Ok if you're arguing that we can't get out of our current situation, I'm not going to argue with you there. I mean, I don't really agree but I will agree that things do feel hopeless and it is not clear how we will actually get out of the current crisis. So like, maybe we won't escape our current crisis and carve out a future for the species. But whose fault is that? Saying humans suck, humans are a mistake, throwing the species as a whole under the bus, obscures the historical and sociological circumstances that cause humans to "suck," and obscures the fact that the current crisis was not brought upon equally by all humans, but by certain classes of humans. One must understand why and how we got into our current situation, and it's not because humanity essentially "sucks."
We confront the attitude that humanity is essentially evil and a virus on a daily basis. People do suck, but to end thought there instead of challenging these essentialist ideas props up the attitude many people have that nothing can be done nor could ever have been done about our situation, and that it was always inevitable.
the intent isn't to dissuade people from organization or to increase apathy. fault the negative nature if you must, but it's no less conducive to the possibility of changing a situation than claiming that people are the most amazing thing in the universe, especially considering how people have used that idea to justify a lot of the heinous shit that human beings do.
That statement of humans being the greatest thing ever is in the context of a thread complaining about people using essentialist arguments to portray humans as essentially evil and use that to support not trying to change our situation. By saying humans are the greatest thing ever, you know I don't the person's exact intentions above, but by saying that one is countering these essentialist ideas and saying that no a better world is possible, humans can be better if we can just change material conditions, humans do not necessarily need to act the way we do under capitalism. Maybe humans are not literally the greatest thing ever, but it is a statement portraying humans as Subjects who are able to shape history. By going the opposite way and concluding that, no, humans actually do suck, you are precluding even the possibility of a better world, and any possibility that humans could act in any way different from today. It is a fatalistic position which precludes any action. I mean, yeah, recognize that humans have the capacity for evil and to suck and we're not perfect, but don't condemn us as mistakes who can never do better.
Ok if you're arguing that we can't get out of our current situation, I'm not going to argue with you there. I mean, I don't really agree but I will agree that things do feel hopeless and it is not clear how we will actually get out of the current crisis. So like, maybe we won't escape our current crisis and carve out a future for the species. But whose fault is that? Saying humans suck, humans are a mistake, throwing the species as a whole under the bus, obscures the historical and sociological circumstances that cause humans to "suck," and obscures the fact that the current crisis was not brought upon equally by all humans, but by certain classes of humans. One must understand why and how we got into our current situation, and it's not because humanity essentially "sucks."
We confront the attitude that humanity is essentially evil and a virus on a daily basis. People do suck, but to end thought there instead of challenging these essentialist ideas props up the attitude many people have that nothing can be done nor could ever have been done about our situation, and that it was always inevitable.
the intent isn't to dissuade people from organization or to increase apathy. fault the negative nature if you must, but it's no less conducive to the possibility of changing a situation than claiming that people are the most amazing thing in the universe, especially considering how people have used that idea to justify a lot of the heinous shit that human beings do.
That statement of humans being the greatest thing ever is in the context of a thread complaining about people using essentialist arguments to portray humans as essentially evil and use that to support not trying to change our situation. By saying humans are the greatest thing ever, you know I don't the person's exact intentions above, but by saying that one is countering these essentialist ideas and saying that no a better world is possible, humans can be better if we can just change material conditions, humans do not necessarily need to act the way we do under capitalism. Maybe humans are not literally the greatest thing ever, but it is a statement portraying humans as Subjects who are able to shape history. By going the opposite way and concluding that, no, humans actually do suck, you are precluding even the possibility of a better world, and any possibility that humans could act in any way different from today. It is a fatalistic position which precludes any action. I mean, yeah, recognize that humans have the capacity for evil and to suck and we're not perfect, but don't condemn us as mistakes who can never do better.