Do you think people who posture themselves as good people are more often good than people who don't do that?

[noname223]

There were some people I met who explicitly did not want to be good people. And some of them were rotten.

In the German language there is a culture war around gender inclusive language and the generic masculine.

I am more in a neutral position. I cannot understand why some people care so much about that. I think language is important. And for example using the right pronoun for someone should be mandatory. I see why this is important to someone. But I think there are ways to fight social injustice that are better than changing language. Resources should be spend on other measures. And I think this topic is highly divisive and might lead to reactionary positions.

I am not sure whether it really makes someone a good person using such language. There are probably a lot of fakers who disguise their evil by pretending to care for vulnerable people. In the German far left party Die Linke. There were scandals in the past. Metoo scandals, severe bullying and even a pedophile. Of course this happens in all parties. But if this happens in a party that stands for equality and justice it hits harder.

 

[Dejected 55]

It is far easier for a cruel person to pretend to be nice than it is for a nice person to pretend to be cruel.

 

[WornOutLife]

In my experience, most of them are not as good as they seem. For instance, those who tend to show off their "good actions" by taking selfies with homeless people and donations, those who show how inclusive they are with a language as you pointed out (gonna talk a bit more about this in my next paragraph*), those who consider themselves "saints" due to going to a church every Sunday but are "devils" at home and so on...

So yeah, lots of pretenders but also a few good people out there if you're lucky enough to find them!



*I'm kinda neutral too as regards inclusive language but because of being a correct-grammar-aholic, I don't like when they change stuff. In the case of English, it's quite amazing because it's more subtle. For instance, using "fire fighter" instead of "fireman" makes a lot of sense, or "they are" to refer to one person is similar to the use of "you", so not bad at all, but in Spanish, oh boy...

In Argentina, we have feminine/masculine adjectives and nouns, which end with a letter A/O but some years ago, they decided to add an E or X. For instance, "you are angry" would usually be "vos estás enojado/a" but with inclusive language it would be something like "vos estas enojade or enojadx". I just don't like it lol.

 

[Dejected 55]

I always tell people that I really don't care what people call me as long as they are nice. I would rather a friend curse at me than an enemy use nice words.

 

[Pluto]

 

[Forever Sleep]

I think people who present themselves as either extremely good or extremely bad- often don't live up to the desciption. I'm always curious when people present themselves as bad or 'evil'. Like- maybe they've done some bad things but, can they really be that bad? I also think that self awareness must take the edge off a bit.

Whereas- I've had experience with (suspected) narcissists who present as perfect citizens. Yet, they can absolutely decimate other people's lives. I'm actually fairly suspicious of those who present themselves as superior.

In my experience, the very best/ kindest/ most altruistic people I've known were unassuming. They didn't make a big thing out of helping others. They just behaved like that day to day.

I also tend to suspect that the most unkind out there have found a way of seeming normal. A serious criminal may not want to risk a double bluff and actually present as a 'bad' person. Aren't they more likely to be trusted if they can pull off seeming average or harmless or- nice even?