Rude People Suck - Part I

Here comes another rant.  Does anyone remember the bumper sticker that was popular in the mid-90s, "Mean People Suck"?  I bought a similar bumper sticker around that time that said "Trendy People Suck" but I decided actually displaying it on my bumper would make me "trendy" so I would, in a way, be making fun of myself, and I didn't want to do that.

Anyway, I've seen so many rude people during the past few months that I want to bring those stickers back (and billboards, and posters, and jail time), only this time, proclaiming "Rude People Suck" instead of mean people.  I think some people are just born mean, while people learn to be rude, either from an entitled upbringing or ignorant parents, and usually both.  I remember as a child that I was told to say "please" and "thank you" and to just be aware of other people and my surroundings.  I had to share the planet with everyone else.  I'll admit, there are times when I'm out in public or in a store, and I'm in a zone, reading ingredients or fat content, and I don't realize that people are trying to get around me, and as soon as I do (either by myself or they say excuse me), I immediately apologize and get out of the way.  I don't want to be rude.  Get ready folks, I'm about to unleash my fury...

I (and all of us) stillhave to share the planet, and that means we need to resort back to the golden rule.  Now, I've seen many people in the past few weeks and months who either don't know what the golden rule is, or have forgotten.  So, I'm going to do you a favor and tell you what it is:  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  Short and sweet.  Then why is it that no one remembers this one teeny-tiny little sentence?  This is my opinion, based on many, many years of observation (I like to think of myself as a student of the human condition):  many people were never actually taught that the world did not revolve around them/owe them/cater to them.  In truth, depending on upbringing, they may have been taught the opposite, that the world does revolve around them.  So, I'm going to play the role of parent, priest, shrink, and most importantly, fellow human being:  hey dingbats, the world does NOT revolve around you.  You are not the only living creature on the planet and you had better get used to it!

• For instance, today, at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, the man in the glasses and the white and green striped shirt:  you were rude.  My boyfriend and I said "excuse me" twice to get around you, but you ignored us.  I know you heard us.  You AND your wife were rude.  The next time it happens, I'm going to sketch you (only because it is illegal to take a picture without someone's consent) and put you on Craigslist, ok, so stop it.  You are breathing the air I breathe and you put your pants on one leg at a time like everyone else (unless you wear skirts in private, then, well, that's your business but you should let your wife know).  Enough said.

• Again, today in A Southern Season in Chapel Hill (hmmm, I'm sensing that this is where the rude asses congregate, and believe me, they do), the two middle-aged ladies in the hot sauce aisle, taking up the entire aisle and as I said excuse me to get by you, you looked at me and didn't move:  In case you didn't realize it, you were RUDE.  OK, you weren't just rude, you were bitches.  I suggest some estrogen, or even better, staying home and having your gourmet sauces delivered to you.  For those of you ladies going through menopause, I'm not making fun of you.  I will be there myself one day, but I can assure you, I will have a medicine cabinet full of drugs and will not be a pain in the ass to society.  See above.  The next time I see you there and you act like complete idiots, I will sketch, Craigslist, etc.  Got it?  Good.

• For the woman who let her smelly dirty-diaper-wearing kid sit on the counter at the drug store last week, you were rude.  You may think your kid is awesome, even when he poops, I don't.  Keep him off of public counters where others do business, especially picking up prescriptions.  Thank you.

• And finally, to the woman who threw trash out of her car window on Leadmine and Glenwood on Friday, June 19, around 6 pm (in a dark blue sedan, I don't remember the make), you are not only rude, but stupid.  You were not satisfied with throwing onepiece of trash out the window, but you rolled down the window again and threw a second piece out!  Were you raised in a barn?  I'm serious.  If you were, maybe I understand a bit, that your parents were the last of the Neanderthals and you don't know any better (I'm glad you've advanced enough to learn to drive a car, you should be proud of your species).  If you weren't, then you should be forced to pick up trash along the highways with the convicts, or even better, you should be forced to live within 10 feet of a garbage dump.  No one throws thrash out of car windows anymore (at least in the last 10 years) unless you are a moron.  I hate it when my car is cluttered from the stuff I thrown on the floor of it, but it is not even near my realm of thinking to throw trash out of my car window.  If I see you doing it again (my boyfriend and I got your tag number), I'll call the cops and have you hauled in for littering and for stupidity (OK, I know stupidity isn't really a crime, but I'm going to lobby for it to become one).  Grow up.  The highways that my tax dollars pay to keep clean are important to me.  You might want to pass this along to your parents also and thank them for fire and the wheel (or was that the Cromagnum instead of Neanderthal?), but it is time to evolve.  Manners do count.

--Fortuitous Observer

Comments

[Tim]

I hear you and agree, but you should "slow your roll" as i remember a few stories that you could include, involving yourself. We are all stupid, ignorant, and even retarded at different points of our life, but being judgmental is worst in my opinion. I am not god (maybe a king according to my sleep talking) but I try to refrain from judging other people as I find I do like to be judged. Acceptance is the key to happiness even when it is hard to stomach.

[Tammy Lowers]

Preach it sister!!!

[Theresa]

People are always rude to us at Southern Season too! One horrid waitress at Weathervane had the nerve to make fun of Nick's glorious beard after failing to put us on the wait list for a table.

[Ariel]

We all make judgement calls, it's how we navigate through life. Do I wash that greasy tuna down w/a diet coke or do have a whole wheat muffin w/an orange juice? We make calls on peeps we meet on the street, however consciously or fleetingly, just like many other animals and if we enounter someone who acts like smug, entitled bozo, it's natural to think of them as such unless proven otherwise. Ideally, you see said behavior and think, "If nothing else, I'm not going to be like that person who yaks away on their cell phone at the table next to me while I'm eating." We're going to make judegement calls on people all the time, the point is to occasionally vent, move on, adapt and try not to emulate those behaviors which annoyed us.