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You’re Not Supposed to Treat People Nice

Jason Henry
4 min readFeb 21, 2019

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Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

One of the first lessons we learn from our parents, religion, media, teachers and friends is the importance of treating people well. The golden rule is to treat others the way you would like to be treated and there are many fables and parables that illustrate the importance of treating others well.

We can see the villains in these stories very clearly; they’re the self-serving sycophant, ready to sacrifice anyone for their own selfish desires. They don’t care about other people and they lack empathy. Overall, they stink.

Naturally, we gravitate to being the good guy, the righteous person. We want to ensure that we’re supporting our fellow human beings. We’d be (literally) damned if we ever became the villains in these tales as old as time.

But while you might avoid becoming a selfish prick, it is very possible that you may still suffer and these moral lessons can be taken too far.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and this is no different.

Some of us develop a narrative that we’re supposed to treat people nice, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Furthermore, there is a consequence to this type of thinking. If you have the notion that you’re supposed to treat people nicely, you open yourself up to narcissistic abuse. By treating everyone nicely, you…

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Jason Henry
Jason Henry

Written by Jason Henry

Counselling Psychologist | Current Writer | Constant Learner | “By your stumbling the world is perfected.”

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