Nice vs Kind

Maybe this is the wrong sub for this, but I’m curious if anyone else feels the same way here.

To me, “nice” is not at all a positive thing. I understand niceness as a performative, even sometimes manipulative, social tactic. From my perspective, for anyone to be “nice” is for them to be less than authentic in a social situation, to either spare the feelings of another or to avoid casting a negative light on their own character. I guess they could also do it to avoid an awkward or uncomfortable situation. Basically “nice” = saving face/conflict avoidant behavior.

“Kind,” on the other hand, I associate with social behavior genuinely grounded in compassion and consideration for others. A kind person will be authentic, even expressing harsh truths or beliefs to another, but attempt to do so in a way which is empathetic toward and considerate of others.

Thoughts?

P.S. I do tend to be particular about word usage. For example, I’ve adopted to practice of substituting “challenge” for “problem” in my conversations with others and with myself. I may just be getting sunk in the semantics here. Still curious, though.