30 People Talk About What Made Them Realize Humanity is Doomed
1. High School
No event but being a HS teacher.
Toihva
2. Social Media
I have to limit how much I view social media because there are so many absolutely disgusting people being cheered on and celebrated for things that they should be ashamed of.
black_soul_gym
3. Working in Retail
I work retail and we are running 50% off this week. People are unable to tell how much 2 of the same product will cost. The products are priced with both the original price and the sale price.
aniacret
4. Tech Support
After my first week working in tech support.
LeftChoux
5. Apple Support
I work in Apple Support.
Spent 30 minutes convincing a guy that his iPad 2 wasn’t broken because he was on Pornhub a lot. He just needed to hold down the power button to turn it on. He didn’t believe me.
A guy wanted a free battery change for his MacBook. Claimed that consumer law demanded it. Swedish Consumer Law lasts for 3 years. His Mac was from 2009.
Trying to guide a customer to press one (1) button. ”Can you press the button that says ”Accounts?”” ”…i don’t get it?”
”I’m sorry to hear the battery on your Apple Watch isn’t as long as you expected. How long does it last?” ”Less than 2 days if I actively use it”
(Context: this is chat support, not phone) When this customer refuses to follow instructions to cancel her iCloud storage she gets so pissed that Apple would scam people of a whopping $1/month and demands to speak to my manager. I say ”yeah sure, I can have a management representative contact you over the phone. What number can we reach you on?” ”YOU CANT EXPECT ME TO REMEMBER THAT”
LionFromTheNorth01
6. Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020
The search for toilet paper in 2020.
I_want_to_lurk
7. Climate Change
I studied ecology and then taught Biology and Environmental Science for 16 years. Warnings from Scientists on climate change have become more and more dire, and global leaders/corporations continue to talk about taking action but they don’t actually do what is required. They have instead become skilled at making the average citizen feel bad and responsible for it.
aartadventure
8. Morons
I worked at a 24hr convenience store in Harvard Square in the 90s and dealt with mostly tourists and Harvard students. Seeing all these people from around the world and all of our “brightest” minds collectively in one room made me realize just how stupid people are. It’s amazing we’ve gotten this far. Morons, all of us.
Sirnando138
9. Psychopaths
When I realized psychopaths rise to positions of influence at a disproportionate rate.
Something fundamentally self destructive about humanity, not enough people seek positions in society to better society. Far too often it’s selfish people seeking to abuse positions of influence for their own benefit even if it means screwing over everyone else.
Anagnorsis
10. The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way
Ethan Cohen’s poem “The Drunken Driver Has The Right Of Way”:
“The loudest have the final say, The wanton win, the rash hold sway, The realist’s rules of order say The drunken driver has the right of way.
“The Kubla Khan can butt in line; The biggest brute can take what’s mine; When heavyweights break wind, that’s fine; No matter what a judge might say, The drunken driver has the right of way.
“The guiltiest feel free of guilt; Who care not, bloom; who worry, wilt; Plans better laid are rarely built For forethought seldom wins the day; The drunken driver has the right of way.
“The most attentive and unfailing Carefulness is unavailing Wheresoever fools are flailing; Wisdom there is held at bay; The drunken driver has the right of way.
“De jure is de facto’s slave; The most foolhardy beat the brave; Brass routs restraint; low lies high’s grave; When conscience leads you, it’s astray; The drunken driver has the right of way.
“It’s only the naivest who’ll Deny this, that the reckless rule; When facing an oncoming fool The practiced and sagacious say Watch out — one side — look sharp — gang way.
“However much you plan and pray, Alas, alack, tant pis, oy vey, Now — heretofore — til Judgment Day, The drunken driver has the right of way.”
Drew-CarryOnCarignan
11. Uncivilized Thugs
Probably after experiencing how rapidly many people turn into selfish, aggressive, uncivilized thugs over mundane things. Each year, when shoppers are allowed out in public, Black Friday degenerates into the charge of the barbarian hordes. I’ve seen deranged mothers clawing each other’s faces over the last slightly discounted 4K TV. Fist fights over who is next into a store.
Then we had the lock down in 2020 and I got to see shrieking harpies, pulling each other’s hair out over toilet roll. Ramming trollies in aisles. Spitting and swearing nutters charging and tackling other shoppers over pasta and water. Bedlam.
Recent ‘fuel shortages’ in the UK saw some areas beset by panic buyers, people getting assaulted on the forecourts. Road rage outside filling stations. Scenes not out of place in a Mad Max film.
I shudder to imagine how people would react to a real crisis.
Epic_Kroll98
12. What Doesn’t?
What doesn’t make me think humanity is doomed??
Donny_DeCicco
13. The Way Mental Health is Treated
When I was in school I had a class on crime and mental health. I had to do a research paper and during the research I read a lot of studies about how many problems in the world can be solved with mental health treatment, housing and feeding people who need it.
And then reading other studies where the public constantly opposes said treatment.
The reality is that most people in the world would rather spend $100 putting someone in jail than $90 treating them. We, as a species, would rather punish someone for crimes, even if it means continuing the cycle of criminality wherein WE ARE THE VICTIMS.
shaidyn
14. Because of Idiots
I used to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitator here in NJ where my task was to take care of the intake of animals. One morning we had a raptor of some kind come in bleeding profusely from its head. Unfortunately it had to be euthanized due to he extent and placement of the damage.
My mother, who works there and took care of the animals as a licensed rehabilitator, was told the story. For those who don’t know New Jersey has quite a few country clubs and they are normally well populated with people who try to improve their game or show off with their friends. This raptor, who wanted to do raptor things, landed close to the someone who was just about to swing. He hit the ball but it went off the course he wanted it to go. So this amoeba sized brain of a cum rag, walked up to this raptor and whacked it with his driver.
There was another situation where I was answering the phones. The night before we had a pretty bad storm that of course would knock animals out of trees. I hear the phone ring and pick it up and a young lady starts talking. She said that a baby bird had fallen on the sidewalk and that she had picked it up and brought it home with her. I tell her that it needs to be put back by the tree so that the parents can feed it and so we can see if it might be orphaned. I kid you not here’s what I hear:
“Okay, let me go check the dryer, I put him I there so he would stay warm. Oh, I don’t think I need you anymore.”
This lady put a bird in a running drier.
Sorry if things a messed up, mobile sucks.
TLDR: Humanity is doomed because of cunts and idiots.
Asylunight
15. Moms on TikTok
Moms doin tiktok dances next to their Ill or dying children in the hospital for views like
❤️💃”my babies dying” 😭💃
👏👏”please pray ong” 🍑👐
👋💃”he brain is swollen” 😬🤷♂️
💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃
ecosystems
16. School Drills
The fact that my 5 year old kindergartener has to do intruder drills at school pretending that a wolf is on the loose to prepare for an active shooter situation.
utown62
17. People’s Inconsistencies
On a much smaller scale…
My company of ~200 people is moving offices. HR had asked people to come help out and pack up their desks, tidy up the office, help get things cleaned up. Almost nobody did. Months of advance notice.
Today I spent several hours on the final day (before we lose access to the office tomorrow) cleaning up after people with a significantly lower sense of responsibility. Going through a quarter of our entire office, desk after desk, packing up crap that people abandoned.
Clearly this is nothing compared to the concept of climate change, but demonstrates that people fail consistently to respond when necessary.
JadedEvan
18. Shopping Carts
Seeing more and more unreturned shopping carts. The shopping cart is ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing.
To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right.
There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.
No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will find you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct.
There are limited exceptions to the shopping cart theory: You have a physical disability and cannot return your cart due to it, or doing so would cause you physical distress. So instead you place your cart up against the handicap sign, or on the median gravel strip so it doesn’t roll into someone else’s car.
That is it.
There are no other valid excuses.
But it’s cold/rainy/hot!
Yeah, and? You made it into and out of the store fine, you can make it to the cart coral and back.
But I have children!
Buckle them in, lock the car, and return the cart. They aren’t going to die in the 15 seconds it takes you to put the cart in the coral.
But the store pays employees to get the carts!
The store also pays employees to wash the floor, but I don’t see you blowing snot-rockets or spitting on it.
But I’m in a rush!
We’re all in a rush. We all have finite time. Walk the cart back. Those 15 seconds won’t kill you.
AlphaTangoFoxtrt
19. Pandemic Response
The response to covid. That showed that we can’t cooperate, even when the proper course is clear and essentially cost and risk-free, and the danger immediate and obvious. When there’s something less direct like climate change, the fix for which will be very, very expensive and require real cultural change, it’s hard to see how we have any hope at all.
TaserLord
20. Conversion Therapy
When I was 18 my parents forced me into conversion therapy. They hated me because I was born gay.
When I realized parents could hate their children, I lost most hope for humanity.
ty_ty_echo_echo_
21. Ignoring a Blind Person
Last week I was on my way home, as I enter a subway station I see a blind person walking in circles. I hear him say “Hello?” and get ignored by the few people around him.
I don’t approach him yet. Call me a jerk, but if you approached someone in that situation in this city I’d tell you you’re waay too kind of a person for someone susceptible to a knife attack.
I keep looking at him from afar, following the bump lines on the floor that are supposed to guide blind people. These lines circle the room close to the walls to let them know when they’re approaching the end of the room. It’s when he steps over the line and extends his hand to slowly reach for the wall when I realize what’s happening: the lines form a semicircle around a wall. The guy has no way of knowing where the exits are!!
I hear him say “Hello??” again, and get ignored again. Enough is enough, I approach and offer my help. He gratefully says “Yes, please” and extends his arm reaching for me, I extend my arm so he knows where I am and he pats his way to my shoulder, asks me to take him to the closeby McDonald’s.
All he needed was to go up some stairs and cross a street.
Man, the world is truly fucking evil sometimes.
TL;DR blind person trapped by poorly laid floor bumps, people ignore his requests for help.
null_reference_user
22. Rich People
For me it was meeting a super rich guy outside of a bar who was complaining about his butler. Just absolutely ragging on him about this or that. The guy seemed miserable in general, but it was eye opening, that money does not guarantee happiness.
The other time was witnessing a woman walking out of a department store chucking change into the waste bin, and her daughter, who could barely keep up with her mom’s pace, just said, “mommy, why did you throw that money away?”
ThinkRichGrowRich
23. Sandy Hook Tragedy
Sandy Hook, the image of kindergarten kids, followed by the American response of doing nothing except ‘thoughts and prayers’.
vanhype
24. From Pandemic to War
Finishing a pandemic just for Putin/Russia to say ‘oh, we can go outside again? You know what would be a good decision now? War.’
What the fuck, man. How about we try and do one thing at a time?!
Edit: yes, I agree the pandemic isn’t over. It’s an AskReddit thread, so I was being tongue-in-cheek.
GraveDigger111
25. Calendar Confusion
Had a lady *at work* tell me once that she couldn’t understand how I knew that next Halloween is 12 months away.
“Well, it’s always on October 31st, that’s a year from now”
“But it’s always on a different day”
Kill me now.
toTheNewLife
26. Politics
People who sided with the pandemic against their fellow humans for political reasons.
Mrs_Evryshot
27. Instant Validation
The fact there are so many people who seem to seek instant social validation above all else. Yes I know we are on Reddit posting shit right now, I get it, but there seems to be this overwhelming movement where your life needs to be shared with the internet to get validation from people you don’t know, who don’t care about you, and honestly hold no real place in your life outside of what you give them.
shadycoy0303
28. KUWTK
The debut of and long running continuance of TV’s “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
erik_with_a_k
29. Shower Shit
Had coworkers tell me it was normal to shit in your hands in the shower and just lob it into the toilet, 3 people agreeing was enough to convince me evolution never happened and were dying as apes.
Haruxan
30. Drinking Bleach
When the president went on live television and was asking the head of disease control if we could clean our bodies out with bleach.
ssjhook