Forums » Smalltalk » "Humans are the Absolute Good" and misanthropy

This has been on my mind for a long time, and I kind of get scared about talking about a subject like this (unless I'm angry at someone, then my anger often clouds my better judgement). But basically, I've noticed that in today's media how pretty much any form of media that portrays humans as the "Absolute good" (as in humans are the absolute ONLY think that can be friendly and good besides things that look exactly like humans but technically aren't. If it doesn't look like a human, it's evil) is considered unhateable. Like anything else that doesn't have settings like this, you can look around and it may be popular, but you'll see a bad review every once in a while, but anything that portrays humans as the absolute good gets absolutely NOTHING but good reviews. Bonus points if the villain is misanthropic or an animal lover and ONLY wants to destroy the human race and nothing else.

This is something I've noticed in media anyway. A good example is the game Kid Icarus Uprising. Every person I know adores this game and I can't find a single bad review for this game anywhere no matter how hard I look, yet I can't stand playing it, watching it's plot, seeing all the trophies and enemies in Smash Brothers dedicated to it (I swear, it's like half the enemies in Smash Run are from Kid Icarus), or just the thought of it's existence really, and to be honest, I thought the gameplay was clunky and awkward as well. My main problem with this game is one of the game's main anti-heroes, Viridi. She is just the typical "Hoomans r ebil n mus bee deestroied" type characters, and the plot talks about how humans are oh-so misunderstood and what-not, and at the same time it portrays nature as an enemy of the human race. Frankly, I am sick and tired of misanthropic characters and nature/animal lovers/etc. always being portrayed as evil.

There are other characters like her in other media that want to destroy the human race, and to be honest Misanthropy is not as evil as those characters make it out to be. To be honest, yes I am a bit misanthropic, but I do not wish to see people die, nor do I deny the existence of good people, but I do have a lot of reasons why I dislike my own species in general. (And yes, it's also why I don't play as human characters in RPs). Still, I've met some nice people in life, in fact a lot of people I've met here are actually some of the nicest people I've met online.

I also dislike the situations where humans are basically destroying the earth, then something comes to destroy the humans, and then the humans basically have to destroy whatever is trying to wipe them out, and humans basically learn NOTHING from it. It's kind of the same with shows that actually do have human antagonists to non-human protagonists and shows the flaws and misdeeds of powerful humans. People just cry "Misanthropic!" and learn NOTHING from it. There is every once in a while a show or something where humans actually come to amends and try to better themselves, but still. Like I said, I know there are good humans out there, but often times the actions of bad humans overpower the actions of good. Maybe part of it is that I dislike how powerful bad humans are over good people.

Talking to people about misanthropy and glorifications of the human race is difficult because a lot of people aren't open-minded and they think I'm some evil person for my opinions, which is why I generally don't like talking about them to people I know and like cause I'm worried they will be the same way. I hope I can still get a level headed discussion out of this topic though. ...Please go easy on me.

Actually, I agree. There just aren't enough non-humans that don't look human good guys out there.

I don't believe that humans are the absolute good and I don't think your're evil either. I mean when you hear all the bad things in the news like ISIS, animal poaching, genocide and NK, it can be pretty hard to think about the good things humans are capable of.

Think of it this way: of course a species is going to view itself as the absolute good, no matter how harmful or beneficial they actually are to the world at large, and anything that wants to eradicate them is going to be seen as evil for fairly obvious reasons. Sadly, many humans really are this closed-minded and can't wrap their heads around the possibility that the world is worse off for some of the things mankind has done, but that certainly doesn't mean that the absolute whole of our species has to subscribe to this. I know I certainly don't; I often feel disenchanted by my species due to the honestly idiotic and malicious things people often do just to further some selfish belief or simply put themselves ahead of others for the most shallow of reasons. However, I still like to think that no one is naturally inclined towards more destructive behaviors towards their fellow man and the world itself, despite how many people nowadays seemed to have veered off down that path. Much like a certain trope, really.

I agree with what Katia said above, I'm most certain you're not a human-despising machine of pure hate. I'd be terrified if there was one here on the RPR, honestly. Our race definitely needs to face comeuppance for the acts against both man and nature it has committed throughout history, but of course few of us will actually desire for it to happen anytime soon for fear of our own oblivion. I certainly don't want to die, do you? That's why so many misanthropic characters are portrayed in negative lights, as just about any author is human and most often won't want to be met with such a person themselves for fear of their own possible annihilation, despite the fact that not all misanthropic people are anywhere NEAR such an extreme in belief - in fact, in accordance with my belief above, odds are very few are such fanatics to their dislike or even hatred of humans. I even roleplay a character who could be seen as misanthropic in this way, but not so as he hates everything regardless of species or status and just wants to destroy everything and everyone without regard to what they are.

I myself try to see the best in my fellow man whenever I can, and call me naive if you wish for such a belief but it matters not to me what names people may use on me. But, of course, the aforementioned fellow man seems to try their hardest to make it as difficult as possible for me to hold this belief, with mixed success. So yes, while I would rather not the world be this way and it saddens me that it is, I agree with you. The fact that few people ever learn from their mistakes when they most desperately need to only compounds the matter further. Again, you are NOT a bad person for being so averse to humanity and having the opinions you do, as your opinions are far from unfounded. I certainly make use of elements in characters that make them out to be evil by not having human characteristics, but some of the worst, most monstrous individuals were 100% human and not some infernal creature.

Talking about this honestly makes me nervous as well, as while I was typing this I kept worrying that I'll probably say the wrong thing and make cause for offense. I doubt that I have, but if I did say something wrong then I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!