When did you realize how selfish people are and did it shock you?

[Anonymous]

I realized that because they will ask for you to accommodate them but they will not do the same when you ask for something unless it’s easy for them. Many will flat out ignore you when you ask such as via text. But if they need a favor it’s like they put on a sad face and want to get your sympathy. Like please.

also recently my coworker who I thought was nice basically took something first that was up for grabs and she said ‘I want this one. You can get the ugly one’. I know it’s not that serious but in a way it also is. It was a minor thing but it still reveals a lot to me about a person that they are selfish and don’t even have shame about it.

now that I’m aware, I am starting to say no a lot more and even if I don’t have a ‘reason’ to justify it in my head other than it’s inconvenient and I need to put MY HEALTH and life first cause clearly these selfish people will never do that for me.

[abc3643]

Probably around 20ish.

At the end of the 1970s, things were not good. One of the big problems - a problem that STILL exists today 50 years later - is "The Energy Crisis" which began in October 1973 with the Arab Oil Embargo after the failed Yom Kippur War. This drove up the price of gasoline considerably, caused long lines at the gas pump, and even gasoline rationing all because the US was using more oil than it could produce, so we had to import oil.

So, you know how everybody is not getting into solar and electric cars and wind turbines - you know, "green", renewable energy?

Well, that REALLY started back in the late 1960s but got a major kick in the ass during the Ford Administration in 1974. The rest of the 1970s was about making smaller cars, conserving energy to cut down on the consumption of fossil fuels like oil, and making things more efficient. Oh, and we had a national speed limit of 55 (until 1987).

After all, if you think about it, when there are no more oil or fossil fuels, what are you doing do?
Anybody who isn't brain-dead understands that, sooner or later, that stuff is going to be gone and that you're fucked unless you prepare for an alternative.

Makes sense, right? To prepare for the eventuality of no more fossil fuels...

To help lead the nation going forward on this, President Carter did a lot including creating the Department of Energy and funding lots of alternative energy research projects. And, to help with the symbolism for the future, President Carter had solar panels for hot water installed on the roof of The White House.

OK, it's 1981, and Republican Ronald Reagan becomes President.

What does he do?
1. He tries to get rid of the Department of Energy.
2. He drastically cuts all funding on alternative energy (wind, solar, etc) research.
and, to me, the most insulting and that's when I "got it"...
3. He had the solar panels removed from The White House.

You see, what I wrote earlier is a fundamental truth about the nature of reality: One day, there will be no more fossil fuels, so we need to prepare for that.

Everybody knows this.

Even the Republicans.

BUT, the Republicans are (were) "the party of big business".
And the biggest donors to the GOP?
The oil companies. 40 years, all the world's largest companies were oil companies.

Now, if we keep up all this alternative energy and conservation nonsense, people won't be using so much oil and eventually use almost no oil. To the oil companies, this was a problem. So, instead of getting involved in alternative energy themselves, these companies wanted things to remain steady. After all, the people running those companies were going to be long dead by the time the oil ran out. Instead of working to solve the problem, they just passed the buck so you get to inherit the problem. And, that's just what happened. Those men - and they were men, make no mistake - we interested in the selfish rewards they'd receive as long as things were as they always had been. "Fuck the future, I'll be dead by then." was their motto.

=========
And that's what happened. I realized that the objectively rational decisions necessary for our species and planet were rejected because that would adversely affect those with power and money. Ultimately, they are making you and your descendants pay the price for their greed.

And this is why I had no children.
I wanted to spare them from that.

[Anonymous]

People like this are weird af. They are entitled and all around weird to me.

[Nikki1989]

I figured that one out over 20 years ago. Nothing surprises me now.

[In_Trance]

Nothing shocks me anymore