These things are bad, mkay?
These things are bad, mkay? Don't do these things.
- War
- Murder
- Death
- Genocide
- Apocalypse
- Hate
- Racism
- Misogyny
- Homophobia
- Addiction
- Lying
- Misinformation
- Book Burning
- Authoritarianism
- Fascism
- Cheating
- Grift
- Tax Avoidance
- Overpopulation
- Climate change
Criticism Overload
Given the enormity of some of these problems, they tend to get outsized attention in the media. And rarely are any feasible solutions part of that coverage.
To avoid information overload, the more popular or obvious topics are not discussed in detail on this wiki. Is a dissertation on the ethics of genocide going to make any difference in your opinion or life choices? You know these things are bad, there is no need to belabor the point.
There is also a lot of evidence that over-focusing on problems tends to make them worse. [1][2][3][4] While those examples focus on personal psychology, the same effects are seen on the cultural level due to the fractal self-similarity between one brain and many brains working together. Endlessly critiquing the problems of society without working towards solutions is the cultural equivalent to rumination. See cultural rumination.
Blame Destroys Community
Another problem with focusing heavily on the problems of society is that there is a natural tendency to want to blame someone for these problems. This inevitably leads to scapegoating and out-group demonization, which are the first steps towards hate, which leads to prejudice, murder, war, genocide, and the next thing you know you've got an apocalypse on your hands. It's a slippery slope!
Sometimes we're smart enough to break these feedback loops of hate before they turn into violence. Sometimes we're not.
When people feel like they are being blamed unfairly for the transgressions of others, they naturally resent this. If you are constantly being blamed for the problems of society by a particular group of people, you will begin to identify with their out-group automatically, even if you have no ideological ties to them. Young men don't naturally gravitate to the manosphere, but when ignorant teenage boys receive the same blame for toxic masculinity as hardcore misogynists and predators like Andrew Tate, they perceive themselves as being on the same side as him.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" -Ancient Proverb
Finding ways to address systemic issues of prejudice and hate cannot be done by calling out every perceived slight and scapegoating every perceived oppressor. A better approach is to address the core beliefs that form the generating equation that allows cultural superiority and hierarchies of humans. If your internal ideology is inclusive, you will naturally look for ways to minimize prejudice and embrace diversity. This allows you to build community by focusing on commonalities, rather than building ideological and linguistic purity by ostracizing anyone that doesn't use all the right terminology.
Many Problems, One Solution
The only way to address these problems is at their source--the generating equation that leads to hierarchical social organization, sectarian in-groups, and the pursuit of money and power as the key meterstick for success. If the culture can adopt a universal meta-belief system with equality, freedom, and happiness as its primary goals, our tendencies towards self-destruction can finally be curbed.
By proving with scientific evidence that this is the best route to happiness, the righteous path can be made clear to future generations, minimizing anti-social behavior by creating a society that fully embraces and incentivizes all of the possible paths to happiness.