Reconciling metta & avoiding fools/immoral people The Buddha repeatedly said to avoid ignorant, immoral people as much as possible, but isn't this - at least a little - opposed to kindness? I associate kindness with being benevolent, caring &amp; somewhat open. Am I missing here something?

Thanks
I think it's a matter of degree, not entirely black-and-white -- how stable you are, how much contact there is between you and of what type, etc.

A monk's giving a formal dhamma talk to a polite audience might be not-very-adversely affected, for example.

Whereas, conversely, your joining a criminal gang would be maybe not so harmless.

It might possibly be a conceit, too, to imagine that you're better than someone else; that you're able to benefit them even when they don't already benefit themselves; that your goodness is stable and is independent of the situation you're in (the company you're with); and so on.

It's good to want to be kind, but you might beware of pathological codependency for example -- which might seem well-intentioned but maybe isn't beneficial (and therefore not actually kind, or not skillful).