Why can't everyone in the world just be nice to each other?

[timothyu]

Self interest brings on resentment and vice versa.

 

[partinobodycular]

I'm sorry but none of what you said can justify why people choose to be mean to each other. Just saying "it's life deal with it" is such a cop out response because life doesn't have to be that way/. Being mean for the sake of being mean because that's life just fulfils people's self fulfilling prophecy. Why not strive to be kinder?

So who died and made you God?

Why should anyone have to justify their actions to you, or anybody else?

People get to be however they wanna be. If you don't like it that's just too bad. That doesn't make you God. I don't have to care what you think, and you don't have to care what I think. You don't have to justify your actions to me, and I don't have to justify my actions to you.

What makes you think that people should behave the way that you think they should behave?

 

[Strivax]

Why can't people just be good to one another? Ask Jesus. His solution was love. I have not found a better one.

Best wishes, Strivax.

 

[.Mikha'el.]

This is a legitimate question, why is it so hard for people to just be nice? Why do people have to be mean occasionally? I'm sorry if I don't live in the "real world" or you label me an idealist. But I never understood why people choose to be mean? And that is in all walks of life, in any spectrum, discussing any top, people just resort to low hanging insults when you don't agree. Yes even on Christian forums, when discussing politics I'd see vile things said about people like it's a toxic twitter thread, heck even discussing the Bible I've some insults and name calling and people just angry. I may have been that way in the past but it's really getting on my nerves every time I scroll through comment sections on any place. Even watching conversations in real life, it feels unnecessary to me. Why do some want to bully people, at school work, even at home. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we were all just friends? I don't accept the notions that "it's life deal with it", I choose to believe we can all be better.

Define being nice. One person's idea of disrespect or bullying is another's reasonable treatment.

 

[FireDragon76]

This is a legitimate question, why is it so hard for people to just be nice? Why do people have to be mean occasionally? I'm sorry if I don't live in the "real world" or you label me an idealist. But I never understood why people choose to be mean? And that is in all walks of life, in any spectrum, discussing any top, people just resort to low hanging insults when you don't agree. Yes even on Christian forums, when discussing politics I'd see vile things said about people like it's a toxic twitter thread, heck even discussing the Bible I've some insults and name calling and people just angry. I may have been that way in the past but it's really getting on my nerves every time I scroll through comment sections on any place. Even watching conversations in real life, it feels unnecessary to me. Why do some want to bully people, at school work, even at home. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we were all just friends? I don't accept the notions that "it's life deal with it", I choose to believe we can all be better.

People do seem to be becoming meaner and more ugly, especially in the US. Today I was casually shopping at the grocery store and somebody muttered curses under their breath as a passed. I have no clue if they were commenting on me or not, but it was quite crass.

I think the reason Americans are getting meaner is due to the death of mainline, broad, liberal religion in the US, being replaced by religion fundamentalism and extremism wedded to angry far right politics. It's hard to build political consensus and civility when people are so angry and unkind.

 

[timothyu]

Seems 'we the people' think they are still operating under the old right/left system of nationalism, when in fact what is happening now is a shift of the US and other countries to operate under the banner of an unelected powerhouse comprised of government leaders, corporations and financiers who have formed their own government. You know, the people who have always run the world but now want to step out of the closet and declare themselves gods.

 

[FireDragon76]

Seems 'we the people' think they are still operating under the old right/left system of nationalism, when in fact what is happening now is a shift of the US and other countries to operate under the banner of an unelected powerhouse comprised of government leaders, corporations and financiers who have formed their own government. You know, the people who have always run the world but now want to step out of the closet and declare themselves gods.

The world doesn't work in that manner. Government leaders, corporations, and financiers operate mostly according to their narrow self-interests, which often conflict. They can't even agree what they'ld have for lunch if they got together, much less how they'ld rule the world collectively.

 

[timothyu]

That was in the 20th century

 

[jacks]

I think the reason Americans are getting meaner is due to the death of mainline, broad, liberal religion in the US, being replaced by religion fundamentalism and extremism wedded to angry far right politics.

What a relief it isn't "us". It's great to know who to blame!

 

[FireDragon76]

What a relief it isn't "us". It's great to know who to blame!

Well, being as how I've spent the past 2 1/2 years mostly in isolation, and before that I lived as a disabled individual with a very different lifestyle from the average American... yes. I'm not the one in power in this society. The masses of Americans obsessed about their materialistic lifestyle (and demand that their political leaders do the same) are the ones that are setting the tone for the whole culture.

 

[FireDragon76]

That was in the 20th century

Nothing has really changed. They had billionaires in the 1980's and 1990's, and they did more or less the same things.

 

[timothyu]

Nothing has really changed. They had billionaires in the 1980's and 1990's, and they did more or less the same things.

Yes but not on a global level. Corporatism as they call their government, has been a loooong time in the making. It takes decades to absorb things and the pandemic was a boost in eliminating the small players without having to buy them out.

 

[FireDragon76]

The masses of Americans obsessed about their materialistic lifestyle (and demand that their political leaders do the same) are the ones that are setting the tone for the whole culture.

Case in point... the number of Americans worried about the economy as the #1 issue for this election. It's truly astounding. They should be more worried about rising CO2 in the atmosphere, which will have far more profound, long-term effects on everything from the coastline, to storm intensity, to the protein content of crops (where else does protein come from? Even livestock animals don't make protein themselves, even if you do eat meat- which I do not). But instead they worry about a measly 25 cent/gallon hike in the price of gas, even though most of the world lives without a car or truck of any kind. In fact some of the most advanced countries in the world, like Japan, have low rates of car ownership- and a relatively stagnant GDP with far less social inequality

 

[FireDragon76]

Many dominant belief systems or ideologies out there don't value ethics of care or compassion as a virtue. They focus on theonomy (religious law) or abstractions of justice.

 

[Ligurian]

This is a legitimate question, why is it so hard for people to just be nice? Why do people have to be mean occasionally?

"We got the bubble headed bleached blonde, Comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash, with a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die... give us dirty laundry"
--Don Henley, Dirty Laundry, 1982

(sigh) The world was a nicer place in those days. Then came the internet, and news 24/7. We might know what's going on everywhere, if they tell us. Kinda hard to be happy about it, though. Because... what happens when cultures collide?

 

[timothyu]

Because... what happens when cultures collide?

They all move to Europe and North America.

 

[Ligurian]

They all move to Europe and North America.

Who caused the Multiculturalism in Europe?... around the time when the so-called-Syrian-refugees swarmed the gates of ___________. Forcing multiculturalism has meant the overthrow of those sovereign governments (against the will of the people), burnt orchards on Greek islands, and the rape of blonde girls in Sweden... sorta like what happened to Germany at the end of WWII. Braveheart has the bad guy say "If we can't get them out we'll breed them out." That writer showed their game plan. A demoralizing Devide and Conquer move done by people who have no god. The people who open the gates and back the invasions will eventually get the Karma that's coming to them... because, the Fall of the Roman Empire is what happens when cultures collide... and I'm pretty sure they know it.

-------edit-------
And now you know why I didn't reply to your post in another forum, too.

 

[Ligurian]

It is the Christian duty to chiefly find unpolluted wells to drink from in these last days and lead others to them.

If you don't want to drink from non-christian wells, then you're in the wrong sub-forum.

 

[Ligurian]

Why? Is this sub-forum supposed to be strictly non-Christian?

Kinda ironic it’d be named Ethics & Morality.

A strictly Christian well, on this forum, is called a "Christians Only" sub-forum.

"Ethics and Morality" existed long before christ... in countries that were not part of the Near East. Not until Alexander's Empire did some of the these ethnic cultures share things like cosmologies and creation myths. After that point, much of the sharing seems to have happened in the Library at Alexandria.

 

[timothyu]

After that point, much of the sharing seems to have happened in the Library at Alexandria.

Perhaps it's destruction should have gotten a few people thinking along the lines of Babel.