Humans are dicks.

[Samurai Goomba]

It's easier to point out flaws than propose feasible solutions.

 

[Jharry5]

This does seem to be the general persuasion among Fantasy and Sci-Fi writers, and when you look back over our history, its not hard to see why. That doesn't really bother me, as I can see exactly where the writers of these pieces of fiction are coming from.
Something that does bother me, however, is that our achievements as a whole seem to be over-looked in favour of the self hating stuff. Why not show a balanced view of things?

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Isn't this just that we're finally reaching the stage of planetary self-destruction that we find out what the hell we're actually doing?
Because it'd be about time.

Indeedy.

Creative media has always been about reflecting the mood and life of the artist, ever since animals were being drawn on cave walls. These days, there is a hell of a lot of guilt in the human population for all the crap we are inflicting on both the planet and those of our own species who are less fortunate than we are. This is a part of modern media culture in movies, books, and games.

 

[Eggsnham]

When discussing the morality of mankind, it's important to think back to your childhood. From a very young age, we're taught that our parents and loved ones are always right, so if your parents happen to be racists, you may very well become a racist, adopting racist views. That being said, humans probably aren't inherently evil, my earliest memory is me dropping an egg on the floor, merely because I wanted the chicken to come out, and crying when I realized that there was no chicken. This is the kind of childhood innocence that is so easily tainted that shows me that humans are in fact not dicks from birth, rather when we encounter the cruelty of the world for the first time, we pick up one of three "social genes" Blind aggression, boiling hatred, about to erupt, and the elusive "I don't really give a shit, because in X years I'm going to own their asses." gene. Another very rare gene is the "Helping humanity" gene, but like I said this is rare, so if you're normal you probably have astronomical amounts of stress and hatred built up towards your fellow humans which have been developed into full fledged dicks.

This is why there's weed.

 

[hotdogoctopus]

The Point is, people = shit. I think that we should all put our best effort into killing everyone. Let's go guys!

My logic is infallible, suck on that.

 

[Socius]

yep, we all suck.

 

[Deleted]

Obviously you never watched Star Trek, lotta douchebags in there!

 

[Angryman101]

Humans aren't dicks. Humans aren't good. Humans are just Human.

 

[MGlBlaze]

I don't hate myself, but I do detest the human race. Actually, I hate the idealists who think humans are good at heart even more.

I don't mind idealists as long as they aren't blind to what i the case right now. If they know that Humans Are Bastards, they can at least do something, even if it's only as muhc as making sure that THEY aren't bastards. Otherwise, being blind to the truth just makes things a whole lot worse.

I see these "Humanity is a *****" threads all to often, and I can't help but agree as the guy sitting next to me makes fun of my last name and my religion.

But we may as well get used to it as we're going to be interacting with each other for a loooooong time.

Getting used to it is what perpetuates that kind of behaviour, I find. What you need to do is quite simply a case of 'not taking that shit'. If you don't speak out against it, people will pretty much ignore the fact that it's wrong as long as they don't think there's a consequence to it. It's the reason there's so many trolls and other idiots on the Internet: "No consequence to myself, no worries."

Your religion is your choice and is not something anyone should make fun of, and your last name is not your choice and anyone who pokes fun at your last name a lot is being an immature prick.

What annoys me is not that humans are depicted as being dicks, or expansionist aggressive or whatever, but so fucking often other 'races' are depicted as being 'better' or 'beyond' such behaviours. There are probably a lot of alien or elvish dicks as well!

This as well. If course, 'Alien Morality' could come into play where they do what they think is right, and we just don't understand, but I believe that any sentient species has equal capacity to be an insufferable bunch of douche-bags. It's highly unlikely to be just humans.

 

[Baby Tea]

Do we just hate ourselves?

No, we just know ourselves really well.
I'd like to think that elves and dwarfs are exaggerated aspects of humanity. Humans can be noble, graceful, environmentally empathetic people, they can also be strong, hardy, and fine craftsman. The noble parts of humanity without the vices.
But humanity as a whole cannot escape the vices within itself that we see everyday.

 

[WeedWorm]

dwarfs as the honorable guys who know not to mess with stuff they shouldn't

Not a Tolkien fan, I take it?

Humans are this way in fiction because it suits us. I mean, imagine if humans were one of the elder races in fantasy? Itd be weird if the elves came to us for counsel rather than the other way around. Were usually the young, upstart race who tend to stick our nose in everything, whether or not it actually concerns us, but were trying to do good. Were basically the fantasy version of America.

 

[MGlBlaze]

When discussing the morality of mankind, it's important to think back to your childhood. From a very young age, we're taught that our parents and loved ones are always right, so if your parents happen to be racists, you may very well become a racist, adopting racist views. That being said, humans probably aren't inherently evil, my earliest memory is me dropping an egg on the floor, merely because I wanted the chicken to come out, and crying when I realized that there was no chicken. This is the kind of childhood innocence that is so easily tainted that shows me that humans are in fact not dicks from birth, rather when we encounter the cruelty of the world for the first time, we pick up one of three "social genes" Blind aggression, boiling hatred, about to erupt, and the elusive "I don't really give a shit, because in X years I'm going to own their asses." gene. Another very rare gene is the "Helping humanity" gene, but like I said this is rare, so if you're normal you probably have astronomical amounts of stress and hatred built up towards your fellow humans which have been developed into full fledged dicks.

This is why there's weed.

A very well put together view... except the weed bit, but I'm reasonably certain that was a joke.

I also know that human beings are inherently born as blank slates (Tabula Rasa, I believe...). The bad things about the human race manifest as a result of social contact with others who are themselves bad.

This is why I said 'people suck'. And when I say things, I usually try and be as specific as possible. To clarify that I make a very clear distinction between 'people' and 'person'.

Even in adult life, though, being surrounded by other people that one perceives as piers or friends can change the way you act and make you do things you normally wouldn't. This results in people being totally different people outside of a large group dynamic most of the time. The more permanent changes, of course, still happen as a child. I was just saying that even in adulthood, our ability to be easily swayed manifests itself constantly.

This is a rather bad example, but it's the one that made me realise just how easily people could be influenced by others. I used to hate the Halo series because of things I heard about it from other people about it being nothing special, about it being a bad game, etc, etc. Out of boredom, however, I got Halo 3... and after playing through the single player campaign and actually having a lot of fun, I realised that those people were full of shit, or were themselves as skewed on their opinions as I had allowed myself to become. Of course, it' hardly perfect, granted, but still.

It's easier said than done, but it just goes to show; never let your opinion on something be made by anyone but yourself. It's unfortunate that a lot of people fail to realise this.

I guess humans are predisposed to believing those in authority positions are always 'right', too, which in itself causes a huge amount of problems while we're young depending on the parents themselves.

 

[Eggsnham]

When discussing the morality of mankind, it's important to think back to your childhood. From a very young age, we're taught that our parents and loved ones are always right, so if your parents happen to be racists, you may very well become a racist, adopting racist views. That being said, humans probably aren't inherently evil, my earliest memory is me dropping an egg on the floor, merely because I wanted the chicken to come out, and crying when I realized that there was no chicken. This is the kind of childhood innocence that is so easily tainted that shows me that humans are in fact not dicks from birth, rather when we encounter the cruelty of the world for the first time, we pick up one of three "social genes" Blind aggression, boiling hatred, about to erupt, and the elusive "I don't really give a shit, because in X years I'm going to own their asses." gene. Another very rare gene is the "Helping humanity" gene, but like I said this is rare, so if you're normal you probably have astronomical amounts of stress and hatred built up towards your fellow humans which have been developed into full fledged dicks.

This is why there's weed.

A very well put together view... except the weed bit, but I'm reasonably certain that was a joke.

I also know that human beings are inherently born as blank slates (Tabula Rasa, I believe...). The bad things about the human race manifest as a result of social contact with others who are themselves bad.

This is why I said 'people suck'. And when I say things, I usually try and be as specific as possible. To clarify that I make a very clear distinction between 'people' and 'person'.

Even in adult life, though, being surrounded by other people that one perceives as piers or friends can change the way you act and make you do things you normally wouldn't. This results in people being totally different people outside of a large group dynamic most of the time. The more permanent changes, of course, still happen as a child. I was just saying that even in adulthood, our ability to be easily swayed manifests itself constantly.

This is a rather bad example, but it's the one that made me realise just how easily people could be influenced by others. I used to hate the Halo series because of things I heard about it from other people about it being nothing special, about it being a bad game, etc, etc. Out of boredom, however, I got Halo 3... and after playing through the single player campaign and actually having a lot of fun, I realised that those people were full of shit, or were themselves as skewed on their opinions as I had allowed myself to become. Of course, it' hardly perfect, granted, but still.

It's easier said than done, but it just goes to show; never let your opinion on something be made by anyone but yourself. It's unfortunate that a lot of people fail to realise this.

I guess humans are predisposed to believing those in authority positions are always 'right', too, which in itself causes a huge amount of problems while we're young depending on the parents themselves.

Very very thought provoking. If I caught the message of your reply correctly, it was basically "People are stupid and arrogant, a person is rational and well rounded"

 

[MGlBlaze]

When discussing the morality of mankind, it's important to think back to your childhood. From a very young age, we're taught that our parents and loved ones are always right, so if your parents happen to be racists, you may very well become a racist, adopting racist views. That being said, humans probably aren't inherently evil, my earliest memory is me dropping an egg on the floor, merely because I wanted the chicken to come out, and crying when I realized that there was no chicken. This is the kind of childhood innocence that is so easily tainted that shows me that humans are in fact not dicks from birth, rather when we encounter the cruelty of the world for the first time, we pick up one of three "social genes" Blind aggression, boiling hatred, about to erupt, and the elusive "I don't really give a shit, because in X years I'm going to own their asses." gene. Another very rare gene is the "Helping humanity" gene, but like I said this is rare, so if you're normal you probably have astronomical amounts of stress and hatred built up towards your fellow humans which have been developed into full fledged dicks.

This is why there's weed.

Insert an ass-tonne of words here.

Very very thought provoking. If I caught the message of your reply correctly, it was basically "People are stupid and arrogant, a person is rational and well rounded"

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was going for. of course, there are also individual people who are also arrogant, stupid and a whole lot of other mean words, but in general I find that it's far easier to find good people on their own rather than as a group.

Edit: Have a cookie. xD

 

[Eggsnham]

When discussing the morality of mankind, it's important to think back to your childhood. From a very young age, we're taught that our parents and loved ones are always right, so if your parents happen to be racists, you may very well become a racist, adopting racist views. That being said, humans probably aren't inherently evil, my earliest memory is me dropping an egg on the floor, merely because I wanted the chicken to come out, and crying when I realized that there was no chicken. This is the kind of childhood innocence that is so easily tainted that shows me that humans are in fact not dicks from birth, rather when we encounter the cruelty of the world for the first time, we pick up one of three "social genes" Blind aggression, boiling hatred, about to erupt, and the elusive "I don't really give a shit, because in X years I'm going to own their asses." gene. Another very rare gene is the "Helping humanity" gene, but like I said this is rare, so if you're normal you probably have astronomical amounts of stress and hatred built up towards your fellow humans which have been developed into full fledged dicks.

This is why there's weed.

Insert an ass-tonne of words here.

Very very thought provoking. If I caught the message of your reply correctly, it was basically "People are stupid and arrogant, a person is rational and well rounded"

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was going for. of course, there are also individual people who are also arrogant, stupid and a whole lot of other mean words, but in general I find that it's far easier to find good people on their own rather than as a group.

Edit: Have a cookie. xD

Why thank you for the cookie, good sir.

 

[DracoSuave]

In terms of literature, being a race that has dicks as well as heroes is better than being a race that is nothing more than a bland stereotype of said race.

It's called 'depth'.

 

[MercurySteam]

Your religion is your choice and is not something anyone should make fun of, and your last name is not your choice and anyone who pokes fun at your last name a lot is being an immature prick.

You obviously havent been to my school.

I am all too aware of this, and I stand up for myself as I believe they have no right to criticse what they can't understand or control. I just hope they realise this so people aren't calling them 'general dickheads' when they're 40 years old.

 

[OtherAlex]

Humanity as a species has so much potential, if only we would apply outselves. We are the underachieving geniuses of the universe.

 

[aarontg]

I think writers put that in to make some kind of point in some kind of racial term but it is layed on a little too thick.

 

[OtherAlex]

We are the rock stars of the natural world people.