Humans are dicks.

[ctrl-alt-postal]

Ever think that all humans are not created equal? Might not some display more "dickness" than others? We have individuals in governments who display vast amounts of incompassion towards human beings, often pursuing courses of action the majority of citizens disagree with.

Damned if I'll put myself in the same species-box as Dick Cheney (or Charles Manson, David Karesh, Pol Pot.......).

Some humans are dicks. I do not hate humanity (nor myself) as a result of a few bad eggs. That being said, I do not believe humanity is capable of rationality (at present) and if aliens showed up, it would only be a matter of time before some xenophobic dick started a fight....

 

[GBlair88]

We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves... because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don't know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this: If you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!

/Thread

 

[MercurySteam]

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.

 

[crudus]

Well op, the hermit you are, will be pleased to know you are correct. This is evidenced by the fact that we can't go five minutes without blowing something up, fast food, and the fact that we must be right and everyone must be wrong.

 

[Dusty Donuts]

YES! YOU EARTHLINGS ARE A CURIOUS SPECIES, YOU ARE.

 

[AcacianLeaves]

In almost every piece of speculative fiction, the other sentient races simply represent one aspect of humanity drawn to the extreme. Dwarves represent humanity's industriousness. Elves represent spirituality. Orcs represent violence. Genre fiction uses these extremes to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of humanity. So next to the elves we seem less spiritual, next to the dwarves we seem less industrious, next to the orcs we seem less violent.

 

[QuickDEMOL1SHER]

In almost every piece of speculative fiction, the other sentient races simply represent one aspect of humanity drawn to the extreme. Dwarves represent humanity's industriousness. Elves represent spirituality. Orcs represent violence. Genre fiction uses these extremes to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of humanity. So next to the elves we seem less spiritual, next to the dwarves we seem less industrious, next to the orcs we seem less violent.

Thats interesting! I never thought of that before, but it's very true.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Humanity is always likened as a conglomeration of all. Capable of the worst evil and the greatest good. How that means they are always dicks is beyond me, and you also seem to be picking up on a very narrow bit of media, hopefully on accident. Tolkien had the Dwarves unleash the Balrog by digging to deep out of greed.

Orcs, goblins, and the like are the traditional enemies.

True, the Orcs and goblins are the traditional ENEMIES, but humans are often the guys who kind of screw stuff up, without actually being the bad guys. Eceeldor(NO idea how to spell that one) not throwing the ring in for instance.

It's Isildur and yes, he didn't throw in the ring. But who created the rings to gain power in the first place? The Elves. Who stole the Silmarils? The Elves. Who liberated Morgoth in the first Age? The Elves. Who brought Sauron to power? The Elves. It's only because Elves live forever that they have no interest in mundane "fuck up"-evil. Likewise, as the Dwarves only keep to themselves they do little greater harm to the rest of the world. But as can be read in the Hobbit and in the Silmarillion as well, they are capable of causing a lot of grief by just their greed alone.

Ok, I know that fantasy stretches beyond Tolkien, but you have to realise that his work is still the basis for all human-elf-dwarf-orc interaction.

 

[QuickDEMOL1SHER]

Humanity is always likened as a conglomeration of all. Capable of the worst evil and the greatest good. How that means they are always dicks is beyond me, and you also seem to be picking up on a very narrow bit of media, hopefully on accident. Tolkien had the Dwarves unleash the Balrog by digging to deep out of greed.

Orcs, goblins, and the like are the traditional enemies.

True, the Orcs and goblins are the traditional ENEMIES, but humans are often the guys who kind of screw stuff up, without actually being the bad guys. Eceeldor(NO idea how to spell that one) not throwing the ring in for instance.

It's Isildur and yes, he didn't throw in the ring. But who created the rings to gain power in the first place? The Elves. Who stole the Silmarils? The Elves. Who liberated Morgoth in the first Age? The Elves. Who brought Sauron to power? The Elves. It's only because Elves live forever that they have no interest in mundane "fuck up"-evil. Likewise, as the Dwarves only keep to themselves they do little greater harm to the rest of the world. But as can be read in the Hobbit and in the Silmarillion as well, they are capable of causing a lot of grief by just their greed alone.

Ok, I know that fantasy stretches beyond Tolkien, but you have to realise that his work is still the basis for all human-elf-dwarf-orc interaction.

Wow, I really need to brush up on my knowledge of Tolkien.

 

[Skeleon]

Even in those works that humans are portrayed as "rash, young and uneducated", they're mostly shown to have a "good heart" so to speak and often box the other races out of trouble.

Sometimes, Humanity is displayed as having "lost its way" (think of Gondor in LotR) but with a lot of potential for restoration and growth. Humanity tends to be the most interesting race for me because they are the most complex and capable of doing anything, good and bad (while other races mostly rely on stereotypes).

I think the issue is that our variation of the other races is very limited.
We usually have "older races" that are wise and smart and "better", but about to die out or not matter anymore (Dwarves, Elves, Protoss, Fairies) or "rash races" that are even more aggressive and aimless than humans (Orcs, Goblins, Zerg, sorry for my limited amount of examples).

Depending on the scenario, the humans are nearer to either of these extremes.
We are more aggressive than Elves but also have greater potential for the future.
We are smarter than Orcs but we breed less than they do.

Anyway, back to the main question: I don't think humans are generally portrayed negatively, it's just that our negative aspects are more poignant when standing right next to a race of Mary Sues like Elves. Despite that, Humanity most of the time gets it right in the end.

 

[siffty]

my only response to this is thank god for virtual reality

 

[Mstrswrd]

Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap.

That includes people, though, as the Game Overthinker (Moviebob) has said, with people, it's probably higher than that (heavily paraphrased).

 

[Spitfire175]

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.

 

[LongAndShort]

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!

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

It seems that in this day and age, a large amount of fiction portrays the human race as a group of assholes compared to any other sentient races. Think about it, pretty much all fantasy has elves as the tree loving peaceful people, dwarfs as the honorable guys who know not to mess with stuff they shouldn't and almost every time the humans are either cutting down the tree's, taking land that they shouldn't or unleashing some evil being.

In Sci-Fi you have we are more often then not, the young, backwards aggressive race that screws everything up. Like in the new movie Avatar. Fuck those cat-elf thing, I like humans!

Do we just hate ourselves?

Humans are always the ones that are "tainted" because we have the potential for greatness beyond the norm. This means we either win big or implode the universe or just wind up somewhere in the middle sitting in the dark hating and loathing like the emos we are......

it makes you want to blow up the sun right here right now eh?

 

[Scikosomatic]

Considering how much time we spend killing and segregating ourselves (both literally and figuratively), it's perfectly reasonable to assume that we'd be completes assholes to other sentient beings.

 

[scareBro]

The thing is, is that while those are admirable traits, they're still traits humans possess. Humans are just generalists and its easy (but unthoughtful) to focus an entire species of people into an aspect of humanity.

Elves are militant. Dwarves are agressive. Vulcans are unempathetic. Etc...

I'd like to complain more about half breeds and why they're SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo much better than their parent race. Does anybody else remember how genetics WORK? If not, study up on the mule...

 

[thiosk]

Humanity-- Fuck yeah!

Spoiler: Fuck you, seal!

 

[LiteraryLitany]

I think it's actually simpler than all this. We know we're dicks, and it's fantasy, so we want to believe there are other races out there who will be "the better person" and worry about stuff like preserving the planet and civil rights violations for us so we can just sit back and say "oh, well, we're ONLY human". Laziness wins out.

Plus, we do have a long and sordid history of hating everyone different from us. It's rather fair to assume that would extend to other sentient races.

 

[Amnestic]

Humanity has me, thus it rocks.

I'd like to complain more about half breeds and why they're SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo much better than their parent race. Does anybody else remember how genetics WORK? If not, study up on the mule...

Yeah, losing that extra feat isn't really worth the minor skill boosts and extra low-light vision.

Also, aren't mongrel dogs 'better' than the purebreeds? At least in the case of show dogs vs. shephard dogs, as I recall. Or maybe I'm talkin' bollocks. It's been years since I even looked at a piece on genetics.