When people are mean, it's often because they're encouraged to by systems (groups, products, institutions...) that leverage the bad parts of human nature for self-preservation
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I think most people are good people. Not in the shallow sense that they can't be cruel, violent, or indifferent, but in the sense that they have plenty of good sides that they can readily express if you give them the opportunity
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All successful systems have strong mechanisms for self-preservation & expansion. Because human nature is mostly static, systems that are made of people have the choice between exploiting the good pillars of human nature, like hope & compassion, or the bad ones, like fear & anger
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Some systems evolve to make people constantly mad and undermine their instinct for empathy. Bad behavior is usually driven by being part of a bad system, rather than by spontaneous evil
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Now, people still have agency. Not just because they shape the systems around them, but because they can choose to react to them in different ways -- to let out their worst impulses, or to resist them
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Twitter is actually a prime example. A lot of Twitter mechanics rely on anger, outrage, mob mentality. But different people choose to use Twitter in different ways: some as bullies, some as helpers. You can always choose to frame what you see around you with optimism & compassion
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It's easy to dunk on these tweets. "Hopelessly naive", "who's this arrogant *** who talks like he knows anything about human nature", "this is so obvious is this *** only figuring it out now?" etc. It could just be someone on the other side of the screen trying to tell you smthg
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Quoting from Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: “Viele Menschen warten ihr Leben lang auf die Gelegenheit, auf ihre Art gut zu sein.”
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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I once read a nice analogy by Thích Nhất Hạnh: The human mind is like a garden. There are seeds for everything: Love, hate, compassion, fear, etc... We have the ability to choose which seeds to water and which seeds to deprive of water. We choose which plants to grow.
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The magnitude of possible change is severely limited.
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