AIBU to think "be kind" is becoming synonymous with "shutup"?

[OldHarrysGameboy]

Examples:

"Be kind" = shutup and validate me as per brave and stunning Schofield cheating on his wife
"Be kind" = shutup and don't ask too many questions as per University at the centre of the UK Coronavirus outbreak releasing lots of stories to the press about discrimination faced by Chinese students but failing to tell the students/public that the patient was in student accommodation
"Be kind" = shutup and let my virtue signalling continue unhindered as per many commercial organisations and private individuals happy to preach and pontificate about what others should do in terms of their treatment of children/the environment/people with red jumpers none of which affects them or requires them to alter their own behaviour.

But mostly, it means shutup.

Be kind

Sorry.....couldn't resist.

Have a

I am going to start an unkindness movement.

Remember: Jeremy Corbyn rode to party victory on a self proclaimed kindness ticket. And just think on.

You’re so right. And it’s almost always levelled at women.

YANBU

Agree.

You ain't wrong!

Agreed.

Along with: Do Better. Both phrases designed to shut down any exchange of views

Well, what if I don't want to be fucking kind or do bloody better?

Be kind - fuck that, I’d rather Be Good, Be Free and/or Be Right.

I think we should all be nicer to each other.

Always said by the least nice, fakey nice, actually vicious thin skinned person who likes to dish it but not take it.

I had to spend an hour with one of these today telling everyone to be nice when the person in question is as above. Grrrrrr.

Strangely, though, not everyone is told to be kind.

Completely agree! Not only agree but I have used the phrase in anger (snigger snigger!). And not levelled at a woman. Used against a nasty ex who was sending me goading emails when i called it off.... from me: "be kind, you're better than this"....

Oh how I laughed my passive aggressive little laugh! Because what do you say back to that, without it sounding as if you're being unkind?!!

I'm not talking about people who tell me or others personally to be kind @RheaRanged, more the habit of tacking this glib phrase on to statements as in the examples in the OP.

'Be Kind' = your critical thought is not welcome here.

@AnneLovesGilbert well women are supposed to be kind and nurturing don't you know. It's in our nature. What sort of a monster are you, anyway? 😜

Hush now women, be nice, be good, be kind be a doormat

I see your point but don't think the coronavirus example is fair. There has been abuse directed at Chinese students, that has nothing to do with the delay in announcing that the infected student had stayed in accommodation. No one is going around deliberately trying to spread coronavirus.

Why can't you just be kind?

Because I have an opinion and that counts too. Because if I don't speak up for myself who will. Because my needs count too. Because I am not doing your work when I have enough work. There is too much work. That is why I can't be kind. We built a world that squeezes out kindness and my bit of kindness won't change that.

But ok I will be a little bit kind.

That's basically what happens in my head when I get the sense people are nagging me to be compassionate.

I do think too much kindness is...bland, dismisses the complexities of situations, is often a way of fudging an issue that has fundamentally different parts.

Good post op.

They lied about the patient's living arrangements tho. They said he wasn't in university accommodation and then went off about racist abuse. Then had to admit he was in student accommodation but just not on campus but in international halls, after the very students who they were supposedly shielding from abuse started pressing them.

It's actually quite a nasty example of this trick, because the university acted like they were all concerned about the international students by raising the issue of racism that they reportedly faced, while lying to them. They deliberately presented the wrong side of the story and covered up the student's whereabouts including covered it up from the people they were purporting to speak for. It's like a kind of meta-white wormhole but with added faux hand wringing.

Why do you think it was covered up? I'm not sure what evidence there has been to suggest that they deliberately did not confirm that the student lived in off site student accommodation.

I dunno why they did it, but that's what they did, followed by days of stories about students getting abuse, as though those were the actual stories. So anyone reading them would just think Tsk, mindless bigotry. Here's the initial press release:

www.bbc.com/news/health-51337400

@nomnomnoo, that's about where I am, plus a suspicion born of experience re people signalling that they'd rather not be examined too closely.

It would be lovely if we lived in a world where we could all take things at face value and it's just a great big onion but actually we do need to ask questions. Like what exactly is this person doing, why, under what remit, how is that remit bestowed and why are they telling me the things they are?

None of which you get answers to by being "kind". But you need to, for your own self interest, which is not a minor matter.

Ah so you're just working off your own narrative then OP. Good to know.

"Be kind" I'd rather be honest.

I'm going to get flamed but yes be kind when your 4 year old is being bullied and traunatised coming home with bruises and black eyes because the perpetrator has SEN so they are beyond reproach and must be let to run riot despite the fear my child now has to go to school and I'm the evil person for daring to complain that I expect my child to be safe at school.