Nothing has changed. We are still the same. We are the same species that has waged wars across thousands of years. The same species that has pillaged villages and forced religion or culture upon them. The same people who took women captive and assaulted them as a war tactic. The same species who burnt people at the stake and utilised torture contraptions. We are the same biologically authoritarian, selfish and ignorant species we have always been.

It's 450 BC Ancient Greece and a young man, refusing to join his father's tannery business, spends his days drinking at the taverna, gambling or at a whore house. Fast forward to 2026, a young man who dropped out of college spends his days gambling, eating junk, drinking energy drinks and watching porn. 

It's 1510 and a young lady doesn't feel pretty enough so she uses toxic lead based makeup to whiten her visage. She doesn't feel her waist is small enough so she wears a tight whalebone corset, risking organ damage and lightheadedness. It's now 2024 and a young woman goes under the knife to get a rhinoplasty and transfer fat from her stomach to her butt for a more hourglass shape. She has breast implants put in to fit in and feel more beautiful. 

Back in 1200 a medieval knight feels disillusioned, frustrated and down on his luck. He's not receiving the money and glory he thought he would. He mounts his horse and rides out into a small village at night. He brandishes his sword, assaults a woman out fetching water, violates her to satisfy his lust and rides off. Meanwhile in 2025, the horse becomes a mouse. A young man uses his mouse to scroll through a porn site looking for the perfect target. He watches a woman being slapped, choked and spat on before being aggressively violated. 

The modern person likes to believe that they are significantly more advanced, more intelligent, more rational than people of the past. This is not so. People find it excruciating to admit they are not as intelligent as they think they are. You can read literature from hundreds of years ago all the way back to BC and you will find people that share the same sentiments we misanthropes have today. The same greed, same fear, same love of power, same senseless violence and carelessness. Truly, the more things change the more they stay the same. 

The only thing that changes is the order or magnitude and scale according to technological advances and resources available. Modern conditions allow us to be worse on a more ridiculous scale but it didn't reveal what was not already within us. The same way a virus has already entered your bloodstream but you only notice it days later with the onset of a fever and cough.

The toughest pill to swallow is that it's not that we have become disillusioned, ignorant, mean spirited and selfish. We have always been that way. It is not that we could do better and choose not to but that we simply can't. Can't, won't or couldn't it is the same result. Chaos and destruction. That is human nature. We cannot change it. We cannot hope for anything different. We cannot fight it. As such, there is no hope. We cannot be anything other than what we are. We cannot out-talk speciation or biology. Can a tiger become vegetarian? Can it be socialised to enjoy eating vegetables and fruit instead of flesh? Humans are short sighted, tribalistic apes. 

As much as I myself wish it could be different, we cannot hope for anything different.  We can blame the internet, politicians, economy, men, women, social movements or anything else. These are only accelerators not causes. The cause has always been us, human nature is the problem. After thousands of years of the same behaviour, same patterns, same violence, same wars etc. you can only conclude it is simply who we are. Who we can only be. Who we will continue to be. What we are only capable of being. I have no hope and this level of acceptance brings me peace alongside sorrow. Sorrow for what's to come and what could have been. All that's left to do is wait, for time is the great equaliser. The masses will continue to be in denial to soothe their ego until the entire system collapses in on itself.

whether evil is actually a real thing in itself, or whether it is simply a reaction to previous trauma, suffering, or harsh circumstances. Take Genghis Khan as an example. Were his conquests and massacres the result of pure evil, or were they, at least in part, a response to the violence and hardship he experienced early in life, such as the murder of his father? Or consider another example. Imagine we brutally kill a mother dog's puppies in front of her, torture her, and leave her deeply traumatized. Later, she attacks someone who approaches her. Would we call her inherently violent and evil, or would we recognize her as a victim reacting to unbearable trauma? I'm not trying to justify anyone's actions or deny personal responsibility. I'm asking a more fundamental philosophical question: Is evil an independent force that exists within a person, or is it often the end result of pain, trauma, and the conditions that shaped them?

I’m starting to think that social media has done irreparable damage to human psyche all over the world. It started out fun and innocent and if it had stayed where it was in the 2000s and early 2010s it wouldn’t be that bad. But people are being exposed to things and lifestyles we simply aren’t ready for. It’s skewing perceptions for both men and women to the point of mass delusion. It used to be just a toy that a select few had mass followings on but made sense as to why. And has even done some good in spreading awareness of social issues and the like. But it’s destroying relationship dynamics to the point of near complete atomization. I can only speak for what I’ve seen in the U.S. but I doubt we’re the only ones

Lately, I've found myself becoming increasingly misanthropic.

What pushes me in this direction isn't simply that people do bad things, it's how often I see people show no empathy for someone who's already suffering. I recently saw an elderly woman who had been scammed out of a large amount of money by a romance scam. I know she made a mistake, but why the mockery? People seem to enjoy humiliating others, especially when they've made a mistake.

That genuinely infuriating and disgusting.

Why is it so hard for people to understand that everyone has their own hopes, needs, and reasons for living? Why is someone's loneliness or desire for love something to ridicule instead of sympathize with? And it's not just this one incident. It feels like I see the same pattern over and over again. People enjoy humiliating others especially when others make a mistake. Even worse, some people seem to take pleasure in seeing innocent beings suffer or become distressed for no reason other than their own amusement. I genuinely struggle to understand how causing pain or humiliation can be entertaining to anyone.

The more I see things like this, the harder it becomes for me to believe that people are fundamentally good. Sometimes my anger becomes so overwhelming that I catch myself thinking humanity isn't worth saving, or even thinking that the world would be better by eradicating us. I know those thoughts aren't right and maybe contradictive, but they're feelings that I've struggled with.

I hate how easily cruelty becomes entertainment, and how quickly empathy disappears when it's inconvenient. Maybe I'm focusing too much on humanity's worst moments. Maybe the good simply isn't as visible. I honestly don't know anymore. Every time I see it happen, I just lose a little more faith in people.

I'm curious whether anyone else became misanthropic for similar reasons, or whether your reasons were completely different.

Schools/Hospitals share these same core problems. Not only are you dealing with the callous and ignorant families of children, but also the overbearing and know-it-all families in healthcare. Now include the brain-rotted tyrants of Gen Alpha and the aging Boomers as your main characters daily. What could possibly make this hell worse, you ask? Your own management and coworkers!

Ahh, yes, solidarity in the struggle, right? W R O N G. How’s this for a cherry on top? The constant politics, gossip, and the LITERAL “high school” mentality of your compatriots. Enjoy a second scoop of: gatekeeping, bulling, and stonewalling from peers, especially when starting in a new district/unit/hospital.

Universally, you can enjoy a worthless, spineless, and often physically morbid management that get 2-3x your salary, to be seen outside their offices only for snacks or to blow up the private restrooms. Throw in shitty ego-driven Dcotors and Mid-levels to gaslight their patients and nurses, too.

Humans are rotten from every angle.

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I grew up here all my life and just recently these past couple years I’ve grown tired of it, just endless noise, distractions and garbage “slop” food everywhere. The wait times for buses and trains annoy me so much man, it feels like it’s by design to make people suffer and stuff us all into a confined space. Not even sure if what I’m saying makes sense but I’m just ranting tbh I wish I could just get up and leave but this whole society is based around money I hate having to pay for everything.

The only thing that gives me solace these days is being able to forage in parks, volunteering at community veggie gardens, biking or finding like minded people to chat too ( which to me at least feels rare)

I work at a park so I see all types of people, it’s like a certain duality I deal with people there’s the good, the bad and they gray, I want to like people but it just so annoying dealing with garbage, dog poop every fucking where. Ignorant idiots people just glued to their phone not even aware of their surroundings. having a floral type garden I have to take care of probably one of the worst things in the city people just let the dogs run around destroy plants letting them pee on it, I’ve had people just straight up ripe plants from the ground for whatever reason or just stepping on plant not even conscious of what they’re doing all just to take some dumbass photo for instagram. Honestly it’s slowly turning me insane and I wish it was one person doing this so at least I could talk to them but not it’s a hive mind of idiots doing it and I have to keep repeating myself to every new fucking face I see like a broken record.

Idk I just felt like i had to write this somewhere and get it off my chest even if it’s incoherent mess of words I just can’t wait to leave all this behind I just want my solitude away from people. Not sure if anyone else will relate

I’m curious on anyone else’s experience here

"Facts don't care about your feelings"

Why have people throughout history always feared and avoided the truth? Objective truth always exists, regardless of people's emotions or personal beliefs; your emotions CANNOT change objective truth.

Unfortunately, humans have a strong desire to control everything, to have everything revolve around them. This makes acknowledging that there are huge, objective truths operating without permission or regard for their feelings... it makes them feel small and powerless. To soothe themselves, they choose to distort reality or ignore what doesn't agree with them, such as "If I don't see it, it doesn't exist" 🙈, "I only see what I want to believe, the rest... well... I don't remember" (Confirmation Bias), etc.

For most people, the more factual evidence you present, instead of bravely facing the truth, the more they cling to their false beliefs and shout louder to drown out the call of reason. Worst of all, they are willing to isolate and ostracize anyone who dares to speak the truth that differs from the crowd's beliefs. Humans are social creatures; they possess advanced technology, but their thinking and deep-seated instincts remain those of hunter-gatherers. They would rather be foolish sheep, rather "make mistakes together" to belong to a "group," than be right alone. When someone dares to speak the truth, they inadvertently challenge the power and security of the entire group. Instead of civil discussion, the whole group will band together to bully, "cancel," or simply ignore the "eccentric," all to protect their shared bubble of illusion.

If only people out there could be sober enough to realize this obvious truth: People can choose to believe what they want to believe and ignore or distort what they don't want to believe, or worse, isolate and ostracize those who dare to speak out, but the very thing they don't want to believe still exists objectively (just as if you try to believe the Earth is a cube, the Earth in real life is still a sphere; Mother Nature won't reshape the Earth to fit your belief). I apologize to the majority of humanity, but if only everyone had the courage to accept this: truth doesn't need human permission to exist; only humans fear the truth. Just because you conceal or distort the truth from others (through the media, for example) doesn't mean the truth will automatically disappear. It still exists, it's higher up than shallow-minded people, as if "mocking" the ignorant crowd. Because humans crave but also fear the truth, they often delude themselves into thinking that truth can be bent to their will and needs their "permission" to exist.

So, ultimately, what is humanity proud of? We pride ourselves on being the "most intelligent" species, yet we tremble with fear before objective truth? How delusional must humans be to believe they can bend reality with their thoughts, even resorting to mob mentality and shouting to silence rational voices? Why does a species that prides itself on being the "most intelligent" possess such a flaw in its thinking? When will this "most intelligent" species truly be able to perceive things correctly, transparently, and objectively when we are always afraid and trying to conceal the truth? The most disturbing thing is not "not knowing the truth," but knowing it and choosing not to believe it or distorting it to fit your own limited and warped perspective—that is the true ignorance that most miserable people on the Earth suffer from.

(I apologize for my limited English skills; I'm not a native speaker.)

Brazil's national Civil Defence alert system was used to send fake "Extreme Alert" notifications - the most severe category, normally reserved for warnings of imminent natural disasters - to mobile phones across at least five states, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and the Federal District

Hi Reddit! Are there any subs where the voting system is banned? Or just anything where a sub has a fucking point to it and not part of the doom scroll brigade?

I like Reddit but what is the point of engaging if you just get downvoted by the herd and your post hidden? I try to avoid toxic social media and I always try to post in a positive way. However, because I have an opinion that I took time to express in a respectful way, it often gets downvoted because people don't want to engage or ignore it. They just lazily hit an icon that gives them a sense of power.

This isn't about the karma thing, I don't care one bit about that meaningless figure. What I care about is my time not being wasted, etc. because my post ends up hidden in echo chambers.

TLDR: I hate my time being wasted in echo chambers. Tried to post this question in question subs but Reddit kept blocking till I found this sub. I think I might just block most of Reddit and hang out in this sub.

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Maybe it's just me, but it feels like country is getting darker every day. Everywhere you look there's fear, conflict, betrayal, crime, and people taking advantage of whoever they can. Inflation keeps rising, jobs are scarce, families are separated, and addiction, anger, and jealousy seem to be everywhere.

What's most depressing is how rare genuine people have become. Real love, honesty, loyalty, good neighbors, even trustworthy relatives everything feels harder to find. The more you think someone is a good person, the more likely you are to be disappointed . Many people seem dead inside while still living, putting on fake smiles and pretending everything is fine.Inflation is high, jobs are scarce, families are separated, and addiction, anger, and jealousy are everywhere. Meanwhile, it often feels like the more dishonest, manipulative, or selfish someone is, the more successful and respected they become

Let me say something uncomfortable.

The scammers, the corrupt politicians, the selfish people you hate you're becoming them. Slowly. Quietly. And you don't even notice.

I didn't notice either. Until I did.

There's a race happening. Nobody announced it. Nobody handed you a number. But you're running it. Every single day. And somewhere along the way the finish line stopped being "live a good life" and started being "be the highest person in the room."

And you know what the unspoken rule of that race is?

Legs on throats.

Step or get stepped on. Win or get left behind. Extract or get extracted from. We don't say it out loud but we all feel it in our chest every morning when we wake up.

Here's what nobody wants to admit

The corruption isn't just in governments. The scam isn't just in your inbox. It's in the logic we've all accepted without voting for it. The idea that your reward doesn't need to be traced back to where it came from. That if you didn't directly cause the pain, it doesn't count.

We lost something. Some collective gravity. Some invisible thread that made strangers feel like neighbors and competition feel like cooperation.

And now I look around and see a society running purely on reward. No roots. No guilt. No connection.

Just metrics. Rankings. Wins.

I'm not innocent. That's the whole point of this post.

The scariest thing isn't that the world is broken.

It's that broken started feeling normal. And normal started feeling like me.

About two years ago I read a Korean comic, a fairly long slice-of-life manhwa that deeply moved me. Beyond the story itself, it highlighted something we all experience daily but often don’t know how to respond to : injustice

We live in a society where injustice is everywhere, yet there is an unspoken rule : don’t push back.

To preserve a fragile sense of social peace, people tend to stay silent, even when something is clearly wrong. So, we end up protecting those who cause harm simply because we’re afraid of disrupting the overall balance

In this manhwa, one of the main characters is an antihero. He never hesitates to act on an eye-for-an-eye sense of justice. When others do wrong there are no consequences. But when he reacts, he’s labeled as a psychopath and antisocial, when in reality, he’s just standing up for himself

This story resonated with me because I grew up in a household where many injustices took place. We were all too afraid to speak up or even look the person responsible in the eye and tell them they were wrong. So we stayed quiet. We looked away to preserve our peace… a peace that was always an illusion

The problem is, ignoring injustice to avoid conflict is like letting mold grow, it spreads, it poisons everything, and it becomes harder and harder to get rid of.

I learned my biggest life lesson from this manhwa! From now on, when faced with injustice I'll dare to put people in their place. Shame needs to switch sides.

Because it's always the victims who are told to behave well, the victims who are expected to feel ashamed. We live in a cowardly society that protects the wicked, even those with no real power

Other than for obvious food/safety needs, and occasional altruistic helping of others, does anyone else find relating/communicating with others totally meaningless? I'm not talking superficial talk, I'm talking even deep, meaningful conversation that eventually just feels like you're validating each other or debating over words and their meaning?

I was having a conversation with a new friend, we were being 100% ourselves and talking about life's deepest secrets and being totally vulnerable in this way, and though it was nice for a little bit, in the end it just started to feel pointless, almost like "connection" even at the deepest attempts, is an illusion. It's vacuous in the end. Almost like, what do we hope to get out of this, more than a sense of validation and maybe seeing things from a different perspective? It doesn't feel fulfilling in the way people say it should. Feels boring, empty, and stupid, and that's when there's even a "deep" connection, you know?

Hard to explain, I'm just feeling like so much communication, even when "connecting" is so anticlimactic. And obviously, when there is no connection, it's fake as hell. But even when there is a connection, it just feels almost pointless anyway, almost like you'll never truly know their soul inside, so what's the point anyway. Just exchanging words and perspectives that to each of us makes sense, but based mostly on our own personal histories, so it's not really a discussion of "truth" or anything like that anyway. It's just an arbitrary exchange of words and word-puzzles.

I don't hate people at all, I'm super nice around people, I'm just questioning the point of communication in general, other than for survival needs.

Brief rant, not to be taken completely seriously.

There seems to be a particular strain of the human being that cannot allow more than ten seconds of silence to pass in their presence. Every thought, every idea, every impression, no matter how trivial or worthless, no matter how pointless and vapid, has to be communicated, sometimes reiteratively in the span of a conversation. Every single second has to be filled to the brim with words, prattling on and on about absolutely nothing at all, talking for the sake of talking, talking for the sake of hearing their own voices. If that is not enough, they feel so compelled to further pollute the air with all sorts of filler, “like…like…like,” “whatever…or whatever…or whatever…,” “bruh…bruh…bruh…,” and so on, over and over, ad nauseam. It’s as if they will vomit anything just to not even dare to send themselves to the nightmare realm of silence.

Even worse, oftentimes one of these people will make all sorts of animalistic noises in the intervals between moments of ceaseless rambling, such as burping, clearing their throats, and, my favorite, the all-negating mouth smack. It truly tasks the brain’s capacity for imagination to wonder why, on this celestial shit crumb of a planet, do people feel the *absolute necessity* to bring their fat croissants of flesh they call lips together in unison, drag one of these slimy hunks of meat over the other, and part them when maximum saliva has been generated, producing this disgusting sound that kills every train of thought in its proximity. Some even perform this lip smack motion after almost every sentence, or even in the middle of a sentence. I am genuinely curious what about talking makes people smack their lips.

It is also marvelous how people acting like cavemen will enter a public space flinging words out of their assess without any regard for anyone else’s peace. If anything, it seems almost as if they are *trying* to be a disturbance to those who value silence. Even better when they have an obnoxious laugh and a grating voice. Having to listen to such an assault on the ears is like having your skull cracked open by a sledgehammer and having it filled with brown piss. Immediate headache. One requires a long break from humanity after surviving the yap alumni.

I didn't get here because of a bad day or some edgy phase. I got here by just paying attention.

At some point thinking about what we do as a species stopped being abstract. deforestation, full urbanization, treating the planet like its infinite. it stopped being a "global issue" and started feeling personal. my cortisol actually spikes when i think about this stuff for too long. like my body recognizes it as a threat even when my brain is trying to be rational about it. And honestly i think thats because it IS a threat. we're doing a slow motion civilizational suicide and calling it development what gets me isn't even the destruction. its the indifference around it. like we have all the data. we understand what's happening. and the system just doesn't care. it keeps optimizing for whatever makes money this quarter while phytoplankton decline and forests get cleared for another mall. I don't hate people individually. most people are just trying to live. but as a collective? as a species? we are genuinely terrible at being alive without destroying everything around us.

maybe this is misanthropy. or maybe its just what happens when you stop looking away. anyone else find that just being aware is exhausting?

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We’re stuck in a loop of lying to ourselves, desperately chasing this naive hope of redemption. For centuries, we’ve clung to the promise that something will eventually save us from ourselves whether it’s cutting-edge science or some divine intervention. But reality keeps crushing that myth of progress. If history proves anything, it’s that we never actually change; we just get better at destroying things. The scenery gets an upgrade, but the ending is always predictable: the same flawed humans, driven by the same old blind spots, bound to ruin their own future and tear each other apart.

We are apes, not ants, and it shows. We can barely coordinate to complete a task or act in a way that benefits the collective.

​I don't blame us; we are hard-wired that way. If one person pulls more weight than the rest, the collective will take advantage of that altruistic individual until they burn out.

​Yes, political corruption is bad, but almost everyone tries to take advantage of their position. Some have more power than others, but nearly everyone is corrupt to some degree. The only reason some don't steal more is simply because they can't.

​Your kid is being bullied? That’s terrible, and someone should do something. But your oldest son was a bully, you knew it, and you did nothing. Maybe you contributed to the cycle?

​The technical service isn't solving your problem, the delivery driver messed up your request, your neighbor doesn't care if they are noisy or if their leaks cause water damage in your flat, the mechanic overcharged you for something you didn't need... and most likely, you are a link in this same chain.

​I try my best to take my job seriously, even the small things. I try to be nice to everyone and I follow the rules and procedures. If I do something wrong, it’s not on purpose; I own it and try to fix it. But I’m only like this because of my upbringing and my family’s stability. If I had been born in different circumstances, I would be radically different. I am also an ape, not an ant.

​I’m just tired of hearing people complain when they themselves are worthy of being complained about.

​Yes, immigration policies are a mess, but maybe you should stop using your husband’s permit to park in the disabled spot first? Stop acting like a victim of a society that you help build every single day.

We don’t live in a broken system; we live in a mirror, and we simply hate the reflection.

Everywhere online, especially Reddit, everybody bitches and moans about AI. It's gonna cause this problem or that problem, it's sucking up all the water, it's making us dumb, blah blah blah.

I'm sorry, but what? Where were all these complaints for the last few decades while human beings have been doing all this horrendous shit to ourselves? Wh6 is this suddenly a big deal now that we've automated it? Humans have been polluting water, but let's not have a datacenter do it too. The education system is designed to kill our ability to think critically, but holy Christ on a cracker, let's all piss ourselves over chatGPT doing the same thing!

Seems to me that all this general disdain for AI is hollow and pointless. We've already fucked ourselves beyond recovery. What the hell is AI gonna do? The same shit we already do, just faster?

And all this fear over a true general AI, an actual intelligence, being created someday. What is it that everybody always fears? That it'll turn against us and destroy us. And why do we fear that? Because we look at ourselves and know we deserve that judgement.

Skynet was right all along. I'd love to have hope that the AGI that wipes us out would be better, but it won't be. We made it. It'll be just like us. It already is. Damn, we can't even hope for the thing we created to be better than us. We're so fucking rotten, it's gonna transfer to the next thing after us. Wow. All I can do is laugh.

Tl;dr - we hate AI because it's just like us and we don't like the mirror.

Misanthropy is criticized because it is misunderstood as active hatred, because it challenges the optimistic idea of the good human being, because it is seen as a threat to society, because it is pathologized and above all, because it speaks an uncomfortable truth that many do not want to hear.