part of the value of abundant compassion and charity is that it grants slack to people who have less emotional capacity for compassion and charity

sometimes people are in a bad mood or whatever and can’t or won’t be as kind as they could be or should be

if you react to them being unkind by also being unkind, you get a positive feedback loop of unkindness

in extreme cases, you get runaway hatred

i think sometimes feel like they have to respond ‘proportionately’ to other people hurting them

but because of self-serving bias often everyone thinks the other person is being disproportionate and people just get more and more mad at each other

this is not a good outcome

hence why i say being kind to other people gives them slack, it allows them to be *somewhat* unkind without that unkindness growing exponentially (or logistically, more realistically)

so, shill commands you! if you can be kind, try to be kind

and if you can’t be kind, or you can’t be kind enough it’s often better to walk away

there are some cases where real aggression is a good idea, but i think people are usually too often aggressive

maybe this thread is obvious, but i often see people being less kind than they could be, and i am less kind than i would like to be

so consider it a reminder