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vlad321 said:


Your base assumption for your entire argument (the bolded, if it's not correct me) is faulty, therefore the rest jsut crumbles away. I can't find a single reason why I will HAVE to feel bad about treating you badly if you treat me nicely. Not a single one. I frankly find that opinion highly ignorant. It's like you've never been through school and seen bullies or what not.

Now, I'm sure you read the rest of my post, but it doesn't sound like you did. I went on to say that this only applies when Hank cares about Sally and stuff, you know? You certainly have no reason to feel bad for being mean to me because I'm some random kid on the internet. On the other hand, if you were talking to someone you care about, you will feel bad about treating me harshly when I'm still being nice. Unless you're an entirely antisocial element, that is. That is not the case for the majority of people in the world. Not yet, at least.

I'd actually try to make an argument for when you don't particularly care for the person in certain cases as well.  You don't always need a reason to feel bad about being mean. Sometimes, it just feels wrong. That's because of something called morals, which are still what the majority of the world bases its daily operation upon. Of course I've faced bullies and such. But to assume that the only way to stop them is taking an eye for an eye or to, even more ridiculously, think that that's how everyone is, is an extremely pessimistic and flat out incorrect view on society in general.

I may come off as highly ignorant, but I'm basing this all off my personal experiences as a helplessly socially awkward child. Maybe people get worse as you grow older. I wouldn't know. In any case, since I already have plenty of exceptions, it's already clear to me that this is hardly a rule that applies everywhere.

By the way, I'm not trying to argue that everyone ought to be entirely submissive or that there won't be times when you have to retaliate. I'm just saying that to generalize these exceptional situations to be the norm and to treat generally avoidable conflict as inevitable and morally acceptable is offensive to most of human society and an almost sickening idea in general.



 

“These are my principles; if you don’t like them, I have others.” – Groucho Marx