Post #1830861

2026-04-06 09:38 UTC

@Wouter_Pieterse I agree with most things you say, but I still do believe, know certain, that most individuals are decent, kind and cooperative. Just look around you. The individuals are atomized, while evil and power is centralized. One evil person can destroy the good that 1000 decent persons create. But denying the goodness that also, undeniably, exists, only benefits the evildoers. Cynicism does not help anybody. It only promotes more despair, more distrust and more apathy.

Replies (2)

@Heidentweet@todon.eu 2026-04-06 09:50

@wvrede When the Uplifting Message (usually without power analyses) results in people not taking action against all that's threatening humankind, like Western governments financing climate change and nos deliberating who they're also going to let die in their own countries, it's not cynicism but much needed criticism to save more people, including the undecent, unkind and non-cooperative of the 99%, IMNSHO. @Wouter_Pieterse

Open ##1830863
@Wouter_Pieterse@todon.eu 2026-04-06 10:06

@wvrede A cynic is what I don't want to be. I too encounter decent, kind and cooperative people. I even try to be one. However -decent, kind and cooperative- as I am, I am not very successful in stopping any of the evils on the list I vomited out in my rant. That is a puzzle Rutger Bregman could really help me with. How can we (he's a white male Dutch person, like me) be more successful in stopping evil. Not by repeating to ourselves how decent, kind and cooperative we are, I think. I want us to be more effective in stopping genocides, but we allow our government and our companies to export weapons to the murderers. Maybe becoming less cooperative and less decent and less kind might be more effective?

Open ##1830864