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submitted 1 month ago by culprit@lemmy.ml to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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[-] Rindogang@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 month ago

Yeah... people forget that ancient humans survived through cooperation long before states existed and the fights they did have were mostly just over territory and resources. Not some deep evil ''human nature''

[-] Signtist@bookwyr.me 17 points 1 month ago

To be fair, getting people to coordinate gets exponentially harder the more people you have. We evolved to work in relatively small groups, not millions or billions.

[-] Rindogang@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah true but humans have evolved to cooperate on a large scale, unlike most primates

The violence we see today has nothing to do with culture clashes or a lack of evolution... it’s driven by inequality. And the state wasn't created to solve coordination problems, it emerged from inequality to protect those who had too much

[-] djsoren19 4 points 1 month ago

I would make the argument that our species resorting to violent conflict over shareable resources is a pretty damning indictment of human nature.

Tribalism exists, it's a scientific fact. You can overcome the biases it imposes through cognitive effort, but at a baseline we are predisposed to hate anyone who we believe "doesn't belong." That's not inherently evil, but it is asshole behavior.

[-] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Cooperation against other humans (and Neanderthals and such)

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

There was cooperation, sure. There was also a lot of killing.

It's not just human nature, even chimps kill chimps from other groups who stray into the wrong territory.

[-] MoonManKipper@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

Or they’ve just met a reasonable number of a*holes…

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 12 points 1 month ago

Not quite, if that were the case the statement would be "because assholes". By blaming "human nature" they're self identifying as one of the assholes.

Assholism is a diverse group with many discrete types of sub-asshole.

[-] StumblingWasabi@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago

Not necessarily. People could have an outlook similar to "a person is smart, people are idiots"

[-] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

It just means they recognize that we are all assholes on the inside. Some of us cognitively try to supress the assholeness. But it's there. If it wasn't you would have died of hunger as a baby probably. Cause boy-oh is screaming at 2am an asshole move.

[-] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago

we are all assholes on the inside

This is the projection the meme is pointing and laughing at

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 9 points 1 month ago

I stand by my statement.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

It's the nature of humanity that in any reasonably sized group, there are always a few assholes.

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago

Agreed, but IMHO that is a different conjecture to that of the meme.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

I don't think so. Good things can't happen because of human nature: making good things happen involves groups making decisions, and in every group there are bound to be some assholes because that's human nature, that limits the kinds of good things that can happen.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

And that they've observed that once groups reach a certain size, it's inevitable that the group contains at least one asshole.

It's like the fable of the scorpion and the frog. It doesn't mean that it's impossible to cross the river. It just means that you need a more complex plan than just carrying the scorpion across on your back.

[-] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And they're confusing learned societal encouraged behavior as innate despite all evidence to the contrary from anthology.

[-] Oisteink@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Nah - if I say that to you, I’m talking about you. But not directly as you cant take criticism

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago

every accusation is a confession

[-] GiorgioPerlasca@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

The complete form of the sentence is the following:

Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta is a Latin phrase of medieval origin. Its literal translation is "Unsolicited excuse, manifest accusation" (or "He who excuses himself, accuses himself").

The meaning of this phrase is: if one has nothing to justify themselves for, they should not apologize at all. Struggling to justify one's own actions without being solicited can be considered as an indication that one has something to hide, even if the person is in fact innocent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excusatio_non_petita%2C_accusatio_manifesta

this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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