The evil people you see succeeding in the news are outliars. They're the ones who were smart, lucky, or some combination of the two.

Maybe they succeed, but are you sure they are happier than you?

What is your definition of success? And while you are thinking about it, where does it come from? Is it valid?

Honesty and kindness have nothing to do with "doing better" one way or the other. So you may as well be honest and kind and at least not mess with anybody else's day.

You don't do those things to get a reward. That's Christian nonsense. There's no god to give you treats for not being an asshole.

It's still better to not be an asshole, though. It feels nice, and there's no advantage to assholeyness, either. I'd be slightly worried about having the tendency to think that assholes being successful means you get successful by being an asshole. Not only are you just as likely to fail (probably a bit more, becasue nobody likes an asshole, so it's harder to get people to help you or be nice to you), but then you'd be an asshole and have to deal with the emotional fallout from that.

In all seriousness, plenty of people out there justify their own self-centered tendencies with this exact train of thought. It's broken and bad and demontrably not true. Don't be an asshole. And that includes both to stop expecting a cosmic reward for being nice and to stop thinking that being nice precludes you from having to find effective, ethical strategies to get what you need or want.

That make sense? I think it makes sense.

Framing. That's all it is.

Evil will thrive for a time, good will thrive for a time, ultimately that's not up to you. What others do and how they are or are not rewarded is not up to you. What does it matter anyway? Those who successfully do evil will die and be forgotten anyway, their actions having as little consequence as anyone else alive today.

You say you do your best to do good things? Great, focus on that. Because that is up to you. Whether in poverty or in absurd wealth, what matters is what you do with what you have. Evil people do evil things, it's to be expected. Why would you frustrate yourself with ignorant people acting as expected? And though it may be unjust, why compound it with anger over what you can't control?

Afterall, wouldn't you rather be governed by your commitment to bringing what good you can into the world instead of being consumed with frustration of evil acting like itself?

Spite

I really don't care about the universe any more. I just keep doing what I can, when I can, for as long as I can just to throw two middle fingers at eternity.

I do my best to help others, fight back on things when I can and donate and support others who are fighting.

And I'll do that for as long as I live.

The realities of life i think. Most likely why close knit communities are cherished, as those things can actually mean something. Im speaking as someone in the same boat, royally screwed over by the unscrupulous.

I don't think they really do. Narcissist's and sociopath's are eat overrepresented in prison. Most of the people who succeed are just terrorist regular ass people. While "dark triad" types may be overrepresented in the C-suite it's not nearly on the level that ilthey are over represented in the cell block. Being nice, being interested and being dependable get you most of the way. The rest is just luck.

i’ve been wondering that since being bullied in middle school.

seems like the jocks just come out on top in this timeline.

Check out Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

Volunteer, donate and speak up for people around you that would do the same for your community, without doing harm to other communities.

I don't believe they do that well. Whatever reasons someone has for consistently treating others badly are likely reasons for being fucked up internally too. Considering the most famously successful shitheads, there's really no way those people are having an especially good time.

Hard work, honesty, really any of those “positive” values seem to get you nowhere in life.

Materially sure, nothing guarantees it's fair or just. The bottom rung of material success trumps a lot of stuff for how your life is going to be. If you don't have that, I think you are entitled to be a little selfish for the sake of surviving and taking care of yourself. Past that, it's negative all around.

I get where you are coming from, but also, why would you want to accept this? Part of what keeps me going is knowing that I don't.

Understanding that life is not fair and that it isn't designed to give you anything. We designed it this way and therefore it's our fault. Accept the things you can change and things you can't or forever be obsessed with changing the impossible.

You don't. You buy guns and genocide.

That was sarcasm, but honestly that's the only way to get rid of evil.

I don't think good people ever had the heart to try it though.

Im not so sure hard work is a positive value. I feel its part of a moral framework to trap people. Like the eternal pursuit of more. I think many of those evil people you see are in that trap. tRump put in kennedy who is stopping research into mrna techniques which given their age would likely benefit them more than most but seeing personal financial funny money numbers are to important to em. Heck tRump could have ended his life as a minor rich celebrity but instead will be massively infamous. These are not fates I would want for myself. I mean I might not want my own fate for myself but I know I would rather be Tom Anderson than elon musk.

At the very bottom of every machination in society is "Which side is equipped to do violence for their goals and has the will to exercise it?" The people who would oppose you can't do that if they're dead. It's just math.

When's you're birthday? If you don't mind giving out that kind of information

In nature, there is no good or evil. There is no morals. All that matters is what benefits growth and reproduction. And "evil" behavior does benefit growth and reproduction. So it's all just nature. Not only our nature but nature as a whole. Eat or get eaten.

One source I've personally found that tries to tackle this subject is Psalm 73 from the Bible. Definitely a difficult topic.