Are Humans Stupid or Evil?

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Well, if thats the case than since it only matters to us, and we are the superior beings on this planet than doesn't that make our own subjective whims and concepts the only relevant meaning on this planet(in terms of survival)?

Not really, because that WOULD make us stupid and evil.

Old Adolf was just off his rocker to start with; before they starting pumping him full of mercury.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Most males I come across have this mentality.

Women are just as horny as men, they're just more convincing liars about it.

 

[Lonely Swordsman]

We are both, because nobody likes an underachiever.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Guys, the very act of the species asking itself this question removes all possibility of stupidity and evilness. It's quite simple. We're intelligent enough to recognise what we're doing is wrong, and we're good enough to want to fix it. Isn't that admirable?

This is exactly what I have been thinking. Why the hell do people think our species is so fucking stupid? It never made sense to me.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

As Scott Adams once saind "humans are horny stupid and selfish"

But I have faith in humanity. I think we do just fine. I mean we haven't wiped ourselved out yet right?

 

[Danny Ocean]

Guys, the very act of the species asking itself this question removes all possibility of stupidity and evilness. It's quite simple. We're intelligent enough to recognise what we're doing is wrong, and we're good enough to want to fix it. Isn't that admirable?

This is exactly what I have been thinking. Why the hell do people think our species is so fucking stupid? It never made sense to me.

I think it's just a combination of arrogance and self-loathing. Someone's probably done a study on it somewhere.

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Individually, we are intelligent, rational, creative beings. Collectively, however, we are at best ignorant at worst, soul crippling stupid. We are truly less than the sum of our parts.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

It's true. There are some good people out there, and I have to remind myself of that everyday. But most people do in fact suck (shocking)

I once head the phrase: A person is smart. People are stupid.

That's the truth right there.

 

[Hoyukikage]

I think that humans can be both stupid and evil, but there is a better classification that I can think of.
The human race is greedy. We always try to get what we want. If somebody else has it, we steal it. If there is land that is currently occupied, we force the people there out. And if two people want the same thing, they fight over it. That is how I look at it.

 

[hailmagus]

It's funny, because it's almost like we're insulting ourselves and each other. Because we're people, but we're against people. Like they're people... but not "us" people (on the Escapist) If that makes any sense at all... total mind fuck.

The whole time I'm trying to say this confusing bull shit, I'm thinking of that Flight of the Conchords episode where the fruit vendor wouldn't sell Bret and Jemaine fruit because he thought that they were Australian. Something like - You can't treat people like this. Because I'm a person... and he's a person... and she's a person over there... we're all persons (thick New Zealand accent)

Hilarious.

And I have to add... Ginger Balls.

 

[MrShadowzs]

i think there both people do stupid things for evil reasons

 

[LewsTherin]

I love how everyone is pointing to everyone else.

People means you and me, as well as everyone. Mankind isn't some malevolent force off stage left, and the great unwashed counts you and me as parts of it's ranks. Usually, the people who say that they aren't part of the whole are right in the middle of it. Think about it.

Does the average family living in suburbia ever wake up and think to themselves about the ills facing children in Ethiopia, or the effects of their lifestyle on the environment, or extend their sphere of awareness outside people and places they directly know, or are prevalent in the popular mentality? No, they go on about their day,go to school/work their 9-5 and go home at the end of the day, play their round of golf on the weekend and save for retirement. This is a generalization, but bear with me for the moment. Do you forsake the world and all of it's earthly pleasures in your asceticism, with all this pondering of how everyone else is so evil and stupid? No, you most likely live out your life , interacting with the people in your sphere of awareness, going to school working your job, playing your round of golf/Starcraft/Drinking/what have you in your spare time and generally not worrying about the terrible oppression of the people of Tibet, of the hellish battle ripping apart the Middle East, of the famines and epidemics in Africa. You, just like the unwashed masses of the peasantry you condemn, can be stupid and evil. The stupid actions you take are done without thinking. The evils you do are often phrased more peaceably in your mind, though I hope you all have the conscience to know what you are doing is wrong, ignoring that knowledge as you may.

I've rambled enough for now, I think.

 

[Heytred]

I think we have to define Evil and Stupid. I think these concepts are both very personal and highly variable. Therefore if we were to get a meaning that everyone could agree with Evil would be someone who interferes negatively or obstructs your plans, life or goals. Stupid would be anyone who doesn't see things from your point of view or can't empathize with you.

Therefore, since none of you has fallen to your knees and proclaimed me king of the universe and no one thinks this is a good idea I can only assume humans are both stupid and evil.

 

[pliusmannn]

masses are stupid, person is clever, masses are evil, person is good

 

[geldonyetich]

I'd disagree.

You're certainly free to disagree, but even reading what you wrote here, I'm not convinced.

The problem nevertheless remains that any act of "evil" is perpetuated by those who are clearly ignorant of the true harm they're doing.

You invoked Godwin's Law [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law]. However, the holocaust was not perpetuated by Hitler "doing what he felt was right," it was perpetuated by antisemitism. Antisemitism is mere prejudice, an obvious ignorance, and Hitler was a man who had the power to carry it out to the ultimate level. If Hitler was not so very ignorant as to the value of the Jewish people, it seems likely he would not have sought to exterminate them. The same could be said for any race of people and those who loathe them.

To say that "experience" is evil is a half-truth. A person who feels their experiences have driven them to evil is simply unable to cope, trapped in ignorance. However, a person who finds a means to understand the place of their negative experiences in the greater scope of the universe may emerge with a better understanding of life than they started with, and be in a position to do great good.

A "very happy and nice person" is but a skin-deep observation. If they are so very insistent on holding onto beliefs that cannot be verified with reason, they can and will do great harm to this world by attempting to make it something it's not. An evil which is done where you cannot perceive it is, nonetheless, an evil. But then, I'm not going to say that your given example, creationism, is necessarily an ignorance. There is a certain indeterminable line in which evolution may itself be an extension of creation that even science has yet to refute - this is how intelligent Christian Scientists may work.

"Evil" in itself is a fairly ignorant term. You can't put evil in a jar, it's a very generic label that can be applied subjectively to many things.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

I'd rather say humans can be (and often are) ignorent and violent. But we're not the scum of the galaxy so stop crying.

 

[Gadzooks]

I'd disagree.

You're certainly free to disagree, but even reading what you wrote here, I'm not convinced.

The problem nevertheless remains that any act of "evil" is perpetuated by those who are clearly ignorant of the true harm they're doing.

You invoked Godwin's Law [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law]. However, the holocaust was not perpetuated by Hitler "doing what he felt was right," it was perpetuated by antisemitism. Antisemitism is mere prejudice, an obvious ignorance, and Hitler was a man who had the power to carry it out to the ultimate level. If Hitler was not so very ignorant as to the value of the Jewish people, it seems likely he would not have sought to exterminate them. The same could be said for any race of people and those who loathe them.

To say that "experience" is evil is a half-truth. A person who feels their experiences have driven them to evil is simply unable to cope, trapped in ignorance. However, a person who finds a means to understand the place of their negative experiences in the greater scope of the universe may emerge with a better understanding of life than they started with, and be in a position to do great good.

A "very happy and nice person" is but a skin-deep observation. If they are so very insistent on holding onto beliefs that cannot be verified with reason, they can and will do great harm to this world by attempting to make it something it's not. An evil which is done where you cannot perceive it is, nonetheless, an evil. But then, I'm not going to say that your given example, creationism, is necessarily an ignorance. There is a certain indeterminable line in which evolution may itself be an extension of creation that even science has yet to refute - this is how intelligent Christian Scientists may work.

"Evil" in itself is a fairly ignorant term. You can't put evil in a jar, it's a very generic label that can be applied subjectively to many things.

Yes but you say Hitler was ignorant as to the value of the Jewish people, while I believe he simply had a different value placed on them, their worth to his people. You can't argue that the worth you place on something must be the same for everyone lest it be ignorant, that is entirely subjective. I'm no anti-semite, but I understand his view of things, his reasoning.

Anti-semitism could be, subjectively, called ignorance, but it can be objectively called the result of life experience - this you cannot deny; Without experience to drive Hitler to anti-semitism, there would be no hatred. There simply is no inbuilt genetic anger towards the jews, it is something that is and always must be learned from some life experience.

I did not say that experience was evil, I said that it was the root of all evil - the place where something begins, where it springs into being, its origins. I would love to see an argument against this. Someone need not experience terrible things to become "evil", it need only be a reinforcement through childhood say, of a hatred against jews by parents or otherwise, that will lead a person to feel only hatred for them. Someone may lose their family, but it will not neccessarily cause them to become a murderer. I am saying however, that certain experiences can mess up someones perceptions for life, like child abuse, sexual abuse and so on may cause strange attitudes to issues in later life.

You misunderstand me, by happy and nice, I mean unobtrusive, well meaning, altruistic etc. I need not list all the good points of a person. They need not force any belief on anyone, but if ignorance is the root of evil, then this person may become a monster against humanity? I don't think so. I think ignorance can cause evil, but I do not think it is the root of ALL evil. I think people can be seen as evil, yet know exactly what they are doing.

I could, in all seriousness prove your entire point wrong right now, by going and shooting my cat - which I know is awfully evil, yet I could still do it because, as an example, I have grown enraged by this conversation and wish nothing more than to unleash my anger by destroying kittens (luckily I am rational and mostly sane). This also adds to my point; I would not have just killed my cat, if I had not had the enraging experience of this conversation. I know more now, and must be less ignorant, yet my cat will tell you that I am more evil all of a sudden.

I do not believe that a person having experienced only happiness and benevolence in others will for no apparent reason turn to some evil act. Therefore I feel it is implied, if you will take my last point as truth, that only someone who has had bad or "value/opinion shaping" experience, can ever become evil and this leads me to conclude that experience IS the root of all evil, by which I mean the origin of feeling, actions and behaviours that move to inflict upon other beings a removal of freedom, cause of harm or intent of ill will.

 

[Ginnipe]

we're just all resounding idiots.

 

[Gadzooks]

Most males I come across have this mentality.

Women are just as horny as men, they're just more convincing liars about it.

You know what else? There is so much critiscism of girls who engage in sex without a commited partner... slut to put it bluntly. However, I'm of the belief that all girls want it just as much. I dont see why someone who may sleep with a new guy once a week or two is any worse than the girl that bounces from guy to guy in relationships, never having any time to be single yet all the while having much more sex than a single girl, and almost invariably loving it just as much. Most of the girls I know fall under the second category, which changes little but seems to be some shield of self righteousness.

Yet society dictates that the one without the relationship is the slut. Oh society, how you fail me on so many levels.

 

[velcthulhu]

We're just stupid. Evil is the result of stupid.

Really? Then why were people like Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin considered to be geniuses?

Because intelligence in one area doesn't carry over to intelligence in any other area. Hitler may have been good at politics, but if you honestly think his belief that Jews were responsible for everything bad in the world was "genius", then there's a bit of a problem. Anyway, he can't have been all that much of a genius, if he started a war he lost.
On another note, you are using the term "genius" to refer to someone who is smarter than other humans. But since humans are stupid, you could be the smartest human ever, and still be stupid.