Radical Honesty

[thushan]

I find that I want criticism so I can improve, but I take criticism super badly because I tend to be hard on myself, so I beat myself up when I fell short of my standards.

[JellyDonut]

If an axe man asks you for your friends address, what do you say?

[brenden]

Interesting point; I hadn't thought of that.
Just, I'm wondering: why would one want to lie about something like that? Unless they're being a bully/jealous etc, I don't really see why someone would criticise another person or make an effort to withhold praise when they actually laud the person inside - praising them wouldn't have the same social consequences as criticising them may. Given that, how does one define radical honesty? For me, 'radically honest' is sort of synonymous with 'brutally honest', rather than being extremely nice, since the issue is essentially (as I understand it) about whether we should express our opinions more openly with people according to whether or not society could handle it. Haha, I think the world would be a lot more pleasant if everyone gave each other more compliments where due (and criticisms where due of course)! So yes radical niceness all the way

You'd be surprised what social consequences telling the truth in a way that wasn't mean/aggressive/'brutal' could do. I mean, imagine if you met a group of friends at the movies and you saw one female friend that you thought was especially gorgeous and you said "I think you're especially gorgeous."
There's a whole bunch of shit that could go down. Or they could accept the compliment. (Even a guy friend. Sometimes I do this to be funny but if I'm looking at another dude and think "that is one straight jaw." I'm like "mother fucker you have the most attractive jaw". It's funny, but the guy probably has an attractive jaw. You're just not meant to be honest in that way. Neutrality is the most accepted, I think - it doesn't challenge people in anyway.

If an axe man asks you for your friends address, what do you say?

"Please Mr. Axe Man, I need this friend more than you know".


Nah you say "I'm not giving you my friend's address because you're a fucking psychopath". Pretty honest.

[Sachi_K.]

Well, I don't really know that one can be radically honest. Especially when we consider the political correctness of today's world, being radical honest would mean that people would be willing to share beliefs that expose them to the critical nature of society. So personally, no, I wouldn't be willing to be radically honest, however this may just be.