Inflexible People

[Anonymous]

I heard about a (white) couple who shushed some (black) teens during a movie. Afterward they were surrounded in the parking lot by a bunch of teens and I think they got into a fight with the husband. Movie theaters, metro, man there are no safe places anymore! What's up with all this violence? I thought violent crime was supposed to be down.

[Anonymous]

Not for nothing but there are times when I am like the offending couple. It always happens when my husband and I fly. I'm petite and my husband is very tall. In order for him to be comfortable he sits in an asile seat. I generally pick a window because I hate the middle seat (we are fine with someone sitting between us as for the most part we do not interact much on the flight). Other times we will pick asile seats across from each other. Almost every single time we are on the plane together someone will ask me to move to the middle so they can have my window seat or mu asile seat. I have accomidated taller people and pregnant women because I can understand the need for extra space or to be able to get up and go to the bathroom alot but I always get nasty looks and attitude from others when I won't give up my seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not for nothing but there are times when I am like the offending couple. It always happens when my husband and I fly. I'm petite and my husband is very tall. In order for him to be comfortable he sits in an asile seat. I generally pick a window because I hate the middle seat (we are fine with someone sitting between us as for the most part we do not interact much on the flight). Other times we will pick asile seats across from each other. Almost every single time we are on the plane together someone will ask me to move to the middle so they can have my window seat or mu asile seat. I have accomidated taller people and pregnant women because I can understand the need for extra space or to be able to get up and go to the bathroom alot but I always get nasty looks and attitude from others when I won't give up my seat.

Totally agree with you. I am a petite woman and I also refuse to give up my aisle seats. I planned ahead and selected the aisle seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard about a (white) couple who shushed some (black) teens during a movie. Afterward they were surrounded in the parking lot by a bunch of teens and I think they got into a fight with the husband. Movie theaters, metro, man there are no safe places anymore! What's up with all this violence? I thought violent crime was supposed to be down.

Why was mentioning the race of any relevance here? Oh yea. Because you're a racist who is too cowardly to just come out and say what you're thinking. Even on an anonymous board.

[Anonymous]

Ah, perhaps they arrived early and chose those particular seats for a reason, and didn't feel like moving to accomodate latecomers - especially after being heckled? I know when I was pregnant the only way I could go to a movie was to sit in an end seat so I could make multiple trips to the restroom without making people stand up for me each time. Why did the other couple feel entitled to arrive late and be accomodated?
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This. We get to movies early because my husband is really tall and I'm really short. At the theater we go to, there is a section with a walkway in front of a section of seats, and the seats are separated from the walkway by a railing. My husband likes to sit in the end seat so he can stretch his legs out, and I like to sit in the next one in so I can rest my feet up on the lower part of the railing. People come in late alllll the time and ask is if we could just "scoot down a bit" so they can have the end seats. No. You can't have them. We were here first. But by all means, we'll stand up and let you crawl over everyone to get into the middle of the row. You shouldn't have a problem doing that, since you think it is reasonable to ask others to do that.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe there are still people who think the DC metro area is southern.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Surprised, but not really, by the entitlement on both sides. I would hope as adults that common courtesy would over ride any psychological issues that are so obvious when you refuse to move, and there are no exigent circumstances dictating such.

The couple was not necessarily tall or large. They happened to be Asian. There was a seat on either side of them. We (a couple - not issues free - but not one to take our issues out on complete strangers, since that would be um, psychotic!) had scooted down toward them earlier in the night because we knew it would be packed. The sitting couple did not offer the interior seats.

The couple who refused to move was just that. A couple who refused to move. Isn't there a minimum level of civility expected in a public place? The couple who refused to move acted like the couple who wanted to sit together busted into their living room and demanded they do so. The couple who had asked them did so quite nicely. Everybody around them told them what a**holes they were - and much worse. The couple who refused to move almost got a refund and asked to leave. I was surprised that the majority felt this way, to be honest. In other metropolitan areas, I would expect common courtesy to prevail. But honestly, not here.

Boy, therapists must be either really busy here or not nearly busy enough!

At what point do people not realize it is absolutely insane not to move? At what point do they forget to weigh what is happening for what is happening and not a perceived "wrong" or perceived "slight" or other craziness? Are people that far off of reality, what is really happening? Why does it have to become a pissing contest? Are their issues that deep?

Sometimes (not in reality) I think that is why we don't walk around carrying guns. The herd would be thinned very quickly! It would be like the old west

[Anonymous]

OP, this sounds just like my ex. He is selfish and has a sense of entitlement like no one I have ever seen. He is from a farily well off, white family if that matters. As an example, he thinks it's funny to put pork in the chicken section of the supermarket because it pisses him off that some people don't eat pork because of thier religion. He keys people's cars if he sees even the slithest scratch on his car when he comes back to it. The person whose car he scratches could be totally innocent, but that doesn't matter to him. He never admits that he is wrong. EVER! I have seen a lot of people like him around here and I have no idea why that is. I think the poster who said that this town breeds power is onto something. I am European and spend 9 years in GA and AL and people (even in big cities) there just don't act this way. I'm generalizing, but you get the idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this sounds just like my ex. He is selfish and has a sense of entitlement like no one I have ever seen. He is from a farily well off, white family if that matters. As an example, he thinks it's funny to put pork in the chicken section of the supermarket because it pisses him off that some people don't eat pork because of thier religion. He keys people's cars if he sees even the slithest scratch on his car when he comes back to it. The person whose car he scratches could be totally innocent, but that doesn't matter to him. He never admits that he is wrong. EVER! I have seen a lot of people like him around here and I have no idea why that is. I think the poster who said that this town breeds power is onto something. I am European and spend 9 years in GA and AL and people (even in big cities) there just don't act this way. I'm generalizing, but you get the idea.

Wow - PP, your ex sounds like a monster! Glad your rid of him!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe there are still people who think the DC metro area is southern.

It's Southern when it's convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah, perhaps they arrived early and chose those particular seats for a reason, and didn't feel like moving to accomodate latecomers - especially after being heckled? I know when I was pregnant the only way I could go to a movie was to sit in an end seat so I could make multiple trips to the restroom without making people stand up for me each time. Why did the other couple feel entitled to arrive late and be accomodated?

Clearly it was not an end seat. Moving from an end seat does not help two people sit together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard about a (white) couple who shushed some (black) teens during a movie. Afterward they were surrounded in the parking lot by a bunch of teens and I think they got into a fight with the husband. Movie theaters, metro, man there are no safe places anymore! What's up with all this violence? I thought violent crime was supposed to be down.

How was race (relevant) to your post? You clearly want to draw attention to it, so just get out whatever you have to say there.

[Anonymous]

OP, while I think the sitting couple was rude for not moving, it's also true that the standing couple are not "owed" seats together. They got there later so it sucks for them but single seats are all that are left and maybe they'll get there earlier next time. But I still don't understand why the sitting couple didn't move. I get a bit claustrophobic myself and can see wanting to sit in a particular place but I certainly would try to accommodate others if I could.

BTW you didn't mention the race of the standing couple. Were they white?

[Anonymous]

OP here. The standing couple happened to be white. Maybe the sitting couple was racist? It could go either or neither way, really.

Actually, it could be argued that the second couple arrived "on time", as it was before the lights dimmed. Because they arrived after the sitting couple does not make them "late".

It's funny to me that people want to think there is an over riding "hidden" circumstance to defend the people who really had no circumstance. Too much lawyering, perhaps? (I'm a lawyer, BTW, so this is funny to me.) See how anti productive and anti civil this makes us?

The obvious part is that by not moving, the sitting couple was announcing they have a psychological problem. Did that not matter to them, that that was their over riding, very loud and clear statement? "I can't accommodate you because I need tons and tons of therapy!" That's actually the funny part.

[Anonymous]

If I had been the standing couple I would have sat on either side of them and whispered across regullary..."Can you pass the popcorn" and "would you like some soda?" I wouldn't have made a big deal about them not moving but I would have made thier movie experience one to remember.