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Comment by donatj | Hacker News Reader

Trust in society is always 100% misplaced. If history has taught anything it’s that society is a horrible murderous monster when it’s eye turns. Trust yourself and those you love. Beyond that you will only ever be hurt.

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Those you love are the same people that you’re telling other people to never trust. There’s also an intrinsic trust that we all place in people we have never met. Otherwise, you’d never be able to consume any food without wondering if either your neighbor or the random person at the bottling plant had poisoned it.

Life is rarely black and white, although it sure makes it simple to say it is. “Never say never, always avoid always”, etc.

I find this view very unsettling. Everything I have and love, and everything almost everyone has, is thanks to society. I suppose that includes the bad as well as the good, but really society has brought so much joy that the only way I can imagine someone saying it can only bring hurt is if they don't see how society has helped them. I guess if you are a hermit society doesn't do much for you, and in that case good for you.

I have to assume that what you mean by society is no the same I mean by society. Society gives such basic things as language (not any particular language, but the existence of any language).

Most of us are in perpetual debt to society, deriving from it much more value than we can ever hope to give back.

I think you misunderstand. You can get positive things from something and still not trust it. A chainsaw is very helpful, I will use a chainsaw, but I will never trust a chainsaw. I am exceedingly careful in my interactions with a chainsaw. That thing could turn on me at any moment.

This is society.

You trust that a chainsaw can cut down things. You trust that it can probably be repaired if it breaks down. You trust a chainsaw to hurt you badly if misapplied or if you are exposed to the situation of a malfunction.

It’s a gradient.

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