Other Random question of the day

Absolutely. I'm very much on the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate. Kids don't give a damn what someone looks like or how they dress or who they kiss until someone tells them they should care. If hate and prejudice aren't taught traits, there shouldn't be any reason people are more egalitarian today than they were in the 1950s. And as children on average tend to idolize their parents, they're going to want to be just like them and therefore have the same prejudices their parents would.

Sure people can grow and change to have views different from those of their parents, or else again there'd be no reason views are different now in past decades. But generational trends are hard no break. Not just in terms of prejudice either (e.g. drugs and alcohol, abuse, socioeconomic status, heck, even preferences for music since parents tend to share their favorite music with their kids).
 
I believe that the primary 'natural' traits of a human being are intense selfishness and cruelty. We are a savage, violent species of animal that looks to solve most of its problems through violence. This is the reason that children have to be taught things like why not to hit dogs or pull the wings off of flies.

That's not the question though; the question is about hate.

While I do believe that children if left without a guiding input from an adult will naturally factionalize into tribes or cliques (those of you who are young enough can see this plainly enough for yourselves by examining the social structure of your school), I also believe that generalized hate is unnatural and must be learned. It's natural for some idiot kid to focus on their clique and shun those outside of it; there's tens of thousands of years of social framework buried deep down in our psyche that sort of digs that ditch for us if we don't interfere with it. It isn't natural for a person to decide that they must crusade against a certain subset of people (Ku Klux Klan, anti-Semites) and I'm certain that something like that must be a learned behaviour.

The difference is that tribalism is generally useful to keep the local power dynamic in one's favour. Senseless hate is only a burden on a person and provides not much benefit. Mother Nature really hates behaviours that don't directly aid in survival, and so I don't believe that the latter can be a natural development. Besides, there's enough videos of babies from different ethnicities getting down and playing together to blow the notion of innate racism away.

tl;dr: Yeah, hate probably has to be learned, but that doesn't mean that people aren't naturally shitty too.
 
Yes. Although this is just my personal experience, I have met plenty of people that hate certain things/groups/activities without having a good reason for it. It’s not like they actively try to argue that their hatred is justified, either. They just kind of accepted, at some point, that “hating” those things is natural on account of what their parents taught them. For instance, usually when I ask why the don’t like those specific things, the answer is almost always “oh I don’t know that’s just how I was raised.”

I think parents are a huge influence on their kids, even in tiny ways, and dislike/hatred can definitely been passed down. It’s a learned behavior.
 
agree with Sage when it comes to humanity being genetically 'cruel'. We are on a base level a variety of parasite, or an infestation if you will. It may be said that our intelligence is what sets us apart from the other forms of life, what makes us the 'dominate species', but truthfully we are no different from any other animal. Despite our accomplishments our main goal or baser instinct from the moment we are born is to survive. We take from the earth and each other, kill, forage, utilize. To live is to survive and to survive it to take. It's only through the accomplishments of our ancestors that we have the peace of mind to be able to sit back and look at the world and maybe, perhaps, if we think about it enough or something triggers our empathy, we will give back to the world that we take so much from. Some will give more than others but for the majority of the time, we don't give. We are animals. We take. We survive.

Environment and experience uniquely moulds the animal that we start out as. So of course parents, family, friends, aggressors, teachers, neighbours anyone we meet in our lives, shape who we become. Through our lives we shape each other. But we all start the same.
 
Atropa Belladonna said:
It's only through the accomplishments of our ancestors that we have the peace of mind to be able to sit back and look at the world and maybe, perhaps, if we think about it enough or something triggers our empathy, we will give back to the world that we take so much from. Some will give more than others but for the majority of the time, we don't give. We are animals. We take. We survive.
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Oh my gosh, finally. You have no idea how vindicated you've made me feel. Normally I feel like I'm stuck inside an absurdist novel, but not today!
 
Mhm. I suppose, in a very simplified black and white sort of way, the meaning of life is to live it. No matter what you believe, you only get one shot at it, at being YOU, the person you are right now. All we can do is make the most of it.
 
Well, from a biological perspective Mother Nature only really wants two things out of you: To obtain chemical energy and to reproduce. Notions of ethics and morality are completely human constructs... but that being said, in the great fanfic of real life I think it's much better to throw in with the good rather than the bad. If only for the feeling of superiority it evokes.

And as for having one shot at being me, I dearly hope that's the case. I have this sinking feeling that reincarnation is a thing but the catch is that we live our exact same life without any changes at all over and over for eternity.
 
The Great Sage said:
And as for having one shot at being me, I dearly hope that's the case. I have this sinking feeling that reincarnation is a thing but the catch is that we live our exact same life without any changes at all over and over for eternity.
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If that is what happens, if any of us knows that, has memories of that... we are all already in Hell.
 
Jannah said:
Oh yes, definitely. Hate is not an innate trait. It comes from somewhere.
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Debatable, some researchers believe everyone has the capacity to hate, while others believe true hatred is uncommon. What is widely agreed on however, is that hatred tends to come out as a learned emotion, which thrives in the absence of another emotion: compassion... But then the same could be said for compassion.
 
Atropa Belladonna said:
Debatable, some researchers believe everyone has the capacity to hate, while others believe true hatred is uncommon. What is widely agreed on however, is that hatred tends to come out as a learned emotion, which thrives in the absence of another emotion: compassion... But then the same could be said for compassion.
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Eh...I tend to hold that we're all, for the most part, blank slates that are shaped by the environment we're brought up in. I guess notable exceptions to this would be certain mental illnesses that are caused by actual chemical imbalances in the brain rather than anything circumstantial.
 
Jannah said:
Eh...I tend to hold that we're all, for the most part, blank slates that are shaped by the environment we're brought up in.
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I used to believe exactly this until I started paying attention to all the stories about siblings who had been adopted out to different parents at birth and ended up growing up to be so similar as to be eerie. There has to be some kind of ancestral memory or instinct that works on us at some deep, primal level. It might not be the thing that affects us most, but nature definitely seems to be throwing punches in the great 'nature vs. nurture' debate.
 
Guys, just a reminder: We have a special thread for discussing questions at the beginning of this thread to prevent this thread from clogging up with discussion. Please and thank you.

Random question of the day:

What's the best dirty joke you've seen in a kids show/kids game?
 
Animaniacs Episode 25 (released 1993)

Yakko: Number one sister, dust for prints.

(sometime later)

Dot: I found Prince!
(She is seen carrying the eponymous pop star in her arms)

Yakko: No no no, finger prints.

(She looks at the pop star, who smiles.)

Dot: I don't think so.
(She then tosses him out through a porthole.)
 


The innuendos are great.

Amusing number of nihilist in this thread which I am certainly not one of.
 
No. I never bullied anyone for any reason.
 
Nope. Although I'm not sure who would admit to doing so? Sociopaths maybe?

Most people will try to justify what they say or their actions anyway. They won't admit that what they are doing is 'bullying'. Think how politics works.
 
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