This is from a 93 year old woman that can’t remember her name. Do you think she gives a crap about what you think. She doesn’t give a crap about what anyone thinks. She’s earned that right. I thought the whole thing was refreshing.
I don’t believe that that exists as a right or is something that can be earned. If you are speaking with another human being, you are obligated to care.
She 93 years old and suffers from Alzheimer’s. She don’t give a shit about anything, especially what you think.
You’re the one granting her some kind of phantom “rights,” not me. She was lucid enough while being an asshole, even if she forgot about it later. That tells me that had she not been suffering from Alzheimer’s, she might actually have been an asshole anyway.
Eh, this atheist disagrees. But y’know, whatever - each to their own. Which is pretty much how I feel about mindlessly friendly platitudes, religious or not, which is rather different IMHO than a political loudmouth. But then I’m a non-evangelical atheist. I couldn’t give a shit if this country remains pluralistically Christian until the heat death of the sun.
Go spend a day at a memory care facility. Look at what Alzheimer’s and dementia is doing to these folks. Look at their minds slowly slipping into a fog that has no cure. The hollow look in their eyes as they try to remember the past. Look at that old lady holding her grand daughter for the first time. She won’t remember that day. The old man telling a story about fishing in a creek as a young boy. Everyone has heard it 20 times. It’s all he has of a long life she spent raising his 12 children. He doesn’t remember the names of any of them. My mother in law thinks my wife is her cousin Eldora. Eldora passed away 30 years ago. I sit and hold her hand for half an hour, she has no idea who I am. These people have earned the right. If you don’t think so, you’re the asshole.
^ Kinda sounds like it.
They’ve been struck by a disease. That’s unfortunate; however, that’s not “earning” anything, particularly not a right that I don’t recognize as existing. And it certainly doesn’t convert rude behavior into a virtue. It may be unavoidable; it may be unfortunate; it may be pitiable; but it’s nothing to celebrate.
I just don’t see the harm in letting people use the words they want to use, unless the words they are using are slurs. I don’t presume that someone saying “have a blessed day” thinks I’m a Christian. I just think that’s how they say “have a good day.” Someone saying “I appreciate you” is just saying thank you.
It just seems that life is too full of hardship and hurt to get upset about how people decide to word thing. Unless we’re talking slurs or something, it just doesn’t seem to be worth it to care.
Life is full of little annoyances, and it’s better not to add to them. That’s not to say you can’t get angry about injustice, but that’s different from annoyances. Annoyances are just life.
I hear it from African-Americans. About half the time I hear it it comes from White people. Funny, though - it’s the White people who are more likely to follow up with Bible tracts, invitations to come to their church, and proselytizing.
Sure, let people use their words. I’ll sometimes use my words in return. I sometimes feel condescending if I don’t let my atheism shine.
I agree with this. Someone cuts you off in traffic, you get to choose how to react. If I react poorly, I try to stop myself and ask why I am letting that person, a stranger I’ll never see again, manipulate me. Getting blessed during a thank you is no biggee. I’ll keep my powder dry for other, more irritating behavior.
How about telling retail staff, “Thank you for your service.” 
When I see panhandlers on the street, one way they can ensure that I will NOT give them $ is to have a sign saying, “God bless you.” I figure, if they believe in a deity worth believing in, they’re good.
Lately I’ve realized my tendency to say, “Take care” upon certain departures. Coincidentally, we recently watched a Seinfeld ep in which he made fun of that phrase. Has made me a tad self-conscious about saying it, but not concerned enough to make the effort to change it. Instead, I consider it benign and innocuous. Not sure what percentage of folk who say, “God bless you” feel similarly, as opposed to witnessing or something else.
I say “Gesundheit” when people sneeze. My mom used to say that (and several other German phrases) when we were young. Quite recently, my wife commented on my practice, indicating that she believed it meant “God bless you.”
Corporate-speak drives me nuts. One of our execs tendds to end emails with “With thanks,” which always strikes me as annoyingly prissy. Also starting a sentence with “Let us” needs to stop (“Let us meet tomorrow to discuss.”).
When I was a teenager I worked in a stationery store that was frequented by a lot of senior citizens, and I remember one woman who would close out her transactions (usually dropping more on lottery tickets in one day than I made in a month) with “I thank you very much.” with a lilt that was I’m sure meant to be endearing but which made my skin crawl in its sugaryness.
I know, I know, she was just being nice, and was trained in etiquette/politeness sometime during the William Lyon MacKenzie King era, but still.
I also say it, to avoid blessing anyone. But probably a lot of people think it means “god bless you”…maybe I’ll have to start using Seinfeld’s “You’re soooo good-looking.”
Of course, when used between the 2 of us it has the added benefit of actually being true!
It is German for “health”.
After seeing it suggested in a meme, I reply to loud sneezes in my office with “Godzilla” as it’s non-denominational.
I reply with ‘Zingo!’ No I don’t know what I mean either.
Back when I worked in an office pre Covid, I had a co-worker that would sneeze 10 times in a row. Little sneezes, but still sneezes. I emailed her once . Gesundheit, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet, gesundhiet.
It is quite possibly an explicit attempt at proselytizing in a particular place. I have no reason to deny your experience. However, I have not ever encountered anyone using it that way and I suspect that when it is used that way it is a very localized phenomenon.
Read the exchange, again. I am not about to get into a discussion of “rights,” but what I saw was a delivery man being a bit rude to an old lady with dementia and the old lady–probably long past the stage of maintaining any sense of decorum–snapping back at his rudeness.