The general decline in standards today

[LizzieMaine]

And people wonder why so many women find the Internet a hostile and unpleasant experience.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I don't do Twitter for that reason. I liken it to the scrawlings on the wall of a bus station bathroom: nothing worth reading, and you lower yourself by posting.

 

[dh66]

I don't do Twitter for that reason. I liken it to the scrawlings on the wall of a bus station bathroom: nothing worth reading, and you lower yourself by posting.

Well put.

 

[Stearmen]

I try to make it a rule, to never say any thing I would not say to the persons face! I heard a good one today, a man said, in the old days, if you got mad at your girlfriend, you would go home and write a letter, then put it on the table to mail it the next day. When the next day came around, you would realize what a jerk you were, tear up the letter, and go over and apologize. Now you text her, and a big mess ensues!

 

[Edward]

That's not even the infamous Anonymous Internet at work. Their ugly mugs are proudly posted right along side the vile words and apparently within the same twitter feed that they use for work and/or school? That's not even vaguely a "Hey, no one will know, I can get away with it" thing. They're that okay with saying that crap. That emboldened.

What could the women in their life possibly think about this kind of behavior? Glad there was some real consequences for this stuff...for once.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.... but they can sure all tell when you're being an idiot. In my experience, the sort of folks who resort to that type of behaviour generally aren't very bright to begin with.

And people wonder why so many women find the Internet a hostile and unpleasant experience.

Mn. Quite.

I don't do Twitter for that reason. I liken it to the scrawlings on the wall of a bus station bathroom: nothing worth reading, and you lower yourself by posting.

Don't blame the messenger... I'm not a fan of the medium myself, but plenty of folks find it perfectly useful. I wouldn't do these idiots the courtesy of allowing them to in part blame Twitter. It's as much Twitter's fault as an obscene phone caller's behaviour is the fault of the telephone network. If anything, Twitter, to be fair to them. is much better than some of their rivals at dealing with antisocial behaviour.

I try to make it a rule, to never say any thing I would not say to the persons face! I heard a good one today, a man said, in the old days, if you got mad at your girlfriend, you would go home and write a letter, then put it on the table to mail it the next day. When the next day came around, you would realize what a jerk you were, tear up the letter, and go over and apologize. Now you text her, and a big mess ensues!

The joys of instantaneous communication!

 

[hatguy1]

Don't blame the messenger... I'm not a fan of the medium myself, but plenty of folks find it perfectly useful. I wouldn't do these idiots the courtesy of allowing them to in part blame Twitter. It's as much Twitter's fault as an obscene phone caller's behaviour is the fault of the telephone network.!

Agreed. The same could be said about guns. It isn't the fault of firearms or their availability that lead to - in whole or in part - fun violence. It's the lack of brains and morality on part of the perpetrator of te violence. Much like it isn't the fault of automobiles that idiots drink and drive.



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[Dennis Young]

I've been scrolling through this thread and agree that standards are declining in our country. Some schools are out of control and people just don't seem to respect others...or themselves. I blame political correctness as well as apathy on the part of the parents...AND the fear schools have of getting sued. A lot of schools wont paddle a kid's backside anymore because they worry about getting sued...or worse, imprisoned! Is it any wonder that standards have declined in society today? Is it any wonder that young people (35 and younger I guess) just don't seem to have any decency or respect?

It used to be that a man would tip his hat to a lay. Would offed hi seat to a woman or and elderly person. Would say 'yes sir' and 'yes ma'am' to a woman. Would old the door open for a lady.

So my question is "what is to b doe? Can things be changed and if so, how"?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

[Dennis Young]

Wow, I just realized something is up with my keyboard. that last sentence was jibberish. Lol!

Love thy neighbor is a good start. Anything else?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

What if your neighbors are not particularly loveable?

 

[LizzieMaine]

What if your neighbors are not particularly loveable?

They might not think you're particularly loveable either. Prove them wrong.

 

[Dennis Young]

Really what I'm looking for though is, aside from we as individuals being respectful to one another, is there anything that could be done to influence society to change for the better? I mean, it seems like folks were generally respectful at least outwardly up until say....the mid 60s. Then things began to change. Why? And can it be reversed?

 

[ChiTownScion]

A lot of schools wont paddle a kid's backside anymore because they worry about getting sued...or worse, imprisoned!

Good thing, too, at least as far as a public school is concerned. If any teacher or principal did that to my son back when he was in grade or high school, he/ she would be fortunate if a lawsuit or an indictment was the only adverse consequence of such conduct. And it certainly wasn't tolerated at any of the private schools that I attended, either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

1. Abolish social media. I'm dead serious. How often do we see "rational adults" turn into jackasses simply because somebody on a message board or a Facebook or whatever criticized their sociopolitical worldview/religious denomination/sports team/favorite TV show/new hat/leather jacket manufacturer/whatever? How often do we see "manners" and "social niceties" revealed as the thin and cheesy veneer that they are, overlaying a core of self-absorbed me-uber-alles cruelty?

Forget about the sixties for a minute -- there were plenty of people before the sixties who were rude, abrasive everyday jerks, and we can all probably think of examples in our own families if we try. But the advent of social media has taken all the millions of little bits of inconsiderate behavior people always just took for granted and has given them global scope. Now one isn't just a jerk to their spouse or their kids or that clerk down at the grocery store who was out of their favorite brand of gum -- one can be a jerk to hundreds of thousands of people at a time, and hundreds of thousands of people can "share" your jerkery along and say "woot! LOL ROFL!" untll the whole planet is engulfed in a vast stinking blob of jerkery. That's how such things as the Schilling affair on Twitter happen -- the Internet congratulates jackasses for being jackesses, treats them all like a big fat laugh, and then, when somebody finally calls them on it, it steps back and makes a big dopey face and says "who, me?"

Nertz to that. I submit that the mass popularity of social media is the worst thing that's ever happened to basic human interaction. When we don't have to look another person in the eye and accept the consequences of what we say to them, they cease to be people whose feelings we have to feel any concern about. And when we separate ourselves from that sense of basic empathy, we cease to be civilized creatures.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I think it actually began with the advent of the affordable automobile- not the 60's or social media (which we can argue forever as to what extent they made things even worse).

When we all had to rely upon buses, trains, interurbans, streetcars, etc. to get around, rubbing shoulders with our fellow straphangers forced a certain degree of diplomacy on all of our parts. And although I am certain that examples of rudeness can be enumerated in the same venue, some of the nicest courtesies I have ever seen accorded total strangers have been on midtown Manhattan subways. Put people in their own cars, and I think that what we have to hone in order just to engage in that interaction is lost.

 

[Stearmen]

What makes the times seem so much worse is the availability of information 24/7! Back in the 60s and 70s, if a girl was killed in a school bus accident in South Carolina, you would only here about it in the general area, same goes for child kidnappings, unless it was the Lindberg's kid. We are bombarded by nothing but bad news these days. Now I know that it's not new, but it is on a much larger scale then when you read your paper and watched the nightly news. And, of course bad news sells, the old joke, "1000 planes landed safely today, doesn't sell news papers," is still true today!

 

[2jakes]

Really what I'm looking for though is, aside from we as individuals being respectful to one another, is there anything that could be done to influence society to change for the better? I mean, it seems like folks were generally respectful at least outwardly up until say....the mid 60s. Then things began to change. Why? And can it be reversed?

Things began to change when everyone on the block started to drive a car to school.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think it actually began with the advent of the affordable automobile- not the 60's or social media (which we can argue forever as to what extent they made things even worse).

When we all had to rely upon buses, trains, interurbans, streetcars, etc. to get around, rubbing shoulders with our fellow straphangers forced a certain degree of diplomacy on all of our parts. And although I am certain that examples of rudeness can be enumerated in the same venue, some of the nicest courtesies I have ever seen accorded total strangers have been on midtown Manhattan subways. Put people in their own cars, and I think that what we have to hone in order just to engage in that interaction is lost.

Good point. I think anything that results in the individual becoming emotionally isolated from the community is a part of the problem -- and by community I don't necessarily mean the political community, I mean real emotional engagement with your fellow beings on a fundamental level. You can be the most "courteous" person in the world, observing all the hat-tipping and right-fork-using rules with pharisaic precision, but if you're only doing that to show the world how refined and elegant you are, and not because you sincerely care about other people, and if it's giving you an excuse to look down from your high horse and sneer at the peasants, then it's nothing but a pretentious bourgeois fraud.

People have to start genuinely *caring* about other people again, not because of some self-interested agenda but because it's sincerely the right way to live in a civilized world. Don't open a door for me or give me a seat on the bus because I'm a woman so everybody can see what a "gentleman" you are. Open the door and give me a seat because I've been on my damn feet for fourteen hours, and I'm so tired I can barely see. Because I'd gladly do the same for you.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

What makes the times seem so much worse is the availability of information 24/7! Back in the 60s and 70s, if a girl was killed in a school bus accident in South Carolina, you would only here about it in the general area, same goes for child kidnappings, unless it was the Lindberg's kid. We are bombarded by nothing but bad news these days. Now I know that it's not new, but it is on a much larger scale then when you read your paper and watched the nightly news. And, of course bad news sells, the old joke, "1000 planes landed safely today, doesn't sell news papers," is still true today!

A point I was about to make. And what would have remained local news 30-40 years ago even becomes international news nowadays which means even more busybodies sticking their nose where it doesn't belong.

 

[hatguy1]

Good thing, too, at least as far as a public school is concerned. If any teacher or principal did that to my son back when he was in grade or high school, he/ she would be fortunate if a lawsuit or an indictment was the only adverse consequence of such conduct. And it certainly wasn't tolerated at any of the private schools that I attended, either.

When I went to school, "swats" were always available if we stepped too far out of line. And I saw them administered by 1 teacher or principal always with an adult witness. And I received them once myself. And we all survived and nobody was injured beyond their pride.

And if we got paddled at school, there was every bit the possibility that we would get in trouble again once we got home. There was next to zero chance that our parents would go roaring up to the school and raise hell with the teacher or principal that we had gotten punished (or threaten to sue).

If ya ask me, the removal of corporate punishment from schools can be credited as a giant step leading to the chaos that has become public school environments today.


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