Don't be a dick. It's not hard. People are hurting. People are struggling. We have seen 2022 turn to 2021 and say "hold my beer" and people just can't be civil.
Don't be a dick. It's not hard. People are hurting. People are struggling. We have seen 2022 turn to 2021 and say "hold my beer" and people just can't be civil.
It costs nothing to be a decent human being, and yet that's too much for some people.
In reply to P5Racer (formerly BMWGeoff) :
I know and I'm givin you an internet hug right now
Being a selfish shiny happy person seems to be considered a positive trait to a pretty sizable percentage of the population, lately.
It is anger being amped up by politicans, the 24 hour news cycle and social media being pushed into the real world imo.
I know I dont talk about Fight Club.
Joking aside, the person can be a dick because of everything going on.
In reply to bobzilla :
I appreciate it. I've removed a lot of people from my life in recent years, because *gestures broadly at the world*
"Please", "Thank you" and a smile go a long way with most people. I'll stick with my belief that the shiny happy people are still a small minority of the population, just a whole lot louder than most of us would like. I don't doubt social media, etc. magnifies the issue but then I don't do social media so there's that.
I believe:
1. All that has been going on has been wearing away on us all to the point that the charade we present to hide the "real me" is gone, and what you're seeing is who the person really is inside.
2. (As a teacher) I've discovered that there is a HUGE number of students who get by only by going "Wait, what? What are we doing? I'm copying you." Take away the people that the majority follows, and they are helpless on their own; they haven't learned how to learn. Now put them in a situation such as "life right now," and these folks (kids, adults, doesn't matter) start unraveling because they aren't able to wallow through it alone.
3. Media, social media, tv commercials, everything we are bombarded with isn't always a wholesome, healthy, input for our minds.
I have no idea what the fix is. For me, it's just stubborn determination and brute will, but I've still come very close to cracking under it all.
I think the internet and social media have been a bane to polite society.
Bob, I've been driving a Korean car since 1/25 and really have no complaints that are not based off of my driving a sports car for a daily. My DDs definately do not get the fuel economy (Optima shows 491 to empty with a full 16ish gallon tank).
Most of the time, when we're sitting across the table from each other with a glass of our favorite beverage in front of us, a lot of the crap melts away and we can start treating each other like human beings. Consider this an open invitation to come over to Toiletbird Industries Glacial Mercedes Repair/Bar/Cigar Lounge/ Carpentry/Event Center and we'll take a tour of the Get Blasted cabinet. If you don't drink, I've got Cokes in fridge.
In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :
Congrats on the newer car. Is it new? In my (and a lot of other peoples) experience most Korean cars loosen up around the 15-20k mike range for fuel economy. If it's used, puke the ecu fuses and let it relearn.
I've said in a previous thread that I think the huge volume of information and problems we're inundated with minute to minute also wears on us because there's berkeley all any of us can do about it.
Everyone on this board deserves a pat on the back for these discussions. They're often very informative, much more than sorting through the typical new sources. I just have to remind myself that any time a discussion makes me want to reply because something's "wrong/uninformed" that I don't know everything and ANY of these problems are much more complicated than what a few lines of text will fix. And that's OK.
-Rob
11GTCS said:"Please", "Thank you" and a smile go a long way with most people. I'll stick with my belief that the shiny happy people are still a small minority of the population, just a whole lot louder than most of us would like. I don't doubt social media, etc. magnifies the issue but then I don't do social media so there's that.
Funny, I read an article today saying just that. To paraphrase, 75% of the population does not tweet, 1% watches cable news at night, and 42% identify as independent. The news reports what people yell the loudest, and the silent majority just goes on about the day, being decent people. It made me feel better.
In reply to bobzilla :
It's a rental for a work related trip. I have placed it in 3rd place for top on all of the rentals I have had over the last 10 years of traveling. First being a Mazda 3 that had a sport button and a Ford Focus that surprised the crap out of me.
It (an Optima) is the biggest car I have been issued so it takes the #1 spot there. My only complaint with it is the suspension being too soft, but that goes back to my DDs being a Cayman and a Golf on BC coilovers.
preach (dudeist priest) said:I think the internet and social media have been a bane to polite society.
My mental health has improved by an order of magnitude since I stopped using Facebook. I log in to check the notifications once a month just to see if a family member is checking in or something, and I'm always taken aback at how much of a wasteland it is these days.
Social media only exists because of the content, so people are subliminally pressured by the algorithm to have some sort of "take" or something to say about everything. When you don't have to look another person in the face and state your opinion, it's a lot easier to be dramatic and play for effect. Combine that with all the crap that the algorithm shoves in your face and you end up with a bunch of people being intentionally rude to seem interesting and knowledgeable. This bleeds over into real life and, well...there you have it.
Cheer up hive...I just gave every post in this thread a great big +one
93EXCivic said:It is anger being amped up by politicans, the 24 hour news cycle and social media being pushed into the real world imo.
I think this is a big part of it. Everyone has anger/irritation caused by life in general. That's normal and healthy. But politicians and the media feed off that, only making matters worse. Then there's the narcissistic nature of social media that isn't helping ONE BIT. All of this feeds the entitled mindset. It's seeped into our culture in some insidious ways. Feelings are more important than facts these days, and one's own feelings trump anything else and everyone else. [going off into left field here] did you ever notice the word "think" is being replaced by "feel". Instead of "I think this is wrong" it's "I feel this is wrong" or "I think this should happen" it's "I feel this should happen". It's subtle, but I think/feel ( 
) this is more than a simple language shift. Because you FEEL it, it's right, and you have a right to that outcome because you FEEL it.
In reply to DrBoost :
Great observation. People used to be allowed to have different opinions and it was no big deal because "not everyone thinks the same". Now people take a different opinion (even a perceived one) as a personal attack and feel the need to shout you down to try and change your opinion, even if it does not affect them.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
Exactly! It's amazing.
I don't watch anything but my local news.
I 'hide' anyone on FB who can't make me laugh or post cute dog pictures.
Twitter? Meh.
Life is pretty good with this prescription.
Shadeux said:11GTCS said:"Please", "Thank you" and a smile go a long way with most people. I'll stick with my belief that the shiny happy people are still a small minority of the population, just a whole lot louder than most of us would like. I don't doubt social media, etc. magnifies the issue but then I don't do social media so there's that.
Funny, I read an article today saying just that. To paraphrase, 75% of the population does not tweet, 1% watches cable news at night, and 42% identify as independent. The news reports what people yell the loudest, and the silent majority just goes on about the day, being decent people. It made me feel better.
I saw that article, came here to post this. It was on Axios.
Someone posted over on the Russia Invasion thread that part of the Russians' game was to sow as much discord as possible in the US, on both sides, especially via social media.
Right before the Plague I cleaned up my social media. I have zero friends (not even Mrs. VCH) and have my settings such that only friends of friends can send me a friend request. Result: zero friend requests. I subscribe to groups for stuff I'm interested in (car stuff) and use FB marketplace. Interestingly, in those 2 years I made 2 real life friends off of folks I met on MP.
Where I notice the systemic anger is on the road.
I have never before seen so many red light runners as I have seen in the last few months.
Lights that are a hard red after a 3 second dwell period of all red, with a full green the opposite way, and these malicious "shiny happy people" blow through going 10 mph over the speed limit.
I do agree with the premise that a lot of this has to do with what I'd call "outrage for fun and profit". Mostly the latter, but still. And to me, that comprises pretty much all of the regular media no matter where they are on the political spectrum, and the algorithmically amplified "messaging" that follows in "social" media. It's hard for me to go on a social media diet as it's the only way I can keep in touch with a bunch of friends all across the globe unless we set up private email lists, so I mainly try to avoid the outrage corners as best as I can.
I also think there's more to it than this. For example, a lot of the allegedly successful and influential people that are hyped everywhere seem to be rather unpleasant characters who tend to rank pretty high in the posterior orifice league tables. A lot of people even seem to be experiencing this in the workplace - I've lost count of the number of IT career questions that I've seen that essentially paraphrase as "why do only boat anchors[1] get promoted and rewarded around here?". And then those people tend to be held up as role models.
On top of that - and that might be either me becoming less naive or things actually getting worse - I think the time tax involved with a lot of daily transactions (aka "please hold, your call is important to us. Your time, we don't give a berkeley about") and the regular need to essentially have a fight-or-flight reaction to avoid getting massively screwed over adds a lot of stress to a lot of people's lives that always seems to be there in the background. Doesn't help that a lot of massively large oligopolies heard the "no matter how hard you fail we'll bail you at the expense of the public" loud and clear and are acting accordingly.
But before this gets too dark, I would like to point out that this place is always a welcome exception for me, which is why I appreciate the hosts, the inmates and keep coming back.
[1] Cockney rhyming slang. Think of a word that rhymes with boat anchor and starts with 'w'.
Shadeux said:11GTCS said:"Please", "Thank you" and a smile go a long way with most people. I'll stick with my belief that the shiny happy people are still a small minority of the population, just a whole lot louder than most of us would like. I don't doubt social media, etc. magnifies the issue but then I don't do social media so there's that.
Funny, I read an article today saying just that. To paraphrase, 75% of the population does not tweet, 1% watches cable news at night, and 42% identify as independent. The news reports what people yell the loudest, and the silent majority just goes on about the day, being decent people. It made me feel better.
This is worth repeating.
I don't watch the news. Ever. 75% of my news comes from two emails I receive. One from The New Paper, the other from 1440. No spin, no opinion, nothing beyond what happened. I get my news in about 15 minutes and move on. The other 25% comes from you guys.
I don't follow or friend anyone that is mostly political in their discourse.
I seldom watch TV and never watch commercials.
I have very little anxiety. 2020, 2021, 2022, were just years to me. For the most part, they were good years. I got up, went to work, did my job, hung out with friends, and pretty much did the same things I did in 2019 or even 1989. There were some new normals and a few things to consider but anything I couldn't control, I didn't worry about. I didn't get all worked up over the maskers, unmaskers, vaxers, anti-vaxers. You do you, I'll do me.
Turn off the TV, ignore the politicians, get the negative Nancys out of your social medial feed, ignore the shouters. They are causing the angst and they are doing it for a reason.
If you turn off the crap and look around you, most of the world hasn't changed that much.
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