Anonymous wrote:"The customer is always right" culture blended with "I must be comfortable at all times."

People aren't learning how to hear "no" anymore.

haha so true. A neighbor called me (over Facebook) the most unneighborly person she has ever lived next to for being vocal about dogs peeing and pooping right in front of my front door. I told her that I'm not unneighborly. It's that she was never told "no" before ever in her life.

^ I forgot to mention that he did this apparently to drop each kid right outside their own classroom door, instead of just dropping off at a normal stopping point and letting his kids walk an extra 20 feet.

How do we fix it? The other day I was dropping my child off at school. I’m pretty sure in any drop off line, you are supposed to drive and close the gap between cars, drop off when you’re stopped, and then leave.

The car in front of me stopped way short of the front of the line, by 4-5 car lengths. A bunch of us stopped and had to maneuver around while he dropped off his daughter. He then cut in and drove another 4 car lengths. Car door opens again and another daughter gets out. I kid you not, then he drove another 2 car lengths by swerving around the rest of the line and stopping in the pedestrian crosswalk, and dropped off his son. Three kids, looked like 1st grade through 7th grade. Three separate drop offs, all over a span of less than 100 feet.

"The customer is always right" culture blended with "I must be comfortable at all times."

People aren't learning how to hear "no" anymore.

Anonymous wrote:Constantly telling kids they're special.

For doing nothing. Accomplishing nothing.

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't read as entitlement to me, exactly. That's there. But to me the prevailing feeling is angry. Everyone seems angry, and this makes them not care about others and to behave in more selfish ways, because it doesn't matter to them how their behavior impacts others.

But it just reads as less "I deserve this more than you" and more "I deserve this and I'm afraid you'll take it away from me if I don't aggressively snatch it out from under you."

I find myself spending less and less time in public spaces these days. It is too stressful. Especially because I'm a recovering people pleaser and nothing brings out my people pleasing instincts more than people acting angry or aggressive (I learned at a very young age to appease angry people in order to avoid becoming a target).

I could have wrote this. Angry everywhere entitled and angry in and around cities. I just don't want to be around these people anymore.

Cool.

Anonymous wrote:Entitled behavior everywhere. Growing up, I thought it was limited to “bad manners” in poor people and “crass behavior” in rich people. Now it’s everyone all the time, in people from all walks of life.

I see it everywhere too!

In Saturday I was turning left at a light that was taking really long to change. The person behind me backed up squealed around me cut in front of me as the light turned green (she turned left on the red). Then she sped off into the gated country club entrance a half mile down the road. I was headed to the club myself (she didn’t expect that!) and followed right behind her. She sped through the parking lot until I parked - I wasn’t going to chase her around.

If I wanted to be an a$$ I’d turn her in to management. But I think the heart attack of realizing she cut off a fellow member of a small private club was probably punishment enough.

Constantly telling kids they're special.

Internet. You can hide anonymously. Order on demand. Order AI chat bots around. Get anything you want within an hour. You don't even think there's someone who is nagging or, delivering it. We have dehumanized ourselves

Anonymous wrote:We have been telling generations of kids that they are super special, smart, can do and be anything. We made them believe that their confidence is what mattered and not their hard work and skills. We failed them because, of course, that is not true for the vast majority of them. And now we have a couple of generations of adults who are extremely entitled.

I don't think this is universal. There are absolutely a lot of people like this though. Mostly people who grew up UMC and came to believe their success in life comes from their intrinsic worth and not their good fortune at being born the children of doctors and lawyers, growing up in a safe and nurturing environment, and then attending "good" colleges (paid for by successful parents) and gaining entry into well paying careers. From their perspective, they had no more opportunities than anyone else and simply succeeded. They are entitled, yes, but also totally blind to the way the world actually works. The only people outside their bubble they can actually see are those above them professionally or economically. They'll obsess over the neighbor whose house cost a half million more or who got the big promotion they covet, and look right through anyone middle or working class in their orbit. Occasionally they'll find a working class people to pity, usually one who works for them, and they will endlessly tout how generous they are with this person (see the UMC mom who goes on and on about helping her nanny go visit her family overseas like she's Mother Theresa), it's how they deal with any creeping feelings of doubt that maybe their entire lives were handed to them and not actually earned after all.

It doesn't read as entitlement to me, exactly. That's there. But to me the prevailing feeling is angry. Everyone seems angry, and this makes them not care about others and to behave in more selfish ways, because it doesn't matter to them how their behavior impacts others.

But it just reads as less "I deserve this more than you" and more "I deserve this and I'm afraid you'll take it away from me if I don't aggressively snatch it out from under you."

I find myself spending less and less time in public spaces these days. It is too stressful. Especially because I'm a recovering people pleaser and nothing brings out my people pleasing instincts more than people acting angry or aggressive (I learned at a very young age to appease angry people in order to avoid becoming a target).

We have been telling generations of kids that they are super special, smart, can do and be anything. We made them believe that their confidence is what mattered and not their hard work and skills. We failed them because, of course, that is not true for the vast majority of them. And now we have a couple of generations of adults who are extremely entitled.

What do you mean by entitled?

Entitled behavior everywhere. Growing up, I thought it was limited to “bad manners” in poor people and “crass behavior” in rich people. Now it’s everyone all the time, in people from all walks of life.