Monday 9 November 2015

Since we're talking about pet peeves...

...I have many. Too many to list, and they change with my mood.

Today, for instance, my pet peeve is once again stupidity; or rather, a lack of common sense. I saw a review on Facebook of one of my new favourite ice cream parlours. I put a screenshot on the Facebook page for this blog if you want to see. This may be leftover rage from the amount of posts I've been reading on Not Always Right, but I managed to hold my tongue. There, at least.

You have to be a special kind of stupid to manage to fail to see that everyone is doing something specific to get what they want in a tiny restaurant, of all places, and still expecting your (retarded) way to be right and then berating the staff about it in such a public manner, albeit a very cowardly one.

This is not to say I don't have brain farts sometimes as a customer or in other areas:
The other day we went to buy some fresh honey from a farm and, between the useless employee who probably has trouble understanding what a "bee" is and how it makes this gold stuff that people keep wanting to buy, and my own moment of spazzing out from my fear of public speaking (I have far too few grey hairs to have stopped giving a shit what people think of me; to me most days feel like those dreams where you show up to work naked), we got nowhere - I stood there shrugging and making braindead caveman noises even less articulate than those I did as a grumpy teenager. My girlfriend got cross with me, I ran back to the car and we now have two jars of mystery honey from God-knows-what kind of flower. At least she undersold it and we got it cheaper than we should have - at least, we suspect so. Whee.

Sitting at my doctor's waiting room today, though, a man wanted to make me move (to where? The place was full!) so he could put the chair I was sitting on into the hallway so his wheelchair-bound son could sit there. Note, this was after I'd shuffled out the way to allow them more space to pass, since he'd tried very hard to squeeze through the wrong side, which is not very accessible to wheelchairs due to an ill-placed pillar (unlike the other side of the same room; it has two doors, one right outside the disabled bay). I refused to move because I am physically unable to stand up while I wait. He landed up putting his son, who looked about 8 and very scared, in the hallway and disappeared for a bit only to go through to the more wheelchair-friendly side and somehow manage to worm his way into one of the comfortable arm chairs (with a prime spot for a wheelchair within arm's length) and fall asleep. What. The. Fuck?

At least, I suppose, I do make it a point to differentiate intelligence from level of education. Some of the most retarded people I've met are in the medical fraternity. Go figure.
Well, that may be a bit biased on my part because I believe the medical fraternity as a whole is kind of retarded. But that's another post.
The point is "educated" does not amount to "smart". Our most esteemed neighbouring country's president (that one that will live forever) has a buttload of degrees. Doctorates, even. I'll let that sink in a bit.
Conversely, some of my very intelligent friends who never did get into academia have really been a ready supply of thought fodder about why we go to school in the first place. Again, another post!

I do have some... Not-so-clever friends. Above all, they taught me all about cutting the idiots out of your life who increase your risk of heart disease. Oh, and some patience, I suppose.

I've had to learn to tone down my inner Grammar Nazi; not to comment on those Facebook posts, and especially not to challenge someone's "intelligence" , especially if they're trying very hard to come across as more intelligent than you - and themselves - it breaks their hearts if you manage to destroy their belligerence! But some people are so far beyond stupid I just want to slap them through the face. When I'm feeling generous. These you can't just ignore because the sheer stupidity of their statements makes the global average IQ score drop every time they go online, and we can't have that.

I don't speak like a smart person (I think). Hell, I don't act like a smart person nine times out of ten, and there are many ways in which I'm not smart at all.
But please: if you are genuinely not blessed with the gift of common sense, unable to read purely because of laziness or if you don't understand basic social protocols such as buying your ice cream by selecting your flavour yourself at the counter, don't spread your stupidity all over the web - or in real life, for that matter; there are children watching and, of course, those of us that have to suffer in silence because good etiquette doesn't allow us to mace you.

</Murasaki> (to contrast the wonderful Emily)

4 comments:

  1. Love it! Thansk for the laughs. I can picture your facial expression as your wrote this. xoxox

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  2. Even though you're still many years away from having enough grey hairs to not give a shit about what people think of you, you're years ahead of most people your age when it comes to applied thinking. Loved the piece! xxx

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  3. Thanks ladies!

    Hee hee my cross face, hey? xx

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