quote:

ORIGINAL: LaTigresse

I don't play video games but I try to look at driving as a video game. The other cars are just there to challenge my skills. Obstacles to be avoided. I try to forget there are morons behind the wheel of that obstacle. It saves me a lot of uncivil cursing.

But yes, I do think that civility seems to be disappearing. Especially towards those that provide various services. One I see consistently is rudeness to cashiers. We are talking people working a minimum wage job, or nearly so. Many times they are people unable to get a more highly skilled job or kids doing a part time job while in school. Or, often times people that do not have the best life. What possible good does it do to treat them poorly EVEN if they've screwed up? It doesn't help them do their job any better. Usually the opposite.

Yet so many times I've been in a checkout line and seen someone in front of me being an utter asshole (often times some 'sweet' little old lady, or a soccer mom with her cell phone glued to her ear....something else that is rude) to a flustered cashier battling some computerized retard of a cash register. It's just uncalled for.

quote:

ORIGINAL: xxblushesxx

You guys should move to Louisville. I hardly ever see someone being mean to a clerk or waiter. (and I shop a LOT!)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet

I know what you are saying about rudeness to clerks and things.  Unfortunately, those kinds of employees often bear the brunt of anger about their company's policies.  Do people really think that cashiers at department stores are the ones who determine the company's return or staffing policies?  Apparently some people do, since the poor cashiers seem to be the ones who get the blame.

quote:

I think I did cut him some slack, since I did not engage in an argument with him.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet

As I turned around and walked off, he yelled "Do you want to see people die?" 

quote:

Especially towards those that provide various services. One I see consistently is rudeness to cashiers. We are talking people working a minimum wage job, or nearly so. Many times they are people unable to get a more highly skilled job or kids doing a part time job while in school. Or, often times people that do not have the best life. What possible good does it do to treat them poorly EVEN if they've screwed up? It doesn't help them do their job any better. Usually the opposite.

Yet so many times I've been in a checkout line and seen someone in front of me being an utter asshole (often times some 'sweet' little old lady, or a soccer mom with her cell phone glued to her ear....something else that is rude) to a flustered cashier battling some computerized retard of a cash register. It's just uncalled for.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Marc2b

quote:

I think I did cut him some slack, since I did not engage in an argument with him.

Actually, I'm thinking about when you honked.  How long did you wait before you honked?  How loudly?  And how dangerous was the situation?  I know how frustrating it is when someone impedes your driving but sometimes there is a legitimate reason.  I learned about that the hard way, years ago when I was still a young punk.

HONK! HONK!  COME ON YA OLD FART!  YOU WAITING FOR A PARTICULAR SHADE OF GREEN?  HONK! HONK!  MOVE YOUR WRINKLY ASS!  Oh screw this I'm going around him.  VROOOOM!  SCREEEEEECH!  OH SHIT!  AMBULANCE!  Maybe I should turn the music down.

Sure, we can argue that he should have pulled over (or not be driving in the first place) but that point is moot.  He was there and the situation existed.  He was probably scared or he may have been confused about where to turn and the whole heart problem was just a cover story.  Either way it boils down to this:  His stopping in the middle of the road irked you.  Your honking irked him.  Normal (if not exactly admirable) human responses.  I do, in fact think, you did the right thing by walking away when the shouting started.  Now it's time to let it go... just like I no longer dwell on that asshat fucktard who was tailgating me last month!  Oh I hope he gets his!  I hope he ends up in a ditch and slowly bleeds to death!
 
Alright I admit it... these things piss me off too... but that is all the more reason why I strive to overcome such feelings.  Maybe, just maybe, the speed demon was racing home to be at the bedside of his dying mother or something.  It is that lack of knowledge why we should cut people some slack... we never really know.

As for what this has to do with your thread on the Catholics opposistion to having to provide birth control... well, like I said, it just struck me as funny that here you are saying "screw them" and five seconds later I'm reading your complaint about a lack of civility.  It struck me like someone saying "this country is too fat" while they dig their spoon into a pint of Ben & Jerry's.

By the way, if you want to screw the Catholics, be my guest... but bring your own birth control... I don't think they'll provide you with any.