Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Dfiesl 528 days ago
I'm guessing from your reply that you don't think its important to emphasise kindness as part of supporting your childrens' growth. If that is the case, what do you emphasise if anything?
1 comments

You're guessing wrong.

Kindness has a merit on it's own and ultimately it's a good idea for a person to decide what they want to be and take responsibility for their choices.

Being kind "because there are too many unkind people out there" sounds wrong. I have no idea how they measured the "too many unkind people out there" but lets assume for a moment this balance shifts - then what? They should be unkind because there are too many kind people out there? Is this is a simple act of balancing the two sides?

I think the sentiment is that it feels like theres a lot of unkindness in the world and that makes it a worse place and you can either be part of that or you can make the world a better place by striving to be kind. Thats my interpretation anyway.
It sounds bad because the root comment is priming a negative perspective of the world.

They could have said:

"Most people are kind. Be kind and most people will be kind back." Or something with positive intent. Instead they seem to be priming a superiority trip.

Agreed.

Or they could said:

"Be kind because it's the right thing to do."

This. This is good enough reason to be kind. So let’s do that :-)
>Being kind "because there are too many unkind people out there" sounds wrong. I have no idea how they measured the "too many unkind people out there"

This sounds wrong because you feel we need more assholes out there, or you feel we have the proper amount?