What happens is that we have "nice people by default" that can't be assholes even if they want, and assholes that could not be nice even if they want.
For example, I have managed people controlling machines that could squash a person against the wall if you are not careful, or rip your hand or strangulate you(industrial lathes or mills or motors with your own scarf).
I was the manager with less accidents or deaths(none of course) in the company, by far, because every single time I saw someone was doing stupid things that could harm them or someone else I could become an asshole if they don't listen to me the first time I told them.
With an industrial press you need to press two buttons at the same time at the side for the press to go down. If you leave people alone, they will put wood sticks on them so they could be faster and earn more.
People don't want naturally to wear masks or put safety goggles because they believe they are in control, and they are 99.5% percent of the time, but this 0.5% could change your life for bad forever.
When you do what you should most people will consider you an asshole, because they don't see what you can see.
I had several people thank me years after managing them!! and telling me something like: "Thank you for doing X. At the time I though your response was excessive, but now that I have seen what happened to coworker Y(lost a limb, the eye or whatever) I could see how important it was what you tell us to do."
Being nice has its limits, death or important stuff like environmental waste or corruption are some of them.
I have seen nice people not denounce corruption when they saw it because of fear of facing the corrupt. Yes men that always smile.