There was a man his neighborhood considered "nice". He was generally polite and mannered. He even performed as a clown at birthday parties for local kids.
Sounds like a nice guy, doesn't it? He was also a serial killer named John Wayne Gacy.
Nice guy, but a bad, evil one.
Many who encountered Ted Bundy thought the same. He was charming and well-mannered. He came across, generally, as considerate and polite. But this "nice guy" proved to be the incarnation of evil as investigators decided to go ahead with his execution instead of continuing to close cases based upon his piecemeal confessions of rape and murder.
Nice guys.
Everybody wants something. It is a fact of life. Some people are content earning what they desire. Others believe they have a right to just take it. Then there are others who will lie, cheat, charm, and manipulate others, under false and fraudulent pretenses, to give it to them, usually with many invisible strings attached. These are narcissistic con men. They are out there. They abuse any authority they perceive to have. They convince you that they not only have the authority to force you to do their will, but that it is in your own best interests to do so.
Nice guys are also the ones who tell the government to take more of other people's money, against their will, to "help" some special group or other. They are not out there doing the helping, n. They are out there increasing dependency and their power base.
Then there are good guys.
Good does not mean nice. Sure, good guys can be polite and kind. But their intentions are truly for your best interests. They want to see you safe, healthy, successful, even when you want to give-up on yourself. Good guys will sacrifice for you, including their good name, if need be. Good guys are the gruff, blunt, no-nonsense guys who tell you the truth you need to hear rather than the "nice things" that you think you want to hear.
A good guy will give you the shirt off his back with the only strings attached are a job application and a promise to "repay it forward". A good guy will stop you from doing something before it lands you in trouble. A good guy will be there when you do get in trouble to help you figure out what went wrong and how you can do better next time (what lessons you can learn). A good guy may even laugh in your face, inviting you to laugh as well, so you do not exaggerate the consequences of your follies. Meanwhile, a "nice guy" will be kind and offer to help, for a price, then lampoon you behind your back so he can be in a spotlight at a business dinner. (but hey, look how nice he was...).
And a good guy knows that sometimes people have to fall, hard, several times. They are there to give a hand up, not a hand out. They are there to tell you that you messed up, but nobody is perfect. Then they will point you in the right direction and give you a kick in the butt to get you moving that way. They may not be nice about it. But that is because they actually care.
Be nice when you can Strive to be good always.
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