Stupidity Everywhere!
Good Lord, what is it about people these days? It seems like people nowadays are a lot more stupid than they were not too long ago. Or maybe I was younger and didn't notice how stupid people actually were? Somehow, I don't think so...
For instance, just this evening, two cars were side-by-side at a stop light, and apparently the people inside knew each other. So they started chatting. One of the cars was directly in front of me in the left turn lane, and the driver was so engrossed in his conversation, that he didn't notice or didn't care that the green arrow was now signaling that it was our turn to go. I waited a moment to see if they would go, and when they didn't, I honked. I waited another moment, and when they still didn't budge, I naturally honked again. The driver of the other car stuck his head out the window, yelled "Chill out!", and I think probably flipped me off. I also heard the guys in the car ahead of me half yelling half muttering. They finally finished what they had to say and made the left, the guy in the passenger seat flipping me off again.
First of all, how stupid are you to have a conversation in the middle of a busy intersection? Secondly, how can you sit at a green light, having a chat, and not expect people to honk at you? Finally, if your conversation is so damned important, use your cell phones, for crying out loud. Between the 2 cars, there were at least 3 or 4 people. At least one person in each car is almost guaranteed to have a cell phone in this day and age. People are seriously lacking in common sense nowadays.
Another thing that happened today... Sam and I were in Cold Stone Creamery today, and while we were sitting there eating ice cream, we overheard a woman ordering. Here's the part we overheard:
Woman - "Oh, it's for my 4-year-old... He's playing around here somewhere. Wait, where DID he go? Oh, there he is, he's in the corner. Just wanted to make sure he's still in here."
When we left, we saw her again outside. She was standing with a small group of adults, all chatting away. Meanwhile, 3 small children (none of them could've been older than 5) were running around a fountain and tackling each other. Not one of the adults were paying attention.
And speaking of stupid parenting, this reminds me of this one time that Sam and I (and I think Ciara and Matt were with us too) were walking down a street and we saw this woman talking on the phone as she was crossing a fairly busy street. She was chatting very loudly, in a very bimbo-like valley girl voice. Trailing about 2 yards behind her was a little girl, around 4 years old, dragging a stuffed animal behind her. Obviously, her mother (or babysitter or whatever) wasn't holding her hand as they crossed this busy street, nor was the mother paying any attention to her whatsoever. It wasn't until the woman reached the other end of the street that she looked back at the teetering tyke and said "Hurry up!" in an exasperated voice. Meanwhile, I was shrieking to Sam that the kid was going to get run over. The little girl made it across okay, but not thanks to her mother.
These examples don't even touch upon the day to day people yelling obscenities at the top of their lungs in public or in the middle of the night, or cutting across three lanes of traffic at 85 miles an hour, or drinking bong water because their friends told them to, or any number of even more mundane yet idiotic things that one sees every day but barely even registers because it happens so often nowadays.
What's going on? How did these people turn out this way?
For instance, just this evening, two cars were side-by-side at a stop light, and apparently the people inside knew each other. So they started chatting. One of the cars was directly in front of me in the left turn lane, and the driver was so engrossed in his conversation, that he didn't notice or didn't care that the green arrow was now signaling that it was our turn to go. I waited a moment to see if they would go, and when they didn't, I honked. I waited another moment, and when they still didn't budge, I naturally honked again. The driver of the other car stuck his head out the window, yelled "Chill out!", and I think probably flipped me off. I also heard the guys in the car ahead of me half yelling half muttering. They finally finished what they had to say and made the left, the guy in the passenger seat flipping me off again.
First of all, how stupid are you to have a conversation in the middle of a busy intersection? Secondly, how can you sit at a green light, having a chat, and not expect people to honk at you? Finally, if your conversation is so damned important, use your cell phones, for crying out loud. Between the 2 cars, there were at least 3 or 4 people. At least one person in each car is almost guaranteed to have a cell phone in this day and age. People are seriously lacking in common sense nowadays.
Another thing that happened today... Sam and I were in Cold Stone Creamery today, and while we were sitting there eating ice cream, we overheard a woman ordering. Here's the part we overheard:
Woman - "Oh, it's for my 4-year-old... He's playing around here somewhere. Wait, where DID he go? Oh, there he is, he's in the corner. Just wanted to make sure he's still in here."
When we left, we saw her again outside. She was standing with a small group of adults, all chatting away. Meanwhile, 3 small children (none of them could've been older than 5) were running around a fountain and tackling each other. Not one of the adults were paying attention.
And speaking of stupid parenting, this reminds me of this one time that Sam and I (and I think Ciara and Matt were with us too) were walking down a street and we saw this woman talking on the phone as she was crossing a fairly busy street. She was chatting very loudly, in a very bimbo-like valley girl voice. Trailing about 2 yards behind her was a little girl, around 4 years old, dragging a stuffed animal behind her. Obviously, her mother (or babysitter or whatever) wasn't holding her hand as they crossed this busy street, nor was the mother paying any attention to her whatsoever. It wasn't until the woman reached the other end of the street that she looked back at the teetering tyke and said "Hurry up!" in an exasperated voice. Meanwhile, I was shrieking to Sam that the kid was going to get run over. The little girl made it across okay, but not thanks to her mother.
These examples don't even touch upon the day to day people yelling obscenities at the top of their lungs in public or in the middle of the night, or cutting across three lanes of traffic at 85 miles an hour, or drinking bong water because their friends told them to, or any number of even more mundane yet idiotic things that one sees every day but barely even registers because it happens so often nowadays.
What's going on? How did these people turn out this way?