In polite conversation, opposing policies like sanctuary cities, the release of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, welfare or gender “transitioning” can appear compassionless, callous and fundamentally not “nice.” Intimidated by social awkwardness, most people react in silence and self-censorship, while privately believing that certain things are wrong, immoral or unsafe. However, it would be useful to examine the claims of “nice” and to determine whether these trends and policies are actually “nice” or just harming innocent people by ignoring reality. Are we hurting people in our attempts to be “nice?”

Consider the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. You’ve heard that it is inhumane (i.e. not nice) to keep terrorists and enemy combatants in the Guantanamo Bay prison. However, more than 100 released prisoners have re-entered combat to kill American troops and allies. Of course, terrorists also slay Christians, Jews, Yezidis, homosexuals and anyone with whom they disagree or disapprove. It would therefore be inhumane to allow this to happen, wouldn’t it? Allowing terrorists free to rape and murder innocent people? Not nice.

Sanctuary Cities. “Borders are bigotry” and we should “build bridges not walls,” right? And sanctuary cities are places of respite and hope for those seeking a better life. We should therefore transform our cities into law-free zones, where the Rule of Law does not apply — because we want to be hospitable, kind and “nice.” As a result, we have cities (and one whole state) that harbor criminals, rapists, murderers and others leaving our law enforcement without legal authority to arrest them. A 2014 ICE study revealed that of 8,145 criminals released — because of local law enforcement’s refusal to comply with ICE detaining requests — 1,867 were re-arrested a total of 4,298 times and charged with 7,291 crimes. Clearly, not every illegal immigrant engages in further criminal behavior, but the sanctuary city policy does not distinguish between illegal immigrants with a criminal record and those without one. Transforming cities into zones of lawlessness where law enforcement cannot detain illegal immigrants with criminal records, but instead must let them go free to commit more crimes against innocent citizens? Not nice.

Welfare. Many people are under the impression that government welfare helps the poor by “giving” to the less fortunate. Yet, while the impulse to help those in need roots itself in compassion, the unintended consequence of welfare programs is the killing of the human spirit that longs to accomplish great things. True compassion sees the value and dignity of each human being and helps them to achieve their potential.

Star Parker, a former welfare single mom who worked her way out of the system, later founding Urban Cure, states, “It is no accident that the most loyal Democratic Party supporters are those most dependent on the government.” Democratic politicians essentially trade “free stuff” for votes, which keeps the poor in poverty and the elitist politicians in power. Sadly, many of welfare’s recipients have bought into the lie that welfare is good for them, when in reality, it’s only good for the politicians who exploit them. Exploiting and stripping dignity from a whole class of people — the poor — for political power? Not nice.

The transgender movement seeks to make gender a social construct thereby allowing a person’s feelings to be the great arbiter of which biological parts he or she (or “ze”) allows on his or her body. Society should be nice and compassionate, sensitive and tolerant of those who have the “courage” to transition and live as their “authentic” selves. Yet, this entire concept has no scientific (medical or psychological) validation, it wars against nature, reason and logic, and it stands against common-sense medical ethics. Will giving hormones to a five-year-old child for 10 years cause cancer? Will preparing a seven-year-old kid for chopping off of or sewing things onto their body cause negative psychological damage? The limited research on this topic only shows increased risk of suicide among those who choose to transition. Using children in unvalidated social experiments that lead to increased suicide risk? Not nice.

It is time to rethink “nice,” and to call into question those movements, policies and political trends that make our world unsafe, exploit whole classes of people, and endanger children. Examining the evidence behind trends that masquerade as “nice,” it is clear that “nice” is just a cover for policies and attitudes that actually hurt people. In the end, we must be “nice” enough to call it for what it is: exploitation.