34 Actions So Cruel They Could Make Even The Calmest Person Angry

The r/HumansBeingJerks subreddit was created all the way back in May 2013. So members of the group have been sharing some of the worst examples of human behavior for more than a decade now.

At the time of writing, nearly 24.9k internet users were part of the community. It’s not just other people that end up being treated poorly—it’s animals, too. And scrolling through this list, you’ll realize that everyone deserves to be treated better. With respect, dignity, and kindness.

Whether you like it or not, the reality is that people are capable of being incredibly virtuous, as well as deeply cruel. There are very few saints in the world, just as there are few people who are completely evil. Most human beings are nuanced and embody a mix of virtues and deplorable behaviors. In short, nobody’s perfect. What truly matters are the choices we make in life and the decisions to be kind and caring when we could easily be malicious. However, a small minority of people take pleasure from others' pain or feel no empathy at all.

As BBC Future explains it, people tend to do things to avoid pain and get pleasure. That’s why there are three main reasons why people might be cruel to others. They might not feel other people’s pain. They might actually gain pleasure from harming the harmless. Or they might see a potential threat to their safety, finances, or social status, even if there is none.

People who get pleasure from hurting or humiliating others are known as sadists. These are individuals who may feel others’ pain more than might be normal. Though they might enjoy inflicting pain on others, some sadists may actually feel bad after everything’s over. It all depends.

However, sadists are portrayed in a very exaggerated light in movies and books. What’s far more common is everyday s****m. People who embrace it tend to like films with lots of gore in them, play violent video games, and watch brutal sports fights. They might also have a keen interest in torture as a topic. 

According to a 2018 study done by researchers at the University of British Columbia, around 6% of undergrad students admitted to getting pleasure from hurting others. Everyday sadists are your schoolyard bullies, internet trolls, and video game players who aim to ruin everything for others. 

Sadists shouldn’t be confused with psychopaths, however. The latter may hurt others because they feel less pity or remorse, and their actions help them achieve their goals. Psychopaths can also understand what other people might be feeling, on an intellectual level, without feeling the same things themselves.

It’s far from easy to tell whether someone might be a psychopath because some of them know how to appear trustworthy and, well, ‘normal.’ They know how to dress well, how to compose their body language, what to say, and what expressions to make. For all intents and purposes, they seem like ordinary folks.

According to BBC Future, only 0.5% of people around the world can be said to be psychopaths. However, not every psychopath is a danger to the people around them. So-called prosocial psychopaths might focus entirely on the thrill of pursuing new ideas. However, these ideas themselves can shape the world in unexpected ways, for better or worse.

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