I rediscovered something I wrote in my blog about 1½ years ago. It’s something that doesn’t get old and needs constant reminding.
— How Come We Always Assume the Worst in Others? —
Most people are pretty decent, says Dutch historian Rutger Bregman¹, author of ‘Utopia for Realists’ (2017) and ‘Humankind’ (2020).
1/2
In an eight-minute video² he explains quite plausbily how doomscrolling, using social media, watching and reading the news changes our perception of humankind. We only see all the bad things happening, which makes us quite susceptible to being persuaded of human vileness. On the other hand, if you believe in the goodness of humanity, so often you are dismissed as this naïve person who doesn’t have a realistic view of the world.
But Bregman, after researching the matter, comes to the conclusion that humans are not as evil and raw as they are made out to be. An example: One of the astonishing discoveries from the second World War is that only 15 to 25 per cent of the American soldiers actually fired their guns. They had to be trained and brainwashed to be able to be more ‘effective’ during the Vietnam War.
Another valid point he’s making is that science is the only self-correcting system that we have that sort of criticises itself and then develops and becomes better […] 
¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutger_Bregman
² https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=TXN7QGGNSWk&local=true
Monday, 23 June 2025
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