Amazing. Just amazing. As far back as middle school (maybe even earlier), the phrase: "I hate people" often popped up in my head. I've said this plenty of times over the years, but it was mostly a heat-of-the-moment saying for me. I knew of people who were genuine when they made these anti-human sentiments — "misanthropes". To be frank, I never understood how anyone can be truly misanthropic. Humans depend on other humans to survive, so if you, as a human, want to stay alive, you might as well tolerate and cooperate with the jackasses in your vicinity. This year — hell, this decade — has made me realize that I might've been a closeted misanthrope this entire time. Or at least, it's pushed me in that direction recently.
2024 has been an incredibly awful year — definitely worse than 2023. I don't want to delve too deep into my personal life right now, though I do have some things to say about my health (both physical and mental). For the first few paragraphs, I'll just rant about the general things about humanity that makes this disgusting species as revolting as it is.
The stupidity and lack of self-awareness, especially when it comes to politics, religion, and science denial because of the former two. People being too stupid to know what shape the Earth is, and buying into other dumb conspiracy theories, such as chemtrails being real (they aren't; they're just contrails and these same dum-dums have no clue how aerodynamics work, anyway). Side note: there is no such thing as a "true" conspiracy theory. If it's true, it's NOT a conspiracy "theory", anymore, you dumb****. I saw someone on Reddit a month ago with this dumb statement, and it was written when lockdown was still active. Goddamn, Redditors are some of the stupidest people on the Internet. **** Reddit. It encompasses EVERY SINGLE THING I hate about the Internet in a single website. Don't even get me started on conservatives denying climate change caused by human activity, but that the government somehow has the power to control tornadoes. Christ. Human stupidity truly is limitless, isn't it?
People who push their religion to make everything worse for everyone are especially vile. Screw them and their crappy "holy" texts. I especially abhor these evangelical Christians who don't actually understand the foundations in which Western civilization was built upon, and want to claim their rights and beliefs are attacked when they've historically been the violators. Screw these morons, too. Christians, please put these disingenuous assclowns in their place and stop them from using your beliefs in such a way.
Another thing: stop pretending that atheism and agnosticism are mutually exclusive. No, they ****in' aren't. Atheism and theism are mutually exclusive. Theism and gnosticism deal with belief and knowledge, respectively AND independently. Acting as if identifying as an agnostic will somehow distant yourself from some of the hot-headed atheists that mock religious people doesn't mean you don't have agnostics who act similar to those atheists, or think their position is somehow the most rational position when the reason the bloody word was coined in the first place because it's a method to approach unfamiliar concepts, not just specifically to one thing — like the existence of a god. If someone asks you if you believe in a god, answer truthfully and just say you're an agnostic atheist. "I don't know" doesn't address belief; it addresses knowledge, in which we are all agnostic on.
Politics. I'm not gonna brush around my distaste for right-wingers. I made a coupleof posts about the results of the US 2024 presidential election in the "What's Bothering You?" thread. Voting for an orange buffoon who was charged with 34 felonies and his dimwitted cult of ****ing brainlets denying all the cases and brandishing him as a messiah is easily one of the United States' lowest points in its nearly 250-year history as a racist, sexist, bigoted country that dresses itself in the guise of a nation with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as its motto, but rarely ever actually acts on these principles. **** America. **** anyone gloating about the reactions of people who feared another Trump term, because a vote for Trump WASN'T a ****ing vote for freedom, OR the economy that he's going to botch up even more so than he did in his first term, you stupid ********. You voted for a fascist dictator. You're too ****ing stupid to realize that you voted for a fascist dictator because you were already sold on dog-whistles and platitudes. You view him as "God's Chosen" because he reinforced everything you're against. You supported him because he already supports the hypocritical, narrow-minded beliefs that you hold.
And **** anyone who voted third party because they stupidly thought the two major parties weren't at all any different when it came to Gaza — that's virtue signaling BS. Just because you didn't vote for either Harris or Trump, doesn't mean that Palestinian blood isn't on your hands, as well, because a vote for Jill Stein or any other third party candidate indirectly helped no one but either of the other two candidates that had any real chance of winning. American voters should ****ing stop protest voting and learn how electoral mechanics work.
Here some other stuff I want to get out of the way:
Double standards, especially when it comes to sex/gender. It's okay for this specific sex to wear this specific article of clothing, but the other sex should be shunned for wearing the same. So much for gender equality, amirite?
People projecting their own faults onto others instead of recognizing their own status as an unbearable PoS.
The fact that no one seems interested in good faith conversation anymore; don't wanna look into their own arguments to see if they make any sense or not.
People basing their expectations via stereotypes portrayed in the media, and using those expectations to mold their opinion on others.
The stupid tribalism present in every facet of society when we should've moved passed it centuries ago.
Science-illiterate simpletons speaking on science they haven't a ****ing clue about.
Microplastics, and how no one seems to care about them. Need to make a thread about that before this year ends.
And so on. Hopefully I'll elucidate on all of these things in due time in separate instances.
This year has done damage to both my mental health, and my immune system. The mental health bit should be pretty clear by now, but I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I won't specify or allude to right now. This was two years ago, in May of 2022. The only reason I'm still alive is because of the medicine I'm financially covered for. I just want to accomplish what I set out to do, then die peacefully once I'm done with this ****** planet filled with ****** people on it. **** everyone. **** the Internet. I'll make a thread about microplastics soon, as I think that's an important health and environmental issue. After that, no one here will see or hear anymore of me until after this ****** year is over. I want to at least spend the last week of it in the comfort of my family and not spoil my mood by being on the Internet as often as I am.
Amazing. Just amazing. As far back as middle school (maybe even earlier), the phrase: "I hate people" often popped up in my head. I've said this plenty of times over the years, but it was mostly a heat-of-the-moment saying for me. I knew of people who were genuine when they made these anti-human sentiments — "misanthropes". To be frank, I never understood how anyone can be truly misanthropic. Humans depend on other humans to survive, so if you, as a human, want to stay alive, you might as well tolerate and cooperate with the jackasses in your vicinity. This year — hell, this decade — has made me realize that I might've been a closeted misanthrope this entire time. Or at least, it's pushed me in that direction recently.
2024 has been an incredibly awful year — definitely worse than 2023. I don't want to delve too deep into my personal life right now, though I do have some things to say about my health (both physical and mental). For the first few paragraphs, I'll just rant about the general things about humanity that makes this disgusting species as revolting as it is.
The stupidity and lack of self-awareness, especially when it comes to politics, religion, and science denial because of the former two. People being too stupid to know what shape the Earth is, and buying into other dumb conspiracy theories, such as chemtrails being real (they aren't; they're just contrails and these same dum-dums have no clue how aerodynamics work, anyway). Side note: there is no such thing as a "true" conspiracy theory. If it's true, it's NOT a conspiracy "theory", anymore, you dumb****. I saw someone on Reddit a month ago with this dumb statement, and it was written when lockdown was still active. Goddamn, Redditors are some of the stupidest people on the Internet. **** Reddit. It encompasses EVERY SINGLE THING I hate about the Internet in a single website. Don't even get me started on conservatives denying climate change caused by human activity, but that the government somehow has the power to control tornadoes. Christ. Human stupidity truly is limitless, isn't it?
People who pushed their religion to make everything worse for everyone are especially vile. Screw them and their crappy "holy" texts. I especially abhor these evangelical Christians who don't actually understand the foundations in which Western civilization was built upon, and want to claim their rights and beliefs are attacked when they've historically been the violators. Screw these morons, too. Christians, please put these disingenuous assclowns in their place and stop them from using your beliefs in such a way.
Another thing: stop pretending that atheism and agnosticism are mutually exclusive. No, they ****in' aren't. Atheism and theism are mutually exclusive. Theism and gnosticism deal with belief and knowledge, respectively AND independently. Acting as if identifying as an agnostic will somehow distant yourself from some of the hot-headed atheists that mock religious people doesn't mean you don't have agnostics who act similar to those atheists, or think their position is somehow the most rational position when the reason the bloody word was coined in the first place because it's a method to approach unfamiliar concepts, not just specifically to one thing — like the existence of a god. If someone asks you if you believe in a god, answer truthfully and just say you're an agnostic atheist. "I don't know" doesn't address belief; it addresses knowledge, in which we are all agnostic on.
Politics. I'm not gonna brush around my distaste for right-wingers. I made a coupleof posts about the results of the US 2024 presidential election in the "What's Bothering You?" thread. Voting for an orange buffoon who was charged with 34 felonies and his dimwitted cult of ****ing brainlets denying all the cases and brandishing him as a messiah is easily one of the United States' lowest points in its nearly 250-year history as a racist, sexist, bigoted country that dresses itself in the guise of a nation with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as its motto, but rarely ever actually acts on these principles. **** America. **** anyone gloating about the reactions of people who feared another Trump term, because a vote for Trump WASN'T a ****ing vote for freedom, OR the economy that he's going to botch up even more so than he did in his first term, you stupid ********. You voted for a fascist dictator. You're too ****ing to realize that you voted for fascist dictator because you were already sold on dog-whistles and platitudes. You view him as "God's Chosen" because he reinforced everything you're against. You supported him because he already supports the hypocritical, narrow-minded beliefs that you hold.
And **** anyone who voted third party because they stupidly thought the two major parties weren't at all any different when it came to Gaza — that's virtue signaling BS. Just because you didn't vote for either Harris or Trump, doesn't mean that Palestinian blood isn't on your hands, as well, because a vote for Jill Stein on any other third party candidate indirectly helped no one but either of the other two candidates that had any real chance of winning. American voters should ****ing stop protest voting and learn how electoral mechanics work.
Here some other stuff I want to get out of the way:
Double standards, especially when it comes to sex/gender. It's okay for this specific sex to wear this specific article of clothing, but the other sex should be shunned for wearing the same. So much for gender equality, amirite?
People projecting their own faults onto others instead of recognizing their own status as an unbearable PoS.
The fact that no one seems interested in good faith conversation anymore; don't wanna look into their own arguments to see if they make any sense or not.
People basing their expectations via stereotypes portrayed in the media, and using those expectations to mold their opinion on others.
The stupid tribalism present in every facet of society when we should've moved passed it centuries ago.
Science-illiterate simpletons speaking on science they haven't a ****ing clue about.
Microplastics, and how no one seems to care. Need to make a thread about that before this year ends.
And so on. Hopefully I elucidate on all of these things in due time in separate instances.
This year has done damage to both my mental health, and my immune system. The mental health bit should be pretty clear by now, but I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I won't specify or allude to right now. This was two years ago, in May of 2022. The only reason I'm still alive is because of the medicine I'm financially covered for. I just want to accomplish what I set out to do, then die peacefully once I'm done with this ****** planet filled with ****** people in it. **** everyone. **** the Internet. I'll make a thread about microplastics soon, as I think that's an important health and environmental issue. After that, no one here will see or hear anymore of me until after this ****** year is over. I want to at least spend the last week of it in the comfort of my family and not spoil my mood by being the on the Internet as often as I am.
Hopefully you have the awareness to be able to read your post back and realize how often you call others "stupid." Arrogance isn't cute. Negativity does nothing except weigh *you* down, because others don't like it and tend to disassociate from it. Look for the good around you. As crappy as things can be, and they sure can, there's a lot of good too.
You say "bleep everyone," but I bet at least one person here has been kind to you at some point. If that weren't the case, I really doubt you would've been returning for what- three years now? Hope your health gets better because that can definitely color your worldview.
You don't know me, but I'm always available to anyone who wants to talk. I'm sure there's others willing to extend the same offer. There's some amazing people here. The harm others do will never change that.
I have very complicated feelings about humanity. Occasionally I find myself ranting about all the problems with it in my head. I don't even want to be a human, but that's a different topic.
I don't completely hate humans, but a lot of them only cause problems for others, usually due to how they were raised. Sometimes I wonder why there aren't enough sensible people in the world. It's frightening to realize the current state of things.
Sometimes I think I might be too nice because I will overthink and come to conclusions about why some people act the way they do. Well, at least people that I think aren't intentionally being part of the problem.
I think one of the biggest problems is misinformation. I wish there was a way for less people to be falling for that, but it's unfortunately not possible at the moment.
I know a little bit about microplastics because I got curious once.
If your mind is set on "hating everyone" then the world is never going to become a positive place for you.
I'm trans, gay, and a person of colour. The world sucks for us right now. But how hypocritical, how pointless, and how completely unhelpful it would be if I decided to put negativity back into the world, and to hate and distrust my fellow humans instead of overflowing with love and the desire for the world to become a better place. I absolutely refuse to give into the "I hate people" sentiment; it's childish and unproductive to me. The world is full of good people who ultimately want the best for everyone, it's just unfortunate that the minority is louder.
Essentially, if you want the world to be a better place, you have to make the effort to make it better for those around you.
I had to think about this topic for awhile before replying, but I think that in some ways the world can be a scary and bad place with people who are misinformed... but I also think that is why people need others in order to support them and lead them the right way. We as humans are the only sentient beings on this planet. In the sense that we can freely acquire more knowledge and skills as we grow older. Animals and plants don't have that luxury. They just do things based on instinct or how they're constructed. That is why I believe it's important to still attempt to be happy and have fun when you can, because we only get this opportunity as sentient beings once. And to do otherwise, to spread hate and injustices in the world, is the ultimate disservice to everyone who's ever been kind to or supported you. We're only one species, so why do we spend so much time disliking and hating each other? That is perhaps the question I want answered the most, but will probably never a find an answer to.
It kind of is very easy to fall in the pit trap of negativity and misanthropy. There are definitely many times when I've been immensely disappointed or downright depressed because of the things around me, mainly things I have very little control over. And if there's one thing I have to advice for the smaller things: get off social media.
I've been there, I've done that. I've scrolled through facebook and reddit and twitter for years, always clicking on posts that stir up so much controversy that the only thing I could feel was an immense surge of negativity that it ruins my day. I let myself get all of this to me that I'm unable to be productive. Then I guess at some point I realized that the better way to go about this is to use this energy to do something positive, something productive, instead of sitting in front of my screen typing oodles of arguments. Majority of online arguments lead no where, so why bother?
Last night my uncle was telling me how he and his small team threw a Christmas party for the cancer kids at a local hospital. Gathered some of the hospital staff, organized a celebration, gave gifts away. He said that while we can't do much about long-term cancers, we can make their lives a little brighter each day. And that touched me a lot.
You can't change the weather, but you can adjust your sails.
If you prefer to continue with this line of misanthropy then you're free to do so, but know that it'll only worsen yourself. Choosing to be stuck in a rut for too long will hinder you from being more, which is a shame since we need all hands on deck if we want a positive outcome for us and many others.
I feel that social media can paint a negative picture of humanity in the sense that we see the absolute worst side of so many. It's not healthy and I can only stomach so much of it before my own sanity is tested.
I had a negative experience on this forum of all places, yet I carried forward because I'd like to think it doesn't represent everybody here. Humanity is complex and like any public space, we share it with all types of people.
In a world now dominated with interconnectivity, it's also important to find our own comforts that we can retreat into. It's difficult when we can tap and connect at a moments notice.
Coming from a person who doesn't really have friends and suffered major depression, I still find myself interested in the sheer scope of different personalities that we inhabit our planet with.
Hey, I can relate to an extent, I have my moments where I think "I hate people". I have a lot of those moments actually. Deep down though I do not hate people, and I don't think you do either! Because while a lot of people are dumb and a lot of people say and do terrible things, there are also a lot of smart people and people who say and do amazing things.
If it weren't for people, we wouldn't have made all these amazing scientific discoveries, we wouldn't have made all this amazing art and music, we wouldn't have all this amazing education and technology. We wouldn't have a wide variety of delectable food. We wouldn't have video games or movies or tv shows or Youtube or any of that. I think it's helpful to think about all the great things that humans have done when I am feeling down about humanity.
I think it is unfair to paint people with a broad brush, even if it's tempting, even if it really does feel like one group of people are truly all the same, but that's just not the way it is. It's not so black and white. Thinking this way can take a toll on you, and can potentially dehumanize groups of people to you. My dad and my grandma are complete polar opposites to eachother when it comes to American political views, and yet they are both completely bitter and jaded. They're not who they used to be. They have let their views completely consume them. It's frustrating.. Things could be much better for sure, but that doesn't mean you should let it drag you down.
I will say though, I agree that it might be a good idea to stay off social media, especially Reddit. Or at least stick to maybe 4 or 5 very niche subreddits, ones that have nothing to do with politics or anything remotely controversial/negative. I logged out of Reddit over a year ago and I feel much more mentally healthy.
I will just come out and say I’m outright a misanthrope too but I have to find the people worth my time. Honestly I might get where you’re coming from better than a lot of people on this forum. Ever since I was young I had some really aggressive mental tendencies and I do my best not to act on them. Sometimes I just get tired and it comes out to specific people. Most of the time it comes out as me isolating myself so people don’t end up seeing it… it doesn’t really come out anyway but I get afraid of hurting others with it. I don’t like people unless I see a reason to. I’m also pretty damn introverted.
Far as I’m concerned I don’t even have a real dad who honestly tried. He provided us with monetary needs but that's about it. He’s a bad person who tries to fawn when we call out his crap. He’s increasingly bigoted and doesn’t care that he gave me PTSD. The rest of my family essentially left me to die as a constant witness of domestic emotional abuse so I didn’t grow up with someone to love or attach to or something.
Going out, talking with people in general, doing a lot of things that should be leisure for me feel like work. And I think society overall is screwed. But I also think what you’re posting here is just self-destructive. I’m probably overstepping for this forum but this whole thread is anyway- I don’t mean this as an insult but if you aren’t in therapy for these feelings you should try it. I have. I’m still here with most of the same problems and it doesn’t fix the external things but it’s something and there are things you have to confront about yourself and change. I’m upset because I’ve already done so much of it and still feel this way, but if you ruminate on these thoughts and don’t try to move on, you’re not actually processing them imo. And then what’s the point in putting all your energy somewhere negative. Make something for yourself. It’s not going to make up for all those problems and there’s a lot you just can’t make for yourself in current society but it’s what your life is for.
I wish I could be a shapeshifter and live in a private home with my partner for hundreds of years painting and only step out and travel the world at my whim. I wish people were not just concerned about humans with bird flu and society were set up in a way we could still really protect nature at large but. Well. I just have to find the closest ways to indulge my worldview lmao. Just being frustrates me a lot and tbh I’m talking about myself which would probably piss you off more but it’s for the sake of trying to be relatable. Life sucks but you only get one anyway so do the best you can with it.
Nihilism: Everything is meaningless. Versus Absurdism: Don't get depressed because every thing is meaningless, rejoice in this fact and find your own meaning and purpose in a meaningless and purposeless world.
There is a large difference between actual individual people and a mental collage of negative snippets of humanity smashed as one entity.
Have a wonderful time with your family this month. Stay warm and hydrated.
As someone who has been in a very similar place to you, i understand. if you truly do hate people, that is how you feel. whether or not you try and change that notion, that is how you feel now. I am not going to tell you that humanity is better than you realise, nor am i going to tell you that your hatred is justified. what i will tell you is to not let it bother you.
Don't let it define you. if you see the bad sides of humanity, of course it will bother you. if you are suffering at the hands of others, of course it will bother you. if you define yourself as a misanthrope, it will consume you. it is very consuming to hate.
If you are treated kindly, you will most likely be pleased. if you are treated poorly, you will most likely be displeased. if you are busy hating humanity, you will not notice anything other than cruelty. even if you do not realise it.
humanity has given us all enough reasons to be misanthropes, but do not focus on that. hate humanity when it is necessary. defining yourself as someone who unconditionally hates humanity will consume you, as well as eat away at your wellbeing.
2024 has been an incredibly awful year — definitely worse than 2023. I don't want to delve too deep into my personal life right now, though I do have some things to say about my health (both physical and mental).
Just to start out, I'm sorry 2024 has been so awful for you. I really do hope that you can improve mentally, physically, and emotionally in the years to come. I know healing doesn't happen overnight.
I feel like this is the first misstep. When you make this your mindset, that humanity is abhorrent, then all you're going to see is the vile things. People, society, the world, are not black-and-white. People who are predominantly good can do bad things and people who are predominantly bad can do good things. And there's also that area of grey where there's so many reasons why something is both just and unjust.
The stupidity and lack of self-awareness, especially when it comes to politics, religion, and science denial because of the former two. People being too stupid to know what shape the Earth is, and buying into other dumb conspiracy theories, such as chemtrails being real (they aren't; they're just contrails and these same dum-dums have no clue how aerodynamics work, anyway). Side note: there is no such thing as a "true" conspiracy theory. If it's true, it's NOT a conspiracy "theory", anymore, you dumb****.
The word "theory" has multiple meanings, but none of them, to my understanding, contradict that a theory can also be the truth.
noun A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
noun The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice.
noun A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.
noun Abstract reasoning; speculation.
noun A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment.
noun An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.
While theories can be and often are incorrect, the terms "theory" and "truth" are not mutually exclusive.
I saw someone on Reddit a month ago with this dumb statement, and it was written when lockdown was still active. Goddamn, Redditors are some of the stupidest people on the Internet. **** Reddit. It encompasses EVERY SINGLE THING I hate about the Internet in a single website.
Though I agree with you on that reddit is overall a bad site with a fair amount of misinformed and, quite frankly, stupid people, there are also a lot of very intelligent people there. And although it's not exactly what you said later in your post, you seem to be against stereotypes and generalisations, correct me if I'm wrong. It's just that you seem to be generalising a whole lot in this post. Don't get me wrong, we absolutely can't exclude stereotypes and generalisation from our speech, it would be almost impossible to communicate anything if we had to take into account every single individual, but we should respect and acknowledge that there are exceptions and also huge portions of communities that aren't like the rest, and it's just the one that is worse is advertised and remembered more.
Don't even get me started on conservatives denying climate change caused by human activity, but that the government somehow has the power to control tornadoes. Christ. Human stupidity truly is limitless, isn't it?
Yeah, honestly, I agree with you on this. But believe me, it's not just conservatives. I know a few liberal and left-leaning people who also don't believe in it. Humanity's stupidity is limitless, but we can also learn a whole lot, and we do need to focus on positives sometimes, like that a lot of people are making an effort to improve.
People who pushed their religion to make everything worse for everyone are especially vile. Screw them and their crappy "holy" texts. I especially abhor these evangelical Christians who don't actually understand the foundations in which Western civilization was built upon, and want to claim their rights and beliefs are attacked when they've historically been the violators. Screw these morons, too. Christians, please put these disingenuous assclowns in their place and stop them from using your beliefs in such a way.
Yes, Christianity has often stuck in its nose and wiggled its way into places unwelcomed, and has often done harm (I won't deny that), it had improved the country where I'm from, Ireland (not me casually doxxing myself for a post lmaoo). In ancient times, like druid times AD 400~, many sacrifices of animals was practiced, but with the coming of Christianity, those sacrifices of living beings were stopped (not immediately, but over time). I think that's a pretty good thing. Also, the Catholic Church in Ireland is the reason for the education of the country in modern(ish. 1700s-1800s I believe) times. When the penal laws were put into place forbidding the education of Catholic children and adults, the clergy (who were also very much not supported by the English/Protestant State, often being killed for being Catholic [I do suppose that counts as Christianity, protestants, causing problems contributing to your point] ) would teach and educate children in hedge schools, held in barns, hedges, caves, and anywhere else they could be without attracting too much attention. Obviously it wasn't just clergy teaching, it was also lay teachers, but they were a largely contributing factor to education and literacy in Ireland. The Church also in more recent times, eg after the abolition of the penal laws, opened and paid for schools, leading Ireland to have an amazingly high percentage of literacy and education. I can't speak for other countries, of course as I don't know enough about them, but Christianity (when it wasn't politically motivated protestantism) played a huge role in making Ireland such a successful and, though I wouldn't say flourishing because of course our government never fails to lead us into even more insurmountable debt by the year when they "try" to solve it, lovely country it is today. If you think I've focused too much on Catholic Christianity, then that was the point, because Protestant Christianity, while good and okay today, was used and founded (the church of England, I mean, not Martin Luther's movement. The one made by Henry VIII) on not so great things. So it really depends. I do agree with you though, that Christians have to actually follow what they preach and believe, but it's most likely that no one will be able to stop these Christians, because they're people, and it's not just a trait unique to Christian people. It's something that anyone of any background could do.
Another thing: stop pretending that atheism and agnosticism are mutually exclusive. No, they ****in' aren't. Atheism and theism are mutually exclusive. Theism and gnosticism deal with belief and knowledge, respectively AND independently. Acting as if identifying as an agnostic will somehow distant yourself from some of the hot-headed atheists that mock religious people doesn't mean you don't have agnostics who act similar to those atheists, or think their position is somehow the most rational position when the reason the bloody word was coined in the first place because it's a method to approach unfamiliar concepts, not just specifically to one thing — like the existence of a god. If someone asks you if you believe in a god, answer truthfully and just say you're an agnostic atheist. "I don't know" doesn't address belief; it addresses knowledge, in which we are all agnostic on.
I'd like to thank you for explaining this, actually. You put it very clearly and well. Belief and knowledge are two different things, and should be used in conjunction with each other.
Politics. I'm not gonna brush around my distaste for right-wingers. I made a coupleof posts about the results of the US 2024 presidential election in the "What's Bothering You?" thread. Voting for an orange buffoon who was charged with 34 felonies and his dimwitted cult of ****ing brainlets denying all the cases and brandishing him as a messiah is easily one of the United States' lowest points in its nearly 250-year history as a racist, sexist, bigoted country that dresses itself in the guise of a nation with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as its motto, but rarely ever actually acts on these principles. **** America. **** anyone gloating about the reactions of people who feared another Trump term, because a vote for Trump WASN'T a ****ing vote for freedom, OR the economy that he's going to botch up even more so than he did in his first term, you stupid ********. You voted for a fascist dictator. You're too ****ing to realize that you voted for fascist dictator because you were already sold on dog-whistles and platitudes. You view him as "God's Chosen" because he reinforced everything you're against. You supported him because he already supports the hypocritical, narrow-minded beliefs that you hold.
And **** anyone who voted third party because they stupidly thought the two major parties weren't at all any different when it came to Gaza — that's virtue signaling BS. Just because you didn't vote for either Harris or Trump, doesn't mean that Palestinian blood isn't on your hands, as well, because a vote for Jill Stein or any other third party candidate indirectly helped no one but either of the other two candidates that had any real chance of winning. American voters should ****ing stop protest voting and learn how electoral mechanics work.
I'm way too tired and way too uninformed to speak on the politics of a country that isn't mine. I don't think third party votes are bad, I think they're good in some ways. But how do you know it's virtue signalling and not just those people's actual views? Many could view this post as vitrue signalling. I find people often throw that term around when they don't want to credit people who do good things.
Here some other stuff I want to get out of the way:
Double standards, especially when it comes to sex/gender. It's okay for this specific sex to wear this specific article of clothing, but the other sex should be shunned for wearing the same. So much for gender equality, amirite?
People projecting their own faults onto others instead of recognizing their own status as an unbearable PoS.
I hate to sound rude, but that's how this post comes across. It comes across as you just pointing out everyone else's faults and failings while completing ignoring that we all have them; me, you, everyone. I'm not saying this is the point of your post or this is how it seems to everyone, but that's how it comes across to me. It's just human nature, and if we're going to hate people for being people then I don't think we can be happy at all. Hatred for humanity doesn't change anything in the world. It only fills it with more hatred and bad.
The fact that no one seems interested in good faith conversation anymore; don't wanna look into their own arguments to see if they make any sense or not.
That's the thing lol. It seems like no one wants one. But let's be real; when has anyone wanted to be corrected on their "foolproof and gospel-truth" arguments?
Tribalism is part of human nature. If it was something that could be so easily gotten rid of, I'm sure it would have happened already. Again, it seems that you're faulting people and society for being the way they've been since the beginning of time. I don't know exactly what you mean by it being stupid; it's community, it's pride of being who you are and who you are associated with. What's wrong with loving and wishing to protect the people you love? The country you're from? It's acceptance and love of your country, community, family, or friends, regardless of their shortcomings and faults. What's wrong with that?
Science-illiterate simpletons speaking on science they haven't a ****ing clue about.
Microplastics, and how no one seems to care. Need to make a thread about that before this year ends.
And so on. Hopefully I elucidate on all of these things in due time in separate instances.
This year has done damage to both my mental health, and my immune system. The mental health bit should be pretty clear by now, but I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I won't specify or allude to right now. This was two years ago, in May of 2022. The only reason I'm still alive is because of the medicine I'm financially covered for. I just want to accomplish what I set out to do, then die peacefully once I'm done with this ****** planet filled with ****** people in it. **** everyone. **** the Internet. I'll make a thread about microplastics soon, as I think that's an important health and environmental issue. After that, no one here will see or hear anymore of me until after this ****** year is over. I want to at least spend the last week of it in the comfort of my family and not spoil my mood by being the on the Internet as often as I am.
I understand that your poor health really doesn't help the hate and dislike you have for people. It makes it worse. I can only hope that some respite and a break away from the internet can boost your mood. The media likes to only portray the bad parts of life. It's best to stay away from it, especially if it takes a toll on your mental health. I wish you the best for 2025, and the best for your life. I hope your outlook on life can become more positive, and that you're surrounded with people who love and support you in your life. I hope my post didn't come across as rude or something.
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Not me spending the last hour or so writing that whole reply
@lasagne_of_death, I admire the crap out of you. You are so freaking wise beyond your years! In a time where people older than you choose to act like children, here you are, speaking your mind so eloquently.
@lasagne_of_death, I admire the crap out of you. You are so freaking wise beyond your years! In a time where people older than you choose to act like children, here you are, speaking your mind so eloquently.
A tl:dr statement or summary paragraph would help navigate the monolith of text. Brevity is the soul of wit. It is a bit condescending. The tone doesn't help, and think I see some strawman fallacies.
I read some of the replies here. I spent a great deal of time contemplating how I should respond to each one of them, and reflecting on my OP. No surprise I have a lot to say, but let’s start here:
Excuse you, [insert preferred honorific], but this is a General Discussion sub-forum — something that every themed forum on the Internet has. Go ahead. Post this very same thing in this thread as an experiment and see how people will respond.
There is a large difference between actual individual people and a mental collage of negative snippets of humanity smashed as one entity.
Have a wonderful time with your family this month. Stay warm and hydrated.
“Actual individual people” often reinforce those negative attributes of humanity when they groupthink. This is a consequence of people being social animals that depend on one another. That includes ideologies and such, so this undercuts your argument. Regardless, thanks for the remark at the end.
I should believe that I do — I was the one who typed it in the first place. And no. Calling people out for the many, many, many STUPID things they say and do (especially the ones that do harm to other people) ≠ elevating yourself above other people based on IQ. It’s pretty much a knee-jerk reaction to respond to people who behave in such a manner. If you want to take it as a form of condescension, then fine, but I bet you’ve also done it at some point as well.
Negativity does nothing except weigh *you* down, because others don't like it and tend to disassociate from it. Look for the good around you. As crappy as things can be, and they sure can, there's a lot of good too.
This is something I need to address with a few others here because I think it’s the wrong type of response for cynics such as myself.
No, it doesn’t. If this is how a person honestly feels, it’s good to get it out instead of bottling it up or feigning positivity when it’s insincere — that’s even worse. I don’t really care if people are disillusioned about my negativity. When I write about how I feel, it’s for me; not for anyone else. It doesn’t make my feelings any less valid, and since there are people who feel the way that I do because of how crappy the world is, not everyone is going to be turned off by said negativity, either. That there is “good” in the world doesn’t make the bad go away, especially when that bad gets thrown in your face on a daily basis.
You say "bleep everyone," but I bet at least one person here has been kind to you at some point. If that weren't the case, I really doubt you would've been returning for what- three years now? Hope your health gets better because that can definitely color your worldview.
“**** everyone” is just an expression that isn’t even supposed to be taken seriously because it’s mostly used to convey frustration. What is your point here? Someone treating me in a specific manner has very little bearing on me returning to TBT. I acknowledge kindness and do what I can to show my gratitude, but that doesn’t even factor in as to why I still return to this site from time to time, and frankly, my activity and my reasons for being here are my own business. Also, if you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly the most active person here, anyway.
I have very complicated feelings about humanity. Occasionally I find myself ranting about all the problems with it in my head. I don't even want to be a human, but that's a different topic.
I don't completely hate humans, but a lot of them only cause problems for others, usually due to how they were raised. Sometimes I wonder why there aren't enough sensible people in the world. It's frightening to realize the current state of things.
Sometimes I think I might be too nice because I will overthink and come to conclusions about why some people act the way they do. Well, at least people that I think aren't intentionally being part of the problem.
I think one of the biggest problems is misinformation. I wish there was a way for less people to be falling for that, but it's unfortunately not possible at the moment.
I know a little bit about microplastics because I got curious once.
Misinformation is definitely a huge issue, but it largely stems from confirmation bias, lack of critical skills, laziness in not researching and fact-checking information, and just plain denial. None of these are excuses; it’s just people who are interested in their self-crafted narratives and the status quo, and not being concerned with what can actually be considered true. There’s also people just being hopelessly ill-informed for much of the same reasons, even when they literally hold the access of knowledge in the palm of their hands.
I had to think about this topic for awhile before replying, but I think that in some ways the world can be a scary and bad place with people who are misinformed... but I also think that is why people need others in order to support them and lead them the right way.
The world’s been that way since humans have existed. Since people are social beings, it’s only natural that we support each other. As for leading them the “right way”... what exactly is the “right way”? It’s a debate that’s been conflicted over for millennia.
We as humans are the only sentient beings on this planet. In the sense that we can freely acquire more knowledge and skills as we grow older.
It’s very common for people to confuse “sentience” (being able to feel and perceive) with sapience. Unambiguously, we are sapient (it’s in the name “homo sapien”, after all), but I don’t think we can rule out every other animal as “non-sapient” especially when we have dolphins, for example, who have demonstration exceptional cognition and self-awareness to the point that it can reasonably be postulated that these cetaceans are such.
Animals and plants don't have that luxury. They just do things based on instinct or how they're constructed.
Firstly, this “luxury” humans have often goes unnoticed because not many people seem to want to know anymore than they think they should and don’t actively pursue knowledge. Not many are interested in skills unless they’re relevant to a specific career that suits their own desires. They don’t even realize what they have until it’s taken away from them. All animals have instinctual behavior, including humans (which are animals, but human vanity keeps man from recognizing himself as one by his own definition). Not all animals behave purely on instinct, and instinct alone, though. Again, refer to dolphins and recognize just how cognitive these sea mammals truly are. Let’s not forget our evolutionary cousin — the chimpanzee. Even an octopus is capable of behaving by observing what another octopus is doing and mimicking it. I could go on, but I have other responses to get to, so I’ll put this tangent aside.
That is why I believe it's important to still attempt to be happy and have fun when you can, because we only get this opportunity as sentient beings once. And to do otherwise, to spread hate and injustices in the world, is the ultimate disservice to everyone who's ever been kind to or supported you.
“Attempt to be happy”? Shouldn’t you have a valid reason to be happy, rather than try to force a smile, even in the face of dreadful circumstances? Expressing my distaste for how people are (and by extent, how the world is) is the difference between someone doing what you described and me just venting out my frustrations.
We're only one species, so why do we spend so much time disliking and hating each other? That is perhaps the question I want answered the most, but will probably never a find an answer to.
Ditto. That there might never be a clear answer to this conundrum and I’ll have to just be satisfied with speculative half-answers doesn’t make me any less aggravated about this fact.
There’s no mindset out there in which I’ll ever view this place as positive, no matter how idealistic said mindset.
I'm trans, gay, and a person of colour. The world sucks for us right now. But how hypocritical, how pointless, and how completely unhelpful it would be if I decided to put negativity back into the world, and to hate and distrust my fellow humans instead of overflowing with love and the desire for the world to become a better place.
Blindly loving and trusting people is a good way for you to be taken advantage of. There aren’t many people out there with your best interests at heart. Just hating everyone isn’t conducive to a better world (which is why I’m not fully convinced that I am a misanthrope and why I denied genuinely being one for so long), but I’m not gonna just trust people, especially complete strangers. Not without good reason.
I absolutely refuse to give into the "I hate people" sentiment; it's childish and unproductive to me. The world is full of good people who ultimately want the best for everyone. It's just unfortunate that the minority is louder.
I find this quixotic assessment equally naïve and dangerous. Firstly, different people have different ideas of what’s “best” for everyone, and that “best” might not actually serve specific groups of people. Secondly, assuming we both have the same ideal “best for everyone” headspace, I know this to be false because we’d otherwise live in a different world from the one we’re living in right now if that were the case. No, the world isn’t full of good people, since a sizable number of the population want to ensure everything in their power to invalidate the human rights of marginalized groups of people. The human rights of trans people. The human rights of gay people. The human rights of PoC, which is what we both are. How could you possibly make such a statement when it contradicts the very first two sentences in your post?
Also, people base their sentiments on their experiences. If you’re going to criticize an extreme attitude, such as misanthropy, fine. The fact that people feel this way doesn’t make their feelings any less valid than the absurd notion that those wanting the best for everyone somehow represent the “majority”. Sometimes, it’s best to let it out, rather than pretending “everything’s alright” when that’s not true, and it can actually be beneficial in some cases. 2024 was garbage. Half of this decade so far has been garbage. I created this thread to vent, and was glad to finally get this off my chest.
Essentially, if you want the world to be a better place, you have to make the effort to make it better for those around you.
I’m not too far gone that I disagree with this, but I’m still going to call out those who clearly are doing everything they can to make it an even crappier place. Harshly, if I’m particularly in that mood.
I will just come out and say I’m outright a misanthrope too but I have to find the people worth my time.
I wish I could be a shapeshifter and live in a private home with my partner for hundreds of years painting and only step out and travel the world at my whim. I wish people were not just concerned about humans with bird flu and society were set up in a way we could still really protect nature at large but. Well. I just have to find the closest ways to indulge my worldview lmao. Just being frustrates me a lot and tbh I’m talking about myself which would probably piss you off more but it’s for the sake of trying to be relatable. Life sucks but you only get one anyway so do the best you can with it.
Nihilism: Everything is meaningless. Versus Absurdism: Don't get depressed because every thing is meaningless, rejoice in this fact and find your own meaning and purpose in a meaningless and purposeless world.
It’s the possibility that I might be misanthropic, and just hiding out for a long time, or edging closer to it recently. I just needed to clarify, as I make sure to phrase my words carefully when I post.
Honestly I might get where you’re coming from better than a lot of people on this forum.
You might be right. When I’m in the mood that I was in when I made this thread, the last thing I want to be told is to be “more positive”. I told a relative of mine that I don’t expect this new year to be any better than the last. Response? “Don’t say that; always stay positive.” This is hollow and insensitive. It basically just disregards how others feel, as if just telling them to be positive will somehow make people like myself receptive to this false positivity.
Going out, talking with people in general, doing a lot of things that should be leisure for me feel like work.
As someone who is also introverted, I don’t fancy socializing with people all that much. Family is different, but I’m still admittedly standoffish at times (not hostile; just aloof).
And I think society overall is screwed. But I also think what you’re posting here is just self-destructive. I’m probably overstepping for this forum but this whole thread is anyway- I don’t mean this as an insult but if you aren’t in therapy for these feelings you should try it. I have. I’m still here with most of the same problems and it doesn’t fix the external things but it’s something and there are things you have to confront about yourself and change.
My last therapy session was in May if I recall. Since these therapy sessions take a lot of time to prepare for, I don’t get much of them. If nothing else, therapy could be a better outlet to voice my contempt for a lot of the things I mentioned. Frankly, I don’t expect it to help quell these negative feelings that I hold, but at least it’s one of the few instances where I’m comfortable expressing personal thoughts out loud. Someone who at least makes an effort to be understanding. This thread, admittedly, could’ve been written to be less like something an edgy teenager would post, and if that is what you mean by “overstepping”.
I wish I could be a shapeshifter and live in a private home with my partner for hundreds of years painting and only step out and travel the world at my whim. I wish people were not just concerned about humans with bird flu and society were set up in a way we could still really protect nature at large but. Well. I just have to find the closest ways to indulge my worldview lmao. Just being frustrates me a lot and tbh I’m talking about myself which would probably piss you off more but it’s for the sake of trying to be relatable. Life sucks but you only get one anyway so do the best you can with it.
On the contrary, I’m actually glad someone’s taking the effort to relate, rather than preaching about looking at a snowstorm and deluding oneself that it’s sunny outside, so thank you. I also wish I could live as I do without depending on other humans for needs, but then I wouldn’t be human in the first place. Even introverts and other like-minded people are more codependent on services, resources, and such provided by other people just to survive — more than we like to admit.
Sure. Life is ultimately what you make of it, but what I want to make of it conflicts heavily with how it treats me.
Just to start out, I'm sorry 2024 has been so awful for you. I really do hope that you can improve mentally, physically, and emotionally in the years to come. I know healing doesn't happen overnight.
Again, it seems that you're faulting people and society for being the way they've been since the beginning of time. I don't know exactly what you mean by it being stupid; it's community, it's pride of being who you are and who you are associated with. What's wrong with loving and wishing to protect the people you love? The country you're from? It's acceptance and love of your country, community, family, or friends, regardless of their shortcomings and faults. What's wrong with that?
I understand that your poor health really doesn't help the hate and dislike you have for people. It makes it worse. I can only hope that some respite and a break away from the internet can boost your mood. The media likes to only portray the bad parts of life. It's best to stay away from it, especially if it takes a toll on your mental health. I wish you the best for 2025, and the best for your life. I hope your outlook on life can become more positive, and that you're surrounded with people who love and support you in your life. I hope my post didn't come across as rude or something.
I actually had high hopes that 2024 would be the gateway year of these new miserable ‘20s. This broken mirror from the previous New Year’s might’ve been foreshadowing:
When you make this your mindset, that humanity is abhorrent, then all you're going to see is the vile things. People, society, the world, are not black-and-white. People who are predominantly good can do bad things and people who are predominantly bad can do good things. And there's also that area of grey where there's so many reasons why something is both just and unjust.
People can (and do) fall short on their own moral convictions at times, but at a certain point, if a person consistently behaves in a way that’s out of their “expected” character, then they aren’t “predominately good/bad”, anymore; at best, they’re fickle, and at worst — liars. Keep in mind that what I described in my OP are matters in which people have had decades — even centuries to introspect and change course. This species rarely ever learns from the mistakes of its past, so it makes me wonder why we still classify ourselves as homosapiens.
The word "theory" has multiple meanings, but none of them, to my understanding, contradict that a theory can also be the truth.
noun A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
noun The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice.
noun A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.
noun Abstract reasoning; speculation.
noun A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment.
noun An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.
While theories can be and often are incorrect, the terms "theory" and "truth" are not mutually exclusive.
Yes, theory does have multiple meanings. You used a dictionary to extrapolate a conspiracy theory which is universally agreed to be speculation arrived at with limited, insufficient evidence, reasoning when more probable explanations exist, to other, separate theories that are defined differently from a conspiratorial one. Only the fourth and last definitions of the word could be accurate to what a conspiracy theory is. There are different theories in the multitude of scientific fields, the fine arts and music, mathematics, and even the court of law, all of which are, themselves, theories defined and used for different purposes. Theory and truth not being mutually exclusive doesn’t give any credence to conspiracy theories being true. Again, if a conspiracy turns out to be true, we just call a conspiracy, not a conspiracy theory — since “theory” in this instance is a colloquialism, which is exactly what two of those definitions listed represent.
Though I agree with you on that reddit is overall a bad site with a fair amount of misinformed and, quite frankly, stupid people, there are also a lot of very intelligent people there.
I don’t doubt that there are; I just think they’re in short supply. Also, I’m not a regular at Reddit (no way in hell that would ever happen). It’s just easy to come across some posting alarming idiotic content and how search engines highlight these types of posts. I hate that Reddit is basically “Frontpage of the Web”, so when I come across someone saying something foolish, I feel compelled to see the idiot get reprimanded for saying that dumb thing, rather it’s through downvotes or (more satisfyingly) replies from others. Fortunately, I tend to do the same thing I do with GameFAQs, NeoGaf, ResetEra, and other Internet defects that should’ve been purged a long time ago: I avoid them like the plague. Seriously, I try to avert my gaze just to avoid looking at the results that show a Reddit thread. Of course, not EVERYTHING about the place is *****, but I just can’t be bothered to check which subreddits are worth visiting or not.
And although it's not exactly what you said later in your post, you seem to be against stereotypes and generalisations, correct me if I'm wrong. It's just that you seem to be generalising a whole lot in this post. Don't get me wrong — we absolutely can't exclude stereotypes and generalisation from our speech; it would be almost impossible to communicate anything if we had to take into account every single individual, but we should respect and acknowledge that there are exceptions and also huge portions of communities that aren't like the rest, and it's just the one that is worse is advertised and remembered more.
I made it clear that I’m strictly against stereotypes, but not generalizations. I agree that it’s unrealistic for people to not fall victim to generalizations. We’re herd apes; it’s unavoided with social animals like us. We should still at least make an effort to do less stereotyping, because while both terms often go hand-and-hand, there is a crucial difference between the two.
Generalizations are neutral, and can, at times, be useful, since these are broad statements derived from observed characteristics and other traits of a particular group. Stereotypes, on the other hand, are often oversimplified fixations on an individual level, focusing on traits a person was born with, like their skin color, sex, etc. I can’t find a reason why stereotypes are important because I haven’t found a scenario in which they aren’t harmful to people.
These “exceptions” can be influential to the point of forming their own splinter faction to counter the opposing community, and grow larger by allowing more converts into their circle. Suddenly, these few “exceptions” now have a “huge portion” of their own.
It's not just conservatives. I know a few liberal and left-leaning people who also don't believe in it. Humanity's stupidity is limitless, but we can also learn a whole lot, and we do need to focus on positives sometimes, like that a lot of people are making an effort to improve.
The blame still squarely rests on conservatives, as they still support leaders responsible for making this uphill battle of preserving the environment harder than it has to be, regardless who on what party goes against what their political ideology stands for. I know there are people across the entire political spectrum that deny climate change for stupid, irresponsible reasons. And I know there are scores of people who simply don’t care enough to even look into it.
Yes, while Christianity has often stuck in its nose and wiggled its way into places unwelcomed, and has often done harm (I won't deny that), it had improved the country where I'm from, Ireland.
In ancient times, like druid times AD 400~, many sacrifices of animals was practiced, but with the coming of Christianity, those sacrifices of living beings were stopped (not immediately, but over time). I think that's a pretty good thing.
Martinmas still maintained a grotesque practice of sacrificing birds, sheep, pigs (latter two specifically being butchered) up until at least the 19th century. More than an entire millennium of Christianity’s presence in Ireland. Let’s not forget the blood letting — Irish folk marking their houses with the blood of the animals they slaughtered. What about Lughnasadh? There are records dating back to the 1800s of bull sacrifices.
Essentially, I’m not suggesting people would stop barbaric practices of a religion to adopt equally barbaric practices of another religion once that religion becomes dominated, and while Ireland no longer partaking in animal sacrifices is a good thing, one of the holidays celebrates a saint who converted to Christianity at a young age, yet for more than a thousand, his celebration had people making Crosses with the blood of the animals they sacrificed. Just how much is Christianity responsible for ending these savage rituals?
Even concerning that, Christianity honestly has a pretty poor tracking record when it comes to human stewardship with the planet and all its non-human inhabitants. It’s to the point that many Christians have, and still, try to justify their alleged human dominion over everything else with their holy scripture. The religion’s theology can actually offer some unique perspective on animal rights; instead, it satisfies the inflated human ego of supposed superiority.
Also, the Catholic Church in Ireland is the reason for the education of the country in modern(ish. 1700s-1800s I believe) times. When the penal laws were put into place forbidding the education of Catholic children and adults, the clergy (who were also very much not supported by the English/Protestant State, often being killed for being Catholic [I do suppose that counts as Christianity, protestants, causing problems contributing to your point] ) would teach and educate children in hedge schools, held in barns, hedges, caves, and anywhere else they could be without attracting too much attention. Obviously it wasn't just clergy teaching; it was also lay teachers, but they were a largely contributing factor to education and literacy in Ireland. The Church also in more recent times, eg after the abolition of the penal laws, opened and paid for schools, leading Ireland to have an amazingly high percentage of literacy and education.
So, what we have here is a denomination discriminating against another denomination, both belonging to the same religion, in an effort to deny others education. This seems ironic, given the amount of Catholic indoctrination I’ve heard regarding Irish education.
Take this account of an atheist Irish YouTuber who goes by the alias “TheMagicSkeptic”. Give this one a listen. Here how his own personal school experience as both a student and a teacher was in both yours and his native country. How he had to relocate because he didn’t want to preach a doctrine he didn’t believe in. Hear him out before you make a response to this particular argument:
With that said, I can’t deny the statistics regarding Ireland’s academic performance. It actually does boost high percentage levels, and I’m willing to concede that some good came out of Catholicism.
If you think I've focused too much on Catholic Christianity, then that was the point, because Protestant Christianity, while good and okay today, was used and founded (the church of England, I mean, not Martin Luther's movement. The one made by Henry VIII) on not so great things. So it really depends.
I highly doubt any sect of Christianity is “good or okay” today. The fact that Christians don’t have a “BURN WITCHES!!!” hard-on anymore doesn’t make Protestant Christianity (or any other Christian denomination, really) any less morally repugnant. Christianity, like pretty much EVERY RELIGION, invents problems, shifts the blame on minorities, sees issues where they don’t exist, and propagates and nourishes falsehoods. It’s true today as it was when it first started.
I do agree with you though, that Christians have to actually follow what they preach and believe, but it's most likely that no one will be able to stop these Christians, because they're people, and it's not just a trait unique to Christian people. It's something that anyone of any background could do.
What line of reasoning is this? Because people don’t live up to their word, it warrants accepting this hypocrisy, rather than try to get this behavior in check? Pointing out that this hypocrisy isn’t exclusive to Christianity misses the point that the religion encourages its followers to proselytize — evangelize as many people as they can, regardless of their methods; regardless of the possibility that they could be wrong. Religious proselytization isn’t unique to Christianity, but it, along with Islam, are the most obnoxious about this. It’s even worse because these two are the world's largest religions, yet somehow, BILLIONS of people aren’t enough apparently.
I'd like to thank you for explaining this, actually. You put it very clearly and well. Belief and knowledge are two different things, and should be used in conjunction with each other.
I feel this should be discussed more whenever someone tries to misconstruct both of these paradigms, as knowledge is considered a subset of belief. You don’t need to know a god doesn’t exist to consider yourself an atheist, so people should stop acting as if identifying as an agnostic is somehow the most rational position when it’s unrelated to simply a question of belief.
I don't think third party votes are bad. I think they're good in some ways. But how do you know it's virtue signalling and not just those people's actual views?
Third-party votes aren’t inherently virtue signaling. It becomes virtue signaling when you laud about not partaking in people from foreign nations dying under one of two candidates you didn’t vote for because you wasted it on a third-party candidate that had NO CHANCE IN HELL winning, anyway. That’s when voting for a third party becomes virtue signaling. I can’t be sure that those are even their real views, because they vote in a stupid way that contradicts their own moral framework and has the potential to ruin elections. Elections in a country which has a two-party system that punishes votes that don’t go into the major parties in said country. Elections in which certain political entities (like swing states) can greatly determine the outcome of an election.
You don’t get to pretend your vote wasn’t an indirect “vote for Gazan genocide” when you voted for Jill Stein, and guilt-trip other people who voted because of issues outside of Gaza. Don’t tell people who voted for Harris that they don’t care about women because thousands of Gazan women died. Abortion is a serious issue and denying access to abortion IS ****ING VIOLENCE! Roe v. Wade being overturned did an untold amount of damage to mothers, would-be mothers, and mothers who weren't ready to have children.
Many could view this post as vitrue signalling. I find people often throw that term around when they don't want to credit people who do good things.
Not if they knew what the phrase actually means, they wouldn’t. This was a jumbled together rant about facets of humanity that I abhor. I didn’t make this thread because I expected society to change its course after it was published, because it was only intended to serve as a form of closure of the year. How angsty I was throughout it. I was never trying to offer any kind of expression to demonstrate my “good” character. I know that this sea of negativity that I’m swimming in obviously doesn’t endear me to a lot of people here, and I may have even lost a follower because of it (no real loss, since I don’t care who follows me or not; I'm not that active here, anyway, so don't expect much content if do want to follow me).
I can’t say much about your other sentence because it just seems typical for people who’ve heard of a fallacy but never bothered to look up what it actually meant to sound as if they understand what they’re talking about.
I hate to sound rude, but that's how this post comes across. It comes across as you just pointing out everyone else's faults and failings while completing ignoring that we all have them; me, you, everyone. I'm not saying this is the point of your post or this is how it seems to everyone, but that's how it comes across to me.
I can’t control how other people will interpret my words. All I can do is reiterate them in a way people can better understand my positions. In no way do I disregard the reality that each single one of us is hopelessly imperfect, and that’s not even necessarily a bad thing, since we get to experience growth from it — be better people than we were before. My sticking point was specifically aimed at people who project themselves onto other people, regardless of whether their victims have similar character flaws or not. This doesn’t apply to everyone, because not everyone has this self-absorbed need to compare themselves to other people to make themselves look in comparison.
It's just human nature, and if we're going to hate people for being people then I don't think we can be happy at all.
People being people doesn’t justify societal double standards because they’re self-harming and give people an excuse to be prejudiced. Instead of appreciating human individuality, they stigmatize those who go outside the norm. The “human nature” bit doesn’t mean we get to ignore this attitude.
What I don’t understand is why you quoted the portion where I mentioned double standards, especially gendered ones in which I think is where double standards most prominently rear their ugly head, and never directly respond to it. It would’ve been a good opportunity to have a discussion on, because the topic of double standards is extensive enough to be its own separate thread (one I hope to make, someday, either here or elsewhere).
Tribalism is part of human nature. If it was something that could be so easily gotten rid of, I'm sure it would have happened already.
As hunter-gatherers, we needed to depend on one another in order to ensure the species continued to thrive. Being a tribal was a life-or-death situation during those days. Humans are weak individually, but as a group, are formidable enough to survive in the harsh natural world. We did to the point that it’s part of our evolutionary psychology, now, so it’d take a while for us to be rid of it.
Again, it seems that you're faulting people and society for being the way they've been since the beginning of time.
That’s because you’re making the same mistake with “tribalism” and extrapolating it to these unrelated definitions belonging to different words, rather than different connotations of one, like with the term “theory”. Tribalism isn’t:
I don't know exactly what you mean by it being stupid; it's community, it's pride of being who you are and who you are associated with.
What’s wrong here is that none of these accurately described the tribalism I was talking about. In fact, these don’t even relate to the word at all and you misconstrued my point. It’s common parlance that when tribalism is used, it’s used to refer to those who adopt a certain set of traits of a social group that excludes other people and admonishes them for not adapting to the traits of that social group. It’s the reason why politics are such a draining, yet agonizing topic to spend time on.
I understand that your poor health really doesn't help the hate and dislike you have for people. It makes it worse. I can only hope that some respite and a break away from the internet can boost your mood. The media likes to only portray the bad parts of life. It's best to stay away from it, especially if it takes a toll on your mental health. I wish you the best for 2025, and the best for your life. I hope your outlook on life can become more positive, and that you're surrounded with people who love and support you in your life. I hope my post didn't come across as rude or something.
Surprisingly, the past few weeks of 2025, as uneventful as they have been so far, haven’t been too bad. I spent that time reminiscing from games decades past, remembering how much fun I had with them, and finally being able to enjoy a couple of games I never got the chance to play and have had for quite some time now. It did help a bit, but much of that time was spent figuring how to respond to some people here, and how to get my other thread finished. Perhaps the day after the 1st or 2nd is when I became aware of what members here were saying, and I had to process how to respond, how all of you that responded would take, and the aftermath. Once I have this and the MP thread finished, I can finally put this behind me until I read the inevitable replies and spend a long time responding to multiple people all at once.
I do have to respect that you made the most effort to address the points I made out of everyone here. Thank you for the conversation.