This is going to make me sound like im some edgy prick and I

All the things you're saying aren't universally true, you've just dealt with shitty people before. You can either keep trying to find good ones, or give up. Or a bunch of things in between that, nothings really black and white. Know this: the people that you will form close and life long bonds with will be far and few in life. Sounds like you care too much about what people think and spend too much time on thinking how people act and how they -should- act.

>>18197619
I do. On all counts. But how can I not? Knowing how people work is a good thing right? And people are everywhere. Even if i focus on my life I still get torn down for not being like this person or not looking good enough

>>18197625
Those are all just external thoughts famalam. I like stoic philosophy, right? It essentially says that at any given moment, you should filter your thoughts in to two buckets: in one you place everything you can affect at that very moment; so where am I walking, do I need to poop, I'm going to get groceries, my cat needs to be fed. In the other, everything that is outside my control; so what people think of me, what my voice sounds like, I forgot to shave this morning and look like shit but I don't have a razor so oh well, this person is an asshole but it's clear there's nothing I can do about it.

I like thinking about how people act too. I do it a lot, its why I give advice, but you have to realise that not everyone is on the same level of thinking as you. I deal with plenty of people where I could just call them retards and tell them to fuck off, but I'm aware that they've had different lives and been placed in different situations and mind states because of their experience, so I can't really fault them for how they act. So when I meet a person who doesn't like me for this or that, or is clearly an idiot, I just drop them immediately and waste no more thought.

You can try not injecting so much emotion in to these thoughts of: oh does x or y like me? Why does a person liking you have to be a good or bad thing? What if you stopped viewing times where people said: you should be like this instead of that, not as negative things, but as totally neutral.

>>18197607
It's 100% your perspective. You can be whoever or live however the fuck you want. At the end of the day, you cant change the people around you, so change yourself.

>>18197638
This is probably the best piece of advice I've ever gotten from this issue. I really appreciate it. It's easy to lose sight of what you need to do when nobody else shares your agenda, which is what ive forgotten.

>>18197653
The brutal truth. Perhaps i should live more for myself like everyone else does.

It's funny because OP is expressing exactly what a friend of mine told me tonight: that everyone is such a dick and needs therapy and he just doesn't care anymore and is tired of going out.

Our country -- and the world as we are Empire _ is in trauma. We are in shock. We are engaged in a spiritual war and people are just giving up and being dicks because we are all in a lot of pain. That's my theory. This country is near civil war.