No, I’m not naive for being a good samaritan. It’s called being a fucking normal social animal you broken fuck. Why do you think our society is falling apart?
I swear to god, capitalism has turned people into the most miserable, narcissistic fucks. No, I’m not trying to trick or manipulate you. No I’m not stupid. I just don’t want to live in a world where everything is transactional and we can’t just help each other. A world where everyone is a selfish asshole is depressing and stressful. It’s fucking insulting when people assume I’m not genuine.
“Wow you’re so selfless” no I just help my community when they need it and expect them to help me when I need it. If society isn’t for precisely that then it has zero value.
It’s as if these people don’t understand that, yes, I actually want to help create a better place by being a good person.
My first impulse towards someone isn’t a cold calculus of thought about use and transaction.
It’s insane how the current mythos inculcates that selfishness into people so much, you will see everyone walking around claiming selfishness as the foundational core trait of humanity… Completely ignoring that it’s our bonds of community that are our real strength in nature.
The dying older generation has a point, though they attribute it to the wrong thing. They point to the downfall of the church in society as what made things go worse…
It wasn’t the religion directly. It was the community that was, in some ways, making things better.
I just want to live in a world where people are taught these things: critical thinking, creativity, compassion and community. If you want a 5th “c” for physical activity like we probably should, “calisthenics” could be the last.
I hate the way capital lionizes cynicism and misanthropy to convince people that their weariness of being exploited is actually just a general world-weariness that makes them cool when they say shit like “Heh, you’ll understand one day kid” to people who understand more than they do.
And watch them be taken aback when you direct said cynicism to the rich.
“ Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust. It is about accountability, exposure, open debate, critical challenge, and popular input and feedback from the citizenry. It is about responsible government. We have to get our fellow Americans to trust their leaders less and themselves more, trust their own questions and suspicions, and their own desire to know what is going on.“ - Michael Parenti
Lots of folks are skeptical of outwardly selfless people because of prior abuse from those who pretended to be good people. Searching for “the angle” is a defense mechanism for them.
Sure, there’s plenty more who thinks everyone has an angle in a cynical, ill-natured way, but I don’t think it’s good to lump the former in with the latter
A lot of people will freely admit that they have no empathy, and they think that’s a good thing
