alt Hacker News> Human society overwhelmingly rewards lying cheating and stealing.
I’d like to push back on that. Civilization is very much a function of large numbers of people being able to coordinate across time and space, and widespread and systematic lying, cheating, and stealing would undermine that.
I think your cynicism is misplaced.
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I think their point was, if you look at who controls the most resources, they are rarely the ones we would consider worthy of honor.
Civilization functions because the vast majority of its inhabitants do not lie, cheat, and steal. But that allows liars, cheats, and thieves who are able to get away with their destructive behaviors to accumulate outsize power and influence.
And we seem to have gotten quite bad at reliably bringing consequences/punishment/justice to the most successful liars, cheats, and thieves.
It's not cynicism it's history
Widespread and systematic lying, cheating and stealing is how every democratic nation in the world describes their own government.
Thats why man invented Gods and religion. Keep the masses believing in the importance of cooperation and being good while you rob them blind.