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this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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I would say that it wasn't us, the ordinary people, who created this terrible world, but we definitely allowed the worst among us to do so - and we even rewarded them for it, so that this monstrous world is now ruled by the most ruthless, like a monarchy that was believed to have been overcome. Apparently, civilizational progress is not bound to the passage of time, as I strongly suspect that we are regressing civilizational: back to absolutism with its degenerate rulers who give free rein to their perverse desires - and they can do so, because they are at the top of a society they exploit with impunity.
Well put and yes, that's sadly true. We just sit there and watched people seize control who should never have had ANY kind of control over anything in the first place. This species sadly highly rewards the psychological dark triad (or tetrad) so well, it hurts. The worst that humanity has to offer has the highest chance to lead it. Not even a question of sex or race or anything, it's just us.
I don't think that is a characteristic of our species. It is not universally true across other cultures.
And studies strongly suggest that the characteristic that was most important to the early survival of humans was altruism. There are always a lot more people who are basically good than basically bad. Only around 4% of the population are sociopathic.
Unfortunately, promoting sociopaths is a built-in characteristic of capitalism. Without controls, it rewards managers who are willing to sacrifice other people for profit (or power). The people who do that the best are those without empathy. So we end up with the worst of us making the decisions about how the world should work.
But I'd argue that capitalism is just the inevitable epitome of us rewarding the worst of us.
Even in socialism the dark triad gets further.
Altruism being advantageous in our early survival makes sense, yes. But, whatever the 4% always came up with in every period, won. Purely evolutionary speaking, it might even be better for survival nowadays than altruism would be.
Your point, that there always more basically good than evil people, might be true (and I wish it would be), but the world sucks in every place anywhere. Just to a different level. So it kinda means nothing when the 96% just watch or ignore the work of the 4%.