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[–] 122 points 2 years ago (17 children)

Most people at their core are good people

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    I think β€œgood” and β€œbad” 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.

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    [–] 60 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    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.

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    [–] 48 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Showing people irrefutable proof of something will change their minds.

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  • [–] 47 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    That our benevolent alien overlords are gonna show up aaaaaany minute now...

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    [–] 46 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    That humans can survive the climate disaster they created.

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    [–] 32 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Religion, mythology and probably anything mystical. It's very easy why people believe in them, they're so alluring and genuinely wish they had truth to them. Unfortunately the only truth to be found is ancient wisdom, and even that can be very iffy sometimes.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Reincarnation - I’d like to believe I’ve met others before, maybe even many times. It would explain some stuff like why you’re irrationally drawn or repelled by certain people.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    The thing that's always gotten me about reincarnation is the lack of memory of past lives. Even if it were true and some small part of a person lives on, is it functionally different than a permanent death if they retain nothing from their past lives?

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    U.S. democracy

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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?

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    The revolutionary potential of the American people.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    An afterlife. Might be nice.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    The average person having empathy

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    My cat can understand everything I say but chooses not to listen

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    I mean, there's real data to support this. If you don't believe it that's like me not believing that hurricanes exist just because I haven't been through one.

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    [–] 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    The 'common' part of 'common sense'

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    [–] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)
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    [+] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
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    [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Ghosts. My 18 year old cat passed end of last year and she was one of my best friends. I just wish that instead of me knowing that the shades of her I see are actively produced by my mind (i notice me doing them) that she'd really spook around me, that i could just embrace the little shade and show her that i still love her. Well now I'm crying at work

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago*

    The world will recognize the good deeds you do

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago*
    [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Material conditions will improve in my lifetime

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That people are inherently good. This not being the case is reinforced near daily by people's behaviors.

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    [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Aliens visiting Earth.

    I know it's a statistical impossibility that we're the only life out there. I just don't believe they've ever been here. Since we haven't been either conquered or uplifted yet.

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    [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 8 points 2 years ago
    [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    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.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    There is a gospel passage about how much will be expected of those whom have been given much. I've always heard this interpreted as how church leaders will be judged harshly in the afterlife. I wish this and hell were true, just for the sheer shock and disbelief of all the hypocritical religious leaders who've done so many terrible things and continued to preach hate.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    @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.

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    [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    That rational and empirical evidence would cause people to reconsider their intuitive perspectives and lead into constructive conversation.

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  • That there's a place for the hopeless sinners who've betrayed all mankind just to serve their own beliefs.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    That life is fair.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    diskworld. I specially like the city watch

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The world was ruled by the Illuminati and they were compassionate about it. Because what we are ruled by is a bunch of assholes.

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    [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    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.

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