A society in which it’s everyone for themselves, that refuses to care for one another, is no society at all. Then everyone acts shocked and horrified at someone who understandably snaps, like modern western culture doesn’t run entirely on schadenfreude.

That was the crux of the idea of a social contract, which is long dead in the US. Now people line up to revel in the suffering of their fellow citizens with “well you were stupid to do xyz in life, so you deserve your suffering haha.”

    • Num10ck@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago
      • because you have to live with yourself
      • because being better improves your life
      • because your actions echo into the lives of others and affect their actions and it improves everyones lives
      • because you lead by example
      • because fuck the haters, love em anyway
      • because you know better
    • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      Because you deserve to live in a world where people are decent to each other, and “people” includes you, and your behaviour is the first thing that’s most easily controlled by yourself.

    • waterbogan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Because my conscience doesnt create constant alerts notifications and warning messages that disrupt my sleep and bother me constantly while awake if I dont try as far as I can to be a decent human being. Some people seem to have these alerts etc disabled or the entire conscience app disabled or not even installed to start with though, I cant imagine how they get though life otherwise

      • Transient Punk@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I feel like no matter how good of a person I try to be, that voice in my head won’t stop saying I’m a piece of shit.

        Reminds me of this comic:

        • waterbogan@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I find that reading some crime stories in the news about some genuine pieces of shit shuts that voice down pretty effectively. Gives some perspective and reminds you that there are far far worse people in the world and that you are merely a flawed human as opposed to a malevolent, hateful psychopath that relishes in the pain and misery they cause others

    • Ogmios@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Num10ck said it maybe better than I can, but it’s because people find in the world things of a similar nature to what they express to the world, so even if you suffer difficult circumstances, as long as you maintain a positive outlook you will still be able to find good things to appreciate in the world.