Sad people take their bias, their prejudice with them.
HATE is a powerful yet MINDLESS emotion.

Definition of bias, prejudice we are infested with it. We are good they are bad. How truly sad where we are.

Boston

I was raised in a moderate-sized city in Western Pennsylvania. People were basically nice, assertive while not aggressive.
Then we moved to northern NJ. At first I thought people were very rude. After a couple of years I came to believe that they were guarded while trying to live their lives in very crowded circumstances. By the third year I did not expect people to act like Western Pennsylvanians. I made many friends, but it took awhile for people to warm up. They did not seem rude to me anymore.

Then we moved to Michigan. People were SO nice that, coming out of NJ, I was almost suspicious. I trained myself not to ask rhetorical questions in shops or I might be there for an hour while the answer was searched for. Still, Michiganders are great. We lived there 25 years and loved it.
Went back to Pittsburgh, where I realized my initial assessment of people there still held true. It's a nice blend of East and Midwest. (But pedestrians beware...)

I think all of this has helped me overlook certain behaviors down here that I occasionally witness. People are from all over. I try to ignore, and fortunately rudeness hasn't been addressed to me in 12 years.

As our younger son used to say (albeit usually concerning some high school misdemeanor he was in trouble for), Acknowledge and move on.

You did take a leap there. I never said what should be done. I said I believe anti-social behavior is a form of mental illness. And anti-social behavior is contextual.

For example, someone breaks into your house and is attempting to kill your family, that is mental illness. If you kill them to prevent them from killing your family, that is not a mental illness.

We currently do not understand how the mind/brain works well enough to have effective treatments. In general mental health, today boils down to treating or suppressing symptoms - mostly.

But, as I said, I do not believe in "good and evil". I believe that some people are mentally ill, and others aren't. If what you do is for your personal benefit and not society, then I believe that is a form of mental illness.

And yes, I do not believe there is any evidence that jails/prisons do more good than harm. They sort of come down to expensive crime universities. Prisons are a fairly modern invention that has never worked well. They basically isolate mentally ill people from society "for a while".

Excellent points, and post. How we interpret situations has to be, in large part, based on our previous experiences. What might be rude to some might be normal to others.

Case in point: not "rude" by any means but does illustrate this. During our first month here, my wife and I had dinner at Cracker Barrel. Upon arriving we noticed a long line at the reception podium. Not knowing how the drill went there, I asked the hostess if it was going to be a long wait, assuming she'd put our name on the list and call us, as is usually done back where I hail from.

Upon hearing my question, she replied by putting her arm around me and saying, "why, it ain't gonna be that long at all, honey".

What can you say after that?

Yup - :)

I am NOT saying I have an answer or a solution. Just my opinion.

There are a ton of issues with my philosophy - like, WHO gets to decide what is good or bad for society. (In my world, I do, but I could see some here disagreeing with that - LOL)

And does society have the right to "alter" (cure?) a person who is mentally ill?

I don't know, I just have my ill-formed opinion.

New York is NOT part of New England states.

Some of the reasons for control in earlier years is parental influence, well known that parents can keep adults in check, and when the parents' pass away, they show less restraint as there are no perceived down side from parental influence.

The other is life gets harder as you age, both mentally and physically, and that either or both can cause less emotional restraint. . . well known that CTE (concussion related brain injuries) reduces restraint, and I have had a couple of my own from 7 concussions early in life. Also, missing a medical addiction fix or crutch can cause lack of emotional restraint.

And then some are just having really bad days, not the normal but really bad, with very bad news, very bad diagnosis, and the like. . . .

So yes, as we age, seniors get cranky and funny. . . . and I have warned my kids

psych guy

Seniors do get cranky - meds, physical disabilities, etc., life is short, move on to those that make you smile.

Wait?!? What?!?

There are bad people in TV? When did that happen?

I am sure she was headed out for a good reason, but that does not give her the right to verbally abuse a young man doing a rotten job in this heat. You can make every excuse in the book for her, but rudeness is never acceptable.

As for the hospital excuse .... My husband was in the hospital THIS WEEK, it did not give me the right to verbally abuse anyone because I was scared out of my head, in fact quite the opposite.

If they was nasty before they moved here their going to be nasty period. Just cause moved in villages don’t automatically make the prefect kind and giving person. I’ll stop short there. :)

Lots of Karens here.

Most come from Midwestern states

Please explain.

And what states produce people who don't know that New York isn't a New England state?