Well see, you are right on the first paragraph but in this context we are talking about America in the 40s specifically. I am not saying people in the past had bad morals and we are better, I am saying in that specific time things were a certain way, they were better and worse in many ways before and after. A good example I use is back in the old west when a sheriff or marshall shot someone in the back he would be hanged but these days cops shoot people in the back and get away with it most of the time.
> The goal is to not do this anymore and we keep restating the goal as a species but keep failing.
That's sort of my point. The reason we keep failing is because we are evil by nature and we must learn to do good. I was pointing out how people look at the topic if this thread and speak as if they are morally superior or wouldn't do the same thing in those times. Most of Germany supported hitler and many were complicit in the holocaust. Our failure is not as a species or a group but as individuals. Collective thinking guiding morality is exactly how these terrible things happened, because "everyone is going along with it, how can I resist or do different". You can see on social media how "canceling" people is the norm for example, collective thinking amplified, people hating and attacking others because the mob says so, not calling out their friends and peers to aboid being alienated. It isn't that we are better than americans in the 40s but that we are better off in that wr have better education and access to media as well as a great economy and more powerful military (no worries about China or Russia actually invading us now, remember, back then there was no nuclear detterence either).
I just feel like it is more important to understand and learn why we (not they) are capable of doing horrible things.
> The goal is to not do this anymore and we keep restating the goal as a species but keep failing.
That's sort of my point. The reason we keep failing is because we are evil by nature and we must learn to do good. I was pointing out how people look at the topic if this thread and speak as if they are morally superior or wouldn't do the same thing in those times. Most of Germany supported hitler and many were complicit in the holocaust. Our failure is not as a species or a group but as individuals. Collective thinking guiding morality is exactly how these terrible things happened, because "everyone is going along with it, how can I resist or do different". You can see on social media how "canceling" people is the norm for example, collective thinking amplified, people hating and attacking others because the mob says so, not calling out their friends and peers to aboid being alienated. It isn't that we are better than americans in the 40s but that we are better off in that wr have better education and access to media as well as a great economy and more powerful military (no worries about China or Russia actually invading us now, remember, back then there was no nuclear detterence either).
I just feel like it is more important to understand and learn why we (not they) are capable of doing horrible things.