I don't think it's that nobody cares. It's just outrage fatigue. There's so many things, as you listed, that it's just exhausting to be outraged about everything all the time.

Most of us are just trying to get by: pay rent, put food on the table, etc.

So it's not that I don't care about those, it's just that I don't have time or energy to (or at least not all of the things all the time).

Genocide in Gaza, meh.

What? People are willing to let Trump win (which would be its own entirely separate set of human rights violations) over the genocide in Gaza.
You must not be paying enough attention because your first point can be easily disproven by visiting any major news source and viewing the stories about the mass protests on college campuses all over the county right now.

It's mental exhaustion. I wouldn't take seeming uncaring about it, I know personally it's just so much bad happening that if I forced myself to pay attention to it all I'd collapse in a pile of anxiety. I don't like anything you posted, but I wouldn't be able to carry on myself if I didn't look the other way on some of it.

Genocide in Gaza, meh

I agree with all the other examples you listed ... but this one? "Meh"? Lemmy and really the general media won't shut up about it.

If anything the question should be "Why don't people care about human rights ... unless it's in Gaza?"

It's because we now live in a "post normal" world. Having 5 minutes to just sit and think without being blasted with news about 15 new tragedies is now considered a luxury for the rich. When you're bombarded 24 hours a day with terrible news of a never ending stream of ever more horrible atrocities they all just kind of blur together and turn into background noise.

So to answer your question, people DO still care about human rights, but actually doing anything about it has become a seemingly impossible task due to the sheer volume of awful things going on in the world right now.

It is simple, you can't care about everything. Pick your battles. The burden of the world is not fit for one person to carry. Besides, once you feel outraged, what happens ? Nothing. Then you get desensitized. It's a survival mechanism to stay sane in a world where we have less and less power to handle more and more problems.

If you develop an economy where everyone is struggling just the right amount in order to make a living, they're too busy surviving to care/take action against atrocities. But don't make them struggle too much, or else they'll rise up against you. You need a careful balance.

Pictures, or lack thereof. In 2022, we were shown daily with the horrors perpetuated by the Russians. I suppose the corporate media were happy to do it because it was Russia doing it, and that means easy arms sales and no (sane) protests.

Now though, because of Israel's genocide in Palestine, there isnt the bombardment of pictures and videos from Ukraine. It draws parallels to what Israel is doing in Gaza, and Netanyahu/Likud's military is a multi-billion dollar "venture" by the US arms industry. One where Israel gets billions from the US gov and spends it on buying US weapons and ammo.

Edit: to be clear, showing the same videos now draws "unwelcome" comparisons to what Netanyahu and Likud are doing in Palestine. They don't want a return to the anti-war movement that came out of media from.the Vietnam war.

It’s not an “anymore” situation. Most people didn’t care enough to help European Jews in the lead up to and during the Holocaust. People by and large have always been about “but how does this effect me?” as far as I can tell.

I think people have a lot of good responses especially about outrage fatigue. Also as many pointed out, people do care, hence the protests especially about Gaza. But even if everybody agrees that the atrocities are terrible people disagree on the solution. Historically the United States has been very involved in foreign affairs and trying to be some sort of glorified superman that went around beating up corrupt governments and improving lives in oppressed countries but it went terribly. It turned out that the US occupying these nations and fighting them just upset the locals even more and led to extremists and even more bloody fighting. Now days I think a lot of people want to help but prefer the government stay out of it. I think what is happening in Ukraine and Gaza is terrible but I don't want the US involved. Us sending soldiers and weapons doesn't help. Instead, I give to charity, and do the little bit I can to help struggling people.

Norms are eroded when they are violated and there are no consequences.
'Why should I pay attention to carpool lane signs if there is not penalty for violating them? I won't.' Lots of people think this way and now they are just another lane.
Violations of norms are also contagious. If one traffic law doesn't matter, maybe we can get away with violating it more. 'I did it before and didn't get caught. Maybe I can keep doing it to save time'

I can't remember the last time I spoke to anyone who wasn't concerned with some kind of securing of human rights somewhere in the world. If anything, I've always seen some kind of disagreement over "what form" (because apparently "human" and "right" are not straightforward terms for some people, which is rather disheartening as someone who wants a reason to see humanity as intrinsically good). There are tragic world events I'm sure are themselves undeservedly lower on everyone's "care about this" list because thoughts manifest according to atmosphere and not clockwork.

A lot of people are shocked and outraged about each. Look at the protests and encampments around universities. Similar to people having a finite amount they can donate, they have a finite amount of energy and focus to pay attention to and change.

One group making up bullshit reasons to kill another isn't going to stop with Ukraine, Gaza, Xinjiang, etc. Even if there were major interventions and a global cooperative effort to ease those specific tensions.

My fight is focused on improving transit for everyone, keeping this planet from warming up too much, and keeping rich people from siphoning up every bit of liberty we have left.

Conservatives, emboldened by Obama's presidency, have never cared.

Progressives have always cared.

I suppose you're just looking the other way and refusing to see the good guys? Possibly because you're one of the bad guys? Or maybe you live in a state that blasts Faux News everywhere.

World leaders have only ever cared about human rights when it was convenient for them, but people have been protesting Israel for months now. Average people care, it's just that their misinformed and disempowered.

True, but students are vulnerable to being expelled from university for being involved in public protests. Public universities in my country do so in order to discourage students from protesting the government.

I’ve lost faith in the social power of public protests myself. I’ve basically stopped believing in democracy. Most protests these days are driven by politicians seeking to topple the government or other politicians.