if everyone in the world knew exactly what others think about them, the whole world would have to readjust.

there are people who are nice. then there are people who act nice.
the former bears a certain sense of consideration and kindness in every action, while the latter bears a sense of underlying self-serving motive.
genuinely nice people keep the level of making others feel discomfort to the minimum, while the phonies extract a perverse happiness in creating a fake sense of laughter and jokes that all belie their meanness. genuinely nice people can even sometimes go out on the lim to make others feel less awkward, while the phonies, still under the veil of laughter and jokes, make comments to inflate their ego and sense of self-worth and simultaneously crushing those who mean them no harm.
the phonies like to complain about their surroundings, the things that they think they deserve to have, and at the same time they consume and consume and consume everything around them. its like stuffing your face with rich chocolate cake and saying how bad it tastes between mouthfuls. it is quite pathetic.

seeing the phonies and what their words and actions convey, it is very disappointing at the beginning, then disappointment turns to loss of respect, which eventually turns to indifference. no matter what you may seem like to other people, there are those who know what you really are.

PS. i should reread salinger again. now it all makes more sense.