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I think one thing that helps is to realize that you're "people" for someone else who doesn't like people.
There's something redeeming about every person (or almost every person - not so sure about people like Hitler or Manson, but even they had mothers who probably saw something good in them). It helps to look for that thing, or even make it up if you have to just to keep from going postal or turning into a misanthrope. One thing that's helped me a lot is actually my brother's death (sorry to keep harping on it). I was in such a funk afterward I didn't want to be nice to anyone. I just wanted to be left alone. I saw how people could interpret that as being bitchy or rude or whatever, and I started cutting other bitchy, rude people some slack. "Who knows," I'd think, "maybe their brother just died." The other stuff you talk about - greed, consumerism, consumption, etc., that's the aggregated effects of individual actions. The best you can do there is recognize where your own actions are contributing to the problem and alter your behavior, and serve as an example for others. Seeing your own faults gives you compassion for others' faults, and helps you not judge them. Get involved in grass-roots action that changes public consciousness.
Can't remember where I heard this, probably a book by the Dalai Lama or Thich Nut Han or whatever his name is, but it also helps to look for the "buddha nature" in people, that spark of divine being that is at the core of every person, but that we have forgotten we have and is covered up by our very human-ness.
Compassion is a much healthier response - for you - than anger, anyhow.
Good luck wrestling with this particular demon. I carry it on my back, too.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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