Thanks for this. I'll go watch the interview now. I agree with your analysis of asshole behavior. I think some personalities are just shitty. That's just the way of it. But yeah, there is something wrong when being nice is seen as something to suspect. Niceness can be used to manipulate, and it surely is employed that way on here. But the basic psychology of being nice to others is so that they'll cooperate with you. So it kinda follows logically to end up being the wisest way to behave for your own interest and the interest of all. Being nice works. Who knew? I do think the culture of other platforms tends to be toxic and that's why I no longer bother with them. At least for now, there seems to be some cohesive sense of unity here and a sense of it being a real community versus the culture of other sites. I hope that continues and grows into a healthy form of self-governance that works to weed out the assholes. Or at least starve them of any benefit from their behavior.
One thing I've thought on, myself, is how everything is so open here. It's all visible. There are no privacy settings. In real life you can whisper something in your friend's ear and then shake another's hand and say something entirely different and they not be privy to the private chat. That's not the case here, and I think that might make for some interesting relations between people, especially those who relate on some things and don't on others. In one way, I think it's neat because maybe we see we have more in common than we thought with those we otherwise wouldn't ever speak to on the street or think to be friends with in real life situations. I find this particularly valuable being in America and seeing the current divide we now have due to politics. Maybe this can work as a counter to that to expose people with opposing viewpoints to the day to day similarities in each other's lives and therefore help them find ways to relate. Slowly we might mend that tear in our nation's fabric. Idk, just a hope, and a tangent, but it seemed relevant to what you've mentioned.