I'm an educator and have to tell my students the same lie every day.

I don't even care if I'm not rewarded. I just don't want to be punished. They have made it impossible to have a simple life.

Teaching people to be compassionate out of a promise of reward was always a terrible idea. No society has ever really rewarded kindness.

We should be teaching young people that compassion is an act of rebellion against uncaring systems and always has been.

Interesting thing I read, the previous generation teaches us how to live based on what they went through, not what the future would bring.

Which is largely why in that time they could go far with purely hardwork and sometimes further with an education.

That however is no longer the case anymore, partially because of the same generation that sold you on the lie.

It also tells us why the previous generation doesnt understand when you tell them no you can't just walk into a store and just ask for a job and you get enough to feed your whole family.

The worse thing? Those same people selling you the lie are now politicans or policy makers or those in ceo positions. The very ones who control the narrative and the power and the laws.

Leaving the "fuck" in clear so no other social media can just copy paste the meme.

Posts like this are so weird to me. Clearly this is a common thing that a lot of people are going through, but in real life most people I know have succeeded through integrity (similar to kindness) and hard work. Not just kids from middle-class families, but immigrants, first-generation college students, etc. There must be some sort of filter creating a social bubble around me, like how I have met very few Trump voters (and don't know any of them well) despite the fact that there are actually quite many of them.

Being kind is its own reward. Life is generally better if you try to make life better for others. Not like life will be perfect, but better than it would be otherwise.

Like, when I used to work shitty part-time jobs, if I went in with a good attitude and was as kind to those around me as I could be, I had a better day than if I was grumpy and did the bare minimum. Got paid the same shitty wage either way, but my life was better when I was kinder. Sure some people take advantage of that kindness, but most will reflect it back to you.

There can be ways that hard work and kindness lead to material rewards. But in general it is worth being kind simply because you’ll enjoy life more.

(Also, I wouldn’t have married my wife if I hadn’t been kind and befriended someone a lot of other people thought was frustrating or annoying. I had met my wife previously, but only knew her in passing. Years later, we re-met at that friend’s birthday party. Started dating a few months later, and now we’re married! That mutual friend can still sometimes be frustrating or annoying, but we always try to be kind to her because that’s what brought us together.)

Why do you have to do that?

I guess telling kids, you ain't shit bc ur parents t poor suckers being exploited by owners is a bit not PC?

Hmm I wonder why that would be a thing.

Depends on what you consider a reward. Being compassionate and working to build a better world is extremely rewarding, but I'm not going to live in luxury. The rewards from compassion are worth far more

"Have to"?

I was nice for 20 years. Started trying when I was 10. I'm giving up now. Now I'm ready to be selfish.