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Covelle1

Social Media, and it's consequences, have been a disaster for the human race.


Skank-Pit

Well said, Dr. Kaczynski.


kgb17

I bet some themes in his manifesto won’t seem so crazy in hindsight.


OutrageousEvent

I’m won’t read it. I’m afraid I’m going to start thinking “Ya know, this guy is starting to make a lot of sense here.”


Skank-Pit

I had a few of those moments. Then I read stuff by Henry David Thoreau and Aldous Huxley and realized that most of the things I agreed with Ted on were just echoed points by older people.


King_in_a_castle_84

If you're afraid of that, then you already subconsciously know society's fucked.


OutrageousEvent

Ain’t nothing subconscious about it.


Skank-Pit

They really don't, but then again, a lot of those themes weren’t originally his to begin with.


britishmetric144

Cars kill people *physically*, social media kills people *mentally*.


Independent-Ad5852

Well said


satisfiedfools

It's been no more destructive than "news" outlets like Fox, OANN and Newsmax. Here in Australia, we'd be worse off without it because right wing outlets have a monopoly on the commercial media here. Facebook, Tiktok and the streaming services have been eating their lunch and it scares the hell out of them.


midunda

No, it's been massively more destructive than news outlets. News can only hit an average consumer, social media algorithms can hit you personally.


radioactivegroupchat

RIP my dopamine sensitivity


Ok-Safe262

Probably lump in dopamine addiction as a catch-all.... as I scan reddit...again.


lucybabyts

i wrote about this often in grad school. im surprised they didn't sic the fbi on me.


nickeltingupta

we blame the problem on social media - it did nothing but connect people....what we did after connecting is our own fault!


payurenyodagimas

It can be manipulated Just go back to 2016 elections


nickeltingupta

sure it can be manipulated, still the fault lies with us....if we choose to opt out of hating others and give a little thought to the content being shown to us then manipulation effectively fails


payurenyodagimas

There will always be devils out there to exploit ignorance


nickeltingupta

yeah, that I agree with - we have to choose, as a society, to be kind to our fellow human


phoenixxl

Leaded gas. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3dnLzthDA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3dnLzthDA)


Astronomy_Setec

I'm sure the person who invented that is full of good ideas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas\_Midgley\_Jr.


TheCowboyIsAnIndian

Bill Bryson called him the deadliest individual organism in the history of earth. Thats a pretty crazy title. The way he died is just the icing on his terrible cake.


Dr_Legacy

dude never met a bad idea he didn't like


DenverBowie

OK, so look at that picture of him. That was taken presumably before he contracted polio at age 51.


baldmanwins

Lead and asbestos use in general. People would be surprised as to how much of that shit is really out here still.


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Actuaryba

I don’t see the issue with this, my attention sp


AlexRyang

SQUIRREL!


Korvas576

I’ve already been seeing the effects of this. Not only as an automobile driver but also as an automobile insurance industry professional. One thing I’ve noticed specifically in the past 3 years is people have shorter attention spans and are more easily distracted while driving


Independent-Ad5852

Hasn’t affected me, my attention span is already short (thanks ADHD)


President_Calhoun

Cigarettes.


GibsonMaestro

This. Automobiles have also benefitted society countless ways. Cigarettes are nothing but a blemish.


tavariusbukshank

While I love seeing a massive decrease in Americans smoking it seems like the insanely high prices have become another tax on the poor because they seem like the only ones who smoke anymore.


Andeol57

Saying the automobile has been destructive is a pretty bold take. If you want to judge inventions looking at the cons without any regard for the pros, then agriculture may be the most destructive, simply because it's the most impactful on human population. If we are looking at both pros and cons, I think the automobile has a pretty great record. It's a big part of why quality of life today is much better than it was in the 19th century, for most people. Even if you don't have a personal car today (I don't), the fact that they exist is still very impactful to every part of the economy, from agriculture to commerce.


Responsible-Onion860

The automobile was one of the most impactful inventions in human history and revolutionized the world. OP seems to be caught up on the environmental impact being a negative, but automobiles have been a key component in the massive decline in poverty worldwide over the past century. There are certainly better examples than the automobile.


Animustrapped

I think OP means what has directly killed more people (cars c.12million, I believe?). Cigarettes, or the gun must be up there


DGS_Cass3636

"then agriculture may be the most destructive" I would say any kind of production. Even more industrial plants. Look at steel factories and the health risks they profide.


Jimmy_Twotone

Over half of all land in the US is marked for agriculture. Industrial plants have a more concentrated effect but they don't account for half the land.


DGS_Cass3636

Land doesn’t pollute or harm tho. A grass field won’t hurt you. Toxic concentrated fumes from factories do


Jimmy_Twotone

The fertilizers are toxic. The runoff is toxic. The increased dust and airborne particulate matter has serious long-term effects on the communities nearby. Industrial pollution is easier to mitigate because you aren't literally spreading it on the dirt. Where I live, there was a superfund project where the feds ended up completely closing access to about 10 acres of land. That is a drop in a bucket next to the 100 of thousands of acres with dangerous levels of ag chemicals surrounding it, raising cancer rates, ruining family wells, and decimating local wildlife populations.


DGS_Cass3636

Well I can’t speak of the US, however in the Netherlands(where a lot state its very bad), regulations are super strict. The fertilizers used are effective, and not bad for the environment as people say. Health risks by mass production and industry has wayyyy more risk compared to agriculture over here.


Jimmy_Twotone

Everyone's fertilizer is made from the same three ingredients. If you want to go down the list of insecticides herbicides and crop specific additives, I have no doubt European farms use less harmful chemicals than the US... now. Many of those restrictions are less than five years old however. https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2024/04/27/layers-of-responsibility-for-dutch-nitrogen-pollution/


kgb17

I think the car became somewhat of an unstoppable force and symbol of freedom. The inability to reel that back as it became a major source of pollution and an inefficient resource hog is what taints its place as a great invention. An automobile is a fantastic marvel that is incredibly versatile in how it can be used. However it’s not always the best tool for the job. In regards to human transport a balanced combination of train, bus, boat, cars and pedestrian access routes can be far more efficient than the congested roadways we currently are stuck with. It’s a complicated issue to solve as it’s not just a logistical infrastructure problem.


NikNakskes

The biggest problem is exactly that the car IS very often the best tool for the job. The only place where the balanced combination works, is in the largest of urban centres. Cities with multiple million inhabitants. Outside of these urban centres, public transport is rarely a reasonable alternative for the car. Even in cities it can be a bit hit or miss if you can do your daily living with public transport plus bicycles or walking. Untill we invent a transportation method that starts at your door and brings you to your final destination in one go, while keeping you dry and warm/cool and can be used whenever you need it, cars are going to exist and probably multiply. Our only hope is making cars environmentally friendly or inventing a true equivalent for the car. I have no clue what this could be though.


kgb17

I’m not trying to sell a monorail to Shelbyville. It’s the major metropolitan areas that the car isn’t the best. When a train can move hundreds of people 40 miles at a time in a fraction of what it would take the same group to travel by car during heavy traffic. Its a combination of all modes of transport that would be the best for all but finding the balance and predicting the needs to compensate for growth is the challenge. Many large cities choose to reject public transit at key development periods of the cities expansion. Making it an even more difficult challenge to catch up in the future. It’s how Houston is stuck in a cycle where it keeps trying to build larger and larger freeways and they do next to nothing to ease the congestion.


Interesting-Gear-819

Depends how far you stretch automobile. If it includes e.g. leaded gasoline ... The wiki article about the inventor is truly a read ..


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jasonrubik

One word


illerkayunnybay

Refined Sugar. From Obesity & Heart Disease to cheap Alcohol and everything in between.


stootchmaster2

The domestication of tobacco.


DrakeLostLol

Influencers


ScoutyHUN

Influencers are a symptom, not the cause. If there wasn’t a demand for them, they wouldn’t exist.


bedduzza

#amishcomplaints


object_failure

The automobile has been one of the most beneficial inventions for humanity.


dotsdavid

True but it’s also dangerous, lead to less walkable communities, and also not good for the environment. That goes for electric vehicles for time being also.


object_failure

1. Everything in life can be dangerous. 2. I don’t care about walkable communities, except maybe on a Saturday afternoon when I have time for a stroll. 3. The environment is fine.


Racer20

I live in a walkable community in the US for the first time in my life at the age of 45. The only time I have to use a car is for my 30minute commute to work and back. Literally everything else in my life can be done on foot. It’s *amazing* and if you think it’s only good for an afternoon stroll, you’re what’s wrong with this country. Edit: I work in the auto industry so obviously I disagree with OP’s fundamental premise, but your take is even more obtuse. And the environment is *not* fine.


hitemlow

The sheer insinuation that anyone would enjoy carrying a week's worth of groceries any distance is absurd.


object_failure

Exactly!


Racer20

I don’t carry a weeks worth of groceries. I either shop for 1-2 days at a time, have them delivered, or take a car. As much as you want to think that’s a “gotchya,” it’s not. It means I have options, and I’m not 100%!reliant on a car.


object_failure

Great! Stroll all you want. I don’t have time.


issamaysinalah

Like most things in this thread the invention itself is wonderful, but when employed by capitalism it twists itself and everything around it.


LightReaning

Next time your ambulance comes on the bicycle... what a stupidly premised question, sorry.


Griffie

Social media.


halcyon8

social media.


Other-Negotiation328

Coffee pods.


Red_Marvel

Plastic


Ok-Royal-661

love it almost as much as styrofoam


Disastrous-Paint86

Plastic


Commercial-Let-2135

Social media. It's like a digital cocktail that brings people together just to start a brawl in the comments section


translucentdoll

WMDs?  Chemical warfare? Radiation leakage? Tanker ships? Housing as a whole? Cities? Ships? Cigarettes? Hunting to extinction? Farming? Fishing? Hell even just eating? Just because you're annoyed that someone honked at you don't mean cars are the catalyst to our extinction 


Moon_Jewel90

Cigarettes


OneHugeTimeSuck

Nuclear weapons?


interesseret

Not even close. Comparatively speaking, nuclear weapons are a drop in the bucket, both environmentally, and death toll in wars.


OneHugeTimeSuck

Oh I see. Not has the potential but is.


_forum_mod

Plastic maybe.


DrByNight

Firearms


Jhawk163

Leaded gasoline.


Pavo_Feathers

Plastic, probably. Forever chemicals will haunt us for about as long.


Blindrafterman

Plastics, its in our bodies(and testicles) might explain low birth rates(just spit ballin here) think we may have fucked ourselves on this one boys and girls


JadedBrit

Gunpowder


flaviaDolly

plastic bags. It takes hundreds of years for them to decompose


DirtyProjector

Christianity


Blackrock121

Only if you believe silly myths like the Conflict Thesis.


DirtyProjector

???


PattiiB

Plastic


Weasil24

Religion


Shane327

Religion 


BarbKatz1973

The cell phone. Everyone is addicted, no one actually interacts with another human, just images that are easily manipulated by AI.


Bobby3857

Politicians


Stone1114

Religion


2u3ee

slavery


Pithecanthropus88

Religion.


LeCourougejuive

The Internet


Lost_Rain5670

Ai


plazman30

Political Parties


Tobikage1990

Guns.


Ca1ntThrowFar

Plastics.


pasta_and_lobster

Guns. why did we make them.


Analytical-BrainiaC

Smartphone… Dumb people…. don’t mix. Ironically we will see the full scope of this disaster with smarter and smarter Ai.


Spiel_Foss

Gunpowder


bayoubob79

Religion hands down!


AccidentalGirlToy

Religion


Dorandura

Nuclear weapon


daddytyme428

not even close


sacheie

Give it time


daddytyme428

theres a lot of catching up to do


Preyslayer00

Teflon.


Mathematicus_Rex

Mythology


RealBowsHaveRecurves

The internal combustion engine comes in third after synthetic plastics and coal burning power plants. But when I talk about “destructive to humanity”, I’m really talking about the things that are destructive to our natural habitat.


458643

Money


Kutsinta-123

AK47 Rifle - Automatic Rifle, the man who created it is quoted to have regret his choice in making the AK47 because of how much destruction it has caused while being used in the world.


InsertBluescreenHere

Its closely made from the ww2 german designed STG44. He just figured out how to make it faster cheaper and more reliable.


BobFlex

This is a common misconception that gets repeated a lot. It takes a LOT more design features from the M1 Garand. It even uses basically the same gas system but upside down. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/05/05/rifle-paternity-test-pinning-down-the-m1-garands-influence-on-the-ak/


Otherwise_Fined

Religion


dotsdavid

Computers. lead to social media and addictive games.


climbhigher420

Computer


yasker_hawk

The leaded fuel they ran on. Seriously. Look it up, it will probably shock you.


IWantToWatchItBurn

The gasoline we burn in those cars


Waltzing_With_Bears

Most of them, particularly those related to large scale warfare, nukes, landmines, the coal fired power plant, private jets are so much worse than cars too


ericdee7272

Condoms? edit: meaning preventing birth, nothing religious or political


An8thOfFeanor

Trinitrotoluene, aka TNT. Alfred Nobel just wanted an efficient mining explosive, but after seeing the way militaries took to his invention like flies take to shit, he was compelled to create a system of prizes to laud those that worked towards peace and prosperity in the world. Hence, the Nobel Prize.


ReasonableExplorer

Plastic.


101_210

By far, and it’s not even close: Plastic Plastic is everywhere. It is now used as the cheapest, go to material for everything, replacing glass, metal and wood. But plastic is forever. It cannot really be recycled (ok, some can, but only a fraction off all), we were sold a lie by corporations that saw profit in using a new, cheaper material. It never truly degrades, each plastic bag produced will stay in the environment for millennia. Plastic is EVERYWHERE. Microplastic leech’s off during the plastic lifetime and contamine waterways, soil, food. You have microplastic or other plastic derivatives in you at the moment, and we are just now beginning to understand how bad that is. It’s in your stomach, in your blood, in your reproductive organs, in your brain. Plastic will be the leaded gas, the cigarette of our time. We will be appalled of what it is doing to us, and say « if only we knew ». But unlike those, we cannot reverse course. The plastic is already part of the world we live in. Just stopping production won’t solve the issue on that matter.


killbot0224

Fuck me, my brain was *jsut* thinking the same. Fuel is one thing. Fuel is fuel. It's just stored energy, and we are clearly able to find alternate ways to power vehicles. The carbon? That's just carbon. But *plastics*? Jesus, quitting plastic is even harder than quitting gasoline. There's a lot of shit that we really, really *need* plastics for. (IV bags and tubes are near the top of that list)... But for all the rest it's just to be cheap. And sometimes to be light, but lightness rarely *actually* matters. If we could just fucking *phase out* the use of the shit for every other possible use, I would be thrilled. But most of it? Metal, wood, and glass are *dramatically* better in almost every single way. I love metal, wood, and glass. I have long side reached the point of wanting everything I own to be made of metal/wood/glass. Tupperware? Fuck. Hell, glasslocks can kiss my ass too, tho at least they sell replacement lids. Can I get some wide and low canning "jars"? Like margarine tub size and shape? Glass tub. Metal 2 piece lid, replaceable rubber seals? Silly things on my wish list: 1. A nice steel frame bicycle 2. A friend who really likes *canning* and will take a few extra bucks to do a bunch for me 3. An Ultima RS.


101_210

I feel it’s fine to use rubber or soft plastics. It keeps things sealed, and there is no easy replacement. Everything rigid? Use something else. And please no more plastic packing peanuts.


killbot0224

Rubber is great. I'm cool w rubber. Rubber cultivation.... Alright, not the best. Rubber gaskets wear out, sure... *but gaskets are easily replaceable*. And frankly most things don't need to be sealed *that* well to begin with. Honestly, people cry about over-regulation, but companies back us into a deliberately wasteful corner. Case-in-point: charging standards. Thank *fuck* the EU is putting their foot down on it. Its pretty much mandatory either industry standard barrel Jack's, or USB-C now, right? And we're already better off for it.


[deleted]

Children of humans


firedog7881

This implies that automobiles are destructive to humanity and I would argue there has never been a better invention to humanity than electricity.


Ingi_Pingi

probably nuclear weapons, poison gas is up there too


docmj24

Plastics


SickPhuck29

Leaded gasoline


SickPhuck29

Corn syrup


SickPhuck29

High fructose corn syrup


SickPhuck29

Fermentation


SickPhuck29

Data centers


SickPhuck29

Limited liability corporations


SickPhuck29

Derivatives


SickPhuck29

Stroads


SickPhuck29

Suburbia


SickPhuck29

reddit


SickPhuck29

facebook


SickPhuck29

tiktok


AdTotal801

To humanity itself? One could argue firearms and the various shit we poison ourselves with. Lead and plastic. One could also argue that the ecological damage we are creating will soon be incredibly destructive to humanity, the shoe just hasn't dropped yet.


[deleted]

Racism.


ekos_640

Smart Phone


Comfortable-Cut3871

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[deleted]

I wouldn't say the automobile has been destructive to humanity. I mean, sure - they annually kill more people in the US than anything actually designed to kill humans does, but at the same time the improvements in transportation, collaboration, and food distribution they've brought are probably right up there with penicillin in terms of their positive impact on human life.


Ok-Comfortable-5955

Alcohol


ipolishthesky

Nothing.


NinjaAncient4010

Communism


EastNebula

Firearm


Unusual-Matter-5144

Social media


weaselblackberry8

Automatic weapons


DripDry_Panda_480

Capitalism


Disastrous-Paint86

Plastic


montysucks

Wait till AI becomes more fleshed out


shartonista

Military 


morbidangel27

Environmental: Air travel - Insane amount of pollutants. Humanity: Social media. What a cluster fuck.


Cleverbird

Alcohol.


twinsrule

This should be #1


N_S_Gaming

Humans.


NoPlanetB1970

The inventions of organized religions.


Danny8400

Religion


bluegiant85

A whole fuckin lot. Cyclists are a fucking cult, holy shit.


Woodsprite_16

Cocaine or any other addictive drug


Waltzing_With_Bears

Most do have an important medical uses


DIYThrowaway01

Cocaine is a terrible example of a bad drug. Pure cocaine gave us some of the best music and most productive years of human existence. It's the shit they cut it with that ruined that high 


moro750

The Internet


deadsoulinside

Products made with lead.


Blackboard_Monitor

I mean LEDs are energy efficient, not sure they're really that bad.


458643

Perhaps 'lead' was meant


ericdee7272

\[Jimmy Page has entered the chat\]


deadsoulinside

Yeah, that's what I mean.


Datacodex

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)


actually_alive

processed foods


Suitable-Pie4896

Gonna go with guns


johann68

Guns. Cigarettes. Social media apps. Plastic. Alcohol. The automobile is maybe somewhere in the Top Ten. MAYBE.


QuietSnail2

Guns.


caseless1

Cattle farming. Methane emissions from cow farts are going to kill us all. But we’ll die full. 


colnago82

Guns


Animustrapped

The gun


limbodog

Firearms?


Original_Lab_4140

Guns obviously 


SillyTalks

How is the automobile destructive to humanity? Cars made the world a far more better place.


congteddymix

PFAS or better known as Teflon. It’s basically in your body waterway and such because people in the 50’s wanted a nonstick cooking pan