When I was younger, I talked with survivors of Nazi concentration camps and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and I read a fair bit of historical accounts of horrible events. I was and remain horrified by how humans treat each other, and of the basic fact of mortality. And horror has driven me to study and learn, seeking exceptions and mitigations. In the end, reality is what it is, but our actions (IMO, expressing kindness and sympathy, even to those who are hurting me in reaction to their pain and damage) can somewhat make it less horrible to experience parts of it, and reduce (but not eliminate) the actual terrible events.
Some amount has been written here about https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EFQ3F6kmt4WHXRqik/ugh-fields . That’s usually in the context of smaller-than-horrific truths, but still pretty relevant. I’d argue that https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/x4dG4GhpZH2hgz59x/joy-in-the-merely-real is relevant as well here—your reaction to a truth is distinct from the truth itself, and the complexity and variety of reality, whether terrible or wonderful is fascinating and amazing.
When I was younger, I talked with survivors of Nazi concentration camps and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and I read a fair bit of historical accounts of horrible events. I was and remain horrified by how humans treat each other, and of the basic fact of mortality. And horror has driven me to study and learn, seeking exceptions and mitigations. In the end, reality is what it is, but our actions (IMO, expressing kindness and sympathy, even to those who are hurting me in reaction to their pain and damage) can somewhat make it less horrible to experience parts of it, and reduce (but not eliminate) the actual terrible events.