Rutger Bregman's "Humankind" is actually presenting a lot of (convincing) evidence towards the hypothesis that the vast vast majority of people are in fact kind, and have been throughout most of our recent history. This is thus also evidence for the statement "Twitter is a cesspool of the worst of the worst of us", although we may ask: Is it really? Or does "the algorithm" bring out the worst and to the surface? Does Twitter repel kind people?
These are interesting, even very important questions imho.
It's an interesting question on a different level than individual
choice/behaviour.
In real life, most people shun being associated with a socially
ostracised outlaw group, deviants or extremists. Even for actual
criminals, deviants or extremists, we don't like to be labelled and
lumped in with the others - except where a group is oppressed by
obvious social-injustice, which engenders a sense of pride in
belonging.
Twitter, is, as far as I can see, widely recognised as "cesspool of
the worst of the worst of us". And I have never perceived Twitter as
some sort of oppressed minority unable to find a voice in society. Yet
people choose to remain on the platform, and some have even built
their entire identity and life around it.
I think this is because the old media sought to legitimise it. They've
worked very hard for a long time to bury the tawdry and unacceptable
side of it.
Solzhenitsyn demonstrated that the Soviet Union was built on the lies of the ordinary people. It wasn't just some rotten apples at the top of the ruling class. It was rotten to the core. The vast majority of people were lying. To others and to themselves.
I think it's really scary to ignore this, and pat ourselves on our back, and say that we're pretty kind after all. Of course I agree that in a peaceful civilization, a lot of people are pretty kind on the surface. But there's stuff lurking underneath the surface. And once we start preaching that this isn't really there, a lot of bad stuff can happen.
There's war going on right now. And it's not just Putin that is evil. There are thousands of people actively participating in this war. Shooting others. The could decide to do something else, yet they don't.
I think that one of the theses in Tolstoy's War and Peace is that these big wars aren't just the products of some bad apples at the top. He presents Napoleon as something like a puppet, driven by deeper forces that we barely understand.
We should have more respect for these deeper chaotic forces, that we barely understand.
These are interesting, even very important questions imho.