Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Another List: Rude Things People Do

There is currently no shortage of rude people on this planet, but we are, unfortunately, prohibited from removing them from the gene pool.   Somewhere along the way, being polite has become passe, particularly among our youth.  I was discussing rude people with a friend of mine the other day and came up with a list of stupid things that rude people do.  Here's a few of the contenders.


Driving while yammering on their cell phone.  This one drives me nuts (no pun intended).  These clowns routinely cause traffic accidents, compound congestion, cut other drivers off, drive too slow/fast, weave all over the damned place, and generally drive like the morons that they are.  I haven't decided if their habit of endangering others is due to arrogance, or just stupidity, but it certainly is rude.  My wife and I saw a gentleman with a handwritten sign in his car window that read, "Get off of your damned phone and drive, a$$hole!"  To him I say, "Bravo!"



Parents that let their undisciplined offspring act like amphetamine-fueled heathens in public. You know which kids I'm talking about--The ones that run loose in restaurants and pester other patrons, the ones that scream or talk ceaselessly in movie theaters (usually along with their alleged parents), the ones that kick the back of your seat on the plane...the list goes on forever.  The parents of these little future welfare recipients pay absolutely no attention to the kids' behavior, or they offer, at most, a halfhearted, "oh, stop; don't do that," once in a while.  If, after putting up with their kids' unacceptable behavior for a while, you dare to say something to the parent, the parent will almost certainly act offended, defensive, and almost accusatory in their rabid defense of their little angel.  It's a shame that these people were allowed to breed.


Mothers pushing strollers down the middle of the street.  I haven't figured out if giving birth to a child causes a mother to suffer from a certain type of selective blindness or not, but they seem incapable of noticing and making use of the perfectly good sidewalks that line their residential neighborhoods.  Roads are meant for driving on; it's annoying as can be to have to stop or drive like I'm negotiating an obstacle course because one or more mothers has decided to push their offspring down the middle of the street in their ridiculously elaborate strollers.  These pinheads often engage in this rude behavior in pairs (or more), walking two or three abreast down the middle of the road.  Did they not pay attention to their own parents as kids?  Try rolling down your window and politely asking them to use the sidewalk; you will almost certainly get a disapproving scowl from these self-important dolts, combined with some sort of weak excuse like, "All six of us can't walk next to each other on the sidewalk!"  They need to get the hell over themselves and stay out of the street.

Shoppers that leave their unattended cart/buggy in the middle of the aisle. The aisles in our local supermarket are not very wide as it is; when some inconsiderate person leaves their cart in the middle of it, the aisle becomes all but impassable.  Granted, it might take them an extra couple of seconds to push it to the side of the aisle, but that doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation to me.  These folks act as if they are the only ones entitled to shop that day.  Sometimes, I'm tempted to grab the cart and park it on a different aisle; the oblivious shopper probably wouldn't notice.




Shoppers that don't know why the frozen food section has glass doors.  Have you ever seen a shopper standing in the frozen food aisle of the supermarket with a glassy-eyed look on their face, holding the glass freezer doors open for minutes at a time?  Have you ever tapped them on the shoulder and said, "Hey, do you know why the door is glass?  It's so you can decide what you want before you open the door."  If you've ever said that, you've undoubtedly had the shopper respond by looking at you like you have a penis growing out of your forehead.  They don't comprehend that the door stays fogged up for half an hour after their confused effort to pick out a TV dinner has ended; they probably don't care either, because they're rude and inconsiderate of others.


People that don't pick up after their dogs.  This one has been around for as long as people have had pets.  Most people that walk their dogs will carry a plastic bag, or some other method or device for picking up after their dog when it craps on somebody's lawn (those in rural areas obviously don't need to bother with such things).  A growing number of people don't bother with such distractions and just leave their mutt's droppings wherever they happen to land.  I'd like to follow a few of those folks home, squat over the hood of their car, and take a dump on it.


These are just a few examples of the things that rude people do.  Got any examples of your own?