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The thing I bemoan the loss of is general politeness. Somehow folks have gotten the idea that it's ok to scream "Fuck You!!" at the top of their lungs in publi

The thing I bemoan the loss of is general politeness. Somehow folks have gotten the idea that it's ok to scream "Fuck You!!" at the top of their lungs in public or on social media if the victim is perceived to somehow be mildly racist for instance. And the entire cancel mob is impolite and unmannered. No charity, no nuance, no stopping to think or consider what is being said. Just rabid mouth frothing. And really racism itself is impolite. It makes others feel bad for no good reason. It's anti social. So is sexism. It's extreme impoliteness and dis-consideration of others. Ya, we get it, we should have the legal freedom to be impolite. But good people just shouldn't do it. For most any reason. We can always invent excuses why we should be disrespectful to others. It seems the media really got on this trend early with a lot of right wing folks starting with Rush Limbaugh and progressing to Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace making an audience out of shouting and saying rude things in an attempt to be edgy. The current crop of protesters out screaming obscenities at police officers and the general public seem to have taken this to it's (hopefully) final conclusion. It's like a scene from "Idiocracy" really. And the current president is right in there, he's made an election platform out of impoliteness. I've been listing to a lot of free audio books from the late 1800 and early 1900's. The amount of general politeness and manners exhibited from people was amazing. So different. It's too much for the current era, but I'd be ok if we went back to a little respect and courtesy of others in general no matter what someone thought or did or believed and this became custom once again.

kayodelycaon 6y ago
A bit off topic but where do you get free audio books of old books?
- mythrwy 6y ago
  There's a number of podcasts (Classic Tales for instance) where they read old books. And you can do a search and find a bunch as well (https://librivox.org/ https://librivox.org/, http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks) But I've found one of the best sources is YouTube. Tons of readings of out of copyright books and you can usually pick a narrator you like.
- prepend 6y ago
  My local library has lots of audiobooks for free through their app, Libby.
prepend 6y ago
I think part if this is acceptance of “sinking to their level.” I was talking with a friend who was complaining about a political party lying. She went on about her party that had to lie to combat her opponents. That she had to “play dirty“ in order to succeed. I think this is wrong as having the moral high ground is important, especially in politics and ethics. Because if the only right is “what we think” it gets to be hard to convince people who aren’t we.
zimpenfish 6y ago
> The amount of general politeness and manners exhibited from people was amazing. If you were the same class, race, etc., sure. Not if you were a slave, a servant, a woman, a child labourer, a poor, or any one of a huge range of "lesser" peoples.

kayodelycaon 6y ago

A bit off topic but where do you get free audio books of old books?

mythrwy 6y ago
There's a number of podcasts (Classic Tales for instance) where they read old books. And you can do a search and find a bunch as well (https://librivox.org/ https://librivox.org/, http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks) But I've found one of the best sources is YouTube. Tons of readings of out of copyright books and you can usually pick a narrator you like.
prepend 6y ago
My local library has lots of audiobooks for free through their app, Libby.

prepend 6y ago

I think part if this is acceptance of “sinking to their level.” I was talking with a friend who was complaining about a political party lying. She went on about her party that had to lie to combat her opponents. That she had to “play dirty“ in order to succeed. I think this is wrong as having the moral high ground is important, especially in politics and ethics. Because if the only right is “what we think” it gets to be hard to convince people who aren’t we.

zimpenfish 6y ago

> The amount of general politeness and manners exhibited from people was amazing. If you were the same class, race, etc., sure. Not if you were a slave, a servant, a woman, a child labourer, a poor, or any one of a huge range of "lesser" peoples.