I think people who are patient and interact with children with respect and empathy is a giveaway.
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We get lots of practice with that during winter months here in Florida.
People who give others what they wish they had. Sometimes people can be bitter and envious of what others got. I think it takes being a bigger person to accept that you didn’t receive it then, and you can still give it to others.
I’m mostly talking about things like time, attention, patience, tolerance, affection, and positive reinforcement/affirmation. Just because you had a bad time, doesn’t mean others have to experience it.
Yeah, sometimes people will just tear down others out of jealousy. I saw a lot of that when I was in the military. It was depressingly common to have one group leave for the day, and someone who still had work to do would call out, “Must be nice”. I always hated that. I was assigned to a submarine(which was really awful since the sub force was all male at the time and I was a closeted trans woman), everyone had it lousy. I would always think to myself, “Is it really that hard to be happy for someone, instead of being bitter that you have to stay longer”. Now, granted, there were some people who had demonstrably worse times due to workload. But that doesn’t give you carte blanche to be a drag on everyone else.
I used to know someone who would always stop to pick up litter and throw it away. One of most decent people I’ve met.
That is my default assumption. They can then disprove it.
Maybe my definition of “decent human being” is too strict, but it’s way too rare for me to assume it.
I assume that someone I don’t know is alright, but they have to do some kind act or show good behavior at their expense without expecting to be rewarded for me to understand that they really are a good person and aren’t just good to others when it’s easy and beneficial for them.
people who randomly up litter or are happy to share things with others are always a good sign to me
My expectations are low, but when you put your shopping cart back in the corral. Bonus points if you actually nest it into the other carts instead of randomly pushing it willy-nilly.
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Was going to say the same thing but I’m glad I checked the comments first.
The shopping cart test is the tried and true method of whether somebody is capable of self governance and therefore at least a halfway decent human being.
The way they treat animals. There is the obvious exception…
Some people fake it with children to fake appeareances (they may not care about the child, but they do care about the opinion of the parents or anyone watching), I find it way more telling when looking how they treat animals and pets, since those are often percieved as “inferior beings” and its harder to fake it.
I personally trust my dog’s opinion on people upon meeting them.