When did we, as a country, become this cruel?

[EdmondDantes_]

44. Humanity has always had streaks of cruelty

We've made progress overall, but it's definitely not linear because progress never is. The way to fix it is within ourselves.

But I worry as we continue to create a society of haves and have nots we are going to have more because people feel competition for resources. Our planet is overpopulated and has finite resources so if you can convince one group it's another group's fault, that's a great way to get power. Whether it's blaming immigrants "stealing your job" or trans people ""taking girls' sports" or minorities "getting affirmative action", or women being blamed for the male loneliness epidemic, it's easy. But it's not just an American story. It's England convincing themselves that the Irish Catholics were villains, Hitler (among many others) convincing Germans it was the fault of Jewish people, the rise of ethno-nationalist parties in Europe, etc. Until such time as we realize that we've got more in common with each other than we don't, we will likely always struggle with this.

But that said, we've also come a long way and that shouldn't be forgotten. Look at same sex marriage and how quickly it went from deeply unpopular to widely popular. For centuries slavery was accepted. Women have the right to vote, own property etc. Sure it would be great if we didn't have to keep fighting for progress, but nothing is linear.