Well, I’ve asserted it a few times and I’ve always had a sense of forthcoming support from the other non-assholes in the queue. I’ve also supported others who have asserted that right. It hasn’t happened often, but when it does a few steely stares and a bit of grumbling usually sends 'em packing.
I don’t remember this sort of thing happening when I was a kid, either. There were lots of free-for-alls, but not so much in the way of carefully planned queue-jumping with accomplices. I’m guessing they would have gotten beaten up. Maybe the girls did it, but I don’t remember that either.
What’s the difference with the guy just cutting in front of you? How do you enforce that? If they are more and/or bigger than you then you are screwed no matter what and if you are more and/or bigger than them then you just toss them out on their ear.
The fact is than in an adult setting with someone to enforce order that would not be acceptable in any way and everyone behind in line would complain.
Adult setting? We’re talking about schoolboy hijinks, aren’t we? The reason that “Chinese cuts” works is that playground justice doesn’t allow for enforcing line privileges all the way to the end.
“I’ll tell you what. Maybe if you got a note from each of these people saying that it was all right, then we’d reconsider, but until that day, take a hike you elitist fraternity scumbag.”
When I was in grade school, lined up one day, the kid in front of me proposed “Chinese cuts”: He put his hands on my shoulders and rotated us both around 360 degrees. So that we wound up in the same positions as where we started. I guessed this rather pointless diversion was just a way to alleviate the tedium of waiting in line.
I’m glad this thread wasn’t about the “death of a thousand cuts.”
That’s an Indian burn! “Indian” is/was often used to denote something that is fake- “Indian summer” is unseasonably hot weather, etc. In this case it feels like a burn, but it’s not really a burn.