Настроение сейчас - philosophy

(And that's OK)

For years, I thought this: "People aren't rational beings, but I should act towards them as if they are. If I don't, I'll be treating them as less-than-human"

This is a wrong notion in many, many ways. Certainly, dealings with someone should be as honest and straightforward as can be properly understood. Unfortunately, people have emotions, and are likely to misinterpret, or not care about interpreting, a directly worded response.

People aren't purely rational beings - thus, it may be immoral to treat them as rational, as that's behaving as if the situation was different than it actually is.

If a person doesn't think in these terms (most don't), then there is much less chance of offending them by treating them as an irrational person. However, being plainly blatant may also be counterproductive.

The central lesson, here, for me: I can't assume that people have psyches similar to mine, because they probably don't. People are strange, irrational, subject to credulity, and likely delusional. If they're far enough removed from sanity (ie. very different from me), then treating them as rational people is likely to be misinterpreted, and certain to be misunderstood.