How to make other people pay for your stuff

[Savy]

Because you think it's a good use of your time*

It isn't a lot of selfless acts are selfish, all of them are. Even based on what you are trying to say not all selfish acts are bad and not all selfless acts are good nor is there even particularly a correlation.

It's a very childish way of trying to justify decisions.

[Poopadoop]

Because you think it's a good use of your time*

It isn't a lot of selfless acts are selfish, all of them are. Even based on what you are trying to say not all selfish acts are bad and not all selfless acts are good nor is there even particularly a correlation.

It's a very childish way of trying to justify decisions.

Altruism is a very real area of study in social science. There are people who know it's actually a thing and are trying to explain it, and can't. Some of them explain it like you, as being basically selfish, but that falls down in cases like the 'saving the drowning idiot' example I gave.

[Savy]

Altruism is a very real area of study in social science. There are people who know it's actually a thing and are trying to explain it, and can't. Some of them explain it like you, as being basically selfish, but that falls down in cases like the 'saving the drowning idiot' example I gave.

Society gives silly idealisation to people who do such acts. If you save a drowning person you're seen as a hero even if the person drowning is a huge cunt. As a species there is also the very real thing of wanting to preserve and protect your own. It is also very appealing, especially from a male point of view, to be seen as someone who can deal with shit, look at how much pussy firefighters get. Especially after tragedies. It isn't very hard to frame your "exception" in the same light.

[Poopadoop]

Society gives silly idealisation to people who do such acts. If you save a drowning person you're seen as a hero even if the person drowning is a huge cunt. As a species there is also the very real thing of wanting to preserve and protect your own. It is also very appealing, especially from a male point of view, to be seen as someone who can deal with shit, look at how much pussy firefighters get. Especially after tragedies. It isn't very hard to frame your "exception" in the same light.

I already explained above some reasons why it is hard.

We can take it further though. If someone saves another person's life and gets noticed by no-one else for it. Or, if you'd like a more realistic example, giving money to a charity anonymously for a benefit that has no way of ever coming back to you.

[Savy]

I already explained above some reasons why it is hard.

We can take it further though. If someone saves another person's life and gets noticed by no-one else for it. Or, if you'd like a more realistic example, giving money to a charity anonymously for a benefit that has no way of ever coming back to you.

Because YOU get a benefit for doing those things. You think you are doing good, you think by hiding your name you're being some sort of hero. The admiration doesn't have to be external. Even if it comes down to you thinking you are doing good that's enough.

Why would anyone give money to a charity unless they thought that charity was doing good (so the person donating is doing good) or if they were getting an external benefit from it. Most charity donations and charitable acts are incredibly selfish. How many people do you know who donate their lives for a cause unless that cause had has significant impact on their lives?

My son died of cancer, now I push paediatric cancer treatments
My mum died of cancer, now I do "fun" runs for breast cancer
Person I know had a rare disease now I push for more study of that disease

Being selfish isn't necessarily bad and it doesn't default all these actions to bad. At the same time selfless actions can do shit loads of bad and are seen as good because they are selfless.

[Poopadoop]

Because YOU get a benefit for doing those things. You think you are doing good, you think by hiding your name you're being some sort of hero. The admiration doesn't have to be external. Even if it comes down to you thinking you are doing good that's enough.

Why would anyone give money to a charity unless they thought that charity was doing good (so the person donating is doing good) or if they were getting an external benefit from it. Most charity donations and charitable acts are incredibly selfish. How many people do you know who donate their lives for a cause unless that cause had has significant impact on their lives?

My son died of cancer, now I push paediatric cancer treatments
My mum died of cancer, now I do "fun" runs for breast cancer
Person I know had a rare disease now I push for more study of that disease

Being selfish isn't necessarily bad and it doesn't default all these actions to bad. At the same time selfless actions can do shit loads of bad and are seen as good because they are selfless.

Funny that you took the example of giving to charity and assumed it had to have some selfish motive, like giving to cancer research to honour a relative who had cancer, which is not really selfish either.

How about giving to starving people in Africa? Does that mean you had a relative who starved to death?

Also just because it makes you feel good to do something unselfish doesn't mean you're being selfish by doing it. You could feel better by spending that grand on a night with hookers and blow than on starving Africans, and still do the latter.

You also still can't explain how risking your life to save a stranger with no-one to witness it is ultimately selfish. Feeling like a hero the (say) 90% of the time you survive yourself doesn't offset the other 10% of the time you die in the attempt.