Yes there are good people

[The Black Forrest]

It's easy to get jaded over the news these days. It's easy to get even more jaded by social media and form views about people and places.

For once a story without a downside.

A college kid starts a job with a moving company. His first job and his car breaks. What to do? He decides to walk.....20 miles. He sets out at midnight. Cops see a black kid and check him out. They buy him something to eat and something for lunch and take him to a Church near the job site saying it would be safer for him. He rests and decides to set out again. Later another cop shows up and takes him to the job and reports he is the first. The people who were moving were impressed and posted on social media. Word got to the ceo of the company and he gave the kid a car he was no longer using.

Did I mention this was in Alabama? Yes; I have jaded views.....

Not the source I heard it from but it mentions some of the details

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 792519002/

[Thermodolia]

Nice.

[Pope Joan]

Mike Rowe's new show has some moments like that

[The South Falls]

What this guy did is beautiful. It shows dedication to everything. His job. His coworkers. His boss. It's amazing that people like this still exist.

[S i t k a]

Awesome. Things like this make me feel a little better.

[-Ocelot-]

Can we make this a positive news thread? Here's what I read about today:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... ed-success

[S i t k a]

Can we make this a positive news thread?

I like that idea.

[The South Falls]

Can we make this a positive news thread? Here's what I read about today:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... ed-success

Hey, that's pretty good. People could see their parents more.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

This is good news. I always love good news.

The thing is, most of humanity is good. But the entire media and news, new or old, left or right, is focused on reporting bad news.

Beacuse bad news gets more views and clicks then good news.

What would get more attention? A US army solder adopting an orphaned girl who lost her parents from a suicide bombing in Afghanistan? Or the Suicide bombing itself?

Unfortunately, it's the latter not the former.

However, stop watching the news and focus on your own life, everything gets better.

Because most people are good and life is fine.

[USS Monitor]

It's easy to get jaded over the news these days. It's easy to get even more jaded by social media and form views about people and places.

For once a story without a downside.

A college kid starts a job with a moving company. His first job and his car breaks. What to do? He decides to walk.....20 miles. He sets out at midnight. Cops see a black kid and check him out. They buy him something to eat and something for lunch and take him to a Church near the job site saying it would be safer for him. He rests and decides to set out again. Later another cop shows up and takes him to the job and reports he is the first. The people who were moving were impressed and posted on social media. Word got to the ceo of the company and he gave the kid a car he was no longer using.

Did I mention this was in Alabama? Yes; I have jaded views.....

Not the source I heard it from but it mentions some of the details

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 792519002/

I saw that story. 20 miles is a long way and I don't think too many people would try to walk it. Especially when the job is with a moving company, which already tends to be physically demanding work. Hope the guy enjoys his new car.

[S i t k a]

This is good news. I always love good news.

The thing is, most of humanity is good. But the entire media and news, new or old, left or right, is focused on reporting bad news.

Beacuse bad news gets more views and clicks then good news.

What would get more attention? A US army solder adopting an orphaned girl who lost her parents from a suicide bombing in Afghanistan? Or the Suicide bombing itself?

Unfortunately, it's the latter not the former.

However, stop watching the news and focus on your own life, everything gets better.

Because most people are good and life is fine.

This.

People in general or good. The news just likes pitting everyone against each other.

[Geneviev]

The world is a beautiful place. People are wonderful. This is a nice reminder of that.

[The South Falls]

This is good news. I always love good news.

The thing is, most of humanity is good. But the entire media and news, new or old, left or right, is focused on reporting bad news.

Beacuse bad news gets more views and clicks then good news.

What would get more attention? A US army solder adopting an orphaned girl who lost her parents from a suicide bombing in Afghanistan? Or the Suicide bombing itself?

Unfortunately, it's the latter not the former.

However, stop watching the news and focus on your own life, everything gets better.

Because most people are good and life is fine.

That's true. The news is depressing, because it gets more watches. But, around us, people are good. Kinda like NSG.

[Krasny-Volny]

It's easy to get jaded over the news these days. It's easy to get even more jaded by social media and form views about people and places.

To quote Luke Bryan, "I believe if you just go by the nightly news, your faith in mankind will be the first thing you lose!"

If your exposure to certain people and places is limited to FB memes or the media which thrives off sensationalized coverage, then you will begin to lose your faith in humanity.

If, on the other hand, you go out and experience these places and speak to these people for yourself - immerse yourself in a culture and area very unlike your own - then your opinions will change.

Did I mention this was in Alabama? Yes; I have jaded views.....

As someone who lives in the rural Deep South, I don't know what to make of the oddly nuanced views people in other regions seem to have of this place. A lot of folks who are not from here assume the worst about Alabama, Mississippi, etc. I see it reflected every day in the constant mockery of these states by media pundits and commentators who have never lived here, alternating with baseless fearmongering which corresponds to a trope in popular culture rather than reality.

Truth is, most people here - including most of the cops and others in positions of power - are good, decent people. Always willing to lend a helping hand. The most considerable people of any culture and background I've ever had the pleasure of living and working with, and one of the strongest sense of communities ever.

I was deeply saddened when I went to college and made some friends who'd spent their entire lives living in the bubble of a big city. I invited them to come back to my home state with me and offered to show them around my county. The reaction of my best friend? "I don't want to get lynched."

Because his only exposure to states like Alabama was what was portrayed in pop culture and TV, what was constantly being spewed by ignorant reporters north of the Mason-Dixon, he believed that I came from a place where the Klan was still going around meting out mob killings. I've encountered similar opinions on social media.

"Why would you want to live in a horrible place populated by the Christian equivalent of Saudi Arabia where you'll probably be intimidated, threatened, and possibly be killed for being an atheist/socialist/LGBT/black?"

"I don't! It's nothing like that. Comparing my home town to Saudi Arabia is a gross disservice to the awesome people that live here."

"I'm sorry, but your personal anecdotal evidence does not correspond to THE FACTS, backed up by reams of opinion polls and other statistically proven data freely available online which says you live in a shithole."

They cling to this horribly distorted version of reality, backed up by the self-confirming evidence of negative news coverage. It's reflected in genuine fear and aversion, like my friend, and the jaded cynicism which you mention in the OP.

[The Huskar Social Union]

I heard about this, it brought a smile to my face. Hope he enjoys his car, he is definitely the kind of person you want to work for you.

[Ethel mermania]

Cops fighting racism

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/ ... 615605002/

[Risottia]

What this guy did is beautiful. It shows dedication to everything. His job. His coworkers. His boss. It's amazing that people like this still exist.

The police agents also were a nice change from the usual "cop sees black kid in the dark and kills him" stuff we see in way too many reports.

[Petrolheadia]

This is good news. I always love good news.

The thing is, most of humanity is good. But the entire media and news, new or old, left or right, is focused on reporting bad news.

Beacuse bad news gets more views and clicks then good news.

What would get more attention? A US army solder adopting an orphaned girl who lost her parents from a suicide bombing in Afghanistan? Or the Suicide bombing itself?

Unfortunately, it's the latter not the former.

However, stop watching the news and focus on your own life, everything gets better.

Because most people are good and life is fine.

If most people are good, then it makes sense that we want to watch bad people of the kind we don't see every day.

[The South Falls]

What this guy did is beautiful. It shows dedication to everything. His job. His coworkers. His boss. It's amazing that people like this still exist.

The police agents also were a nice change from the usual "cop sees black kid in the dark and kills him" stuff we see in way too many reports.

Yea, it's a good change. I'm not saying we should stop bad news, but just stop disseminating it so widely and voraciously.

[USS Monitor]

Did I mention this was in Alabama? Yes; I have jaded views.....

As someone who lives in the rural Deep South, I don't know what to make of the oddly nuanced views people in other regions seem to have of this place. A lot of folks who are not from here assume the worst about Alabama, Mississippi, etc. I see it reflected every day in the constant mockery of these states by media pundits and commentators who have never lived here, alternating with baseless fearmongering which corresponds to a trope in popular culture rather than reality.

Truth is, most people here - including most of the cops and others in positions of power - are good, decent people. Always willing to lend a helping hand. The most considerable people of any culture and background I've ever had the pleasure of living and working with, and one of the strongest sense of communities ever.

I was deeply saddened when I went to college and made some friends who'd spent their entire lives living in the bubble of a big city. I invited them to come back to my home state with me and offered to show them around my county. The reaction of my best friend? "I don't want to get lynched."

Because his only exposure to states like Alabama was what was portrayed in pop culture and TV, what was constantly being spewed by ignorant reporters north of the Mason-Dixon, he believed that I came from a place where the Klan was still going around meting out mob killings. I've encountered similar opinions on social media.

"Why would you want to live in a horrible place populated by the Christian equivalent of Saudi Arabia where you'll probably be intimidated, threatened, and possibly be killed for being an atheist/socialist/LGBT/black?"

"I don't! It's nothing like that. Comparing my home town to Saudi Arabia is a gross disservice to the awesome people that live here."

"I'm sorry, but your personal anecdotal evidence does not correspond to THE FACTS, backed up by reams of opinion polls and other statistically proven data freely available online which says you live in a shithole."

They cling to this horribly distorted version of reality, backed up by the self-confirming evidence of negative news coverage. It's reflected in genuine fear and aversion, like my friend, and the jaded cynicism which you mention in the OP.

To be fair, that works both ways. When my parents lived in Kentucky and my dad was planning a trip to New York, one of the neighbors got very scared and asked if he had written a will.

So how about we don't accuse Northerners or city people of living in a "bubble" or being more ignorant. Paranoia, xenophobia, and stupid reasons for not wanting to visit places are not unique to the North or cities. In the US, I've met people that say they could never visit China because it's "not free." (Some of these people have been Southerners.) In China, I met a guy from Ghana that said he could never visit the US because of all the gun violence. Stuff like that does not come from living is a city. It does not come from living north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It is just something people do. And the places that people are unwilling to visit can be anywhere. Alabama is not a uniquely popular target. You just notice it more because you have a personal stake in it. Kind of like I get particularly annoyed by anti-Chinese fearmongering because I used to live in China. In your own post, you go along with the narrative that Saudi Arabia is a craphole. Is that based on personal experience or stuff you've read?

EDIT: I just got out of a long-term relationship with a black guy from rural Alabama, and while he did have some positive things to say about it, he also had some pretty serious complaints about the amount of racial hatred there. He said white kids threw rocks at him when he was a kid. That stuff isn't some random fantasy that Northerners just made up. And as much as I maintain that China isn't a hellhole, the bad experiences that some political activists have had with the Chinese government aren't a random fantasy either. They are someone's experience, and it is fair to talk about, even if it isn't the only thing going on.

[The Batavia]

Wow, this is wholesome. This honestly makes me smile a bit

[The Transhuman Union]

Humanity is naturally good, it's just that media portrays it a bad way. Which is kinda sad.

[Ethel mermania]

Humanity is naturally good, it's just that media portrays it a bad way. Which is kinda sad.

Well the media covers news, when murders are common enough that they are not announced in the papers, that would be a bad thing.

[The Burke Islands]

Wish the media would talk about stuff like this more, I don’t know about most people but I’m sick of seeing the negativity and divisiveness they promote.

[The Transhuman Union]

Humanity is naturally good, it's just that media portrays it a bad way. Which is kinda sad.

Well the media covers news, when murders are common enough that they are not announced in the papers, that would be a bad thing.

But they aren't common really. They can get easily overshadowed by things like TBF said in quantity.