That Democracy can be an effective check on Capitalism. Liberalism is my favorite fairy tale. If all the propaganda I was fed as a kid in the 90s was actually true, I’d be in paradise.
The world was ruled by the Illuminati and they were compassionate about it. Because what we are ruled by is a bunch of assholes.
LOL. This is great! A few weeks ago the illuminati was some sort of boogeyman. Today, things are so bad @KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml is praying for boogeyman to be real. There are some genuinely great answers here but I really identify with this one, personally.
diskworld. I specially like the city watch
Good things happen to good people
That life is fair.
The notion that “facts matter”.
I’ve spent my entire life believing that facts don’t care about feelings. That scientific truth doesn’t require your belief in it in order to be true. That at the end of the day, reasoning will beat emotion…
By far the most dis-heartening thing about the last few years (to me) has been accepting the idea they “facts” are “whatever is shouted the loudest”.
It, more than anything else, makes me feel helpless. If the enemy isn’t even playing with the same fact-sheet… How do you even begin to fight that?
I recommend reading False Witnesses and following it up with Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of “Brainwashing.” People license themselves to believe what’s convenient, not what’s true.
@ParlaMint Afterlife.
Death is boring and awful. I don’t want it. Nobody really wants it. If you think you do, a) get help and b) you really don’t.
That people are inherently good. This not being the case is reinforced near daily by people’s behaviors.
Heaven. Or just the idea that some part of the consciousness outlives the body. I really hate that this is all I get, there’s so much I’ll never get to do just because my parents decided when I was too young to decide for myself.
Hanlon’s razor. It’s pretty clear some people can be stupid and malicious simultaneously, or will even feign stupidity to hide malice.
Most people at their core are good people
I don’t remember where I read this quote originally and I can only paraphrase it, but observing people living in a capitalist society and concluding that human nature is self-centeredness and greed is equivalent to observing workers in a factory that is poisoning their lungs and concluding that human nature is to cough.
That’s confusing cause and effect
That’s a nice quote, thank you. I looked into it. It’s by Andrew Collier:
To look at people in capitalist society and conclude that human nature is egoism, is like looking at people in a factory where pollution is destroying their lungs and saying that it is human nature to cough.
Primary goal is to survive in the environment you are in, how many might have a desire to escape that environment but lack the ability to do so? Leave it all behind and live in a cabin in the woods isn’t exactly an unheard of idea.
The issue, as I see it, is that most people struggle to envision a society beyond capitalism. Capitalist ideology is embedded in every aspect of our lives. It appears in our mindset, in books, movies, and even in children’s television shows. The narrative that anyone can succeed if they work hard enough, and that poverty is simply the result of laziness, is both powerful and pervasive.
The idea that everyone should live in isolated cabins is neither a realistic vision nor a desirable goal for society.
Not everyone thinks “society” is a goal.
You mean like a hermit? I think that’s a rare fantasy. But if you want to do it, sure, go for it. Isn’t there a lot of space and wilderness in Canada?
I would say most people are good. However, the human brain is pretty shit and easy to manipulate. It’s easy to make people view other people as not human or other to them, or to not think about them at all. Maybe that is “not good” in some definitions though. When face-to-face, I will bet every time on someone treating someone well. I’ll lose the bet occasionally, but I’ll be right more than wrong.
Damn, ya beat me. I’m not good people to so I know from first hand experience.
Don’t worry, people can change.
Trust me, I used to be a huge piece of shit
It is evidence of my age that I assumed this link would be a Rick roll…
No one can stop you ordering a huge steak and a glass of water.
I think “good” and “bad” are hard terms to apply to people objectively, but I do believe that most people value social coherence and are willing to do (the minimum amount of) something to maintain it. If you can’t believe at least that it means that all of those thin blue line people are right, and I’m just not willing to believe that’s true.
I was gonna go with “most people give a damn”, but I think you phrased it a bit more positively.
I used to think the Anne Frank quote was inspiring. Now I just see it as bitterly ironic.
The average person having empathy
Karma - there are way too many shitty people who just continue to be shitty because nothing ever comes back to bite them. Meanwhile, people who actually try to help are kicked around the most.
Karma doesn’t always ripen in this life, but upon reincarnation.
The revolutionary potential of the American people.
