One that comes to mind for me: “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not always true. Maybe even only half the time! Are there any phrases you tend to hear and shake your head at?

  • Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net
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    3 months ago

    “It’s human nature” used to describe something horrific like war or rape.

    It’s not. Human nature is as when we were children, playing with friends and loving each other.

    Militaries have to condition humans to do violence to each other and to follow orders from “superiors”. Half of school is quashing kids’ creativity and making them follow arbitrary rules because “the adults” say so.

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’d say aggressivity IS a part of human nature. Even kids can be aggressive while playing. It is there inside of us. Whether we use it for good or bad causes and in good or bad ways is what matters.

    • Narauko@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Have you seen children? Empathy is one of the last things to develop. There is a specific purity of cruelty attributed to children for a reason.

      Civilization is conditioned into humans as a general rule, not the other way around, and needs consistent reinforcement. Humans are eusocial, but like chimpanzees and ants where war with other “tribes” is closer to a baseline than cooperation.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Mmk. Go back to flushing your toilet, picking food off of a shelf, typing on your device to a whole planet, leaving your garbage at the curb and benefiting from medical science like all the rest of the chimpanzees then.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yup. Often said by people who did things as a child that didn’t realize 90% of the other children weren’t initiating the things they are doing.

      “I killed a dog. Cuz you know, I was young”

      No. That’s not just ‘being young’. Most kids do not do that kind of thing.

      It’s the same syndrome you get from rapists in prison. They think everyone secretly wants to rape and that they are just brave.