It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if we lived in a world where you need not ever have to choose between giving your honest opinion and being nice—or if you never had honest opinions that were critical of something or someone?
Is it better to be nice or to be honest? You can’t really be both – that’s just a cop out. It allows dishonesty when a situation would otherwise force us to reveal what we really think about a person or thing we do not wish to appear critical of. This impulse to run from making these types of character-defining choices is precisely why so many people seem and are, inauthentic.
And what about when someone never says an unkind word to anyone’s face but behind closed doors they let their real thoughts fly?
I would rather live in a better, more self-aware, authentic world.