem worse, to the curse... or gift that is our conscience & higher self awareness.
It's all subjective & in the end, blue M&M, red M&M, they all wind up the same color. 💩
Only we have the intelligence to get more creative & elaborate with the good or bad should we be so inclined making it seem worse, to the curse... or gift that is our conscience & higher self awareness.
It's all subjective & in the end, blue M&M, red M&M, they all wind up the same color. 💩
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I don't like the fascism. Let's call it that. A personality type. Not going to elaborate much but one dimension of it is you can go on twitter and find many many people typing basically this exactly:
'we need a war'
Not even because they're bored that I understand perfectly, but because they stumbled on a tiktok video of a teenager or young adult with piercings and dyed hair talking about LGBT stuff. It doesn't concern them but they don't understand the terminology or what's being discussed, a fact they bring up repeatedly 'I don't understand' 'wtf did they say' and that fact seems to make them want to convince themselves that what's being discussed isn't important and should then make them angry. So peppered in between the insults on appearance because they have dyed hair and weird piercings, status, you know chimpanzee ****, there's also 'we need gas chambers' and 'they should kill themselves' and various dehumanising language.
So obligatory:
But also it really reminds you that Humans are apes (well actually no it doesn't because the linguistic equivalent of beating someone to death in some ways seems worse to me probably because we do both.) The people they hate so much are usually very similar to me but slightly different in how they present + younger. There are entire twitter pages devoted to it. I'm pretty glad I had some years where the internet wasn't like that.
And if you're the opposite of this person I'm sure you'll find people saying that about people like you too.
We'll pay for this hatred too but it will be deserved.
'we need a war'
Not even because they're bored that I understand perfectly, but because they stumbled on a tiktok video of a teenager or young adult with piercings and dyed hair talking about LGBT stuff. It doesn't concern them but they don't understand the terminology or what's being discussed, a fact they bring up repeatedly 'I don't understand' 'wtf did they say' and that fact seems to make them want to convince themselves that what's being discussed isn't important and should then make them angry. So peppered in between the insults on appearance because they have dyed hair and weird piercings, status, you know chimpanzee ****, there's also 'we need gas chambers' and 'they should kill themselves' and various dehumanising language.
So obligatory:
But also it really reminds you that Humans are apes (well actually no it doesn't because the linguistic equivalent of beating someone to death in some ways seems worse to me probably because we do both.) The people they hate so much are usually very similar to me but slightly different in how they present + younger. There are entire twitter pages devoted to it. I'm pretty glad I had some years where the internet wasn't like that.
And if you're the opposite of this person I'm sure you'll find people saying that about people like you too.
We'll pay for this hatred too but it will be deserved.
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Oh I don't think anyone needs an excuse to fear other people. I think that most people have to be trained to not fear other people despite having every good reason to fear them. Oddly, though, most people probably fear the wrong people. People tend to fear strangers and usually it's the people you trust you should actually fear.
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I grew up seeing people stab each other in the back over nonsense. Even/or especially people who supposedly love and care about each other. I'm not any better than they are so not sure if we're bad or good. I do know that I have trust issues. Of course I can only speak about my own little world and the people around me.
Also I'm well aware that most people aren't 'out to get me' and I'm not trying to rationalize anything. My SAD is my issue to deal with and I don't blame anyone nor do I hate anyone for my anxiety issues.
Avoidant personality doesn't always mean you hate people.
Also I'm well aware that most people aren't 'out to get me' and I'm not trying to rationalize anything. My SAD is my issue to deal with and I don't blame anyone nor do I hate anyone for my anxiety issues.
Avoidant personality doesn't always mean you hate people.
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That would be where we disagree. I don't think most people should be feared at all. Do you honestly think most people go around hurting others? Most people are pretty decent in actual fact. I think people that actually do horrible things are the exception to the rule.
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