some wonderful contributions, i'm pleasantly suprised but i really shouldn't be, it is agnostics.com after all

I have come to subscribe to the old chestnut that "hell is other people". Both in the way Sartre actually meant it (you need other's uncomfortable judgments about you to truly know yourself) and in its more superficial sense that people are an endless fund of shallow judgments, facile disloyalty and subterranian cross currents and undertows that I'm more than a little tired of dealing with. As an introvert I could happily finish out my life flying solo; I think those would likely end up being both the loneliest AND best years of my life.

So you'll get no "fuck you's" from me about it, I'll cheerfully admit that the feeling's mutual ...

However, if someone is really approachable / likable / kind / transparent / uncomplicated, I know how to value such people and am apt to make exceptions for them.

Not at all... It's fine. You call your own shots. As simple as that.

I'm an annoyingly optimistic and cheerful person. It takes a lot for me to not like a person. But once I don't that's the end. Pretty much no coming back from it.

I probably like and forgive people who don't deserve it. I can't say either of us is more right than the other.

Yes making an effort is hard but ild rather suffer a thousand disappointments than just give up

It's a reasonable conclusion. You'll get no abuse from me. The complicated bit here is that we are the people who bring other people to this conclusion. We all play our part and I'm darned if I know what I could do to be less irritating or downright offensive in people's eyes. It might even be that nature wants it this way, something to do with the need for death and renewal. But maybe nature doesn't have to have the last word here. Maybe that's what the history of religion has always been about.

I liked the meme that said, there 7 billion people on the planet and I tolerate maybe 6 of you.?

I don't mind most of the Buddhist Thai, since they mind their own business and leave people alone unless they need help.

But animals are usual my go-to for relaxing when I go out birding in nature.

I don't care if you like me or not as long as you give me chocolate. Mind you, giving me chocolate is not a guarantee that I will like you after I eat the chocolate.

As we get older we want to be alone more. Learning how to do that is not easy.

Yup, people suck. Some of y’all are cool, though.

Ah a fellow misanthrope. Yas. ?

I'm reminded daily why I don't like people as I'm forced to interact with them.