One simple inescapable human fact, we need someone to be against. It unites groups of people to a single cause. It's the most common theme "us against them."

Then again it's not always that reason that does it. Sometimes someone is just being stupid, sometimes it gets out before we think, sometimes we have no clue we're coming off abusive or that we're doing anything wrong. Some people believe in tough love and are willing to be the jackass in hopes of getting someone to a better position. Yes sometimes people are mistreated in a misguided effort to make their lives better.

Yes, there's always something. Not all of it intended to be bad. But there's always something.

It's never us against them however, it's always us against us. There is no them. Them simply does not exist.

If “they” are “us”, then why do "they" look different, have a different culture, speak a different language, have a different sexual orientation, believe in different things from what we believe in, have different ideas, have a religion (or no religion) different from the one we have, or even are age different from us, then how can they be us?

The first Rule of Survival in the jungle is that “If it is different from you, then it is dangerous -- either run away from it or kill it.” At the top of the Predator-Prey listing, we all choose the latter.

The simple answer is that without all of those things life would be boring for a hyper-intelligent species such as Human Being.

And that is why ‘everyone mistreats someone or some group’? Because without doing that, life would be boring?

It's possible. I blame youthful ignorance instead, however. There's thousands of hobbies a person could choose, instead of being a bully. Bullying was supposed to stop after high school. High school was the place to be dumb children, and all bullies are dumb children.

Dumb children raised by equally dumb, selfish, uncaring, bullying parents who unfortunately are their children‘s role-models in life.

Indeed. And when their parents die, nobody is there to smack them for making the wrong choices, but since they were raised from babies being smacked as their only means of discipline, their brains are incapable of knowing right from wrong without some kind of punishment.

I think this is why the housing collapse happened. Hundreds of 20-30 somethings who no longer have a parental figure slapping them for being bad, so they thought the things they were doing were okay. And the money was a positive reinforcement of that idea.

Parents who don't beat their children and instead use intellectual methods of creating a strong right vs wrong foundation build good children.

No matter how much physical “disciplining” parents deliver to their children, aside from teaching the children the idea that ‘with enough force or violence you can always get your own way‘, children learn from the day-to-day examples shown them by their parents living their lives.

Parents teaching their children by example that lying, cheating and stealing are all okay, that the only wrong thing in life is getting caught by others at lying, cheating and stealing, and that all your mistakes are the fault of other people, just turn out another generation of angry losers.

My mom raised me the opposite way, and I'm an angry winner.

Is anyone not angry? The human species is an embarassing disgrace today.