Name one thing you don't believe in, but you wish was actually true.

Free will. I want to believe I can do as I please and am making decisions that could go either way. But I think it more likely that time is just unwinding, every action a result of some previous actions, all the way back to the big bang and it's impossible to step out of this stream.

Most people at their core are good people
- I don't remember where I read this quote originally and I can only paraphrase it, but observing people living in a capitalist society and concluding that human nature is self-centeredness and greed is equivalent to observing workers in a factory that is poisoning their lungs and concluding that human nature is to cough.
  
  That's a nice quote, thank you. I looked into it. It's by Andrew Collier:
  To look at people in capitalist society and conclude that human nature is egoism, is like looking at people in a factory where pollution is destroying their lungs and saying that it is human nature to cough.
  
  That's confusing cause and effect
- Damn, ya beat me. I'm not good people to so I know from first hand experience.
  
  Don't worry, people can change.
  Trust me, I used to be a huge piece of shit
- I think “good” and “bad” are hard terms to apply to people objectively, but I do believe that most people value social coherence and are willing to do (the minimum amount of) something to maintain it. If you can’t believe at least that it means that all of those thin blue line people are right, and I’m just not willing to believe that’s true.
- I would say most people are good. However, the human brain is pretty shit and easy to manipulate. It's easy to make people view other people as not human or other to them, or to not think about them at all. Maybe that is "not good" in some definitions though. When face-to-face, I will bet every time on someone treating someone well. I'll lose the bet occasionally, but I'll be right more than wrong.
- I was gonna go with "most people give a damn", but I think you phrased it a bit more positively.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humankind:_A_Hopeful_History
  
  Thank you, I’ll have to read it.
- I used to think the Anne Frank quote was inspiring. Now I just see it as bitterly ironic.

That rational and empirical evidence would cause people to reconsider their intuitive perspectives and lead into constructive conversation.

Karma - there are way too many shitty people who just continue to be shitty because nothing ever comes back to bite them. Meanwhile, people who actually try to help are kicked around the most.
- That's not the point of karma. And thoughts count, so what you wish for others comes back.
- Karma doesn’t always ripen in this life, but upon reincarnation.

Showing people irrefutable proof of something will change their minds.
- There are only finitely many prime numbers and I will not hear otherwise.
  
  And your irrefutable proof is...?

That our benevolent alien overlords are gonna show up aaaaaany minute now...
- Fucking seriously... I wish there were aliens that could save us from ourselves, but it's just oligarchs all the way down...
  
  Epic of Gilgamesh.
  Anyway, if they were so benevolent and so much smarter than us, why would they impose their will, and especially if interference might make our extinction more rapid?
  
  Don't worry, the aliens will come, and they'll be oligarchs in their society too.
- Yeah, I think Posadism is my answer too
- Our benefactors.

That humans can survive the climate disaster they created.
- It's ok the earth will survive.
- Gosh I hope not. I don’t dislike you, I dislike humanity. I’m sorry you got caught up in this mess, but you gotta go.
- Some will

The notion that "facts matter".
I've spent my entire life believing that facts don't care about feelings. That scientific truth doesn't require your belief in it in order to be true. That at the end of the day, reasoning will beat emotion...
By far the most dis-heartening thing about the last few years (to me) has been accepting the idea they "facts" are "whatever is shouted the loudest".
It, more than anything else, makes me feel helpless. If the enemy isn't even playing with the same fact-sheet... How do you even begin to fight that?
- I recommend reading False Witnesses and following it up with Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing." People license themselves to believe what's convenient, not what's true.

Religion, mythology and probably anything mystical. It's very easy why people believe in them, they're so alluring and genuinely wish they had truth to them. Unfortunately the only truth to be found is ancient wisdom, and even that can be very iffy sometimes.
- you may be interested in mysticism then.
  I've always held that the true purpose of religion is to create atheists, and not in the modern edge lord I reject your god way.
  
  I'll do some reading, any recommendations would be appreciated!
  Religion to me has always seemed as a way to create order in a seemingly orderless world, rationality set aside. I like philosophy for this reason, although it can be very pretentious.

Trickle-down economics.
- Thanks Reagan.

U.S. democracy

The revolutionary potential of the American people.

Reincarnation - I’d like to believe I’ve met others before, maybe even many times. It would explain some stuff like why you’re irrationally drawn or repelled by certain people.
- The thing that's always gotten me about reincarnation is the lack of memory of past lives. Even if it were true and some small part of a person lives on, is it functionally different than a permanent death if they retain nothing from their past lives?

A thing beyond our understanding on this world, I wish that thoses humans on top of the world would understand at least once that they can't control everything, and that the world stays full of wonder.
I would have said also yōkais, but i actually believe in them so it doesn't count i suppose.

The world will recognize the good deeds you do

The average person having empathy

An afterlife. Might be nice.

Hanlon's razor. It's pretty clear some people can be stupid and malicious simultaneously, or will even feign stupidity to hide malice.

That people are inherently good. This not being the case is reinforced near daily by people's behaviors.
- I found a wallet on the ground by a truck outside a store recently that had a lot of cash in it. I looked at the license and while I was heading in to see if they could call the owner I saw the guy rushing back out of the store looking panicked. I gave him his wallet back and he acted like I was the one that took it from him. If I was gonna steal from you I'd have cleaned it out and tossed it asshole. Then later when I mentioned that id found a wallet and returned my coworkers were all giving me shit for not just stealing his money. Not one person out of 8 had any opinion other than just steal it. I already don't have a great opinion of people but that really reinforced my opinion.

Ghosts. My 18 year old cat passed end of last year and she was one of my best friends. I just wish that instead of me knowing that the shades of her I see are actively produced by my mind (i notice me doing them) that she'd really spook around me, that i could just embrace the little shade and show her that i still love her. Well now I'm crying at work

Heaven. Or just the idea that some part of the consciousness outlives the body. I really hate that this is all I get, there's so much I'll never get to do just because my parents decided when I was too young to decide for myself.

Magic

That Democracy can be an effective check on Capitalism. Liberalism is my favorite fairy tale. If all the propaganda I was fed as a kid in the 90s was actually true, I'd be in paradise.

The world was ruled by the Illuminati and they were compassionate about it. Because what we are ruled by is a bunch of assholes.
- LOL. This is great! A few weeks ago the illuminati was some sort of boogeyman. Today, things are so bad @KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml is praying for boogeyman to be real. There are some genuinely great answers here but I really identify with this one, personally.

The 'common' part of 'common sense'
- Voltaire said common sense is not so common
- The falseness of it has been well theorized by Antonio Gramsci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony
  The Fascism of Common Sense
- Also the sense part. Common no-sense..

diskworld. I specially like the city watch

My cat can understand everything I say but chooses not to listen
- I mean, there's real data to support this. If you don't believe it that's like me not believing that hurricanes exist just because I haven't been through one.
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-cats-can-tell-when-youre-speaking-to-them/

That life is fair.

@ParlaMint Afterlife.
Death is boring and awful. I don't want it. Nobody really wants it. If you think you do, a) get help and b) you really don't.
- I'll admit, my disbelief in afterlife really doesn't make me fear death because while it's boring, it's only boring for everyone else. For the person dead it's nothing. Boring is a sensation, and death has none of that either. It's neither good nor bad, just nothing.

God
- I definitely don’t want to believe in God, because if there were one then that would mean a sadistic narcissistic monster is at the helm of all of this. I prefer an indifferent universe.
  
  Oh, I would want to believe in a god that isn’t based on the Bible and doesn’t demand worship
  Un Dios más humano
  A more humane god
  — Mägo de Oz - La Cantata del Diablo

Material conditions will improve in my lifetime

Justice
- And karma

Aliens visiting Earth.
I know it's a statistical impossibility that we're the only life out there. I just don't believe they've ever been here. Since we haven't been either conquered or uplifted yet.
- Personally im in the they came, they saw, they said "wtf", they left, camp.
  I mean lets be real. If i were an alien i wouldnt wanna uplift humans. Id want us to stay on our little rock and not bring our drama to their solar system.

hope

There is a gospel passage about how much will be expected of those whom have been given much. I've always heard this interpreted as how church leaders will be judged harshly in the afterlife. I wish this and hell were true, just for the sheer shock and disbelief of all the hypocritical religious leaders who've done so many terrible things and continued to preach hate.