Yes, but I am an asshole at the same time
post
Define "good".
I'm not Fred Rogers good. I know that much.
He still likes you just the way you are.
Yeah, but Billy Joel loves you just the way you are
Fred Rogers is the bar I try and constantly fall short on.
Only you can define that which is why it is a tough question and why religion is bullshit.
Not OP, but I'd say part of the question's spirit is to define "good" yourself and answer based on that.
I try to be.
Yes, exactly what I was going to say.
It’s a continuous process, not an innate quality.
Some would say that is what makes someone a good person in the first and place, that they try to be one. Even if how often or seldom they fail to do so is a gradient. Extreme exceptions are exceptions. Personally I doubt it was an effortless burden even for Fred Rogers.
To answer OP and repeat it again: I try to be.
Negative, I am a meat popsicle.
Well...
You never call, you never write! ... You're the nastiest dirtbag I know in this stinking city! ... If you don't wanna talk to your mother, just avoid me like usual, huh?
I will leave that judgment to whomever eats me.
No. I have many regrets. I try to do good but at the end of the day, I am a coward.
I don't like the person I used to be. I'd like to think i'm a descent person now.
I think that's a relative matter...
I mean do I think I'ma good person? Not really.
Do I look around and go "What the fuck is wrong with these sociopaths?" Yes, very much so.
I can't make that kind of judgement to myself. Some people would say that I'm, others would say not.
I don't like to say "good person" and "bad person" because I feel like it implies that there is some objective scale of goodness that people can be compared to, and I think that is simply not the case. So I would rather think of this question as "Do you have a positive opinion of yourself?"
No, no I don't. My opinion of myself is extremely negative.
I think there are many--possibly even most--"bad people" who have positive opinions of themselves. Dark triad and all that.
And then of course plenty of "good people" with self-esteem issues who will always have a bad opinion of themselves.
There should be at least a degree of objectivity when it comes to determining goodness. The bar might be low, but there is a difference between somebody who generally thinks of others (considerately) and who generally does not.
The reason I try to avoid using the phrases "good person" and "bad person" is that it implies that there are people who simply don't do bad things. "Bad people do bad things, and I'm a good person, so I really don't need to critically examine my own actions and how they affect others."
Yes. I used to say "no" but that was some fucked up internalized religious self-hate shit. I am good. Not perfect, but definitely good within my moral framework and the framework of any people I care about. I have one particular area I'm wrestling with to be "better" and I find it's far more useful to focus on improving that than on self-flagellating over how "bad" I am.
Like must people I have kneejerk opinions and reactions, though I analyze them before I let them loose. I ask myself "what would a good person do?" and then I do that.
Like the sum total of me, including the past? I'm a good person now, but I used to be a pretty shitty person by most metrics. Like, deplorable.
No. And I'm highly suspicious of anyone claiming to be.
I am curious how you would define good person? As someone who feels like they are a good person I wonder what flaws I have that you see but I don't.
A good person is someone who has (almost) no vices. There are obviously varying degrees, and not all vices are equal. But my bar for clearing "good person" is pretty damned high, and I personally don't make it by a long shot.
If that is your definition then I definitely do not pass as a good person. I have many vices. I drink, I smoke weed, I play on the computer too much. I make a lot of money and I spend probably more on myself than I should and I should share more. I used to not eat meat but I have been again for a few years now and it's a constant feeling of guilt there, too.
But I would never lie or steal or cheat and that's kind of where I would set the bar.
The idea of “vices” there is really interesting to me. What about weed and video games is “bad,” other than that they’re pleasurable?
I have the kind of mental illness where I spent 20 years feeling genuinely bad for stealing a stamp in first grade, but I can’t really see me getting stoned as a “bad” thing.
I am a burnt out loser who can’t go a day without weed
You're thinking about it wrong. You're using the language of the oppressor.
You're a medicinal marijuana patient. You suffer from an illness you didn't earn or ask for. Cannabis is the medicine that manages your symptoms. If you don't take your medicine, your symptoms get worse.
I relate pretty heavily - weed is the only thing I’ve found after years of therapy etc that turns my brain off and lets me enjoy things. It’s just so goddamned nice to have the option to enjoy food and music and just being.
I do edibles mostly - it helps with the cost and stink factors. It helped in ruining my marriage but it was doomed anyway.
I think our moral intuitions are out of alignment with a logical consideration of good and bad. So I'm not a bad person according to my moral intuitions (not the same thing as being a good person) but also pretty much everyone (including me) is a bad person according to logical consideration.
(My logic is that only humans appear to be moral agents, but non-human animals deserve moral consideration and there are a lot more non-human animals than there are humans. Thus even seemingly simple questions like "Is it good to save someone's life?" depend on whether it is better to prevent that person from eating meat by letting him die or to have him contribute to environmental degradation by remaining alive, and thereby prevent wild animals that would have suffered from being born. The effect on the person is not the major deciding factor.)
Most of the time. I work at being good, kind to strangers, kind to service people,kind to myself.
I think I do more good than harm and am satisfied enough with that. Not like there's a punch card system where I can do 9 good things and get a free pass to do something bad but I know I'll accidentally screw things up sometimes or make intentional decisions where the least bad option available still isn't great.
My moral compass operates on the principle: "If everyone else did what I do, would it make the world a better or worse place?" If the answer is worse, I generally don't do it - with a few exceptions. I think this way of thinking also gives some perspective on the true impact of even small things. Throwing a candy wrapper on the ground might not seem like a big deal but if everyone does it we'll drown in trash. Or conversely, if everyone picked a single piece of trash from the ground and put it in the garbage even once a week, the world would be litter-free in no time. Me doing the little thing is doing what can realistically be expected from one person.
Also my job entails locally reversing entropy so you could say I'm taking concrete steps to make the world a bit better every day. And my customers are thankful for it.
I think I put more good into the world than bad. Whether I put in more good than I've consumed, I wonder about that a lot. I've been very fortunate in life.
Yes. I'm not perfect but I try to do positive things and minimize the harm/impact of my life on the world around me.
I would say that I'm a good enough person.
I do the things that good people do because it feels like the right thing to do, up until the point where I feel like I'm risking overextending myself and then I stop doing that.
I feel bad when I do not do a good thing.
At the same time I know I have done bad things. I have accepted my fault in those situations and apologized to the people that I have hurt in the past and I am still trying to become a better person. So I am good enough to pass for a good person, but I am not an objectively purely good person.
But then again, no one is.
On one hand I strive to live a fundamentally “good” life. I have a work ethic, I love and take good care of my cat, I do my level best to be a good dad for my kid, and I try to be a good neighbor. I take care of my physical and mental health. I keep a tidy house and my car in good working order.
On the other hand, well, let’s just say I have done things. Vile things. Criminal things. I have ruined lives and I have destroyed other peoples relationships. I have partaken in acts of debauchery that would make Caligula blush. And here’s the kicker: Not only do I not regret those deeds, but in some cases I revel in them. And I might not be done.
I think my impact on the world is a nut positive. I make it a point to help other people when I can, I've given a bunch of strangers a jumpstart in the parking lot, helped them change a tire, gave a stranded bicyclist a lift home when his pedal broke, clear my schedule to help my friends move, put my shopping cart back the right way and even sometimes straighten out the ones that were carelessly pushed in the general direction of the cart corral by some degenerate, and generally try not to be a bother to others.
As for whether that makes me a good person, I think that's kind of up for debate. At my core, my motivations tend to be pretty selfish. I do those good deeds because I want others to do the same kinds of things for me. If I need help moving, I can count on a small army of friends and acquaintances showing up to help me because I've always made time for them. I want to live in a world where other people treat me the right way, and if I'm not even willing to do that, why should I count on others to do that? Not that it's all a 1:1 transactional thing, I don't expect every good deed I do to directly come back around to benefit me, but I do kind of hope that I'm sort of kicking off a chain of "paying it forward" that maybe inspires even more people to do the same and eventually I get to be the recipient of some random acts of kindness.
So a lot of the time it's not really some sort of selfless altruism that drives me to do the right thing, which is a big part of what people imagine when they think of a "good" person.
Eh, I try. I think I succeed more often than not, but most bad people think they're good, right? I try to calibrate against the broader society as a whole, but it often seems like society isn't really aligned with goodness anyway. So here I am, trying to suss out the good parts of society and align with that, and trying to suss out the bad parts and follow my own moral compass there. But again, bad people probably generally think they're good, so it's a bit of a conundrum innit?
Minimize harm to others, and try to help as much as you can. Except sometimes harming bad people somewhat is good, and sometimes help is counterproductive.
I'm confident that I am a person. I try to emulate what good is like. Life is hard.
A long time ago, I was trying to figure out why I had so much trouble making friends. I talked to the few connections I had and did some online searches. Paraphrasing, I found an analysis similar to the following:
Friendship is like two people holding containers of water. In this metaphor, one person is holding a drinking glass, one is holding a bucket. If the person with the drinking glass offers ever bit of water they have, the person with the bucket feels it's inadequate. If the person with the bucket offers all of their water, the other person feels overwhelmed.
When I read that, I was quite a bit younger and found it fairly profound. I shared it publicly in several places. Every person who saw it - including those I considered to be the metaphorical drinking glass people - declared themselves the bucket person. I did the same of myself so, whether I was right or wrong, I can't blame any of those people.
In conclusion, I try to be a good person and I think I largely succeed, but experience has taught me that I shouldn't trust people's judgment of themselves. I'd like to think I'm an exception, but I'm no more exempt from this than anyone else I've observed, just - predictably - less able to see it in myself.
I'm a person capable of being good or bad. I try very hard to be good, I've failed once or twice.
One could argue that goodness without the capacity for badness isn't a virtue. For some it's just a survival tactic. It's the only tool on their belt. A truly good person has the capacity to do harm when the situation requires it but they can keep that side of them at bay when it's not needed. They're kind but can't be walked over. When shit hits the fan, the person who can only do good is of no use to anyone.
No. I'm barely even a functional organism for about 90% of the day.
(But hey, I'm not a politician or a vacuous online personality, so I've got that going for me)
Not even by my own standards, which is not much. Do I try? Sometimes.
I try to be good whenever I can remember or if the opportunity is presented to me without much cost. Being good has a cost in terms of effort and discipline, and yes, I fail at that. For example: I may look the other way whenever someone's suffering, but when I can, I try to do what I can.
And this is why I hate it when people say I am a good person. I know I am not, that I can do so much more. I don't even think I'm worth the resources I consume.
How would you define a good person? How would you describe your actions? What makes you a bad person? Apathy does not equal malice. If you saw someone bleeding out in the street would you call emergency services and/or attempt to render aid?
A good person to me, well, the simplest definition I can come up with is someone who does good according to their own ethics and moral law. And yes, provided the bystander effect doesn't claim me, I'd call emergency services if I see someone bleeding out on the street, or at least ask if someone has already called them.
Everyone does bad things from time to time but that doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. Are you claiming to only or mostly do bad deeds? I'm trying to understand. A guilty conscience can trap you.
It's more of a failure to live up to ideas of what is good, IMO. Like, doing what I know is bad, continuing to do it despite knowing it's bad.
For a more concrete example, I know that I have poor sleeping habits, and yet I still persist in letting my sleep schedule wander around. Or when I have poor dietary habits despite knowing that it's bad for me. I also note that I do give advice that I don't take for myself.
I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about ethics? I also eat like shit and have a poor sleep schedule but that doesn't make me a bad person. Am I misunderstanding?
Well, that's the difference, I suppose. As far as I am concerned, doing bad things that I know are bad is a moral and ethical failure. It might not be the same for everyone, and I am only speaking of how I see myself, not how others see me.
My feelings with respect to people calling me good despite my own self-image is just that, feeling. I don't really tell other people that they're wrong when they call me a 'good person,' but I do tell them that no, I have my shortcomings too.
I don't know you but if people are telling you that you're a good person than you very well may be a good person. No one is without sin and we've all done things we regret. Most people who are bad people (if you wanna call it that) really don't see themselves as such. They convince themselves that they're in the right. Self awareness counts for something.
TBH, I don't readily call others bad people just because they don't believe in what I believe in. It's between them and their conscience.
But yeah, I do take others' opinion into account, but only in so far as what's common in my perception of their words and my own perception of reality. If they think I'm a good person for picking up after my trash, then yeah, it's all fine by me--but even then, I qualify it. Under that specific lens, then yes, I am a good person.
I think I've met a handful of "good" people in my life. I'm not one of them.
I feel like I'm a good person. My anxiety tells me I'm not and people hate me though so there's that.
Not really
I feel like I do good things just because they make people like me. Idk.
When I was in my early 20s I would have said yes without a doubt.
Now, a TBI turned me into a manipulative being lusting for satisfaction never to be found without dropping personality continuity from when I genuinely was better. I go to weekly therapy, am heavily medicated, and try not to step on anyone's toes anymore. I have fallen so far there's not many toes around to step on anymore.
I'll help the elderly neighbors out with their potlucks, moving furniture, and bringing in groceries. I'll stand up and defend LGBT rights and groups otherwise disparaged. I'll befriend those who might be misunderstood like myself and give them company when others might shun them.
All of this serves me though, and being a "good person" was not something that took this much active effort to think about before developing these mental/personality disorders from the head injury.
Leonard Cohen's last song released days before he died was called "You Want It Darker." One of the verses is:
"They're lining up the prisoners and the guards are taking aim, I struggled with some demons, they were middle class and tame, I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim, You want it darker, we kill the flame."
Anyway, that's me, in the middle class. I could be better, but however bad I am, I'm still on the tame level.
It's genuinely concerning how many people are saying here that they don't consider themselves as good people.
Depends on your understanding of the question. I'd argue "good" isn't something you are, it's something you do.
I make it easy for someone to argue that I am.
But I'm also difficult and hard to connect with.
I know I am but I mess up sometimes. I always try to do the right thing. To a fault where my destruction is all self inflicted.
Ehh kinda gave up on good and evil. It's better to say pro/anti social. Im learning to be more social.
But I'd do more "good things" than most people but I'd still say I have a lot more that I can do, and I could be more proactive in general.
It's like you can think your a good person for picking up other people trash, but then realized that people dump carbon dioxide into the air and don't do anything about it.
Overall yeah, I’m a pretty good person. I care about others, I give my time and money to those less fortunate, I try to be kind, non judgmental and helpful to everyone not just people I like. I’ve struggled a lot in my life mentally and physically, I grew up ugly and disabled and as cliche as it is to say it, it’s made me a better person.
I don't know, and it just feels wrong to say myself that I am (feels like this meme).
I have at times in my life acted in horrible ways and done things which upset others, or were just horribly dickish things to do.
But when I lie in bed at night my thoughts are sometimes about how I regret those things, and don't want to be like that to anyone again.
I hope that counts for something.



top 98 comments