Should we care what people think of us? Well that might depend on who they are and who you are. If you are judged positively or negatively based on one's environment you might want to pay attention because it will tell you what people are appreciating or not appreciating about you. i.e. a type of reflection we can learn from. However, when it comes to hate and group bullying expect none of the cues to be accurate about you but razor thin about themselves.
Let me give you a hypothetical example for learning purposes only. A group of clan bullies engaged in racial and religious hate in order to enrich their friends and push minorities out of the area. This included a host of related issues ranging from manipulating the elderly, the young, and the innocent. Normal checks and balances on behaviors would have limited the snowball effect.
While the clan bullies became afraid of being caught and decided to temporarily stop in a type of CYA they continued forward with lesser harder to detect hate narratives, hate chatter, ostracization and micro aggressions. Yikes! Good values! (i.e. indicating a type of forced compliance with norms they don't want to follow.)
There is always some positive and negative bias in just about any level of judgement of others. For example, we might judge our friends in-group more positively and people we don't like out-group more harshly. People not only see their group more positively but by extension themselves on a subconscious level. The Liking Effect Birds of a feather I guess!
Of course if they don't like you and dehumanize you there is little to nothing that you can do right. You are seen as subhuman and sub-citizen and thus unless a more objective lens is developed people will typically associate all types of false characteristics that has more to do with them than you. They can bring to the forefront in you what they subconsciously struggle to understand in themselves. The Brain and Hate
Of course to be a critical evaluator we have to think about our own bias and its impact on our own judgement. We sometimes are our own worst critic and we think people are judging us harshly when they are not. In a study actors were falsely believing they were over judged. The Overblown Implications Effect. To differentiate one would have to assess where and which group is causing the issues, microaggressions, and problems. It can be objectively traced and statistically analyzed.
There is a type of immorality in judging others when it is not based on objective fact or observation. What I find interesting is the mirror section. I have said for a long time people only see mirrors of themselves unless they have gained the insight to differentiate what is theirs or what belongs to someone else. Its one of those skills that must be developed over time akin to self-actualization. You have to be able to know enough about yourself to see through the mirrors. The Morality of Reputation
Basically, when the environment is objective and organic one can take the cues and use them for self-analysis because we know our world through the eyes of others. However, when they judge you harshly based on ulterior factors like race, religion, politics, body type, etc. it has almost nothing to do with you. Thus, you may want to take what people think of you with a grain of salt.
"Thus it is thought that justice is equality; and so it is, but not for all persons, only for those that are equal. Inequality also is thought to be just; and so it is, but not for all, only for the unequal. We make bad mistakes if we neglect this for whom when we are deciding what is just. The reason is that we are making judgements about ourselves, and people are generally bad judges where their own interests are involved."- Aristotle
*This article is part of a thought experiment for learning purposes only. Take with a grain of salt.
