"Brutally Honest"

Just as "tough love" is more often about toughness than love, brutal honesty tends to be more about brutality than honesty. A certain kind of person can never pass up a chance to say something hurtful--and does not when they have handy the excuse that they are being "honest."

Considering such "honesty" I find myself thinking about those people with wealth and power and status one hears about, surrounded by people who always tell them what they want to hear, and accordingly tell them only what will flatter them, often to their longer-run cost.

I suspect most of the people on this planet, who lack wealth and power and status, are in the opposite position--surrounded by people telling them what they do not want to hear, not because the person in question needs to hear it, but because it gives those around them pleasure to say it, and in line with brutal honesty being about the brutality rather than the honesty, the brutal things they say need not have anything to do with facts or truth at all.