Someone else suggested that the rise in belief in human goodness is a function of the rise in belief of human incompetence. When you start recognizing that people frequently do stupid bad things not because they are bad, but because they are stupid, your heart softens a bit with regards to their intent.
Anti-abortion is a great example. The majority of anti-abortion people genuinely believe that a zygote is an innocent human life, and terminating it is literally murder. If that’s what they believe, why wouldn’t they do everything in their power to stop it? People are murdering innocent babies!
The more you get to know people, the more you start believing in Hanlon’s razor. Most of the “bad” people aren’t bad, they’re just good people with stupid beliefs.
The majority of anti-abortion people genuinely believe that a zygote is an innocent human life, and terminating it is literally murder. If that’s what they believe, why wouldn’t they do everything in their power to stop it?
But they’re NOT doing that.
They’re not promoting sex education, which drastically reduces teenage pregnancy and thus abortions. They’re not working to increase financial and social security for mothers to ensure having a child isn’t a massive risk. They’re not doing to reduce sexual assault of women leading to unwanted pregnancy.
They’re not doing everything in their power, not even remotely close. They’re literally just doing one single thing, and that’s the thing that hurts women the most, in the most ways and empowers terrible men the most.
So, given that they’re actually not trying very hard, and doing things that benefit themselves, one has to wonder if that’s truly a surprising of highly specific incompetence, or intentional.
One has to wonder if that’s truly a highly specific incompetence, or intentional.
I’ll apply Hanlons razor again: These people are stupid, therefore doing “everything in their power” involves using woefully ineffective means to achieve their goal. I have no problem believing that most anti-abortionists genuinely believe that they’re trying to save innocent lives. However, being relatively dumb people means they are primarily driven by feelings rather than logic, and are easily manipulated. This results in them using the means that they “feel” should be effective, rather than proven methods. It also means that the few people that actively are looking to oppress others can manipulate their feelings to make them support means that hurt the people they’re trying to help.
I found myself among some Mister Rogers quotes and artifacts yesterday, of all possible things.
So just for today I’m gonna push back on this one a little bit. I think the goodness is out there, but unfortunately much of our society is kinda designed to separate us from our humanity and mental peace.
A sentence I rarely deploy, but has the ability to stop most adults in their tracks is, “You aren’t being the neighbor that Fred Rogers knew you could be.” It works on Americans. I’ve never felt the need to deploy a social nuke on any foreigners.
But I’m not just an American who watched his show. I’m local to his area and I’ve been to the actual studios at WQED multiple times, on top of all the show artifacts I just saw the other day.
I almost used a Fred Roger’s quote for evil, before I caught myself. It was a thread about maga groupies abusing government power for personal agenda. Someone was lamenting how the Supreme Court made this administration above the law, so I almost said “Look for the helpers”. All those groupies and minions are NOT above the law and should face justice for their actions. As long as the charges are brought in three years, it could happen.
Perhaps mass jail terms for everyone depriving human rights or violating the constitution or enriching themselves at our expense or following personal agendas will keep this situation from happening again
Human goodness should plummet as well
Someone else suggested that the rise in belief in human goodness is a function of the rise in belief of human incompetence. When you start recognizing that people frequently do stupid bad things not because they are bad, but because they are stupid, your heart softens a bit with regards to their intent.
Anti-abortion is a great example. The majority of anti-abortion people genuinely believe that a zygote is an innocent human life, and terminating it is literally murder. If that’s what they believe, why wouldn’t they do everything in their power to stop it? People are murdering innocent babies!
The more you get to know people, the more you start believing in Hanlon’s razor. Most of the “bad” people aren’t bad, they’re just good people with stupid beliefs.
I love your optimism, but its rather misplaced.
But they’re NOT doing that.
They’re not promoting sex education, which drastically reduces teenage pregnancy and thus abortions. They’re not working to increase financial and social security for mothers to ensure having a child isn’t a massive risk. They’re not doing to reduce sexual assault of women leading to unwanted pregnancy.
They’re not doing everything in their power, not even remotely close. They’re literally just doing one single thing, and that’s the thing that hurts women the most, in the most ways and empowers terrible men the most.
So, given that they’re actually not trying very hard, and doing things that benefit themselves, one has to wonder if that’s truly a surprising of highly specific incompetence, or intentional.
I’ll apply Hanlons razor again: These people are stupid, therefore doing “everything in their power” involves using woefully ineffective means to achieve their goal. I have no problem believing that most anti-abortionists genuinely believe that they’re trying to save innocent lives. However, being relatively dumb people means they are primarily driven by feelings rather than logic, and are easily manipulated. This results in them using the means that they “feel” should be effective, rather than proven methods. It also means that the few people that actively are looking to oppress others can manipulate their feelings to make them support means that hurt the people they’re trying to help.
I started feeling a bit this way when I saw that many Trump voters were genuinely confused and angry that Trump didn’t release Epstein files lol
Someone had a very sad childhood to not believe in human goodness as a kid
Childhood is when I learned that it is rare
I found myself among some Mister Rogers quotes and artifacts yesterday, of all possible things.
So just for today I’m gonna push back on this one a little bit. I think the goodness is out there, but unfortunately much of our society is kinda designed to separate us from our humanity and mental peace.
A sentence I rarely deploy, but has the ability to stop most adults in their tracks is, “You aren’t being the neighbor that Fred Rogers knew you could be.” It works on Americans. I’ve never felt the need to deploy a social nuke on any foreigners.
Ouch, that line sure as hell would work on me!
But I’m not just an American who watched his show. I’m local to his area and I’ve been to the actual studios at WQED multiple times, on top of all the show artifacts I just saw the other day.
I almost used a Fred Roger’s quote for evil, before I caught myself. It was a thread about maga groupies abusing government power for personal agenda. Someone was lamenting how the Supreme Court made this administration above the law, so I almost said “Look for the helpers”. All those groupies and minions are NOT above the law and should face justice for their actions. As long as the charges are brought in three years, it could happen.
Perhaps mass jail terms for everyone depriving human rights or violating the constitution or enriching themselves at our expense or following personal agendas will keep this situation from happening again