One could say this counts as a general question. Some of the people here, though, invoke this in ways which I find unique.

To give an idea of what this is about (by flashing back to an old no-context passage), as a certain person here has said…

Donate a thousand dollars to charity and you won’t naturally get any memorial. Take two back and you have a criminal record for years. Greatly contribute to justice in a dictatorship, and it’s only you who will be praised. Commit a heinous crime, though, and the punishment would be collective on your whole family. Plead guilty to a misdeed and the officers will automatically take your word for it. Admit to a good deed and they’ll ask for proof. Spread a damning rumor and it will be the talk of the town. Spread an encouraging rumor and nobody will be talking. Ask if you can get recognition for donated blood, or even just meet the person you’re giving to, and you will be treated as haughty. Ask why the news is always about bad things and you’ll be treated as idealistic and naive.

This doesn’t cover everything though. It’s an issue that one can find in a lot of places.

Everywhere I look, I see people down on themselves. Do you know what they’re not doing in this land imbued with ideas of freedom of speech? Living to the fullest and unleashing their inner braggart. Why do we have such a bias? A part of why I am who I am is to fight this mindset. Most people don’t even question it though. How about you? And what reason do you have?

  • @FourPacketsOfPeanuts
    5•12 hours ago

    Evolutionarily speaking, threats from outside are an existential threat and need spreading. Good deeds at home are already known by everyone who matters and the ‘reward’ is survival of your children, not you ‘feeling good’. People do ‘hero worship’ though. I think you are downplaying that. Though the influence that comes from such a position probably means people are inclined to cooperate with ‘power’ because it has, de facto, already shown itself to be powerful. Whereas those ‘asking’ for power are necessarily weak.

    This is all pop-sci evolutionary psychology so discard at will…