"Kindness" is one of those words that we've all recently agreed is an Absolute Anchor of Goodness. It's in everyone's mouth and on all the yard signs. But since

"Kindness" is one of those words that we've all recently agreed is an Absolute Anchor of Goodness. It's in everyone's mouth and on all the yard signs. But since no one agrees on what Goodness is, we don't agree on what Kindness is either. The "nice vs. kind" distinction is one of the ways we (indirectly) challenge that Absolute. We all agree that the bundle of traits associated with Kindness - being positive, agreeable, caring, and giving - are basically good, but the Devil's always in the details. I think that what a lot of people call Kindness, I call Ruinous Empathy [1] or avoidance. This sort of "kindness" either fails to communicate challenging information, or it bends over backwards to sugarcoat it so much that the message gets lost... which amounts to the same thing. [1] https://www.radicalcandor.com/faq/what-is-ruinous-empathy/ https://www.radicalcandor.com/faq/what-is-ruinous-empathy/