perhaps we should have begun by discriminating between forms of behaviour we tolerate and those which we don’t condone. We can apply different sorts of ideas in different situations. kids flick boogers and throw eggs and smell and smoke on the bus, but I am not going to pull a knife or call the fuzz. Nor am I going to sit there with a big frown, mutter under my breath, pissing and whining.
There isn’t any point in chasing down a car for sixteen miles, blasting your horn and frowning because he cut you off and increased the probability that you would die. A similar event happened here and the guy happened to be a violent psychopath. Rather than taking down his registration and reporting him, the inflicted flagged the guy down and got stabbed to death.
so once more to address the OP in a different manner: one that calls for a hypothetical approach, rather than a practical solution to relatively small matters (which would better be served without aversive reactions) -
WHY- er… more freedom, less care, less punishment.
WHAT’s wrong - some follow rules and have manners, others do not. they’re self absorbed, as robert redford (aka zenny) put it. some people have no discipline. Our lifestyles sometimes collide making difference a matter of like and dislike.
In sum I think it only matters if it affects other people in real ways, and not only their value system. If you don’t like, don’t look.
The problem is that such behaviour isn’t just rude, impolite and offensive, it’s threatening. If a person lacks the social inhibitions not to fondle themselves in public, what’s to make us believe that he doesn’t lack other social inhibitions? Such people affect the rest of us in very real ways. They scare us. They lessen our otherwise pleasant experiences, such as, in this case, a trip to the beach. How could I know that he wasn’t going to whip it out and do a Silence of the Lambs thing on Pricegal? Or would you consider that not affecting someone else in a real way? Using your logic, there’s no reason to be offended by that either, since it’s only “affecting our value system”, as you put it. People flashing young children, guys yelling to women to show their breasts, it’s all “value system”.
And yes, when it’s something sexual it’s worse. If you don’t understand why, then I think you’re neither a woman or a parent, and don’t have close female friends or partners.
you’ve got a point and I agree to an extent. Many would prefer other people to exhibit conventional behaviours; ones we are conditioned to accept. Yet there are those with extreme behavioural ‘problems’, and we, as a society are only prepared to offer short term solutions, accepting that ‘the’ unspecified society has psychiatric institutions.
anyway, perhaps it would be better to suggest differences between overtly intentional behaviours, designed to provoke the ‘normal’ community, as opposed to covert nut scratchers and the like. I believe that tolerance (to ‘put up with’) is important in some situations, but this might be an inappropriate attitude to adopt here, depending on whether this ‘threatening character’ meant to be threatening. In the OP it became clear to me that it does ‘take two to tango’. What was initially a harmless display of uncultivated maleness, turned into a potential brawl. This did not need to occur, although I acknowledge your role of ‘male protector’ so I am not wholly qualified to judge on this matter except in a hypothetical sense, void of context.
I believe that i would have evaluated the situation from second to second, particularly where proximity made way for a proposed spunk chuck- even though this notion seems implausible and hyperbolic from the comfort of my garden chair. Only you actually know whether this person is capable of the extremes posited, but it certainly doesn’t help to demonise a character or to judge their thoughts. Never judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in their moccasins.
‘get over it’ is the WORST attitude anyone can ever have. Whenever someone tells me to just ‘get over it’ It makes my blood boil. I prefer to actually DEAL with the friggen problem instead of just turning a blind eye. I am part of this generation, and I agree most of us are morons with no morals (me excluded).
oh yea, and nisosbar, you are a brain-dead fuckstew half-witted cocknozzle.
If this is where the world’s heading, take me out back and shoot me, cause I don’t wanna live in a world where’s people seriously think playing with their dicks in OR out of their pants in public is socially fucking acceptable behavior.
Priceguy, I was just thinking about this very subject yesterday. I swear to all that’s holy, I am >this< close to becoming so overwhelmingly disgusted by the utter stupidity and willfull, selfish, self-destructive tendencies of the populace at large, that I lose all faith in humanity as a species. Fuck it, let the dolphins have it, they got bigger brains than us anyways.
Ok, then next time you take a girl out for a first date, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you stuck your hand down the front of your pants and left it there through dinner.
After all, it’s socially acceptable behavior now, apparently.
Who knows what the guy was really doing. I mean, unless Priceguy asked the guy specifics, we have only assumption and hearsay.
However, if the guy was being obscene, then I believe the best course of action is to ignore him. If he’s trying to be obscene, he’s trying to get a reaction out of people, and he obviously got a reaction out of Priceguy. By reacting, he is only encouraged to continue his behavior, because he knows it works.
Hey… that’s what I was trying to do to Twisty on our first date…
Opalcat, “Bollocks” means lots of things…
from www.effingpot.com (An American’s Guide to British)
“Bollocks - This is a great English word with many excellent uses. Technically speaking it means testicles but is typically used to describe something that is no good (that’s bollocks) or that someone is talking rubbish (he’s talking bollocks). Surprisingly it is also used in a positive manner to describe something that is the best, in which case you would describe it as being “the dog’s bollocks”. Englishmen who live in America take great delight in ordering specialised registration plates for their cars using the letters B.O.L.L.O.X. Good eh?”
I knew the “talking rubbish” one, but I never knew what the “literal” definition was. Sort of like someone knowing the usage of “shit” as an expletive but not knowing it meant feces.
I knew the “talking rubbish” one, but I never knew what the “literal” definition was. Sort of like someone knowing the usage of “shit” as an expletive but not knowing it meant feces.
