• EfreetSK@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    When it comes to people you meet each day (friends, colleagues, schoolmates, …), are there people among them you’d call ‘genuinely evil’? Is it a majority of them?

    • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
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      2 days ago

      Daily reminder that 30% of people would vote to bring back chattel slavery if it was convenient.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      2 days ago

      Honestly? Yeah, it’s well over a majority. I wouldn’t call them ‘purely evil’, but ‘genuinely evil’ is pretty much the norm in society. People just tend to compartmentalize their evil.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I feel like this is projection. How tf do you know “well over a majority” of people are compartmentalizing “evil”, in a way so good that we can’t detect it, but somehow you know this to be true and we should trust you? Why? How? What makes you special in knowing this? I’m sorry if I’m coming off rude, I just don’t understand how people can say this with such confidence when they haven’t asked “well over a majority” of humans. 😛

        • Tinidril@midwest.social
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          1 day ago

          In 2024 35% of eligible voters didn’t vote and 32% voted for Trump. That’s not a perfect measure, but it’s about as much of a case as can be made. I’m also far less inclined to move any of those 67% over to the “good” side than to move any of the 32% that voted for Harris to the bad side.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I’m sure each of those people think they’re doing good though, rather than purposely “compartmentalizing evil.”

        • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          In my personal experience, 95+% of people are, at the end of the day, pretty selfish. I don’t mean that they need to be saints, but almost everyone does not want to make small sacrifices to make the world a better place.

          I’m talking about people that don’t want to eat less meat or try to consume less, or maybe just give the benefit of the doubt to the other side.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Doesn’t make them evil though, just human. The human brain is wired not to make life worse for its host, or its offspring.

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        It feels so weird to pass by incredible filth on a daily basis, but then get taken aback by a worldview. You must have been through a lot, wish I could help somehow.

          • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Everyone I’m close to knows about the prison industrial complex because we talk to each other. That’s how a few of us found out, by knowing people who are activated enough to look into these things and spread the word. As to the rest, I could hit you with a list of things and say “approach the world with intent to confirm this bias” and it would amount to the same thing.

            Not being part of the problem takes work, it’s true, but wisdom is in knowing people are highly situational, neither inherently good or bad but often entirely unequipped for the world we’ve created or the heights we’ve grasped. We’re beings of brilliance and kindness but also complacency and disaster. Not evil, but we create many evil situations by accident and shortsightedness.

              • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                We live in different countries. I left the US because it was driving me crazy, and my heart goes out to you since I know a lot of people feel that way but don’t have a viable exit strategy. I’ve put in a lot of work to stop participating in an empire of slavery and stolen land, moved back to the land of my grandparents (which has its own terrible history, perfect being the enemy of good as we all know).

                I’m against all the buckets. The only bucket we’re all in is a gravity well, and we need to act like it if we’re not going to hate it every minute.

            • Tinidril@midwest.social
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              1 day ago

              Everyone I’m close to knows about the prison industrial complex because we talk to each other.

              Maybe we live in different neighborhoods. Most of my neighbors are fine with locking “those people” up, and don’t much care what happens to them beyond that.

              “approach the world with intent to confirm this bias”

              How do you account for the vast majority of eligible voters either not showing up or voting for Trump? That’s about as unbiased a measure as I can think of.

              Not being part of the problem takes work,

              So we’re on the same page there.

              wisdom is in knowing people are highly situational, neither inherently good or bad

              If it takes work to not be part of the problem than aren’t people inherently “bad” until they do the work? I didn’t introduce that dialectic to this conversation. Of course throwing everyone into two buckets is inherently going to miss a lot of depth.

              often entirely unequipped for the world we’ve created or the heights we’ve grasped.

              I’m not sure it was ever any different.

          • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Feels almost like a non sequitur, even if not untrue. I know enough history to know that evil is banal, but that chiefly refers to people who stay silent, choose comfort over justice, and follow unethical orders. It’s taking things a ways further to say most people are mostly evil, don’t you think?

            • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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              2 days ago

              Comes down to your definition of evil, really. And how comfortable you are calling the majority of people evil - if you aren’t, obviously you’ll jump through a few extra hoops to keep that worldview intact.

        • Tinidril@midwest.social
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          2 days ago

          Go outside and start counting all the absolutely unnecessary gas guzzling SUVs. Walk your neighborhood with a trash bag and see what you collect. Ask yourself how many people you know are aware of the prison industrial complex, or would even care if they did know. How many people want subsidized housing in their neighborhoods to address homelessness? How many want some of the funding for their school districts to go to school districts in less fortunate neighborhoods? If there is a local home in obvious disrepair, how many people will gossip or complain to the municipality compared to how many will ask the neighbor if they need help?

          Most people are nice. That’s not the same as not being evil. Not being evil takes work.