kind vs nice

piggybacking off my last post, i felt like some people objected to my choice of kind. however, i think they were getting it confused with nice. i felt like there's a marked difference between kind and nice. but i couldn't quite put my finger on what the difference was, so i looked it up, and there is actually a whole thing on it. seriously, google kind vs nice and you'll see what i mean.

most people agree that kindness has to do with empathy and benevolence and that niceness has to do with being friendly, agreeable, and likeable.

yeah, i'm not nice. hahaha, i mean, i'm not unfriendly, disagreeable, and unlikeable, but i don't think those are quite the words that come to mind when thinking of me. i am, however, kind. you may not immediately agree since kindness is also associated with tenderness and gentleness, which i'm not particularly. but i'm also the person who yells this at random asshole drivers: "you fucker! i hope your car explodes! ...but only if no one is in it, or around it, and you can afford it!" see, i'm compassionate all the way!

it seems like some people are really against nice. a huffpost article says that "At the root of extreme niceness, however, are feelings of inadequacy and the need to get approval and validation from others. Overly-nice people try to please so that they can feel good about themselves." ...that's not a very nice thing to say. others go even further: "Kindness is rooted in GOOD, niceness is rooted in EVIL." the same post goes on to say that "Nice behavior is inherently dishonest." um... okay... but if you actually read the post, you can definitely see the point, and maybe even agree with the writer, at least a little bit. nice people do seem to be nice because they want people to like them, or to ease the situation. kind people are kind because they feel badly about stuff. and it's not just like, i'm much richer than you so here's a dollar, since truly kind people will give to others even when they've not much themselves.

i mean, obviously, you should be both kind and nice. there's certainly no rule saying you can't be both! but in choosing between the two, i'd much rather be kind.