“Old woman moralizes at cloud”
Those ‘good old days’ she harkens back to weren’t so good for a lot of people who didn’t look like her or live in her neighborhood. She and her ilk are concerned about the veneer of civility, of the performative politeness that people used to have to show to the privileged in our society; not being a better society, but maintaining for the privileged the illusion they’re part of a better society.
Yup. When the populace is under extreme stress to grab their share of the miniscule amount of crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table - leading to thousands of homeless and/or unable to find work that pays a living wage - that is when we lash out over seemingly insignificant incidents … because the majority of us are burnt out and bled out from the rich pushing us to fill their coffers.
The satisfaction we should have from a good day’s work has disappeared, and we are the shells of what’s left.
This article confuses following a protocol with good behavior and even politeness. It also ignores the abusive behaviors of the past, which sometimes were more subtle but others not quite - we don’t have to go that far back in public memory to get to the point where open racism or sexism was not only allowed everywhere but almost expected.
Capitalism rewards psychopaths.
I can assure you this goes back well before capitalism
Bad behavior goes back forever, but many cultures dealt with it as a community. A person acting out was seen as a symptom of a group problem.
Now, with everything hyper individualized, and with capitalism in its metastatic era, it’s nearly impossible to hold anyone accountable when they can just flip around and say, “I wanted the money,” and a solid 20% of the population will attack anyone who says that shouldn’t be the primary driver of our society.
The country was never bright and shiny as people delude themselves it was.
It only appeared so with a sanctioned, massive underclass of second class citizens making life feel effortless for the preferred class.
That is what the non-wealthy right-wing craves, a return to Jim-Crow and societal preferential treatment for whites.
The reality though is that the wealth class that owns both wings simply didn’t want to share prosperity with anyone anymore, even the once elevated poories that shared their skin tone and culture/religion. Capitalism always needs to grow/metastasize, and in a finite world, that means eventually eating itself, that started with betraying their favorite lil wage slaves in the wake of the civil rights movement, because we all know that wasn’t going to mean lifting the massive underclass up economically which would require more equitable profit distribution, and today’s megacorps are so hungry and desperate for growth in end stage capitalism that they’re literally consuming other mega corps leaving us with monopolies that have abandoned their own products and service quality but are too big to fail and own their own regulatory bodies.
There was always an underclass in the US, tokens aside, modern Republican voters are just irate that they are now part of that underclass. The American right still believes racial solidarity will be their salvation, the truth is the ones with all the capital no longer see color, only net worth to determine if you are a person like them, or one of their capital generating livestock like us.
As always, the real war that informs all others is class war. All the other -isms are used as tools by the owner class, who always owns the means of mass propaganda btw, to manipulate all the classes below them to compete AGAINST one another instead of uniting against their common enemy.
Divide and profit.
The worst end of behavior is genuinely worse now than it has been for a long time. There have always been problems with it, particularly related to prejudice and class, but casual violence in public was very unusual through most of the previous century. People physically attacking waiters, store clerks, and flight attendants over minor frustrations is a recent development. People sending death threats to strangers as a way of expressing disagreement is mostly new. (As an example, open source software developers now routinely get death threats over bugs or a failure to add particular features.)
Many things that used to be recognized and widely condemned as dangerous behavior have become normalized. Any behavior we accept as “normal” will become so. Is this the world we aspire to?
If only the DHS or FBI, having tapped everyone’s cell phones, would actively police those sending the death threats.
…if only…sigh
Since they don’t, it appears that this is the society they prefer for us all to live in, which is even more chilling, imo.
Physicality doesn’t scare me. People can see fuckwads like this OK Rep threatening fist fights and think they can do the same, but in America, where people pack heat to go to the playground, the dumb few who fuck around will find out real fast, and then those behind them thinking the same will watch as no charges come up due to stand your ground laws and basic self-defense survival instincts.
The public is being primed to lash out prior to the election. They’ll try to raise the heat without it boiling over until next November, then everything is on the table, and rules only apply to the surviving losing actors. Just watch. The playbooks as old as time.
in America, where people pack heat to go to the playground, the dumb few who fuck around will find out real fast
The problem is those packing heat are also people, also with the same issues. What makes you assume the dumb few who fuck around are not also packing heat?
This is actually a big reason I’ve been coming over to the side of gun control. For whatever reason these horrible behaviors seem to be becoming more common or there’s less peer pressure preventing it, the last thing we need is to combine that with lethal weapons
That’s what we get when we breed for greed.
We keep rewarding the shittiest people in society with sex and babies, then we’re surprised when their children turn out even worse.
People are getting crazy. Microplastic poisoning? Lead?
I keep saying the same thing for the last 5 years, micro-plastics are more then likely having some sort of effect on us in behavioral changes.
Other then that as we get older I guess we just start seeing how “odd” the world really is.
The western manufactured diet isn’t helping. What’s great for long term shelf like and better taste to increase sales isn’t necessarily on the same level of what’s healthy for us even in moderation. I mean this beyond the normal what’s banned in other country stuff.
As time goes on they will continue to link physical and mental health issues to diet even though the money is being spent instead on the latest thing being great for profit margins and here’s why we think so…
Those that can put in the work and time to grow their own foods will often live healthier and better lives. I’m in too lazy at times bucket myself but a part of me knows I’m going to pay for it in the long term.
Too bad those preservatives can’t preserve our humanity.
Technically speaking, it’s still humanity. Gnarly, stinky, occasionally awesome humanity.
Opens a history book about the Middle Ages
I don’t want to be cynical but has there ever been a time when bad behavior was not rewarded?
But the culprit in this example is the perceived social hierarchy with service workers at the bottom. If someone is below you then why treat them with respect?
There never was such a time. But the older you get the bigger the chance you experience not being one of the privileged ones anymore and being mislead into the false believe that things have changed, when they actually only changed for you.
Everyone’s special. Everyone’s the main character. There’s never any significant consequences for bad behaviours.
It’s a sign of emotional maturity, frankly I’d call it a lynchpin to adulthood (so without it, yr still a child) when a person can realize that at any given moment the best version of them they can be, might just be as a supporting character to someone else.
“And when did bad behavior become so commonplace?” asks The Boston Globe.
That post photo tough.
