No “better than thou” statements here, I’m just as shitty as any other human.

I’d argue even if humanity and all animals aren’t just biological machines, it still takes incredible effort to force oneself to act altruistically, making altruism rare, and furthermore acts of altruism can be exploited by those who do not resist the urge to act in self interest. Take for example the crisis affecting organ donations and contributions of bodies to science, in which often these groups will instead sell the bodies for large sums of money for weapons and crash testing instead, taking advantage of the selflessness of others to line their own pockets.

As such, I never give hope that things will ever truly get better. Things will improve in some areas and worsen in others, never reaching a golden age as always, always, unless miraculously every selfish thought of everyone with great influence faded away, some selfish person or group will always exploit and drag down society as a whole if it benefits them.