Rudeness and rule-breaking is the new "normal" in "civil" behavior

 

Rudeness seems to be the rule of the day, whether in politics or society. I thought it was rude of Rolling Stone magazine not to name Colonel Kurtz as the dastardly villain daring to upset MeToo orthodoxy in the Marilyn Manson case in a hit piece in which she was clearly implied as joining the “misogynistic” campaign against both phony “survivors” and their supporters—specifically of the female variety like Kat Tenbarge—in the mainstream media.

The Colonel was obviously not named because she is, well, a woman too, and she has been the most vocal supporter of Manson's innocence of the abuse charges made by Evan Rachel Wood and her gangsters, and has managed to get other YouTube “influencers” on board. Obviously RS by not naming her site is to avoid anyone finding out what their "fuss" is all about. Curiously, Manson’s twitter page seems to focus almost exclusively on his music with no mention of Wood, his defamation case against her or the “controversy” surrounding the case on social media, for or against.

Rolling Stone’s rude behavior can be explained as being too fearful of being exposed as the worst kind of hypocrite. In 2014 it printed a piece entitled “Rape on Campus” written by one of its editors, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, which detailed the story of a woman named “Jackie” who claimed to have been forced into oral sex by a gang of fraternity members outside of their house. I’ve written about the case here https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/2014/12/not-alleged-victims-role-to-tell-truth.html  and here https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/2015/04/pimping-by-media.html and these two headlines from Reuters nicely summarize “the rest of the story”:

 

 

Anyone paying attention to the “conversation” on social media knows that most of the rude and disrespectful behavior is coming not from those trying to expose the truth about false accusations, but from those shouting over them in an attempt to silence and gaslight them. Unfortunately for the gaslighters, unlike in the mainstream media where people who question the established narrative are quickly surrounded by the “cancel culture” vultures and picked apart into submission, truth-seekers on social media are people who only need to have the courage of their convictions.

In political debate, we are seeing now what happens when children are put in charge. When Reps. Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Green start their engines, there is just loud backfires and no forward movement, and their only notion to “fix” the problem of credibility, according to Gaetz, is to kick those pesky Democrats off the committees so they stop being rude “nuisances” about the truth.

Of the hearings themselves, Kris Kolesnik in The Hill writes “The 'whistleblowers' aren’t really whistleblowers; rather, they’re apparently aggrieved, card-carrying members of the MAGA-verse. The expert witnesses have had little relevant expertise to be convincing. Their documentation — so far — is flimsy.” While the January 6 committee conducted its business with professionalism and a minimum of hubris, “The Republicans’ predicament is the public is becoming increasingly skeptical about Chicken Little-style fearmongering.”

Rude behavior also seems to be hypocritically allowed to some, but not for others. For all their bluster about "free speech," it is Republicans who are most animated not just by the desire to deny others their free speech rights, but to put it into law like any ordinary fascists. Gov. Ron DeSantis constantly insults people with differing opinions than he has, and he apparently believes that giving racist white people the ability to be rude in their opinions about people of other races and ethnicities is just fine. “History” as taught in schools by law must now omit anything that white students would be made to feel “personally responsible for,” like slavery and Jim Crow.

The philosopher George Santayana told us that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and DeSantis and Florida Republicans are not only guilty of this, but they are condemning generations to come of doing it—and they have the nerve to question why civility is going to pot? So we can all be rude to each other together because of our collective ignorances?

Of course it all starts at the “bottom,” and what one would consider the simplest and most basic of civil behavior and respect for the “rules” has given way to coddling rude people and rule-breakers. Remember when the librarian enforced “quiet”? Not today. At the Seattle Central Public Library, you are the “bad guy” if you complain about noisemakers, and the noisemakers are coddled like poor little people who need to be shown “respect.” 

Last week I searched out for an isolated location in order to work on Thursday’s post when someone with apparent mental health issues decided to sit a couple seats over in a building with 10 floors of seating available and was “arguing” incoherently with some imaginary person. After a few minutes of this I told the person that the “talking” area was on the fourth floor, and she got up and left, but not before issuing forth a number of loud, incoherent threats.

This person went someplace a few rows back to continue her “argument.” Not long afterward a security guard showed up and told me a librarian had called and said I had been “harassing” another patron. What? OK, so she was black and female, so that was double trouble. Don’t you hear that person jabbering away loudly over there, I asked. Don’t you think that is rude? No, he didn’t think this person was being rude or breaking any rules. People are allowed to talk and make all the noise they want anywhere in the library except the top floor (10) which is the only floor where security is allegedly tasked to enforce “quiet.” 

Huh? The only “rule” that is “enforced” on that floor (or any floor in the library) is the “no napping” rule, and the librarians and security walk right past people who are actually disobeying what in the past was considered to be the most basic rule in the library—not bothering people who are reading or working with loud conversations or playing music. The security guard did, however, threaten me with “consequences” because I was disturbing the “peace” with these complaints about rude behavior.

Of course rudeness and rule-breaking is the gold standard on Metro buses these days. Music playing without headphones and people from foreign lands whose natural tone of speaking is shouting is just “normal" and every rule on the “Ride Right” list posted on every bus is broken by someone on every bus trip. Trying to point out what the rules only brings a response that reinforces the fact that attempts to curb the current level of civil behavior is unenforceable. Certain people feel they have a “right” to ignore simple rules of behavior and act rudely because if they feel they are not sufficiently “respected,” why should they respect anyone else—and as we know two negative behaviors repel each other, and nothing gets solved.

This rule-breaking is also evident in the fact that while some people just assume you have to pay your way—i.e. pay bus fare—others seem to think they have a "right" not to pay fare. I don’t see any bus drivers anymore confronting non-paying “customers” and only one who insisted that at least someone who doesn’t think they have to pay fare to at least show the “courtesy” of telling him they have no intention to pay instead of just walking past him. Personally I don’t think this is fair to fare-payers; why should anyone pay bus fare? 

I did some investigating, and apparently it is Metro’s policy to coddle these rude rule-breakers. I had already been told that drivers should avoid “confrontations” with non-fare payers, and now it is merely said that no one should be denied “service” merely because they can’t pay—which of course gives license to anyone who thinks they can get away with riding “free.”

That’s pretty much where society stands today. We as a society are reaching a point where you cannot have an honest discussion about obeying the simplest of rules of behavior without being accused of being the “problem” and declaring the rule-breaker the "victim." Everything has to start somewhere, and as in the library or on the buses, rules and rude behavior have been ignored for so long that they are now out of the control of those who are supposed to enforce civil behavior—and the only “solution” is to keep ignoring it as if it isn't happening.