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Comment by cryptica | Hacker News Reader

I think people should not try to be kind. They should just be themselves.

Criticism is good and useful and should be delivered in the most direct way possible. People should just toughen up. It's unbelievable to think that 80 years ago, people were killing each other with guns and bombs but today's people get offended if someone doesn't press the 'like' button on their Facebook photos. We are too weak; that's the real problem.

Being weak is bad. Political correctness poses a threat to our freedom of speech.

I can't stand this dystopian corporate rhetoric that 'being nice' and 'feeling safe' are important. They are not. Both of these things make us weaker.

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I don't think the point of the post is to encourage people to be kind. It is more to encourage people to be subtle.

I think that in many situations language is a tool to make other people do what we want them to do. And turns out that closing others in a corner with data and hard logic- while an excellent method in science- is not the most effective approach in a lot of other contexts.

This doesn't necessarily mean compromising with our values either: one can be faithful to truth and still formulate his thoughts in a slightly more open, kind and accommodating way.

I think you misunderstand the word kind. You can be kind and constructively critical at the same time, and being kind enhances the result of the criticism.

I wouldn't bring shooting people into this at all.

Mean people make us stronger. I'm grateful to all the jerks I met in my life who built my character.

That does not mean one should strive to be mean.

True kindness comes from a position of strength and fortitude.

Otherwise it's just cowardice masquerading as kindness - and that's what I think you're saying we should avoid.

The opposite of kindness is not toughness. If your life seems purposeless you could always go and become a soldier of fortune in one of the hot wars already underway.

I agree with you. I try to be nice, but acting out my will , and God's will, with authenticity is a higher priority. I am increasingly aware, as I become more "myself", that people are offended and intimidated by my mere participation in the world. I respect moral boundaries, not social ones. Some people appreciate it more than others.

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