Almost Half of US Citizens Have No Moral Compass

[MineralMan]

That is the conclusion I am drawing from the deep division of political philosophies we are experiencing. Almost half of people in this country worship the Mammon-like Trump deity. They consider those who do not to be their enemies, even if they live right next door.

Some of them attempted to undo the last election through violence, and are celebrated by many others who would not have the courage to actually do what those insurrectionists did.

Racial, gender, and other hatreds are openly expressed. Incels are shooting up the only places they can find sexual release. Racists speak openly of their hatred of everyone who is not like them.

Hatred is a commonplace. Hatred of the "Others." Self-hatred. Hatred of successful people, as well as people who struggle to survive.

This is not good. It is dangerous and threatens everyone.

I hope this changes. It must!

[Boomerproud]

1. K&R

I have nothing better to add.

[marble falls]

2. Sadly it doesn't just change, it has to be changed.

[MineralMan]

3. Yes. I think we're working on that, but it's

going to be a long pull. There are those who will resist that change - some of them violently.

[marble falls]

11. A long pull. In a lot of ways the exPresident* managed to wake us up and fire us up to a long ...

... term struggle. It requires us to stand up to them and this is the first time I see us seriously understanding there can be no "winter soldiers" in this struggle for the next eight years it will take.

And I've seen benefit already: I see Trump signs still, but I heard not much pro-Trump or anti-Biden trash talk since the inauguration.

I think even Trumpers are getting comfortable with a real President in office. At least we got a place to build from.

[MineralMan]

12. Perhaps, but we need to maintain our attention.

We dare not lose our focus, or we'll get more of that crap.

[marble falls]

22. Absolutely!! Complacency can not be in our vocabulary, it never was in the RW's mind set ...

Our watch phrase is "double down!". Triple, if needed.

[bdamomma]

51. MineralMan

Change is very hard for some ignorant people to do, they feel threatened thus they take revenge on others.

White supremacy is in our faces, we need to eradicate it.

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, especially when it comes to racism in America

[MineralMan]

5. The problem is that white Americans are no longer

the majority, if you count everyone. That scares the crap out of some people, but it's absolutely true.

Georgia is the example. If people who have long not voted start voting, the racist right wing loses.

We need more states like Georgia. We need everyone to vote. If we can get that, the Republican Party will die, since it is no longer relevant to the majority of people.

[marble falls]

17. A gentle correction: whites make up 73% of the population: whites are a declining majority ...

... having lost about 5% since two or three censuses ago.

Demographics of the United States - Wikipedia
[Search domain en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_States] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_States
White people constitute the majority of the U.S. population, with a total of about 234,370,202 or 73% of the population as of 2017. Non-Hispanic Whites make up 60.7% of the country's population. Their share of the U.S. population is expected to fall below 50% by 2045, primarily due to immigration and low birth rates.

But majority or not: we're all human and have equal protection under the law. We have great ideals to profess, but we elect a lot of defective Congresses.

We white Americans tend to think with our heart and vote on our gut.

[bdamomma]

54. Let the GOP party die

they killed plenty of us during the last year.

[shrike3]

6. When it comes to non-political things, too. Deeply disturbing.

[MineralMan]

7. Also disturbing is the role that Evangelical Fundamentalist Christianity

has in all of this. We have pastors counseling their congregations to take up arms.

Worse, as far as I can see, we have the Roman Catholic Church, once again, declaring that same sex marriage is wrong.

Religion, when it pushes people toward more, rather than less, intolerance, is not a positive force for good. Not in any way.

[Dawson Leery]

20. When institutions that maintain order and tradition decline in the face of progress

and equity, those institutions embrace tyranny as the only means to sustain their power.

[MineralMan]

21. So it seems.

[shrike3]

57. In terms of same sex marriage, out of 88 recognized nations, only 24 have legalized same sex

marriages. None in the Mideast have, and that includes Israel. It's not legal in Asia, including Japan. One of the least religious countries in the world, and they haven't legalized it. It's legal in Western Europe, though not in what we used to call the Soviet bloc. In the Americas, it's legal in Canada, the U.S.. Colombia, Brazil, Argentina. The latter three are Catholic countries. Only eight percent of the Church is in America, where same sex couples can get married anyway. There are still parts of the world where it's dangerous to be out.

[Hortensis]

8. Sadly, more. Or, perhaps it's that partisan, ideological,

and/or cultish attachments override willingness to examine anything that might conflict, including thinking itself. We know a large majority of us want to be good, and believe we are.

[MineralMan]

14. Sadly, a surprisingly high percentage of people think primarily about themselves.

If things are going well for them, they're fine. If not, they demand a change that will benefit them, in particular.

Our culture and society seeks success, but individuals seek their own success first of all.

That is the danger of individualism, which is at the core of this society. Sadly, many people are libertarians at heart. If they have theirs, what others have or do not have is not a high priority.

That lies at the heart of our problem, both historically and into the future.

[Hortensis]

23. :) I'm thinking being human is at the heart of our problem.

We're far too large a nation, with far too many cultures, in an era of galloping change like nothing we've ever seen. For 20,000 Ag Age years most people lived much as those 10,000 years before did. Now, every generation is living to a large degree where mankind has never been before, not even their parents, the wonderful and pernicious influences of the internet leaping to mind. Same for most of the rest of the planet.

It all fights developing new deeply embedded ways proven to work over generations. Looked at that way, haven't we been doing astonishingly well for the past 250 years? That arc of justice, openness to different peoples and different ways, vastly extended life spans, shrinking of poverty. It's, notably, become very rare for travelers who wander into the wrong village to get robbed and killed, and even eaten. (Famine no joke!)

That said, it seems as if our society really does need to learn to pay real attention to what is right and wrong, to understand moral issues and how to act on them. We could and should do so much better. It's not just that moral codes are often weak to nonexistent but that moral "IQs" vary widely. Some need guidance that simply doesn't exist in our culture if not provided by good family, or institution like a moral church that pays careful attention to the needs of the congregants.

[MineralMan]

29. All true. We now live in a far more complex world

than we evolved to live in. Old-timers like me have watched the changes accelerate madly during our lifetimes. Some of us were able to adapt, but others were not so able. Some who were unable are reacting violently to the new realities, in a vain attempt to create a simpler world they are able to understand.

We are still essentially the same sort of creatures we were when things were so much simpler. Our brains still react as they always have to threats, stress, and challenges. It's just that our inborn reactions now are inappropriate much of the time. Some of us can adapt; others cannot. Conflict results.

We all, however, are still humans and often react as we evolved to do when challenged.

I'm in a very stressful period right now, having lost both of my very aged parents, on the same day as the Capitol insurrection, and having to deal with a rather complicated estate they left behind. I have lost a lot of sleep, due to stress over that. However, I do have the knowledge and skills needed to work my way through the issues, albeit with the help of a very sensible attorney. An occasional Xanax doesn't hurt, either.

He said to me, the other day, that I have surprised him with my ability to solve complicated estate issues without the need to call him in. He jokingly complained that I was not letting him bill enough hours. I told him that I was finding solutions to relieve the stress all of this was causing me and that I was just using my life experience and acquired knowledge to solve the problems that could be solved without legal action. Now, things are beginning to wind down and I'm sleeping better. The stress is easing up. However, my method of dealing with stress is to do things that remove issues, one at a time. I don't just lie awake in bed and fret over things. Instead, I use that wakeful time to plan my next step in removing the stress. That works for me. It might not work for someone else. It wouldn't work for my brother-in-law, for example, who would be the alternative executor. He responds to stress by complaining about the stress, but does not do anything to resolve issues.

We are all differently equipped to handle difficult or complex situations. I know enough to deprive the estate's attorney of large time billings. That helps me deal with the stress, since I can actually do something useful. My B-i-L would be constantly complaining about the lawyer's bills, despite relying on the lawyer to do everything. My B-i-L is a Trumper, unsurprisingly. We don't discuss politics. Ever. I keep him, and my parents' grandchildren updated weekly on progress with the estate. That helps ease their stress, and they seem quite happy to leave it to me.

The first distribution date for the estate is in early May. The grandchildren get fixed amounts, based on my parents' wishes. they know They'll get those distributions on time, so they're not stressed. I and my B-i-L (my sister has bad Alzheimer's) will each get half of the rest on that same date, with additional distributions as more problems get solved and more assets become available. It's a sizable estate, most of it tied up in their farm property, which was sold and in escrow when they died. That escrow closes next week, despite many challenges that have arisen after my parents' deaths. Many phone calls, emails, and letters, along with a seemingly endless stream of documents, have solved all of those challenges, sometimes through some creative thinking and carefully bargained agreements. So everything will happen on schedule. I and the attorney are the only ones who know how much work went into making that happen. The rest of the family has no idea, and that's just fine with me. I can handle the stress and know how to resolve the issues. No need for anyone else to stress out over it.

Sadly, most people are more like my B-i-L and just complain or get angry when they don't understand things. For them, the world is a confusing, frightening place. When I can, I like to make things simpler for them. I can't fix the world, though...just simple things.

[Hortensis]

58. You're doing amazingly, MM. My attitude toward both your parents

both leaving this world on the same day has been rather romantic, and less of your sudden, complete loss.

Complexity. Whether emotionally or intellectually problematic, or both, that's huge for all of us. Your brother sounds emotionally overloaded, and I know how he feels. It can be chronically overwhelming, not just at times like this. What a gift that he has you during this time of special stress.

Intellectually, I remember that when I was in high school college was not trade school and above-average intelligence was considered needed for four-year degrees. No matter how they stack the classes, it's only gotten worse. And back then, most jobs were considered appropriate for average capabilities. But now we live in a college level world, and somehow the typical person's supposed to have a four-year degree to be properly equipped for a job that pays a living wage and benefits. Passport to the middle class.

As for running a home, thank goodness our newer electronics are now talking to each other and installing themselves. That didn't save my husband when our hand soap dispenser started shooting soap across the powder room as we walked in. My husband had to contact tech support (!), and turned out it just needed rebooting. (No, I'm not kidding, and we didn't buy it -- one of the things our kids think we need in our life.) Those are the least of it, of course.

Seriously, you've been up to your eyebrows in what it takes these days. But how many people really think they're functioning at the level they should be every day?

[sanatanadharma]

50. Exactly so; the "I" is known while the "we" is ignored...

...it seems that too many moral compasses always point to ME.

[CrackityJones75]

9. However I still maintain 70% of statistics are made up.

[MineralMan]

10. I assume that is intended to be a joke.

I could be wrong, though. I don't know you.

[CrackityJones75]

13. Yes absolutely

Your post was wonderful and makes some fine points. I am not sure what the percentage is but I know that when the people and institutions that we look to for moral focus spread immoral values we are headed for trouble. For example evangelicals are more and more feeding immoral values and it is echoing throughout the country.

Very worrying. Thank you for your OP.

[KPN]

15. Fortunately, more than half do have a moral compass.

Personally, I believe it’s a never ending struggle and take solace in the belief that MLK was right about the arc of the moral universe being long and bending toward justice.

What I do find disconcerting is the realization that we have never really healed from the Civil War. This has become apparent over the past 12+ years. I remember learning years ago in school about the healing power of Reconstruction after that war. I now believe that lesson was premature and wrong. Reconstruction without accountability is not healing. It’s more like hiding, like keeping dirty laundry in a closet. We need some accountability before we can heal the present divide. Prosecuting the Capitol insurrectionists won’t be enough. We need to hold some of the key players in the undermining of our electoral process accountable to heal sufficiently, not fully - we will never achieve that - but sufficiently to secure our democracy for another 100 years or so.

[MineralMan]

16. Unfortunately, far too many people in this society

do not participate in the elections that decide who is in charge. That is the only reason Trump got elected. That is the one thing we need to change. We need everyone to participate. Then, we will actually hear the will of the people. That is the necessity. How we make that happen is an ongoing concern.

[KPN]

64. Amen on that.

[Klaralven]

18. As living standards decline and competition becomes more severe, it will get worse

[MineralMan]

19. That is certainly a possibility.

[OneBro]

24. Trump is their moral compass.

[BlueNProud]

25. owning the libs is their moral compass

[bluestarone]

26. We do have a perfect storm against us for sure

OUR government (QTHUGS TRUMPERS) are feeding these anti-Americans every day making them BOLDER). Our country doesn't have time to heal with all these congress people continuing their daily re-infection trying to stop Joe at every turn. If EVER this country needed a reason to do away with the filibuster it's THIS reason. We will lose this battle IF we screw it up! I'm wondering how the Supreme Court future decisions will influence our battle!! Scary times ahead for sure. Just to add here you're right about the religious right entering this battle. Especially the end of time freaks!! Good thread here!

[RussellCattle]

27. "Hatred of successful people, as well as people struggle to survive." What a great point. I can't...

....wait to ask some of my right wing friends and family about this the next time they bitch about poor folk.

[lagomorph777]

28. Maybe their moral compass has already been through the magnetic reversal.

So it's pointing oppositely to the correct direction.

[MASW]

30. MineralMan, the lack of moral compass was the most shocking revelation to me in the 2016 election.

People who voted for Trump didn't know right from wrong. Not only did they not care that Trump had an entire lifetime of lying, cheating, abusing (women, minorities, workers, the legal system)...they thought it was cool. They thought he was finally sticking it to "the government" and "regulations" that they think are taking away their freedoms. I'm not very hopeful. Trump has authorized and legitimized horrible behavior. He has made it a virtue, for his dummy followers, to be just like him: a total a**hole.

[MineralMan]

32. Yes. The underbelly of our society was clearly exposed.

It was not pretty.

[leftstreet]

31. Half the eligible voters don't vote

You don't know what their moral compass is.

I think you mean to say...1/4 ish of people have no moral compass

[MineralMan]

34. Yes, you are correct.

We don't know what they think. We might not like what they think, actually. I just don't know.

[patphil]

33. What amazed me most was the people who voted for Trump in 2016 and then in 2020.

After 4 years of Trump demonstrating each day that he was a mean spirited, angry, hate-filled, violent, self absorbed, racist/misogynist asshole, they still voted for him a second time.
I guess they saw themselves in him.
What a disaster for the United States in particular, and humanity in general.

[MineralMan]

35. Yes. It is a very delicate balance.

We need to be united to keep such a thing from happening again, it seems to me.

[jaxexpat]

49. Way more people competing for the elements of habitat and resources than ever before.

It's a REAL hard problem that absolutely promises to get exponentially worse ad infinitum. There are no fixes, no solutions to be borrowed from history, no matter how well documented. Basic tenets of morality pretty much disintegrate in the face of extreme overpopulation. Peace, Love, Respect (self and for others), even the elementary logic of mutual dependence becomes evermore situational. Were drugs involved? What was their religion? Did they have a father in the home? a Mother? central air? running water? new clothes or hand-me-downs or Good Will? not enough daydreaming as a child? too much?
Personally, I'm certain that my last breath will be hastened by misfiled paperwork and some disinterested clerk will be equally certain that it wasn't their fault because it's wasn't their job despite the fact it was in their job description which they didn't read because that would mean they'd miss essential facetime with their friends. Besides baby boomers like me are responsible for ALL the world's problems so we don't deserve attention from the overworked, underpaid and criminally uneducated workforce of the now and foreseeable future. And they'd be absolutely right. A mockup of our collective future could be a work of art while the actual product is brought in overbudget and obsolete even as it finally hits the shelves. It's just the way it is. Remember when the planet had a "wobble" and the poles swapped signatures? Me neither, but it happened and if we'd been around it would have been a very bad day. Or the one about the dinosaur killing asteroid that just HAD to hit Earth out of all the possible trajectories.
I hope this helps.

[moondust]

36. 30,000 documented lies didn't matter.

I've wondered how much his long record of getting away with corruption of all kinds actually boosted their support for him, perhaps assuming that if (white) corruption is normalized then they, too, will be able to get away with anything.

Dark days.

[bucolic_frolic]

37. We are no longer interacting with people, we are using smart phones & it's depersonalizing

Some of us can handle it, some can't. We are using hierarchies to sort everything - goods, prices, merchants, locations, time. Sorting people is a natural progression.

[MineralMan]

40. That is a choice people make.

I use all of those tools to interact with people every day. So do the people with whom I interact. Every person chooses how to live and what to do, for better or worse.

We all sort people, though, among other things. We all do that.

[bucolic_frolic]

43. You're right

What I'm getting at is categorizing is more widespread today, and the tools to do so are more powerful and more readily available. We've crossed a threshold. So the haters have more power to sort than they did 30 years ago. Yes they must make the choice and bring the hatred, but the leap is easy-peasey, done in the blink of an eye, and they have the firepower to carry out their hatred now. It's like saying we communicate better in 1975 than we did 100 years earlier because of the telephone.

[pandr32]

38. So much for the American pursuit of happiness

People don't hate if they are truly happy, which means that as a nation we aren't doing well.

I hoped that one good thing that might come out of this pandemic is a reset. More people have discovered the importance of family, of home, are learning to cook, are finding they can work at home more and still maintain productivity, and are rediscovering the little joys in life.

[MineralMan]

41. I hope you're right about people realigning their priorities.

Some certainly will. Others might not, though. Some will shrink their lives even further.

We'll see what happens as we come out of this pandemic. I have no idea.

[pandr32]

47. I think a reset had to happen

Too many of us have been living like hamsters stuck on a wheel in order to satisfy the greed of the top percentile. Few if any of the fruits of productivity has been going to workers and many of the wealthy spend too much time and energy trying to protect "what's theirs". Happiness eludes us all.
Families suffer. Young people are cynics.

Let's hope that all the suffering that has come from the most corrupt administration ever and a pandemic that has killed well over half a million people will motivate us all to realign priorities.

May the luck of the Irish be upon you today!

[Moostache]

55. I don't think we've had the reset that is needed...not yet anyway.

I am starting to believe that generational gaps lead to societal challenges and always have...the nation and indeed the world around us is shaken, erased and rebuilt in a new direction, painfully most of the time, but also irrevocably. Much like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" helplessly watching the sand of the hourglass running out, we are powerless to stop these transitions, and the effort to resist the changes is as fruitful as trying to stop the tides with a bucket and some bilge pumps.

For the United States, formally begun in 1776, there have been 3 previous periods of an 80-year cycle (with many booms and busts interspersed within those timelines, but also bookended by mammoth human history upheavals...of which we are predictably in the midst of starting a fourth upheaval of the modern (post-colonialism) era.

1780's - Revolution (American and French) introduces Democracy back into the world and democratic republican governance as well. Land owners would remain the principle wealthy class, but they were to soon be joined at the top...

1860's - American Civil War fought to end slavery and reshuffled the world in the Industrial Revolution, without slavery and no-cost labor, plantations became untenable as a tent pole for an entire economy and the Industrial Revolution likewise became a wake-up call for intensely manual endeavors as well; artisans and craftsmen were largely replaced by engines and electrified machines...

1940's - WWII is underway and laying waste to the Depression (that had resulted in part from a Gilded Age that was eerily similar in disparate wealth distribution to today's failing era - a complete collapse of demand due to lack of access to funds spiraled out of control in a death loop under Hoover) and most of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia were in ash or flame - the idea of women in the workplace pre-war was unheard of...by 1945 there was no going back to the pre-war era.

2020's - The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the cracks in the social contract and the economy of the age...neither of these things can be ignored, not can they be repaired by a "return to normal", which so many so desperately cling to the hope of...the so called digital age is transforming everything, and once again consolidating power and wealth in too few hands and placing wont and hardship in too many stomachs and mouths.

The story goes on - new characters replacing or rhyming with old ones - John D. Rockafeller / Jeff Bezos ... Henry Ford / Bill Gates ... and on and on it goes. People have always existed - clear back to the Pharaohs and Caesars - that were placed on high pedestals above the "common man". We have never solved the riddle, only shaken the table, reset the pieces and watched as the same outcome - massive, unsustainable wealth gaps - form again and again.

Maybe this time WILL be different. We are as a society barreling toward a cliff (climate change and energy production) that is real, is coming and instead of rationally assessing this reality and combining our collective strengths to fight IT, we are retreating into tribes (even internally fighting inside the nation states) to prepare for wars. Civil and Sectional. War with liberals. War with conservatives. War with China (above all else, THIS is out there if left unresolved - just as the conditions and inevitability of the American Civil War was left unresolved at the end of the Colonial / Revolutionary Era, so too are we in danger of building to a 3rd World War if we cannot resolve the issue of a bipolar super power world between East and West instead of Communist and Capitalist.

We have the tools available to us - technology, historical perspective and knowledge...but these things are not LIVED experiences. We know them from books and history and tales of those who lived them but are no longer in power or are barely still in existence. Society moves on, but humanity does a terrible job of learning the lessons the world teaches. Those lessons are fairly obvious to those who seek them - resources are plentiful, but scarcity makes profit opportunities and profit opportunities - whether vertical integration of production or total monopoly over digital distribution - lead to hording unless collectively reigned in via cooperatve or coercive means.

I wish I had a sunnier disposition and brighter outlook on humanity, but I study history and I am appalled by the similarities and warning signs that are present but ignored every time our species reaches one of these nexus points of intersection between eras. From the fall of the divine right of kings to the end of slavery to the fight against fascism and right up to the present day monopolies and wealth chasms, control has always been the narrow minded goal. Unless and until we reach a different point of emphasis - until we ask the right questions (HOW do we best divide the resources to raise ALL people - regardless of nations?) instead of the wrong questions (WHY should THEY get any of MINE?).

History, as much as human nature, tells us that if things are not approached differently, we KNOW the outcome before it starts - wars, deaths, destruction and then a reboot of the wheel and another 80 year cycle kicks off...

[pandr32]

67. Just saw this

You should make this a thread.

[randr]

39. Agreed, they are all wanabe victims living in a dismal past

[Butterflylady]

42. I have said all along, the republican party is the party of violence, hatred and kooks.

They should always be portrayed that way. That is how people are beginning to see them.

[TygrBright]

44. I differ. We ALL have a moral compass - it's our definition of "human" that varies.

The MAGAts, if asked, would describe right and wrong in very similar terms to the rest of us; they would probably say they subscribe to the Golden Rule of "do as you would be done by" and that the Rule of Law and the Ten Commandments, etc., are their moral compass and they are sticking by them.

But of course, the dictates of who is entitled to such consideration is limited to humans. We take non-human life all the time, for food, for raw materials of plant-based products, etc. We structure and use other life as it suits our purposes because the moral dictates of who is endowed with the right to equity under law, moral dictate, etc., is limited to humans.

They just don't think that those who are not white, not male, not "Christian", etc., are fully human. So the moral compass that guides them in their considerations of honorable, equitable treatment does not apply to those sub- or semi- or non-human beings.

This is why dehumanization is such a dangerous rhetorical and mental construct. It opens the door to all kinds of hatred and vile treatment, up to and including genocide.

sadly,
Bright

[Evolve Dammit]

45. Any constructive, positive, rational change will require dragging their dead ass weight along. They

aren't going anywhere and they have no interest in any type of serious self-examination or looking outside themselves either. They exist in their world of propaganda, conspiracy theories (alternative facts) and worship of same with their fellow knuckle draggers. Reptilian brains arming up to tear it all down. Sorry, but I don't think there is a prayer this will change. In fact, the schism is being fueled and is growing. Vlad smiles.

[liberalmuse]

46. You are correct, sir.

A bunch of people saw a horrific excuse for a human being and decided, "I want to be like him". He gave racist assholes some legitimacy they were seeking beyond their right wing media bubble. For a time, anyway. Let's not allow it to continue.

[Lettuce Be]

48. I think it's closer to 20% that are completely devoid of any moral compass

but agree with you. Hopefully it's not 50%.

[Maeve]

52. Oh, they do...it just points south!

And has a strong tendency to waver if someone with a magnetic personality comes near them....

Sorry, but the puns were just waiting to happen and it's that sort of day

[iemanja]

53. More than half

[burrowowl]

56. A lot of moral compass was lost

under Raygun when greed became a virtue instead of a capital sin!

[moondust]

60. +100000

[mainer]

59. A relevant quote from a recent NYT article

About the pandemic:

If you are a person who thinks that you have a right not to wear a mask, that philosophy cascades: I couldn’t give a darn about the cashier in the supermarket or the train driver because I don’t care about anyone. I will go into the bar, and I will do what I will do.

This pandemic has shown us who we are, at a level of clarity that is shocking to most people. It’s hard to imagine there are that many people in our country who really don’t care about others. That is the scariest thing, it takes your breath away and you can diagnose everything else that is happening in our society through that lens. That you could tolerate 500,000 deaths in less than a year is incomprehensible to me, that we are a nation that is so callous.

[MineralMan]

61. Exactly...

[Corgigal]

62. Interesting thread.

I just mentioned last week, to my adult grown son, that it just occurred to me that people will murder for envy now. Of course, envy can occur to anyone, but I always believed it was a short term emotion and you moved on.

I no longer believe that, and I think it maybe our primary down fall if we just can’t accept what we have is fine, we’re lucky to be wherever we are right now, and no one is guaranteed tomorrow.

I was confused why it took me so long to understand why envy is the root, and of course this is just my thinking, but to murder because you believe someone else has a perceived better life is shallow.

[MineralMan]

63. Yes, they will. Very sad...

[I_UndergroundPanther]

65. We have to do something

About the narcissism,sociopathy and authoritarian people,something to fix them and failing that contain them so they cannot abuse hurt and kill,along with the other crimes they commit.

People without a moral compass cannot be trusted,even with freedom when around others..

[ancianita]

66. Why do you say half? The 74 million who voted for him are only 23% of the country. I don't get it.

And trust me, I do get how it feels like half, though. But that seems kind of unfair to the other 77%. Just sayin'.

[marie999]

68. Only 25% of the country voted for Biden.

Can we say that everyone who voted for Biden has a moral compass? I am sure that some, but there is no way of knowing how many, voted for Biden simply because they thought their lives would be better under Biden and not caring if it helped anyone else. Personally, I have a very low opinion of humanity.

[ancianita]

69. Yes. They won because of the facts of the last 4 yrs; it shows they have a relative moral compass.

Their comparing their lives under Trump to what Biden promised was enough to show the basis for why

many, voted for Biden simply because they thought their lives would be better under Biden and not caring if it helped anyone else.

No matter how right your low opinion, we see that even their simple basis for knowing to vote for Biden -- Trump -- turned out to show, at least, some moral compass.

Even a low opinion of humanity can recognize that doing the right thing for the most unconscious of reasons has worked for the good, in that 25% who voted for Biden, by constitutional law, now represent the 75% who didn't, and all benefit from Biden's American Rescue Act.