I listen to YouTube videos at work, and sometimes there will be stories about so-called entitled people. Usually this is about inappropriate me-first behavior in restaurants, checkout lines, etc.
However, a number of stories describes what seems to me an unlikely situation. And by the number of stories, this is a more common occurrence than I would’ve guessed.
The story involves a public place usually, a bus or a park or something. A single person has a video game or comic book or something that they are playing or reading. It’s always a person with no children. A little kid shows interest in the object, and the person shows them the item, but goes back to playing or reading or whatever. The kid goes back to their parent, usually a mom, and soon the parent goes up to the person and offers to buy the game or book or whatever. The person refuses to sell, so the parent gets indignant and demands that the person flat out give the object to his or her child, saying the person is too old for the game or whatever. The parent causes a great big scene and winds up humiliating their kid. But never the single person who’s always in the right in this story. The single person always comes off victorious.
Oddly, the kids in these stories are never portrayed as spoiled brats. They’re always just interested in the item, and quietly sitting there wishing they were somewhere else while their parent demands the property of a complete stranger.
Does this storyline sound even remotely plausible to you? Are there really people who loudly demand that a stranger give some trinket of theirs to their child? Isn’t this close enough to strong arm robbery that most folks wouldn’t think of doing it? “Give your Gameboy to my child now! You’re too old for it?’” Does that seem like something somebody would say to a stranger in real life?
In one story, the object in question was a dog, for chrissake. “My child loves your dog! Give it to her!”
Does this ever happen in real life? I bet not. I think these stories are bullshit. Urban legend Lookit ME! I’m on YouTube! Crap.
The stories are usually told by robot voices anyway. Can’t imagine where the stories come from.
the subreddit choosingbeggars has a lot of stories like this, no idea how many are true or not.
Having met some shitty people, I have seen behavior similar to this but not exactly. Its more common among dysfunctional low class people though. So if you don’t run in those circles you may not see it as much.
Low class or lower class? I’ve never seen it in my years of working with the underprivileged or on any of the city buses I ride. Of course, that’s anecdotal evidence based on my experience only, so probably not worth much. Do you have a cite I could check out, or is this based on your own experience only?
I know what kind of videos the OP’s talking about. Most, but not all, are from Reddit and its spinoffs.
A lot of the stories on there sound like urban legends or creative writing exercises, especially the kind the OP is describing. I haven’t personally witnessed it either.
The only slightly believable versions are the ones where the entitled parent wants the game or toy for their kid to play with for the duration of a flight or some such. Not something I’ve ever seen or heard of first hand though.