Echo the Sun wrote:jcnporter wrote:arvy wrote:people hate each other. they are just trying to mask it with political, national, religious or any other ideas. it's in our nature.
Not really. People who come face to face with each other every day get along, in general, no matter what their background, religion, sexuality etc.
It's when people get behind a screen, or the wheel of a car, or are separated in some way, or feel separated due to media propaganda, they get all brave and take their own frustrations out on 'the other'.
I agree people have multiple public personas. But it's hard to tell which is the closest to who they are inside. I know I sometimes say things I don't mean online out of frustration, but I also withhold my opinions very often when interacting with strangers in real life. That's just me, of course.
I'm not sure if it really matters who they are inside, though. Everyone has thoughts and opinions that they would never share, even among friends.
There seems to be a disturbing desire among many people these days to thought police others, to analyse what they say or do to get at some inner truth about them, to 'call them out'. It's pointless and reductive.
I would say most people have some thoughts, opinions and beliefs that many of a liberal or conservative bent would find very distasteful - who cares, though, unless they act on them?
Our social selves are regulated by the presence of other humans. In many ways that is our 'real' selves and how we should be judged.
The problems emerge when we are in some way separate, either physically, or through a process of dehumanisation and we don't recognise the effect of that separation on our personalities. Also when we feel emboldened among 'like-minded' people. This is why I think the fast rise of social media, in particular, can be so toxic.