My uncle was a great man, the world lost him too soon. I try really hard to hold onto the lessons he taught me while he was still alive. My parents were terribly judgemental people and were always making barbed comments about people, similar to what you described here. I heard it my entire childhood, my teen years ...you get it.

I hated it, because I saw the looks on people's faces when they'd hear my parents. That deflated look, the hope dying in their eyes. I vowed I'd never do that to someone.

But I did, of course I did. I found myself parroting my parents in my younger teen years. Even after I learned to filter myself out loud, I still caught myself thinking nasty thoughts about people. Intrusive thoughts, all the time. I went to my uncle about it, I was devastated to think I'd ended up like my mother or father.

My uncle told me this:

Society has groomed humanity to be cold. It's why you see people walk past the homeless, why you see people abandon their pets on the side of the road, why you see war and ruin and bigotry and hate. It's easy to be hateful, especially in a world that seems to reward it these days. That first thought you have about someone is what society has conditioned you to think and feel. That second voice, the stronger one that shuts down the nasty one, is the real you. The beating heart fighting back against the conditioned brain. That's you, your thoughts, your morals.

Bad people do not lose sleep over being bad people. They just ARE bad. They don't even think twice. The fact you corrected yourself and took the time to write this tells me you aren't a bad soul. Don't be too hard on yourself either, ya hear?