#like curiosity and kindness and forgiveness instead of making assumptions about someone’s character based on incredibly limited information

[s-zephyr]

not sure why the person reblogging is being so incredibly hostile to op 😭 they were musing/speaking generally… the reblogger became the asshole they hoped to take down…. the strange and unusual circumstance. the intention of the first post was clearly to kindly and jokingly encourage those who are hesitant to begin learning small talk (in the absence of what society should teach us), encouraging them to dive in and embrace the kindness of others around them even if they might be scared.

real “how dare you say we piss on the poor” moment

the allergy i am seeing grow up around small talk in any form is troubling to me. do you know how to make friends with people in your physical environment? it typically starts with small talk. do you want to live in community? small talk. do you want to have the type of relationship with your neighbors where you can run over and borrow a battery for your smoke detector when it starts beeping at 10pm? small talk!! do you want leeway from your coworkers when you fuck up something small? you gotta be able to build a relationship and that's small talk, baybeee.

"but i don't need friends and i don't care about community!" okay, lone ranger, what about the people in your community who need you? "but i have social anxiety!" me too, bud! we simply must soldier on. making up lists of questions to ask people helps. and people are predisposed to be generous, i've found. even if you make some kind of mistake, what is this but the natural give and take of human interaction? nobody is perfect.

you were not put on this earth to live by yourself and then die. you need people and people need you. treat those around you with curiosity and generousness of spirit and you will gain so much goodwill in return.