Misanthropes: I don't get you.

[marioandsonic]

An optimist sees the world for what it should be.

A realist sees the world for what it is.

A pessimist sees both.

 

[Arrzarr]

One more thing while I'm hanging around this thread, the same line of logic that you are using here is very similar to religions saying "well you can't prove us wrong so you may as well just join right up.". I regard this as a matter of freedom of belief, in other words, I can choose to believe that misanthropy is the correct belief, much as I do not believe there is a god or anything waiting for us other than worms after we die.

I know that I'm putting my neck out there by using this phrase but imo, people are guilty until proven innocent about being trustworthy/having redeemable values.

 

[CounterReproductive]

I'm not a misanthrope, I'm anti-social, I am almost completely unable to empathise with people I do not call friends and even then I feel like I'm faking it so I stopped doing it. So now I am cold, unapproachable, calculating and heartless according to some people, but at least I'm me.

Something bad happened to you, well sure thasts too bad but unless I did it why would I feel bad. Worse things happen at sea. Theres always someone worse off than you etc etc. Good night

 

[PancakesSUCKTHEYDO]

Christ. Just stop with the misanthropy posts already.

 

[gabe12301]

That's because you look at people the wrong way. People aren't shit and people aren't great. People are just people. people are selfish and greedy, people are generous and kind. How you choose to look at them, and at life for that matter is your problem.

I find it very difficult to buy that there is a "wrong way" to view people or anything for that matter.

Then why are we on this thread?

The whole point of having these discussions is to try to push your point across. You can't make any statement without believing you are right and thus being arrogant by definition. Any other way and it wouldn't be much of a discussion would it? I was simply defending my views as is the point of all threads and discussions. So, to each his own and I wish you well.

Fair enough. I simply object to the underlying sentiment in your comment that seemed to imply that you believed anyone who didn't agree with you was inherently wrong. I got the sense that you never seemed to ask yourself one of the hardest questions of all: "what if I'm the one who is wrong?"

A question I have asked myself, many, many times.

Interesting. I've never bothered to directly think about that but I suppose my answer would be: if I'm wrong than I'm wrong but when discussing points of view or philosophy that doesn't mean I'm not right.

 

[Vault101]

Oh, sure, on a higher level, I do. Humans suck, life is pain, etc. But on a more practical level, you just make no sense to me, and heres why: Life is so much nicer if you have a positive outlook! Just go out into the world, be a nice person, and do something fun. What's the point of hating humanity? Wheres that going to get you?

EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!

oh damn you beat me too it

you know what i think...self rightious whiney twats, seriously half the time they live in a first world country, have access to the internet and are able to indulge in an expensive hobby such as gaming, I would be a little more sympathetic if they lived/expereinced some of the worst places in the world

I mean seriously I just dont understand it, if thease assholes had their way they would destroy you and me..in the name of not liking people suffering? it shows a terrible lack of perspective on level with nostalga worshipers and I hate it

news flash, we have ALWAYS had good and bad, its just now its shoved in our face everyday with the news, I say get the fuck over yourself and if you hate everyone so much thn fucking do somthing about it

OR if I offended please explain this misanthrope thing to me in a way that fucking makes sense

 

[Vault101]

snip

This.

You just need to look around. everywhere, people are stealing, killing, cheating and generally getting one over on their fellow man usually in an unethical or immoral way. I don't understand how you cannot be misanthropic when you know that this is going on. I understand that if you're a glass half full kinda guy then it may seem to be more pleasant but, in the immortal words of Yahtzee,

human beings are grabby, entitled, selfish, ugly, stupid, evil cock-stoppers

edited for correctness/correct bb codes

yeah but its not like we havent done anything GOOD....seriously this shit it always going to exist for may different reasons, it seems stupid to just sit there and whine about it, like a kid throwing a tantrum because the other kids were a a little mean

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I also think the "human race" as a whole has a lot to do and people generally are full of shit...

But that's just not a practical view of life to use for my everyday living. While i'm aware that we're a mess i still value each individual on its own and can't keep in mind how bad the world is.
If i would do that, i'd crash into a depression without a return in no time.

I think the main problem why alot of people think so bad of this world nowadays is because the modern media made it possible to know every shit going on on this planet. But for christ sake it doesnt matter.

You as a person can only make such a big impact, so concentrate on the people around you and have a positive effect on each other. Those people positivley effected also have more and diffrent people around them which they can effect positivley again.. and so on.

Do you value you your own time so low, that you really gonna waste it on global philosophical problems which you can't solve anyway? Why not just entertain yourself on the few exceptions which are against the general rule of "It's full of shit", and have a fuckin' blast while you're alive. If everybody tries to make the best of his life / surroundings the most problems would solve themselves.

Many of today's problems arise from this mutual mistrust

Treat others as you would like to be treated. Nobody except sociopaths and other brain disfuctions want to hurt other peoples just for fun. 99% of what we do are defensive reactions anyway - and misanthropy is the same.
You got hurt, betrayed and/or insulted thus the mistrust against other people arose because maybe they treat you the same as someone did it in the past.

It's probably not the healtiest way to live in the long run.

 

[Vault101]

Listen to yourselves. Every last one of us lives in a first world country. Who are YOU people to complain about how terrible humanity is? You have fresh clean water on demand! Comfortable, affordable clothing! Reliable private AND public transportation! And you have the gall to complain about people being scum and life being terrible? Try walking 15 miles a day in ungodly heat just to get unclean, unfiltered water. Try living in a place where power-mad warlords kill you on a whim. Try living in a place where you work 14 hour shifts for pennies to provide goods at a price that allows the existence of a middle class in a country you will never see. Try being a single parent, working multiple jobs just to keep a roof over your childrens heads and food in their stomachs. Those people actually have a REASON to complain, I have met MANY of them, have been in there place (some, not all) and none have ever complained that life in it's entirety was terrible, that humanity was incorrigible. Any misery you feel is your own damn fault for LETTING life get you down.

I'm going to lay it all on the line here:
You will fail. You are human, and inexperienced. Learn from your mistakes, pick yourself up when you fall, and try again.
You are not special. Nobody is. Anything you can do many more people out there can do better. You want to feel useful and get better, PRACTICE. STUDY. WORK AT IT.
You get out what you put in. You have a miserable life? Maybe you should try, y'know, doing what you need to do in order to make it better. Sad that people are jerks? Volunteer down at the homeless shelter, the dog pound, the Red Cross instead of sitting on your ass whining about how evil everyone is. It's only true because your defeatist, fatalistic attitude ALLOWS it to be.

A year and a half ago I had nothing. No family for support, no job, no money, and no friends willing to loan me any charity. Now, I'm splitting a room and putting myself through college, writing a novel, creating a webcomic, and studying the C# programming language. Most of the results of these activities will more than likely result in a pile of unsalable crap, but I will learn what I can from my failures and make myself better than I was before.

And you know what? It's hard, it feels brutal at times, but I love life ever the more for it. I love it because I KNOW I can change it when I feel so inclined, I have that power, as I proven to myself over the past year and a half. I have access to all the resources I would ever need, all provided at minimum to no cost to myself or anyone else.

Well, this thread was about misanthropy and not the 'emo-culture', your rant was pointless.

I agree with his rant, because no one has explained this misanthrope thing in a way that DOESNT sound like whiny emo ness (not to mention a lack of perspective on retard levels)

so please, explain to me how its different

 

[Vault101]

It's not that I hate people; it's that I feel a general distrust toward them. My philosophy in life is that everyone's an asshole until proven otherwise, and I don't think it's a bad way of looking at things.

It just seems that walking down any street in America, you're guaranteed to find that 99.9% of the people walking are egotistical and snobby. Just listening to the vapid conversations when waiting for my college class to start or when someone's on their cell phone. Especially conversations that go on in the hallways and hangouts around college. It just seems that everyone is just... STUPID. None of them seem to care about anything, but their own little problems, and none of them want to ever have an intelligent conversation, EVER.

I don't know, everyone has their problems, including me, and maybe this comment is making me look like an elitist. Please understand that I've found some great friends in life; friendships that I want to keep. I've also met people that are unbelievably narcissistic and have no handle on what's going on outside their perfect little bubble.

I dunno, this is what I get due to four years of dealing with assholes in high school.

"everoyne is a mindless drone but meeee!! cant they see!? I am the only one TRULY awake"..says everyone ever

people are a little more complex, you cant just assume things about them all the time, its natural to see everyone except yourself and peopel you know as one-dimentional

 

[Vault101]

just want to finally say

fuck you, Im not a bad person, you have no right to judge me.

thanks

 

[Nouw]

It's all about perspective. Also, why is stupidity so looked-down upon? Is it their fault that they're 'stupid' and have sub-par intelligence? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Ultimately, hating on them would only cause them to hate you. You should show compassion and sympathy, not feel a false sense of superiority over them.

just want to finally say

fuck you, Im not a bad person, you have no right to judge me.

thanks

This applies to both the 'people' and the people being hated upon. What makes them so special that they can call most people scum, assholes and stupid?

I'm avoiding using the word as I don't have the full grip of the definition.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Acutally that's a missasumption.

Everyone has the right to judge anyone on this planet. As long as you don't harm them, restrict their personal freedom, insult or discredit them in public you can think of them what you want and judge them all they long.

 

[Flunk]

Most of them are just anxious teens.

 

[Treefingers]

Oh, sure, on a higher level, I do. Humans suck, life is pain, etc. But on a more practical level, you just make no sense to me, and heres why: Life is so much nicer if you have a positive outlook! Just go out into the world, be a nice person, and do something fun. What's the point of hating humanity? Wheres that going to get you?

EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!

I concur.

I figure that most are still in their angsty teenage phase. I've been there myself, but i matured and got over it. Yes, i get it, people suck and the world's a mess. But no sense dwelling on it, get the fuck over yourself and start enjoying life.

 

[Treefingers]

SNIP

This guy knows what's up.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I... don't believe in misanthropy, but nor do I think that life can be approached as being made of sunshine and bunnies. I don't think everyone is inherently good, just as I don't think the world is almost entirely made up of douchebags.

It just seems to me that there's no such thing as a card-carrying misanthrope. Let's assume for a moment that I'm generally disinterested in other people. That's fine. I won't hate my parents or my relatives, however (assuming my family is stable and functional), and I'll certainly have one or two friends around. I'll assume no one in the forums actually lives his or her life like the Lone Wanderer, with zero in-depth contacts with other people and a mile-wide streak of independence.

In other words, I'm pretty sure each and every one of us has affective anchors of a sort, people to fall back to in times of emotional distress, or when we're just bored out of our minds or need someone for a bit of Co-Op Portal 2 action.

On the flipside, I also don't think maintaining a positive attitude all the fricking time does much. It seems like a tiny bit of happy hypocrisy to me, seeing as we've all run into shit in our lives and we've all panicked once or twice. If there's a single person on Earth who goes through her life with a blissful grin on her face and zero anxiety or problems - then that person is a freaking psycho or sociopath.

Seeing as I've invalidated both extremes, I figure we just have groups of people we avoid, based on personal tastes and our perception of said people; and others we go to for support. Utter and complete misanthropy is as much a fallacy as being able to keep rose-colored glasses on consistently is.

At least, that's how I see things.

 

[Vault101]

Oh, sure, on a higher level, I do. Humans suck, life is pain, etc. But on a more practical level, you just make no sense to me, and heres why: Life is so much nicer if you have a positive outlook! Just go out into the world, be a nice person, and do something fun. What's the point of hating humanity? Wheres that going to get you?

EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!

Because their are a lot of angsty emo tenagers on the web who like to act up and whine about the world in a ploy to get attention.

When you single them out for what they are they hide behind big words they don't truly understand like 'misanthrope' or 'nihilist' and call you an idiot for not 'understanding their point of view.'

I guarantee 95% of these misanthrope and 'i've lost faith in humanity' threads are started by middle class teenagers ho don't realise how cushy their life is.

I came up with the Idea that this misanthrope thing was like a new wave of emo-angstyness, under a facade of "intullectualism" and "ohh look at me! arnt I special?"

I have yet one person to explain it to me in a way that makes sense

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Let em whine. Really doesn't affect my ponzi scheme one bit.