You can defend yourself and still be a good person. There is the way of absolute mercy where you sacrifice your honor for good (you dont argue or fight back) or the way of self defense, where someone hurts you, you hurt them back and assert that your existence deserves to be respected.

I’m Muslim. There is a Hadith which mentions a man named Abu Damdam who, never fought back no matter what and sacrifices his honor and dignity for God. Absolute action of turn the other cheek.

Or you can exist in this world and try to balance your life in dignity and goodness, using tempered violence if you need. Thing is though, if you do this, normies will call you a try hard or a creep or some thing which normies use to push you out of normal society. In their world, ugly people are undeserving of good things. I remember reading about a girl who bemoaned how ugly men shouldn’t wear good perfumes (because she felt attracted but disgusted when she realized the man was ugly). In a way, her behavior makes sense. No one likes bait and switch, especially by being promised good things then being given terrible things.

Sometimes, destiny pushes you into a corner only to force absolute goodness on you.

People choose what they become.