I think most people think that they're nice. I don't know why. Working in drive-thru, I can say that most people don't put forth the effort to be nice -- most people are either neutral or assholes, with only one or two being nice before I'm nice to them.
A lot of people seem simply reciprocal, following lex talionis to treat others as they treat you, or worse. I think this is the norm, even for people who proclaim to be religious. I personally, treat others how I'd like to be treated not because some old book tells me to, but because it makes me feel good. That's all. No other reason; any other would be bullshit. Is some "niceness" wasted on people? YES. I imagine Violent Acres would say, "Absofuckinglutely." Perhaps without the fucking? It doesn't bother me, it's not as if one day I'm going to look into my nice-sack and realize that I've run out of nice.
One day, I decided to be an asshole. Just for experiment's sake, because I think you can't really say your position is best without at least trying to see it from the other point of view. It wasn't huge; I stopped smiling, I refused to make eye contact, I bitched about customers. It just didn't feel good to me. So I don't do it.
It's hard to be nice to asshole customers, but it feels worse to be an asshole back at them. If I can, I'll ignore what mildly annoys me; I mean, who are they, who are in my life for maybe whole 90 seconds to get under my skin?
This doesn't mean that I won't make fun of someone. I sometimes post on yahoo! answers, if someone asks a stupid question, one that should've been googled to solve, or is appealing to ridicule, then I'll make fun of them.
"Do Marines wear panties?" asks an apparently overproud soldier. "Sure! They also skip rope, put their hair in pigtails, play with pretty ponies, and have pillow fights. And they do all that better than anyone in the Army."
"Do you think pearl harbor was an inside job?"
"George W. Bush stole a time-traveling DeLorean, went back to 1941, and used his godly powers to confuse innocent Japanese civilians into innocent Japanese planes and drop his evil bombs of evilness on evil american battleships of oppression and also evilness.
The purpose was to get Japan's oil. When he got back to the future, he was ashamed to learn japan never had oil. he would've changed it, but the DeLorean was hit by a train at that moment."
Stuff like that. It doesn't make me popular; people take themselves way too seriously. Or maybe dripping sarcasm doesn't transmit well over the internet? But it's fun for me.
