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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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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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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Do you think it's always a choice? For any system that encourages mean behavior, is it possible to design an outperforming (or at least surviving) replacement system that encourages friendly behavior? Seems unlikely in some fields.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Why are fear and anger bad?
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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