When you look back at history, there’s a long list of things that humanity has done that make you wonder how it was ever allowed in the first place. Whether it’s something as sinister and widespread as slavery or something well meaning like bloodletting as a medical procedure, time, science, or plain old common sense has proven these things to be unequivocally wrong.
So when redditor u/throwawaya4526 asked, “What is something Humanity will look back and be appalled at in 100 years?” I was eager to read about all the things — large or small — that people think we’re doing wrong right now. Here are some of the responses:
1.
“The current prison systems. I think possibly humans will look back and see how messed up of a system we had.”
2.
“The excessive production of single-use plastics, they’re literally forming a layer just like the layers of rocks from different geological eras.”
3.
“Our wastefulness — whether the world is a utopia, a dystopia, or a wasteland, we will look back at how wasteful we were.”
4.
“Artificial flavorings and food dyes. Red 40 and Yellow 5 have so many objective studies supporting evidence these additives create many health issues.”
5.
“The five-day workweek.”
6.
“Pain meds. We scoff at bloodletting and other past ‘medicine’ while our solution to pain leads to addiction and ruined lives. And our systems fail hard when it comes to pain meds. You start on a little. Your body needs more for relief. Eventually you end up on an ungodly amount just to live without pain. Suddenly you change doctors for some reason, and they’ll refuse to sign off on your high level of meds, and you either suffer or turn to the streets.”
7.
“Social media. It’s the 21st-century version of smoking. All the way down to everybody saying it helps them relax, but really it just amps everybody up and makes you need to relax more, so you use social media more. Then they got you.”
8.
“Realistically? Chemotherapy. It is appalling now, so imagine telling someone 100 years down the track after its been phased out, in detail on what exactly it was and how it worked — horrifying.”
9.
“Mental illness in how it’s looked upon, treated, and generally handled by all levels of society.”
10.
“The way we treat the animals we farm for food.”
11.
“Is no one gonna say fossil fuels? Because that’s my bet/hope.”
12.
“Hopefully the insane costs for healthcare.”
13.
“The way we’ve allowed anti-intellectualism to erode the very concepts that built our society and thus caused the decline of Western society.”
14.
“Paying exorbitant amounts of money for higher education.”
15.
“Billionaires. People who hoarded wealth and resources while their fellow humans starved and died.”
16.
“Driving. One day people will look at the sheer number of fatalities and wonder why we were ever permitted to drive ourselves.”
17.
“I know we’re all probably sick of hearing about Qatar. But in 100 years time, they will be looking back on today wondering why we played the biggest sporting tournament in a country that had 6.5K migrant deaths just to build the stadiums.”
18.
“We waste clean drinkable water by using [it] for toilets.”
19.
“The glorification of work culture and the need to work your life away just so a billionaire can add an extra zero to their checking account. How we view child labor as barbaric and crude, future people will look at minimum wage work and the lack of basic amenities (food, water, housing) as a right as barbaric. At least I hope.”
20.
“How no serious effort was done to fight the climate crisis despite the already critical situation.”
21.
“Overturning Roe v. Wade.”
22.
“The resurgence of fascism. Not only because it came back so fast after Nazis, but mostly because it is being brought back by some of the same countries who defeated it in the first place.”
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwander/things-that-will-age-poorly-reddit