I’m not familiar with Tongan Castaways but will have to give it a look. I felt similarly abused by the revelations of the Stanford Prison Experiment - my understanding of the experiment (pre reveal) did shape, to some degree, my understanding of humanity.
As I’ve gotten older and times have gotten more fraught, it’s become clearer and clearer that most people are fundamentally pretty decent, pretty “meh” at knowing what’s important to focus on (or even likely or possible to be accurate), and - critically - most of us are very vulnerable to fear-based manipulation. Those three traits are not as discordant as they seem.
Unrelatedly, I find it odd but endearing that you seem to use “ain’t” kinda routinely, as a German, lol. Even lotsa Americans don’t. That’s not a veiled accusation, btw, you seem genuine to me and I simply wonder how you came by it. Sharing things is great, for my part as much as I love odd beers and experimentation, y’all’s Reinheitsgebot has improved my life in a non-trivial way, hahaha
Wait, isn’t “ain’t” commonly used? If there is some “undertone” to it of being not genuine please tell me, I would never know otherwise. 😅
“Ain’t” is fairly regional in the US, and also kind of a class indicator. Class is not quite right but it’s close. In general you find it used a lot more frequently in the south, and also generally in lower income populations. It’s also less common among folks for whom English is their 2nd (+) language.
If you like it, keep using it! Language should feel good.
Edit: missed your “please tell me” part - it does stick out a bit the way you use it. It’s a very casual and informal word, almost to the point of being crass, and it doesn’t normally get used in the kinds of eloquent writing you do.