In December 2001 the Taliban offered to surrender as long as their leader Mullah Omar would be allowed to live in Kandahar. The Bush administration rejected the offer, which would have concluded the war on vastly more favorable terms without the needless suffering and expense of the past 19.5 years.

submitted by Chipit from archive.is

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[–]Chipit[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

Nope. Most of us overwhelmingly prefer peace. Only a small number of neoliberals and warmongers like this obscenity.

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Most humans prefer peace for themselves sure. But not for their enemies. Look at any other herd species, especially primates. They will torture each other to death simply for coming across them and finding they're not in their tribe. Or if a member of their tribe dissents against the collective. Tribes will war all the time and glorify conquering and obliterating others and causing them to suffer. And then even within their tribes they battle to the death for power and mates. The same exact behavior is well documented all through human history. They try to hide it now that there's too many people to power trip that hard, but their instincts haven't changed. There's still the instinctive desire to wage war and oppress enemies and become ruler of the world. Even if that's mostly been reduced from actual warfare to internet flamewars between political tribes it's the same basic mechanism; no real thought, just us vs them, and hopefully they suffer. But serious wars still start over it, WWI for instance was started by an insignificant assassination which pretty much became an excuse to start a war they'd been wanting to have. This kind of primal crap explains a lot of outlandishly stupid decisions humans can't seem to learn from and keep making over and over again.

[–]Chipit[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

There's still the instinctive desire to wage war and oppress enemies and become ruler of the world.

This is simply untrue. This applies only to sociopaths and psychopaths.

WWI for instance was started by an insignificant assassination which pretty much became an excuse to start a war they'd been wanting to have.

The people who started the war were sociopaths and psychopaths.

Your analysis is faulty and applies only to the ruling class. Who are largely sociopaths and psychopaths.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Why do you think they're all sociopaths and psychopaths? It's not a coincidence. Humans are generally sociopaths and psychopaths. They just hide it when it benefits them, and for most of the plebs it does. This is why power corrupts.

[–]Chipit[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Humans are generally sociopaths and psychopaths.

This is untrue. It's a corrosive, ugly misreading of human nature. Likely caused by disillusionment of a utopian fantasy that will never come true.

Sociopaths are about 1% of the population, same with psychopaths. Unfortunately these people are drawn to power while the rest of us just want to live our lives in peace. They thus disproportionately fill out the ranks of the powerful and commit horrid mass murders on a regular basis in Iraq, Syria, Libya, the list goes on and on.

[–]Vulptex 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They just don't hide it as well. If humans were not naturally evil then why all the emphasis on making outsiders suffer? Why do they take so much pleasure in that? Why do they make pointless rules and laws just to get a rush from abusing power? Why does power corrupt? I believe the answer is that those in power are no longer restrained by higher-ups and know they can get away with anything they want. While the rest are more careful about pretending to be good people. Still generally only toward their own tribe however.

In ancient times people were serial killing left and right, often for no reason. It was only as civilization developed that this decreased. Humans love to think they're not animals who act on instinct but that's pride at its finest. And our nature is quite bad too.