Do you like human beings?

[cumulus.james]

I don't even like myself let alone other humans. And no I don't think humans are generally good I think they are inherently evil. For a start we've seen off 50% of the species who evolved along side us, that alongside the fact we are cooking the planet to the point we are destroying the prospects for decent existence. In a centuries time only cockroaches and bacteria will thrive, intelligent life will take another few million years to reassert itself, if at all. The earth is fighting back, and is about to fresia us all off so she can heal herself. The expansion of the prison system throughout the west is something grotesquely evil (it is known much of this came out of the US with the deliberate intention of criminalizing black life). The neo liberal agenda, rising inequality and the destruction of the middle class (along with the on going criminalization of the working class and the poor).

No humans are not good. Our overlords are subjecting most of the population to harm whilst destroying our home, the earth. Whist those being harmed for some reason are sitting on thier asses and doing nothing about it due to a combination of selfishness and pure laziness - "it's not my problem, what can I do?".

Any parent who does not get involved in climate change/inequality/injustice activism (which if you read Naomi Klein This Changes Everything) are really the same issues, ought to feel despairing shame. For a start, you are playing a role in your child's future hardships and likely a role in your grandchilds death.

 

[Tiina63]

I find that my experiences in life have given me a more negative than positive view of human beings. Being bullied a lot and excluded, having noone I can rely on at hard times, my lifelong loneliness and sense of disconnection, all these have given me a negative view of human nature.
When I look at the wider world, there is so much violence, pain, war, disease, suffering and hardship. Yes, there are good things as well, but the pain outweighs them. I believe in God but cannot see life in this world as a gift. Instead, it seems more like a punishment.

 

[Katerina]

I don't even like myself let alone other humans. And no I don't think humans are generally good I think they are inherently evil. For a start we've seen off 50% of the species who evolved along side us, that alongside the fact we are cooking the planet to the point we are destroying the prospects for decent existence. In a centuries time only cockroaches and bacteria will thrive, intelligent life will take another few million years to reassert itself, if at all. The earth is fighting back, and is about to fresia us all off so she can heal herself. The expansion of the prison system throughout the west is something grotesquely evil (it is known much of this came out of the US with the deliberate intention of criminalizing black life). The neo liberal agenda, rising inequality and the destruction of the middle class (along with the on going criminalization of the working class and the poor).

No humans are not good. Our overlords are subjecting most of the population to harm whilst destroying our home, the earth. Whist those being harmed for some reason are sitting on thier asses and doing nothing about it due to a combination of selfishness and pure laziness - "it's not my problem, what can I do?".

Any parent who does not get involved in climate change/inequality/injustice activism (which if you read Naomi Klein This Changes Everything) are really the same issues, ought to feel despairing shame. For a start, you are playing a role in your child's future hardships and likely a role in your grandchilds death.

I agree with a lot of what you say. I'm planning on getting the book This Changes Everything soon - just reading her previous book The Shock Doctrine at the moment and it's very interesting.

I wouldn't say we are inherently bad though, more neutral with a short-sighted and narrow field of view when it comes to our own lives as a whole (certainly doesn't apply to everyone). I think this makes it easier for others at the top to manipulate to achieve their own ends at the expense of so much around us. And it's sad to see so much so much trouble in the world is of our own making and important issues like the sixth extinction ignored.

I used to feel far more misanthropic about humanity as a whole when I was at my most isolated, when all I saw was based on the news. And when pretty much all you see are wars, crimes, and other atrocities it was hard not to arrive at such conclusion.

Now I've mixed with some people who very much do care about these things and work to change things. But it's such a shame that they are an underfunded and largely unheard minority. I suppose my answer is that I like 'some' human beings but as a species I feel more muted as we haven't been heading in a good direction.

 

[ringwood]

Any parent who does not get involved in climate change/inequality/injustice activism (which if you read Naomi Klein This Changes Everything) are really the same issues, ought to feel despairing shame. For a start, you are playing a role in your child's future hardships and likely a role in your grandchilds death.

i would say these issues should be supremely important to *everyone*, not just parents.

 

[SophiaGrace]

Some.

 

[Peaches]

this is a really good question!
maybe 10%? if I don't have too much to do with them, I like almost everyone

was pretty flabbergasted when reading the quote "I have never met a man I didn't like" http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Rogers

that reminded me of completely unrealistic movies from another era like Frank Capra and probably he was exaggerating, but I thought what a idyllic life that must be…

 

[blackdot]

I'm more fond of other things in nature.

 

[lonelyfairy]

Yes, I do like humans but humans have some negative traits, no one is perfect and everyone of us have flaws. But I feel more ''home'' when being in nature and with animals.

 

[SofiasMami]

After reading accounts this week of survivors of Auschwitz, which was liberated by the Soviets 70 years ago this week, I think most humans are only a degree or two away from behaving worse than animals.

-Teresa

 

[constant stranger]

I don't trust anybody very much. Hence, I'm quick to feel a bit of fear. And fear breeds dislike.

All self fulfilling prophecies. I'm working on being more open to trust....selectively though. Sadly, that can put people off......

 

[PenDragon]

Yeah, trust is really hard to come by. And fear is always present. Anyone who likes just your one mood is no good at all. You gotta accept every thing about them, be it wierdness, quirkiness, friendliness and all that comes with a single entity. Those are really worth giving time.

 

[A Louis Wain Cat]

Despite being almost silent, distrustful, and wary... I generally like people, and given the opportunity can get along with almost anyone. Life is interesting (really the only reason I'm still alive) and people are interesting. I like hearing others stories and experiences, seeing the world through others' eyes.

 

[kamya]

The good old misanthropic projection. =P

 

[mad monty]

I'm an misanthrope.

 

[SophiaGrace]

After reading accounts this week of survivors of Auschwitz, which was liberated by the Soviets 70 years ago this week, I think most humans are only a degree or two away from behaving worse than animals.

-Teresa

Don't read the following if you want to keep faith in humanity:

"Medical professionals gathered and collected data on the CIA’s use of torture techniques on detainees during the 21st century war on terror, in order to refine those techniques, and "to provide legal cover for torture, as well as to help justify and shape future procedures and policies", according to a 2010 report by Physicians for Human Rights. The report stated that: “Research and medical experimentation on detainees was used to measure the effects of large-volume waterboarding and adjust the procedure according to the results.” As a result of the waterboarding experiments, doctors recommended adding saline to the water “to prevent putting detainees in a coma or killing them through over-ingestion of large amounts of plain water.” Sleep deprivation tests were performed on over a dozen prisoners, in 48-, 96- and 180-hour increments. Doctors also collected data intended to help them judge the emotional and physical effects of the techniques so as to “calibrate the level of pain experienced by detainees during interrogation" and to determine if using certain types of techniques would increase a subject's "susceptibility to severe pain.". The CIA denied the allegations, claiming they never performed any experiments, and saying "The report is just wrong"; however, the U.S. government never investigated the claims.[142][143][144][145][146][147]

In August 2010, the U.S. weapons manufacturer Raytheon announced that it had partnered with a jail in Castaic, California in order to use prisoners as test subjects for a new non-lethal weapon system that "fires an invisible heat beam capable of causing unbearable pain."[148]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States

Eugenics was practised in the United States many years before eugenics programs in Nazi Germany.

Some states sterilized "imbeciles" for much of the 20th century. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1927 Buck v. Bell case that the state of Virginia could sterilize those it thought unfit. Although compulsory sterilization is now considered an abuse of human rights, Buck v. Bell was never overturned, and Virginia did not repeal its sterilization law until 1974.[52] The most significant era of eugenic sterilization was between 1907 and 1963, when over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilized under eugenic legislation in the United States.[53] Beginning around 1930, there was a steady increase in the percentage of women sterilized, and in a few states only young women were sterilized. From 1930 to the 1960s, sterilizations were performed on many more institutionalized women than men.[28] By 1961, 61 percent of the 62,162 total eugenic sterilizations in the United States were performed on women.[28]

a mental institution in Lincoln, Illinois fed its incoming patients milk infected with tuberculosis (reasoning that genetically fit individuals would be resistant), resulting in 30-40% annual death rates. Other doctors practiced euthanasia through various forms of lethal neglect.[61]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States

Ever heard of the Second Long Walk? Our great nation of America, after signing a treaty with the Navajo nation, decided to slaughter hundreds of thousands of the Navajo's sheep due to "overgrazing". There was no compensation for this. The Navajo treated their sheep like family and they were spiritual animals to them. They used their wool to make the woolen Navajo blankets that everyone is fond of.

Ever hear of the trail of tears? Our government took their livestock too during this time. Hence, why this "Livestock Reduction" is known to the Navajo as The Second Long Walk due to the economic and spiritual devastation it had on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Livestock_Reduction

I'm running out of words. So.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willowbrook_State_School
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letchworth_Village
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...bb7f50-f739-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Survive_a_Plague
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787837/

These are things that I never learned about in history classes. I had to discover them on my own through the internet and Netflix. Sad. Horrifying. Left me in a somber contemplative mood afterwards.

 

[Mr Seal The Albatros]

With individuals, yeah, I can like them. In that case, I take a more liberal view, thinking everyone has the chance to be good and everyone's possible of anything.

As a collective, I really don't see them as anything better than monsters. Considering, you know, we're sort of an invasive species here. Sometimes I've considered in the past ending myself to remove one human from this planet, but I realize that won't make much of a difference. And hey, if we're going to blow ourselves up in the end, may as well enjoy the fireworks, yes? That being said, I still feel at least SOME hope that this can be reversed. Not much, but at least a bit.

In the meantime, I'll stick with my delusions on the human race. Keeps me going on a daily basis.

 

[Frodothelost]

I need to first worry about me after that i will for you.

 

[Solivagant]

These are things that I never learned about in history classes.

That's strange, I learned about all those things.

I try to love all people, but liking is rarer.

I've seen quite a lot of the dark side of humanity, and living has taught me to keep my expectations of people in general low, so perhaps I'm not disappointed as often as I might be with higher expectations. There is not a thing people do that ever shocks me. But disappointment still happens, and it still saddens me. As well it should.


Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.
- "Men in Black"

 

[JHK]

We see no problem with beating, raping, killing, torturing and robbing each other.
What's not to love?

 

[SophiaGrace]

These are things that I never learned about in history classes.

That's strange, I learned about all those things.

What country are you from?

More:

Documentary on Willowbrook, 25 years after.