People-Pleasing and Processing as an Empath

I’m inclined to be polite and nice to people I meet. I’m inclined to be polite and nice to people after I’ve known them for some time. Many of them get complaisant and decide they can talk down to me, bite my head off, ridicule or criticize me, and/or try to manipulate me. Or they at least display their suckiness in front of me. For instance, men make sexist comments — and I’m too shocked to immediately tell them off. The sexist shit guarantees I dislike them and is sometimes profoundly disappointing.

Even people who probably don’t have a personality disorder don’t always have enough empathy. Repeatedly, I meet someone and am nice and polite to them. It’s common for them to initially seem nice enough. But often — and this is especially creepy when it’s a man — they take my kindness for granted and think that because I’m “so nice” they can get away with microaggressions and offend me all they want. Men no longer hide their sexist bullshit. In a matter of minutes, I can go from “This person is tolerable,” to, “This asshole sucks.” People of any gender no longer hide their contempt for me (never mind that some people never did).

Sexism/misogyny and manipulation are both at the top of the list of my pet peeves. And what do these assholes exhibit? Sexism/misogyny and manipulation. Not to mention heterosexism — from what I can figure out, they assume…