Not a real news report.
Kindness is diminishing and may disappear if steps aren’t taken to preserve it, scientists said today.
The scientists, who led a sprawling 10-year study, said kindness could vanish by 2030 without swift action to refill the global kindness reserve.
Of particular concern, they said, are parts of North America with little measurable kindness. Examples are Florida, Texas and Washington, D.C.
The legislative chambers of more than 30 U.S. states registered zero kindness and are now what the scientists call “kindness deserts.”
The study was started in 2015 and was based on the largest-ever sample size – the more than 335 million residents of the United States. It was published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Dreadful Human Behavior.
Scientists defined kindness as treating other people with respect and dignity. It is not, they said, the elimination of all disagreement, difficulty, heartache and hurt.
In response, the White House issued this statement: “Hate wins!”
The CEO of Facebook and Instagram dismissed the study as “made by sissies.”
“Stuff kindness,” he said. “People like engagement. And they engage most when mad and mean.”
This is a crisis of a different sort of climate.