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> "I once watched a fast-food server placate a violent customer with nothing more than her voice and a stale honey cruller at her disposal." This is given as an

> "I once watched a fast-food server placate a violent customer with nothing more than her voice and a stale honey cruller at her disposal." This is given as an example of a "skill" that should be considered admirable. It should be considered unnecessary. It should be considered unnecessary. A fast food worker placating a violent customer with a stale honey cruller is an unwelcome intrusion into a stable society, not something exciting and meaningful to be imitated. No one should be behaving violently towards fast food workers, and if they do, it shouldn't be fast food workers who are placating them. We could just close fast food restaurants at night. We could put people in jail for a long time if they behaved poorly towards service industry employees. What exactly is your solution for "bad behavior" in society then? Of course nobody should act poorly towards others, but what people should do doesn't seem to stop them. I don't agree with the author that these skills are as unique as she claims, but your comment reads as if you're projecting your own bias onto the piece. Whether or not it's sex work, front line work, office jobs, or whatever, huge swaths of society work jobs that they don't particularly care for to get paid. Writing off the whole piece as "she had low standards for herself and found sexual validation of strangers easier than grinding out a living" misses the point (and is completely unsupported by the text).

quacked 3y ago
> What exactly is your solution for "bad behavior" in society then? There are many possible solutions for "bad behavior in public"; on the "carrot" side there's better education, better nutrition, more peaceful neighborhoods, and better care for mental health and addiction; on the "stick" side there's prison, involuntary confinement to mental wards, corporal punishment, and shaming. In many other places in the world people who can't look after themselves are stopped by external forces who care to apply behavioral standards to public conduct. "Bad behavior" will never be eliminated from any society, but it is not true that there is no possible solution that allows us to live in a society where late-night fast food workers aren't regularly threatened by violent people. Regarding projecting my own bias on the piece, I am indeed biased against prostitutes, pimps, johns, people who are violent towards fast food workers, organized crime, unorganized crime, and anyone else who regularly engages in antisocial behavior for self-gratification. I don't mind and even enjoy writing that explores these underworlds and details the motivations of people who live in them, but this piece was clearly written by someone who has a strong distaste for a "normal", healthy society, and believes that the lowest parts of society are as or more valuable than the rest of it.

quacked 3y ago

> What exactly is your solution for "bad behavior" in society then? There are many possible solutions for "bad behavior in public"; on the "carrot" side there's better education, better nutrition, more peaceful neighborhoods, and better care for mental health and addiction; on the "stick" side there's prison, involuntary confinement to mental wards, corporal punishment, and shaming. In many other places in the world people who can't look after themselves are stopped by external forces who care to apply behavioral standards to public conduct. "Bad behavior" will never be eliminated from any society, but it is not true that there is no possible solution that allows us to live in a society where late-night fast food workers aren't regularly threatened by violent people. Regarding projecting my own bias on the piece, I am indeed biased against prostitutes, pimps, johns, people who are violent towards fast food workers, organized crime, unorganized crime, and anyone else who regularly engages in antisocial behavior for self-gratification. I don't mind and even enjoy writing that explores these underworlds and details the motivations of people who live in them, but this piece was clearly written by someone who has a strong distaste for a "normal", healthy society, and believes that the lowest parts of society are as or more valuable than the rest of it.