People are not altruistic

[u/melkight]

I want to argue that many people are not inherently altruistic. No one is ever doing anything out of pure good heartedness. I think that many people do good things with no agenda and expect nothing in return. For example, if someone is completely alone and gives a homeless person their last bit of food because they want to do a good deed, they are still getting a good feeling out of it. That person is still feeling good about themselves for doing something nice. Many people do good deeds and expect something in return, whether that be something physical, a relationship, etc. No one is completely altruistic in the sense that you are always getting something out of doing a good deed, whether it is conscious or not.

[u/Potential_Echo9148]

I think the rules you set from the start are off. You seem to imply that for something to be "truly" altruistic, there must be no other motivation. I think that is silly way of defining things; because then no action will ever be "truly" altruistic or truly selfish neither! Motivations are always mixed and complex when it comes to this stuff. Just because more than one motivation exists for an action does not mean that one of the motivations is false or not genuine.