this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2026
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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The level of evil that adults are capable of. My young self would never have imagined it. I used to think humans were nice to each other.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Oh god. I was warned people are generally dicks, and believed it, but my goodness I though it was like, out of carelessness or something. Not that people are just fundamentally disinterested in more than the appearance of morality.

[–] Thrawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yea. I still seriously believe that over half of people are "fundamentally" "good" and that they just make mistakes etc.

And I definitely knew about how bad people could be due to access to good history books and parents who told me about things like the Belgian Congo.

But my kid self would have been shocked at how common people being shit to each other is and the incredible scale of damage the most powerful are able to do to the world.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yea. I still seriously believe that over half of people are “fundamentally” “good” and that they just make mistakes etc.

Just make sure you're applying the same standards to everyone. Without knowing what the scare quotes mean, there's nothing to argue with, but so so many people have blind spots. Which is part of the problem.

[–] Thrawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

Personally I just meant them as being extremely hard to define in this context.

And my self assessment is that I treat everyone the same, giving them the benefit of the doubt, at least until they prove themselves to be malicious. I definitely have no qualms cutting people off who try to actively damage my life.