Is the world really as bad as I feel like it is?

[Darkover]

I am looking for unbiased answers. I want to know the truth. So, the thing is, I often feel like the world is a bad place. To me, it feels like there is more bad in the world than good overall. There is so much negativity and hostility worldwide. People fight, people hate each other, people treat each other with cruelty, wars happen, injustices happen, there is massive inequality, the rich and powerful exploit the poor, people lie and cheat, so many people are superficial and materialistic, so many people are greedy, so many people are selfish, abuse happens, some bad people get away with their actions and many good people suffer.

All these things I listed are FACTS. They really HAPPEN. Every day, the news is filled with negative stories: environmental damage, murders, suicides, government corruption, and sexual assaults. On social media, I see people bullying others; I could go on and on and list more terrible things that happen worldwide. These things are reality. You can't deny them. You can't run from reality. Now my question is, is it as bad as I feel like it is? Or am I focusing too much on the negative? I'm not denying that positive things exist in the world. I know it is good, too. But I feel like the bad outweighs the good. So, what is the accurate answer? Do the bad things really outweigh the good things in the world?

1,280,000,000 billion people have a mental health problem
1,000,000,000 billion people go hungry every day
that 28 percent of the population

It's estimated that around 6% of the world's population had cancer in 2019.
thats 480,000,000

It is estimated that 415 million people are living with diabetes in the world,

 

[Malaria]

I take somewhat of a Daoist approach in the sense that I see the world as both good and bad. The world to me is Yin and Yang all over the place.

 

[Helvete]

It all depends on ho bad you see it. If you want to look at it numerically, then you could say that 7 billion people arent going hungry every day, and 7 billion people dont have any sort of mental health problems. Ideally nobody would have these issues, but if you consider a quarter of the world is miserable at best, then yes you could say it really is that bad

 

[UKscotty]

All about perspective. Life is opportunity for limitless joy, learning and happiness.

If we look for negative, we will see negative. If we have a positive outlook we will see the positive.

There is no real answer either way, we all have our own views and beliefs. In the end no one cares what each other believes or doesn't.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Yes, the bad outweighs the good. Just because people can be happy doesn't mean that the good outweighs the bad. Suffering is literally required for nature to even function the way it currently does. Even if humanity has transcended nature, humanity has not transcended suffering. There is an asymmetry between suffering and pleasure

 

[Throwawayacc3]

I take somewhat of a Daoist approach in the sense that I see the world as both good and bad. The world to me is Yin and Yang all over the place.

Go to any animal sanctuary. They are all there for a reason. Stuff like that makes the data overwhelming negative to people.

 

[cosmic-freedom]

Those who are truly intellectual see the world for the garbage it is.

Only two factors determine everything,where you are born and who you are born to determines the trajectory of your life.If you are born to rich(or atleast a higher middle class),progressive parents in a first world country and that too being born as a MALE you're life would be the best it can be.If you are born to poor,socially and intellectually backward people and you're born as a FEMALE in a third world country,you're doomed and better off dead.

More than rich and poor,I think someone's intellect matters.But intellect only breeds more intellect.Imagine if you are an intellectual born to closed minded backwards people,they would not let you grow.

The stupid corrupts and tramples those who are wise.Thats how bad things are in this stupid world.

 

[iloverachel]

Yes. It is a depressing shithole

But I guess at best, it's still a boring routine seriously. Work eat sleep have kids go out go home

I think depression makes things appear much worse than it really is. But life still sucks either way

 

[MeowTheFlemishCat]

Those who are truly intellectual see the world for the garbage it is.

Only two factors determine everything,where you are born and who you are born to determines the trajectory of your life.If you are born to rich(or atleast a higher middle class),progressive parents in a first world country and that too being born as a MALE you're life would be the best it can be.If you are born to poor,socially and intellectually backward people and you're born as a FEMALE in a third world country,you're doomed and better off dead.

More than rich and poor,I think someone's intellect matters.But intellect only breeds more intellect.Imagine if you are an intellectual born to closed minded backwards people,they would not let you grow.

The stupid corrupts and tramples those who are wise.Thats how bad things are in this stupid world.

Everything seems to just be dumb luck most of the time. You can fuck everything up and STILL win.

 

[davidtorez]

If you're interested, take a look into some of arthur schopenhauers work.

 

[AnonymousL]

I listened to this podcast a while ago.
A person said he doesn't see people as good or bad people he just sees them as individuals.

Every individual in this world can choose to do something good or bad.
But the person is still that same individual before and after their actions.

So I guess the best way to look at the world is in a neutral point of view.
I think we can tear ourselves apart if we look at all the bad actions that happen in this world.
Especially if you are a very empathic person yourself.

But when I'm honest about my own opinion..

I never thought the world was a bad place until I found a gore website and a sexual snuff video.
I thought you could only see those things on the dark web and that made it a lot less accessible for me so I didn't really think about it.
But then I came across it and I honestly have never been the same.

The suicide videos I found and the comments underneath were worse than I ever imagined.

The world isn't a bad place.
The worst thing to ever happen to the world is humanity taking place on it.
We destroy the beauty of nature.

the world would be so much better if there was no living human being on it anymore.

Until that day the world is the sickest place in the universe.

 

[Unicr0n]

Humans can do great things. Terrible, but great. The actions of less than 1% of humans is not representative of the actions of the species as a whole. Statistically, the world is actually a great place. Statistically, less people are suffering than people that aren't. Less people are dying than people that aren't. Less people are in chronic pain than people that aren't. Less people have a mental illness than people that aren't. More people are happy/satisfied with life than people that aren't. Statistically, to humans, the world is an okay place despite the percentage of people that aren't having a great day.

"Isn't the world full of wonderful things? I have lost so many things, my job, my future, Everything that people think is important but I don't care. Cuz even if I have to dig ditches for the rest of my life, I should be a ditch digger who once had a wonderful day." I've had that day despite the trauma. Can I really say the world is nothing but hell if there was a rose amongst the weeds?

 

[Darkover]

Humans can do great things. Terrible, but great. The actions of less than 1% of humans is not representative of the actions of the species as a whole. Statistically, the world is actually a great place. Statistically, less people are suffering than people that are. Less people are dying than people that are. Less people are in chronic pain than people that are. Less people have a mental illness than people that are. More people are happy/satisfied with life than people that aren't. Statistically, to humans, the world is an okay place despite the percentage of people that aren't having a great day.

got any actual evidence to back up these claims

 

[Unicr0n]

got any actual evidence to back up these claims

Chronic pain: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7215a1.htm
Mental illness: https://mhanational.org/issues/2022/mental-health-america-adult-data
Happiness: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default...019-08/Happiness-Study-report-August-2019.pdf
[personal] Life satisfaction: https://news.gallup.com/poll/470888/americans-largely-satisfied-personal-life.aspx
Death: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Over 50% = majority.

 

[Kawaii_Shoujo215]

Humans can do great things. Terrible, but great. The actions of less than 1% of humans is not representative of the actions of the species as a whole. Statistically, the world is actually a great place. Statistically, less people are suffering than people that aren't. Less people are dying than people that aren't. Less people are in chronic pain than people that aren't. Less people have a mental illness than people that aren't. More people are happy/satisfied with life than people that aren't. Statistically, to humans, the world is an okay place despite the percentage of people that aren't having a great day.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it fails to take into account animals and animal suffering. Humans slaughter anywhere between 100 billion to 1 trillion animals for food every year, who live lives of pain, fear, confinement, abuse, misery, disease, sexual abuse, etc. etc. etc. Most people eat meat, dairy, animal products and so on, further fueling this animal holocaust, while proclaiming that being alive is mostly alright.

Furthermore, nature is brutal and causes trillions of sentient beings to suffer and die every day. 99.999% of animals die as infants; infant mortality is the #1 killer on planet earth. Many animals produce thousands of offspring, only for all but 1 to die before adulthood. But sure, most people aren't dying, if you ignore most people. ;D

It's easy to say the world is great when you are the oppressor and not the victim.

 

[Unicr0n]

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it fails to take into account animals and animal suffering. Humans slaughter anywhere between 100 billion to 1 trillion animals for food every year, who live lives of pain, fear, confinement, abuse, misery, disease, sexual abuse, etc. etc. etc. Most people eat meat, dairy, animal products and so on, further fueling this animal holocaust, while proclaiming that being alive is mostly alright.

Furthermore, nature is brutal and causes trillions of sentient beings to suffer and die every day. 99.999% of animals die as infants; infant mortality is the #1 killer on planet earth. Many animals produce thousands of offspring, only for all but 1 to die before adulthood. But sure, most people aren't dying, if you ignore most people. ;D

It's easy to say the world is great when you are the oppressor and not the victim.

The number of individual animals on earth is approximately 20 quintillion [link, the original source is dead] = 0.000005% of animals go through that per year.

Most people aren't dying. The link I posted supports that. "people" refers to the human population. Not any other population. Being intentionally misleading like that is gross on your end. :(

 

[Darkover]

Chronic pain: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7215a1.htm
Mental illness: https://mhanational.org/issues/2022/mental-health-america-adult-data
Happiness: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default...019-08/Happiness-Study-report-August-2019.pdf
[personal] Life satisfaction: https://news.gallup.com/poll/470888/americans-largely-satisfied-personal-life.aspx
Death: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Over 50% = majority.

they only surveyed between 1500-10,000 people to get the results, i've never been surveyed in my life

 

[Unicr0n]

they only surveyed between 1500-10,000 people to get the results, i've never been surveyed in my life

...You do realise that those numbers are significant in surveys, right? Someone who thinks like you has already been represented in the vote because the selection is random to represent a population sample. That's how statistics work.

 

[Darkover]

The number of individual animals on earth is approximately 20 quintillion [link, the original source is dead] = 0.000005% of animals go through that per year.

Most people aren't dying. The link I posted supports that. "people" refers to the human population. Not any other population. Being intentionally misleading like that is gross on your end. :(

Eat shit because 136 quadrillion flies can't be wrong just because the universe can build machines that are happy doing anything doesn't make it right

just because 70 percent believe in god doesn't make it true

...You do realise that those numbers are significant in surveys, right? Someone who thinks like you has already been represented in the vote because the selection is random to represent a population sample. That's how statistics work.

yeah look how them same polls predicted the opposite of Brexit and donald trump winning the election in 2016

 

[Unicr0n]

Eat shit because 136 quadrillion flies can't be wrong just because the universe can build machines that are happy doing anything doesn't make it right

just because 70 percent believe in god doesn't make it true

Wow, you really didn't need to behave as a toxic person when I gave you literal statistics. Don't shoot the messenger. It's true that most people are happy. That doesn't require believe in something that hasn't been proven yet. Most people know what being happy is. Don't take your wrath out on me, please.

yeah look how them same polls predicted the opposite of Brexit and donald trump winning the election in 2016

Non-sequitor. Predictions of the future =/= what the studies I linked measure. Asking 1500-10000 people if they're satisfied or happy in life is a measure of real time truth of how people feel. There's a delusion to saying that most people don't know they're not happy or that they're lying.

 

[Hotsackage]

Not everyone, and I'll tell you this, not everyone is awful

 

[sserafim]

Everything seems to just be dumb luck most of the time. You can fuck everything up and STILL win.

You can also do everything right and STILL lose

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I think you have a tendency to only look at the bad aspects of the world, when in reality the world itself is neutral. It's the structures and systems in place that our species has created that are bad or good. Even then, I don't think humans can simplified down to just being bad. People are complex at the end of the day. Even very small acts of kindness that have become so normalized in everyday life that we sometimes forget about them deserve to be acknowledged and does showcase a bit of good in our world. There are a lot of people who want things to improve and are going out of their way to do so. Hell, someone literally burned themself alive in protest to what's going in Palestine. People from all over the world partook in BLM protests after the death of George Floyd. There is a lot of bad in this world, but there is also some good too.

Having an overly pessimistic mindset about the world ends up achieving about as much as having an overly positive mindset about the world. It's important to talk about the bad in our world and I do generally agree with most of the points you make in that regards, but it's also important to acknowledge the good when it happens, even if it's found in small acts. Even on this site you have people being incredibly understanding and caring towards one another. The world can be a cruel place, but is some good to still be found in it.

 

[LaughingGoat]

I've always taken a literal approach to this in the aspect that morality, good & bad, etc. are all just abstract concepts we created once societies were established. It is wholly unique to the human experience and has no tangible existence. What is factually in existence is suffering. We know all animals with a central nervous system experience suffering in some form, so as long as there is sentience, there is suffering.