Why does it feel like the world is getting worse?

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I just can't get over the feeling I have about humanity sinking down a dark hole. Every time I look at the news I always get depressed from learning about the bad stuff people do to each other, and it seems like everywhere I go regardless if it's on the internet or in the real world I'm seeing a lot of unpleasantness in people. It's just people constantly being rude and hateful and it's like people have completely forgotten about what manners and politeness are. It makes me just want to hide in my room all the time and never come out.

Does anyone else ever feel this way?

I guess I like to believe there was a time when humans were more compassionate and respectful to their fellow men, but I could be wrong. Still it sucks that I try to be that way and nobody else does.

One of the things that really gets me is racism. Just about everyone I know is racist in some way, and I'm honestly not. People look down on me for getting offended when I see somebody say something rude about a person because of their skin color, and I just don't understand it because when I was a kid they taught us in school that it was wrong to be racist, yet it seems to be getting increasingly more accepted in society. I feel like I'm in the small minority of people who thinks people of all races should be treated with respect and equalty.

I feel that the world has gotten considerably worse, over the past 25-30 years. People seemed to have more manners and respect for each other back in the Mid 80s, than they do now. People don't seem to have any respect for people with disabilities, either. Look at how many people freely use the words, ret*d, ret*d, gimp, Gay, queer, spastic, freak, n****r, b***h and the list goes on and on. People are willing to have sex with anything that moves, as well because they love it.

I was going to start a thread like this, but I didn't want to be seen as a whining....wait a minute....I am a whining, nostalgic Mod who misses the 80s which were similar to the 60s in many ways.

I hate to say this, but maybe a complete economic collapse would shut people the hell up and force them to rebuild what's left of our society? If people realized just how good they have it today by loosing everything maybe they'd develope a little more humility.

My view is that people used to be more polite and considerate, but I don't think the human race has a history of kindness, generally.

It's interesting to see that while some things are improving due to greater knowledge, so that barbaric practices are tolerated & hidden less, ..other negative human traits have proliferated with an excessive respect for freedom of choice, such as the sexuality thing as mentioned above, use of aggressive language, etc.

It seems that as we sort out one issue, it's mirror emerges...as in sexism. Women were equalised (mostly, still some work to do there!), but now I see so much rudeness in women about men, as well as daft separatist theories such as women and men being from Venus and Mars, respectively. I mean, we are different, but we're mostly the same...Sexism is clearly a traditon that people enjoy.

Humans have a long way to go if we're heading for a positive, mutually supporting, respecting, ...civilised...species.

It always seems like it's getting worse, but over a long timescale it is obvious that things are actually getting better. It's very strange.

Has anyone else seen the film Idiocracy? The idea of Idiocracy is that stupid people are breeding more than smart people, and thus the human race is doomed. It seems sort of plausible, and it appeals to our elitism.

However, there is an obvious problem with it. Why hasn't this already happened? I mean, we used to not even have language, and now here we are typing on computers. The average IQ is increasing over time, not decreasing. Society is getting better, not worse. I mean, are you people serious that people with disabilities used to be treated better? It's just not true. We are very lucky that we live now, and not in the past. Do you think that Wrong Planet existed in the past? No, if you had a mental disability, your family would just hide you away out of embarrassment.

Some of it is internet culture spreading to real life. It rots immature people's minds. People feel more emboldened to say whatever the hell they want. Some people are better off not speaking their mind as their mind is a vile cesspool of stupidity, ignorance, and general nastiness.

That's my hypothesis at least. I think the 90s were a slightly more innocent time. Kids weren't raised by the stupid internet and it's shock humor values.

^Agree.
Emboldened both to say and do.

On a macro level the world is improving. It's over all far less violent than it was even 100 years ago. Effectively with World War 1 and the various Communist purges in the 60's we climaxed on violence and seem to be heading down the right hand side of the bell curve. That may not be a long lived trend however, enjoy it while you can.

On a micro level on the other hand, the absence of this violence is allowing individuals who would normally mind their manners, due to fear of reprisal, to become more and more assertive in their interactions. Suddenly they don't say thank you anymore, because they know you won't retaliate for their slight.

As the creator of Conan the Cimmerian stated, "Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing."

Dumber.

I mean KFC's "goodification" wtf?

I wonder how the chickens feel about that ?