You know as well as I do that social skills are culture- and context-dependent. I am merely pointing out the absurdity of defining "proper" social skills. For

You know as well as I do that social skills are culture- and context-dependent. I am merely pointing out the absurdity of defining "proper" social skills. For instance, some people value "checking in" and "empathetic speech" as regular, proper features of conversation, while for some that can be grating and wholly improper. Some see no issue with talking down to service industry employees, while some consider that a grave sin. That you've avoided answering what notion of "proper" you're interested in discussing this far into the comment thread is telling that you just want to assert your own viewpoint on this inherently subjective matter. It's intellectually dishonest which ultimately makes it irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Standards differ over time and between people.