why are you so stubborn in the face of such overwhelming opposition to your ideas?
Cite?
(Setting aside the fact that we’re not in the same country - I’ve also lived in Manhattan, which *is *in the same country as you, and where greeting staranges in the street is equally rude as it is in Tel Aviv).
I don’t agree there is overwhelming opposition.
I live and work in a low population density county. People are generally pretty relaxed and friendly to one another. For example, we actually stop and let other cars merge into our lane. No, really!
My neighborhood has no sidewalks. When I’m walking my dog down the road, and I encounter you walking your dog down the road, the dogs at least notice each other. Perforce, you and I must notice each other too. We both smile and exchange pleasantries like “Hi” and “Nice day!”
Our town has a “downtown” about a block long. Lunchtime on weekdays, or weekend evenings, the sidewalks can be pretty crowded. Virtually nobody exchanges pleasantries, or offers unsolicited greetings. Exceptions are people who know each other and recognize each other when approaching them. Some of these, but not nearly a majority, will make eye contact which, if returned, might result in a smile and “Hi”. But most of the time, we will each continue our separate trips down the sidewalk without nods, smiles, or vocalizations. And this in what would be considered a small, friendly town.
I was born in Brooklyn, and occasionally visit the New Your metropolitan area. I think I echo others experienced in the mysteries of city life in stating that casual verbal greetings offered to strangers passing on the sidewalks are exceedingly rare. When encountered, they are viewed as strange, even intrusive, and perhaps marking someone who “isn’t from around here”.
I don’t have a cite.
But I’m not sure I have the burden of proof here. Isn’t it your task to demonstrate that the behavior is rude?
As a though experiment, I am certain that a nationwide survey would NOT show that most people consider it rude to nod at a passerby and say, “Hi.”
Right?
well then you are either a liar or insane. you seem quite lucid so the only option is liar.
Can’t people on both sides of the “hi” issue agree that social norms and conventions are different in different places, so what’s rude in one place isn’t in another? I’m not really understanding this argument.
of course they are different:
saying hi to hot looking women that walk down the street and ONLY hot looking women is different than saying “hi”. it’s really saying, hey baby, i wanna fuck you!!!
Please explain how your innocent, ‘Hi’ is to be distinguished from the ‘Hi’, that is nothing but an opening line, wherein the slightest glance, or hint of acknowledgement, and the creeper ups his game, to, ‘How you doing?’, and is now trailing the girl and chatting her up?
Women are supposed to be polite to every street comment thrown their way, on the off chance it’s just an innocent ‘Hi’?
How can you ignore the obvious again, and again?
Well, in a place whee everybody says “hi” to everybody, it probably can’t. But again, it comes down to convention, doesn’t it?
i find it hard to believe that you really can’t tell the difference between saying hi to hot looking women, and only hot looking women, and a normal hi. to be sure, the best thing to do is to have a guy walking down the street and see how many unsolicited hellos he gets. but the only reason we need that is to quiet nay sayers like you, i don’t think any intelligent, objective people are going to question the validity of the original video.
Are you connecting to everybody, or just the pretty young women with big boobs? Because that’s really the dividing line here–people who are being friendly with everybody are truly just being friendly, but people who are being friendly with lone women and only the lone women have something else going on. Trying to conflate the two is deluded at best and deliberately disingenuous at worst.
When I’m having the audacity to parade my tits down the street in a t-shirt,* and a guy who I’ve seen smiling and greeting everybody he encounters smiles and says “Hi” to me, that’s not creepy or scary or skeevy or threatening. Even if he adds that I have pretty hair or a nice smile or that color looks nice on me, that’s not skeevy. I’m not being singled out, so his compliment is simply a compliment.
If I’m walking down the street in the exact same outfit, and someone who has been completely silent and ignoring everyone suddenly smiles and says “Hello” to me, I’m automatically wary. It’s skeevy and worrisome because there has to be some reason he’s singled me out. There are innocent possible reasons, like he’s mistaken me for someone else or subconsciously associates me with someone he has genuine affection for and has an instinctual urge to be nicer to me than to other people. But there are also a lot of reasons that aren’t innocent, and are likely to lead to unpleasant consequences if I don’t respond the way he wants me to. If I ignore being singled out, I might get called a fat ugly stuck-up bitch who should be grateful people are trying to be nice to me. If I respond politely, this guy might think I’m into him and follow me around trying to get me to go out with him, and become verbally abusive when I keep turning him down. Hell, he might get physically abusive.
I’ve never had anyone get physical with me in a situation like that, thank Og, but I’ve had guys accuse me of being racist for not agreeing to go out with them while I was engaged, I’ve had guys damn near sprain their necks trying to look down my shirt, I’ve had lots of them “accidentally” brush up against my boob. And every single last one of those interactions began with someone just offering a friendly greeting that he wasn’t offering everyone else.
*I cannot believe that someone espoused the idea that this woman was dressed suggestively. I’m not sure I want to live on this planet anymore.
You’re sick dude.
I’m not questioning the validity of the original video, I don’t think I’m saying nay to anything, and I have no doubt that a guy walking down the street would get fewer unsolicited hellos. So I’m not entirely sure why your comment was directed to me, but ok!
Just for clarity, ALL people in this thread have agreed that those guys in the film were rude monsters. The subject shifted to a polite greeting in passing, without any attempt to impede the progress of or insult the other person.
no, but you are clearly in denial
well then what are you objecting too???
No. Der Trihs is an MRA type.
Primarily Bricker’s assertion that it’s always appropriate to say hi to somebody, I guess? (and I guess the opposite assertion, that it’s never appropriate to say hi to a stranger?) I’m not really sure I’m objecting to anything, though…pretty much just agreeing with Monstro’s earlier comment of:
No, but don’t you understand? Politeness trumps culture. If a person from a more polite culture finds a cultural practice impolite, then he may - nay, must - ignore it in order to teach the natives manners.