Is our society broken?

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IMADreamer
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Is our society broken?

Post by IMADreamer »

I know I've heard others talk about it too, but it seems like a large portion of our society has just gone off the deep end. I'm not even talking about conspiracies or politics. It just seems like the cheese has slide off the cracker in a lot of people. I've seen more people raging in public in the last few months than I have seen in my whole life. It just seems like everyone is angry.

Two anecdotes, because I know you guys love those.

I was hauling grain the other day to the elevator, their was a line, their usually is this time of year. It's no big deal, well about two trucks up this guy gets out and goes up the probe operator and just starts railing on him for a solid two or three minutes. Lots of "this is [expletive]" etc. The entire rest of his time there he was pissed. He was driving pissed, slamming his door, the door to the office, etc. Just nuts.

Number two. I'm at subway the other day inside. They were busy and there are only two high school kids working. This one lady in front of me was being a total [expletive] about everything and micro managing the construction of her sandwich. Then all the sudden from the drive thru I see a sandwich and soda come flying into the store followed by a profanity laced rant. The soda hit the girl working the window right in the face.

It's like WTF is wrong with people? Why is everyone so wound up?

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by CardsofSTL »

I feel like ever since the lockdown happened people forgot how to act in civilized society. I don't know what the correlation is but that is about the timeline where it seems like everyone went nuts.

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Leroy
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by Leroy »

I'm a diabetic. The other day I stopped at a Culver's drive through and ordered a burger and a diet root beer. After a few sips I was thinking it might not be diet. It wasn't. My blood sugar spiked over a hundred points to a level that I have worked harder than hell to never reach again. I was really upset. I called them, talked to the manager and calmly told him that they need to listen more carefully. He offered to send coupons and blah blah but I said don't need that, just tell your employees to listen better. Some people order diet drinks not because they are under some illusion that a diet soda and a double burger will magically make them lose weight, but that the sugar content in a regular soda is just something that their body can't handle.

Anyway, like I said, I was calm, even though very upset feeling my hard work had been wasted. But that approach isn't for everybody. In my opinion, there have always been a-holes. It is just that in the past most of them were shamed into shutting up. Now they just don't care. And really, there are no people willing to step in and tell these a-holes to shut the f up. They would rather record the incident for YouTube. And people see it and think it's cool.

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mikechamp
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by mikechamp »

I feel like the norms started to erode when reality TV came onto the scene. The (concocted) drama and conflict generated viewers, and society just started accepting that kind of behavior. Maybe it was exacerbated during the pandemic when many people were binge-watching whatever they could.

Thankfully, I don't go out much, so I minimize my chances at witnessing the downward trend of society.

@Leroy - in regards to the drive through, Leo Getz had some great advice on drive throughs:

[SHOW]

Superorganism
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by Superorganism »

mikechamp wrote:
December 10 21, 1:55 pm
I feel like the norms started to erode when reality TV came onto the scene. The (concocted) drama and conflict generated viewers, and society just started accepting that kind of behavior. Maybe it was exacerbated during the pandemic when many people were binge-watching whatever they could.

Thankfully, I don't go out much, so I minimize my chances at witnessing the downward trend of society.

@Leroy - in regards to the drive through, Leo Getz had some great advice on drive throughs:

[SHOW]
David Foster Wallace talked about this. The idea that reality TV has eroded our “shame hobble.”

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Leroy wrote:
December 10 21, 12:20 pm
I'm a diabetic. The other day I stopped at a Culver's drive through and ordered a burger and a diet root beer. After a few sips I was thinking it might not be diet. It wasn't. My blood sugar spiked over a hundred points to a level that I have worked harder than hell to never reach again. I was really upset. I called them, talked to the manager and calmly told him that they need to listen more carefully. He offered to send coupons and blah blah but I said don't need that, just tell your employees to listen better. Some people order diet drinks not because they are under some illusion that a diet soda and a double burger will magically make them lose weight, but that the sugar content in a regular soda is just something that their body can't handle.

Anyway, like I said, I was calm, even though very upset feeling my hard work had been wasted. But that approach isn't for everybody. In my opinion, there have always been a-holes. It is just that in the past most of them were shamed into shutting up. Now they just don't care. And really, there are no people willing to step in and tell these a-holes to shut the f up. They would rather record the incident for YouTube. And people see it and think it's cool.
I've learned to never order diet fountain drinks at a restaurant/anywhere other people pour them. Just not worth it. Even when they get it right, you'll be wondering if it's diet from here on out. Easier to just stop at a gas station and get what you want...or not drink diet sodas at all.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

People do seem to be angrier now than ever before.

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Joe Shlabotnik
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
December 13 21, 7:48 am
People do seem to be angrier now than ever before.
There's a lot to be angry and worried about. Weather's more extreme, we're headed for fascism and all that entails, more different kinds of people are demanding to be heard, and inflation is kicking everybody's ass.

Have a nice day.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Joe Shlabotnik wrote:
December 13 21, 9:16 am
AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:
December 13 21, 7:48 am
People do seem to be angrier now than ever before.
There's a lot to be angry and worried about. Weather's more extreme, we're headed for fascism and all that entails, more different kinds of people are demanding to be heard, and inflation is kicking everybody's ass.

Have a nice day.
Are the people that are angry really affected by inflation, the general direction of the country towards more authoritarian rule, or the weather? Not that they're not issues, but I don't get that those are the underlying causes. I get the sense that SOME people are incessantly worked up about anything they can find to be worked up about and have a general bad disposition because of it. As such, they display their anger for the world to see. It doesn't take a mob to give the sense that people seem to be angrier now. Encountering one or two people a week like that will convey that sense of anger to the point of being perceptible, imo.

I'll give an example that I was thinking about last night. I went camping on the lake with a few friends over the weekend. Very little human interaction, but we still saw/talked to probably 50 people out there. Be it boaters passing by and waving, attendants at the marina, other people at the dock, etc. All friendly and good times. Except one guy who yelled at me for something as I was pulling into the dock. From my perception he was about as mad as one could get for no reason. And, that's what sticks out. IDK why he was mad, I guess I was going too fast in the no wake zone, though, I'd contest that. But, sheesh, he just started going off. Gave him a thumbs up and went about my business, which set him off even more. Looking back at the weekend which was great, the most memorable person was that ass hole that was yelling. But, by and large, everyone else was congenial. The anger makes him more memorable though.

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mikechamp
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Re: Is our society broken?

Post by mikechamp »

I just wanted to put on the record that I don't know who David Foster Wallace is. It is merely coincidence that I share his opinion/theory.

However, as I live, I'm more and more of the belief that there isn't a truly original thought. Given the number of people in the world, someone out there has probably had the same or very similar thought as I have/had.

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