So Much Better Than Everyone Else

Or, this might make me seem wildly unlikable and oh well!!

Saint Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne

“You just think you’re so much better than everyone else.”
“Wow you read a book you must be so much more enlightened than the rest of us.”
“These kind of takes are the ultimate form of virtue signaling.”

What does it mean to be a good person? Is there any way to try and be good or better or idealistic without any shred of altruism? Can any of us actually ever end up being “good” or whatever that even means?

Or is it all just one constant game of “one upping” each other, whether not we even realize it? Is there any way to be anything but? And is spiraling about this exact line of thinking just another instance of hyper-fixating on continuing to be that better than, more goodly, altruistic person in a weirdly fake kind of way?

Is there any point to any of this? I guess this is me looking for one.