I try to be kind, upbeat, etc in my interactions with other people, especially at work. I want to treat others well, work together peacefully, and leave the project happy. I’ve noticed that some people (particularly more curmudgeonly folks) seem to read that attitude as naïveté, and feel like they can walk all over me or treat me like I don’t know what I’m talking about. Why is that?
Because the world is a horrible place full of horrible people that need to convince themselves that they’re not horrible people.
Or that everyone else is just as horrible as they are, so they’d feel justified in being a sloppy fart of a person.
More and more I think it’s this one. A lot of people have just convinced themselves that nobody’s perfect so it’s okay for them to be a massive piece of shit, too. There’s a lot of people who are not trying to grow or improve