What I mean by that is who, what characteristics does this hypothetical person have, that just makes you not trust them in a what that isn’t necessarily rational?
I got to thinking about this in a mentally meandering way.
I was contemplating, trying to quietly silence the sudden rush of dread, Vaderling is going to be primarily my responsibility now. What if…anyway, eventually I ended up at the point of this.
Who do you just seem to automatically distrust, for reasons you may not know or be able to articulate at first.
For me, it’s “Perfect People”. Those people who have no regrets or unfortunate adventures in their past(or claim so).
It’s always been that way for me. As long as I can remember. Lack of experience, or judgement or empathy for other people (at least a perceived lack anyway, mind reading was something I always was bad at no matter how much or hard I practiced). These are just the easy reasons for me to list to justify the distrust.
Will Ferrell. I can’t explain it at all. By all reports he is a lovely human being, and I’ve never heard a single word against him. But he gives me the creeping willies and no denying it. I can’t bear to watch him through a whole movie. :shudder:
Ooh this is a good thread yet challenging to answer for me. I tend to trust anyone to a different extent. In real life, I’ll talk with anyone who approaches me. I’ve never been a sales person but I’ve always lived in a heavy tourist area. And yet I still lock up everything including my t.p. at home since two if my relatives are professionals and have stolen my toilet paper. I stll talk with them anyway though.
Oh yes. And the Daily Mail. And Boris Johnson (no-one in the UK has any excuses for not knowing he was a wrong 'un even before he got into Parliament).
My red flags go up if someone flatters me over trivial stupid stuff, especially if they hardly know me. Like they’re trying to ingratiate themselves. Blech. Also, paradoxically, if someone is super skeptical about other people’s honesty. (You said it didn’t have to be rational.) Someone who pontificates and shows off, a know-it-all.
This is disturbing, as some of those things describe me. Must ponder…
I tend to trust most people but there is one group to which distrust is my default: salesman.
This is more true for repairs than purchases, likely because I do a lot of research on products before pulling the trigger and I am typically confident in a product I want to buy.
Such research is less straightforward and a little more shaky when hiring a repair person or contractor, and I am rarely full of confidence when I hire one.
If someone goes out of their way to tell me they’re Christian, I’m immediately suspect. If you feel compelled to let me know what an upright, moral, decent person you are, chances are you’re not. I know anecdotes are not data, but I spent many years in the south living and working among people who wear their Christianity as a badge of honor without even trying to live up to their claim.
Seems to me if you have to tell me instead of letting your actions speak for you, then you’re doing it wrong and I’m not interested in your company.
Agree, and I will be more specific: car salesman. I hate having to test drive cars, even after doing online research - you still have to get behind the wheel and encounter these creatures. They all seem to be dripping in false friendship with the false handshakes, presenting false professionalism with the slacks and tie, falsely and confidently presuming they can get you to make a purchase that day. I cannot trust a single thing they say - every one of them I’ve had to contact makes me feel like I am about to be pressured and scammed.
This. I go so far as to refuse free food and gifts, if they are from someone trying to sell me something.
Closely related, people I think of as “marketing guys”. Little overdressed, slick presentation, big voice, easy reassurance if any concerns are brought up.
It’s not even that i tend to assume they are actual liars, i just assume they are unreliable bullshitters who think in terms of fixing perceptions, not realities.
Preachers, especially the really smarmy ones like Osteen, but basically all of them. Never met one who didn’t have his hand out for your wallet. God is big business. I know that many churches sponsor programs that help people, and I respect the folks that donate many hours to those efforts.
This to a T. And it’s doubly bad if they’re working their wiles on my husband, who tends to be taken in. He’s a gregarious, chatty guy who likes to talk cars, and an experienced salesman can sniff that out right away and capitalize on his weakness. It’s hard to stand by and see it happen when my hand itches to bitchslap the salesman.
As others have mentioned, I immediately distrust anyone who flaunts their “Christianity.” I’ve sometimes worked among those people and believe me, they will stab you in the back at any opportunity.
Another personal characteristic I use as a measure of a person is a sense of humor. I’ve met people with the absolute inability to laugh out loud and they have often shown themselves to be sociopaths. I realize this is subjective, but it’s never failed me.
I agree. I have been stabbed in the back and kicked to the curb by a friend of over 30 years who has spiraled down into a loony fundy mindset. Apparently, ‘a Christian’, can do or say anything - rob a bank, embezzle, cheat - because after all they’re just sinful humans, but as long as they have a close personal relationship with their Good Friend Jesus H. Christ, they are forgiven! As long as they’re ‘saved’. Just as well, I got weary of being told how I’m certainly going straight to hell since I was never blinded by His Holy Light. … And people with no sense of humor, they creep me out, too. A Girl Scout troop leader some years ago had none. Zilch. Zero. She never ever even smiled. I’d make a joke and she’s just stare at me. A very unnerving experience, a pretty young woman in charge of a bunch of young girls, like a robot.
Pete Townsend? Esp. when he plays his squeeze box?
Yeah. I got that-from my gaslighting bosses who kept blaming me for things I never did. Mommie Dearest was fully in Little Boy Bastard’s corner, note, but the day I resigned they both insisted that they were fine upstanding Xian citizens (I’ll keep using the X for the fake ones note)–right before they lied their asses off right into my face (in 2 separate meetings note).