Hobbes and Rousseau on human nature

An article regarding the contrasting views of Hobbes and Rousseau on whether human beings are innately wicked.

Science shows Thomas Hobbes was right – which is why the Right-wing rule the Earth

In the Right-wing corner we have Thomas Hobbes, founding father of political philosophy, who argued that man is born wicked and must be civilised"

And on the Left we have Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the original romantic, whose gist was that humans start out innocent and get corrupted by society.

The author says that science shows Hobbes was right.  From my own personal experience and thoughts, it seems to me Rousseau was certainly wrong. Society doesn't make us nasty -- peoples' nastiness is innate. But it teaches the innately nasty people to put on an act so they are accepted by others. 

However, I do not believe Hobbes is entirely correct either. In my opinion, not everyone is born nasty. Others are not quite so nasty, and a minority actually nice. However, the nasty people -- the callous, the unfeeling, those indifferent to others -- set the agenda. They bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator. The innately nasty individuals will take advantage of others if given the chance and if it doesn't reflect badly on them. As a consequence, many people tend and should distrust others -- at least until we get to know them and can judge whether they are trustworthy or not


More generally I find the idea that we are born "blank slates" and all differences can be explained by “nurture” and “class” to be preposterous.  However, this emphatically does not justify the gross inequality we find in modern western societies, especially in the USA (I live in the UK).