Mean People Suck

Back to the funny real soon, I promise. In the meantime:

I’ve never been one for bumper stickers. It’s hard to fit anything meaningful in that small a space, and I’ve always liked the clean look on my vehicles anyhow. That said, I’ve been struck recently with the profundity of one of the more common bumper stickers around.

I have been fortunate in my life not to spend a lot of time around mean people – that is, people who get some kind of primal satisfaction from attacking others, whether physically or verbally. But I did have a recent experience with one that reminded me of the essential truth of this particular bumper sticker: mean people literally suck the energy and life right out of you. There is something about the absolute conviction with which they launch their negativity into the world that all too often convinces their target that it is somehow deserved.

The plain fact is that just about everyone – though I might make an exception for Dick Cheney – deserves some measure of respect. It’s just basic human courtesy; you operate from an assumption that the other person is worthy of respect until they prove otherwise.

Mean people don’t do that. They operate from the assumption that everyone is as insecure and self-interested and negatively charged as they are. And that’s why they suck.