I don’t know about you, but it sure seems that we are living in the Golden Age of Rudeness. People feel that they are entitled to behave badly in so many public situations, and it is really affecting everyday life. I’m not sure if it’s a symptom or a cause of our current demonize-your-opponent political climate. I do know, however, that we seem to be seeing a whole lot more bad behavior in public than ever before.
All one has to do is watch the news or head over to YouTube to see examples of this horrendous behavior. Since air travel resumed after the pandemic, flight attendants and gate agents have often been victims of these socially challenged malcontents. The verbal and physical abuse that issues forth from these raging loons has resulted in actual bodily injury, as well as the mental scars they leave behind.
A passenger, enraged after being asked to wear a mask, turned into a rabid dog, complete with growling, barking and snapping. Another strange dude wearing a paper Burger King crown launched into a racist tirade, calling other passengers the n-word repeatedly. A woman standing in the aisle of the aircraft would not allow a flight attendant to get past her, loudly proclaiming that she was a queen and that everyone should bow to her.
That kind of behavior during the boarding process usually results in the offensive passenger’s removal from the aircraft by the local constabulary before takeoff. When a passenger gets unruly during flight, the crew and other passengers often secure the aircraft by duct-taping the loud-mouthed loser to his or her seat.
A new breed of public offenders are the so-called sovereign citizens and First Amendment auditors. Sovereign citizens believe that they don’t need things like driver licenses or license plates, that they don’t have to identify themselves to law enforcement, and that they are above any local governing law. Their traffic stops almost always end badly … for the sovereign citizen. The First Amendment auditors specialize in taking video cameras into courthouses, post offices and other government buildings where shooting video is not allowed, mostly for privacy reasons. They often shove their cameras or cell phones into people’s faces and make horrible asses of themselves before law enforcement officers send them packing or take them into custody. These folks are real entitled pieces of … work.
There are a whole lot of “Karen” videos that feature the disturbed outbursts of entitled men and women who are rude to customer service people, demand to see a manager, and otherwise make people’s lives a living hell. Whether it’s the fast food drive-through, the mall store, or the customer service window at the bank, Karens come unglued and ruin the days of everyone around them. Workers who are just trying to do their jobs don’t deserve to be treated like the personal slaves of these Karens.
We are all familiar with road rage incidents, where people feel that they and they alone own the road. Those entitled drivers feel justified in cutting other drivers off for no reason, making left turns from the rightmost lane – and need I mention turn signals? Down here in the islands, that vehicular madness sometimes makes its way to boats. Several years back, a lobster diver was arrested for using a firearm to scare other divers away from “his” hole. This really happened. I hope “your” hole was worth the jail time.
Some of the worst sub-human behavior happens in public restrooms. The worst is when I go into a toilet stall, and the guy before me was just too damn lazy to raise the toilet seat before hosing down just about everything he could reach. I’m really not sure why people think this is an okay thing to do.
I just hope I haven’t given anyone any ideas here. Life is way too short to have to deal with the boorish and entitled, and let’s hope their numbers dwindle as cell phone videos of the unhinged call them out for their bad behavior. I’ll leave you with this bit of sage advice: In a world where you can be anything, be kind.
– Catch John each Monday at Boondocks, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Key Colony Inn, and Thursdays at Sparky’s Landing. Find his music anywhere you download or stream your music. www.johnbartus.com
