How or why did it come about that humans are not percieved as inherently problematic and potentialy dangerous creatures...

How or why did it come about that humans are not percieved as inherently problematic and potentialy dangerous creatures, but instead the notion of humans being fundamentaly benign beings is generaly emphasized?

Humanism

but... history?

Renaissance>Enlightenment>Humanism>Democracy

Humans tend to have a very pro-human bias.

so the general oppinion was different before the renaissance?

what did gothic period people think about such matters?

Wut? The vast majority of people seem to get have a negative view of their fellow man, seeing humans as stupid, selfish, short-sighted, whatever. Except for themselves of course, they're obviously superior to the plebs. I rarely if ever hear anyone anywhere express the view that humans are "fundamentally benign beings".

but thats realy ironic, isnt it

have humans ever seriously fought in bloody conflicts and full scale wars and get harrased, terrorised, exploited, enslaved and genocided by any creatures other than humans?

but somehow the official, public 'opinnion' seems to be just that

try going on any social media with the opinion that 'other people might be a problem', see what happens

I see that view expressed on social media all the time, far more often than the contrary. People love the simplistic view that the problems of the world are due to people being bad (again, except for them of course)

I personally do think the majority of people are benign; most of them mean well.

I think a large portion of humans are dumb as dogshit, though.

Are you kinding?

Humans have enslaved or exterminated many other species.

The great Emu war.

yes, but not the other way around, unless you count pests and diseases, or locusts or something like that

Look at the popularity of Rust Cohle from True Detective, or House of Cards. People eat that "humans are evil scum" shit up. Obnoxious, exaggerated cynicism is the norm these days.

Humans are benign to those they don't perceive as a threat.

If they perceive you as a threat to them or even only to their narcissism, they will fucking destroy you.

Humanism was made only so the geniuses in the population can sleep at night and use their brain for good, instead of becoming the next Hitler.

/thread

>Humans are benign to those they don't perceive as a threat.
So no one, not even themselves are considered benign since even we, ourselves, consider ourselves a threat to us.

I'm not that guy, but you're overthinking

There are people that are inclined to act in spite of others, and those inclined to be cooperative. It depends on the individual person, and pretending all humans have to be completely evil or completely good is foolish.

you're oversimplifying those are just good characters. Consider how the brooding type is typically ripped on for being a whiny faggot it's just super popular when you got fucking matthew maconghaguerhguwer playing it

But you have a shitload of people saying they agree with what he says, not just that they find him an interesting character.

I'm just saying I see tons and tons of people expressing the view that humans are cruel, selfish, stupid, etc etc and I've never seen a single person express the view that OP thinks is the norm.

I honestly just think the people ITT just want to believe that most people are naive and stupid so they can feel superior. But really everybody thinks that way

Yeah I'll agree that there's a dissonance where people will generally have a pessimistic view overall but try to believe some ideal