Screwed up people tend to be screwed up.

Well, at least people who wallow in it.

My mother, who I generally don't get along with, was molested when she was 13-14. She has control issues, probably because of that. If it is because of that, then that's her problem.

I know, sounds cold. But when you get past a certain age, the crap that happened in your childhood starts to be under your control. That is, you can let it control you, or you can accept it for what it was, how it changed you, and you know, move on. If you're going to be all, mommy didn't care, daddy didn't love me, blah blah blah, thirty years after the fact, then you haven't moved on. You're still stuck there.

I have some crap. Occasionally, it sneaks up on me and then practically hits me on the head with a frying pan. It can be annoying. Usually, I see it, and it's like, oh, that's what that was... and I move on. I don't think mom does that.

I could list the things mother does that leads me to that conclusion, but it's more than sufficient to say that they're controlling and manipulative behaviors. And whenever I say something to that point, she gets angry. Without fail. It's frustrating from my point of view, because she's so stuck in this past drama that she can't -- maybe won't -- grow.

I'm certainly not perfect, but I do think my point of view is relevant.

it doesn't feel good to be an asshole, or why I'm "nice."

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.