> in my personal experience, laziness is absolutely a thing. As an example, many friends in college would go party or hang out far more often than I did. Its not that I didn't like hanging out, its that I valued the long term payout of good grades more than my current suffering.

This sounds more like you’re trying to explain the behavior of your friends and are choosing the word “laziness”, but that’s a pretty reductive explanation for why some people like to party and others don’t.

Perhaps if you were willing to do the hard work of questioning your own assumptions and seeing life through your friends eyes a little more you could have more sympathy.

But perhaps you aren’t because that’s hard work and causes distress you’d rather not incur, and it’s much easier to describe human behavior as “laziness” than to understand it’s causes.

broke: calling people lazy.

woke: accusing people of being unwilling to do the hard work.

I do that plenty, I used that example because it seemed most appropriate for this forum. It was probably because they had a support system, so they felt there lives would be ok even if they did average in school, where I felt I would literally be homeless if I lost my scholarships.

you know who wasn't lazy in school? All the immigrant friends I had.

I could have instead, easily described the 100s of people I grew up around, that would skip work and get drunk instead, spend all their paycheck the day they get it. The obesity, the abuse, the drug addiction.

I have zero sympathy for able bodied people that can't cope enough to feed their children. I don't care the causes, nor are they relevant.

I have worked for $10 an hour doing construction in 100 degree weather, and I have also work as a SWE at a FAANG. I have seen the complete lack of self awareness most professionals and/or those from upper class backgrounds have.

> I have zero sympathy for able bodied people that can't cope enough to feed their children.

Growing up in generational poverty and finding myself out of it, I carried a similarly angry perspective about people for a while as an adult.

I would suggest listening to the stories of people who you say can’t cope and maybe be open to the idea of empathy.

Zero sympathy costs more energy than you maybe might realize. Is it really worth it? It wasn’t for me.

>I used that example because it seemed most appropriate for this forum

Any example you pick is going to be complicated. Because they're people. They're doing their best.

Assume good faith. It's not a law, but it helps.