Worth reading
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I thought about this very idea recently.
We all know naïve, happy-go-lucky people who say that people are basically good because they've never really encountered malevolence before. Nobody really likes people like that.
As those people get older and encounter some of the truly awful shit out there, it's perfectly reasonable to become cynical and pessimistic. A lot of times, too, they try to pass it off as pragmatism or just being realistic. But nobody really likes these assholes, either.
The kind of people that others want to be around are folks who know damn well what the human race is capable of, but have the courage to give others the benefit of the doubt anyway, because it's worth the risk. (Also helps a heap that they know how to grapple with malevolence if they see it again.)
Everybody likes a person like that. Danny Trejo built a nice career for himself playing characters like that in nearly everything he's been cast for. And no wonder, look at his history.