Empathy Training

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That is such an american thing for some reason… My grandma was literally terrified when we once visited the US together and saw a man throw a tantrum for not being able to get barbecue sauce In McDonald’s

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Totally wouldn't work. We Americans believe in a brotherhood/sisterhood of suffering. If we suffered, we believe that others NEED to suffer as well. It's why nurses are terrible to new nurses, why so many people are against forgiving student debt, and why so many parents refuse to acknowledge their children's issues. It's all "I lived through it and it sucked, so you need to too," mentality. We didn't build compassion though suffering, we just wish it on others, too.

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I concur. I honestly don't think I had ever seen a customer give a retail employee a hard time before (at least not in a manner that would catch other customers attention) until I visited the US. There it felt like a somewhat regular occurrence, perhaps esp. at fastfood places and Walmarts and whatnot.

"AAAARRRGHH, I want the discounted chips but the shelf is empty - FIX IT, OR ARE YOU JUST COMPLETELY USELESS?!"

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We didn’t build compassion though suffering

Speak for yourself.

1 - Try being homeless for awhile, if you crawl your way back out of that
and you treat homeless people like shit afterwards then you're just an asshole.

2 - Try hiking the entire Appalachian Trail - everyone is struggling and yet the majority
of other hikers share food and supplies and help boost morale and the people
in trail towns are generous and not assholes because they know what you are doing is
difficult.

3 - Try being in the military and being the lowest rank E-1 - there is comradery there amongst
the low rank enlisted. Everyone is suffering and yet regardless of race, class, religion, beliefs, everyone
has a "we're all in this together" attitude and it's easy to make friends if you wish.

4 - Finally, ask anyone who has ever worked in retail how they view retail workers now.

Assholes are just assholes. They stick out in society so it makes it seem like they are the majority.

oce 🐆

In Japan, they won't say much to your face, but they will say you're impolite, useless and should get fired in the internet reviews, if you didn't treat them like royalty from beginning to end.

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Also, anyone applying for a driving licence should have to have spent a given number of hours cycling on public roads.

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"May all prayers go unanswered as the vast majority wish harm upon another human being."

Maeve

It used to be socially unacceptable to be a jackass. Somewhere along the line, it became socially acceptable, then desirable, and finally glorified. We have lost the plot, by and large.

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I was in the military and my experience was wildly different. If you displayed anything other than hyper masculinity you were a little bitch that anyone could do anything to. Every single woman I served with was sexually assaulted and several of them raped. The rapists were never punished beyond a transfer to another duty station. People constantly stole from each other. Fuck the supposed comradery in the military.

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America is just one endless hazing ritual, from the day you are conceived to the day your grave is exhumed for its real estate value.

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Try hiking the entire Appalachian Trail

I'm sorry but it will forever be stamped into my brain

During the six days of absence, one of the excuses offered by Sanford's spokesperson was that Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail. As a result, "hiking the Appalachian Trail" or "hiking the Appalachians" became a euphemism for a sexual scandal in American English

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It used to be socially unacceptable to be a jackass.

It used to be socially unacceptable to be a jackass while poor. You were always supposed to defer to your betters. The Kennedys got to be assholes. The Vanderbilts got to be assholes. The Pullmans got to be assholes. Their employees and staff were expected to be utterly docile and subservient.

But a century of rising middle class prosperity combined with a Randian self-centerism transformed generations of people into CEO wanna-bes. American libertarian ideology and the myth of the Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaire has utterly obliterated class consciousness in the minds of the American working class. Millions upon millions of people have it embedded in their heads that they should be treated like aristocracy.

We have lost the plot, by and large.

We've bought into the propaganda of American Exceptionalism. Every American gets indoctrinated into the theory that they're above average, that they're Gifted And Talented, that they're destined to become The President. There is no universal understanding of the human condition, just people who deserve to be under you and people who climbed above you unfairly.

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Love it. Anyone designing public transit in any capacity has to use it to the exclusion of all else for half a year, and they must travel the longest distance within the system at least twice a week.

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Look, another deeply troubling toxic relationship with retail.

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That's honestly even more annoying.

I like seeing google reviews where someone is making a huge fuss about their poor restaurant experience, and then the manager responds like "You did not raise any issues during your visit, including when asked by staff. If you had told us of any problem we would have done our best to make it right"

Like how much of a clown does that customer then loo. Couldn't raise the problem in person, but quite happy to go kick off about it online where they feel anonymous.

db0

Totally wouldn't work. We Americans believe in a brotherhood/sisterhood of suffering. I

As someone who's been in the compulsory military service, this is exactly what would happen. The "old cans" in there haze and expect the newbies to suffer like they did.

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And there would always be outs for the rich so they wouldn't have to.

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Sorry, I mean the "collective we." Of course individuals do build compassion, but look at the state of America and tell me that the collective we is different than I stated.

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Shouldn’t av upcharged me chip, simple as

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I used to have a line in my dating app profile about not contacting me if you're rude to service workers. You can guess what jobs I've worked in the past.