[amundskm]

Answering questions fully and honestly means being vulnerable, and depending on a lot of societal norms, being vulnerable is frowned upon. Most people don't let themselves be vulnerable with anyone, or if they do, its only a few very close people that trust absolutely.

[everdrive]

>and depending on a lot of societal norms,

I'm not sure I can accept that it's just social norms. It feels like a human universal. I really like honestly, and I often bend to social norms and avoid these kinds of topics. But for years, I falsely assumed that other people were like me: if we could just be past the initial fear everyone would be so happy to be able to speak so openly and honestly.

And unfortunately, this just is not the case. From what I can tell, for many, many people they just don't want to go there; they don't want to offer real answers to questions; they want the questions un-asked, or they want to answer with a socially-please lie, or a joke, or anything that changes the topic. I don't think we've been taught to be this way. I think we are this way.

[amundskm]

I said societal norms because I do think it depends culture to culture. Danes are famous for being incredible forthright and blunt while the Japanese are often seen as being circumspect.

In the US there is an incredible difference in what is allowed to be talked about in the midwest vs the west coast. I don't know about other regions as I have only lived in the two, but I would assume they differ as well.

Like many things different societies can be graded on a gradient.

[card_zero]

Well, yeah. We don't have to field criticism all the time. It wouldn't do any good. That's why there's a concept of privacy.

[erikerikson]

You're not alone in your preference

[rubicon33]

A share a similar frustration as you, that it seems “people” don’t care about / never question things, but for me it’s really about one big question:

Why the f*ck are we here? Why does ANYTHING exist? What IS this reality?

How “nobody” (very very few) people are trying to figure this out or are bothered by the question and open to talking about it blows my mind mind.