Why is everyone so angry?
 

Lately, I've been noticing that people seem to be on short fuses. Is my perception wanked because I am stressed myself, or is there really a crisis of patience brewing?

I noticed it just now, as I went for a break. I had written the following for the hippo pic in IOTD, but hadn't pushed "post":

The topic of that reply isn't the important thing here. What struck me is that I never used to be so cynical. Now, 90 percent of the responses I make look like that at first, and have to have the vinegar edited out once I realize my knee is jerking. My actual thoughts on the matter are, "Yeah, people are wasteful, but you don't have to be so shrill about it. We're all just getting by the best we can." Why do I feel like I have to fire both barrels all the time? Why does it seem like everyone else feels the same way?

So, here's my theory. Life has gotten too easy. Humans are programmed for hardship -- we're physically unfit for real survival, except for a sense of community and a brain big enough to design things like air conditioning and packaged foods. But, since most of that stuff is taken care of (YMMV), we really don't have anything to worry about other than emotional issues.

As a result, our hardship-deprived minds key in on every perceived obstacle or irritant, inflating it to epic proportions and demanding that everyone around us take note of our displeasure and Do Something About It, or at least commiserate with us. Victimhood is bigger business than ever. You can be a victim of anything, from lousy cell phone coverage to some ancient wrong visited upon your ancestors.

Everyone has real problems, of course. Loved ones die, people let you down, stuff breaks and can't be fixed. But when asked to point to someone who's serene, 9/10 of us will point to a cancer patient, a victim of violence, someone living in poverty or some other horrible condition. They really have it rough, and perversely, are often happier than we are. Their minds are consumed with finding happiness instead of finding something to bitch about.

I'm blathering on here. But back to the initial question: What's everyone so pissy about?

oh screw you and your stupid lofty questions, asshat. we are dealing with real problems here. ;)


or i could say....

no anger here. i don't really get angry that often. although, sitting at the black jack table last week i got fed up with a woman from new york sitting next to me and i calmly looked at her and said "die bitch, please, just die" and i wasn't kidding. seeing as how she sounded like Fran Drescher and wouldn't shut up, was that an angry request or a measured response?

but seriously, i think cellarites tend to get more angry and antsy in our discussions when we don't have any really weighty issues to discuss. seriously, think about it. what emotional involvement could we possibly have in discussing someone's dialect or accent? and yet, some tempers apparently flared. in most cases tempers didn't really flare when talking pre-election politics.

You are so right! I notice it when I drive, when I consume, when I work, when I vacation, when I go for a walk. I think we're too used to instant gratification, and we're overcrowded to the point where we get in each others bubbles so much that we irritate each other. That's why I'm getting outta L.A. - everyone seems to be on edge - hoping for a nicer pace of life where I'm going. Then I can get back to being my usually happy peaceful self. Most people think there's something wrong with me because I don't complain, I smile way too much, and it takes a lot to get me down.

In my case it's pretty much exactly what you said: "Life is too easy." That's why my plan after I graduate in May is to take a pretty big step outside of my cushy world.

Well, I disagree with the "life is just a bowl of cherries" theory. Come on, if life were that wonderful, why would folks have any reason to cop an attitude in the first place? If you want to look to anthropology for answers, try looking at the Polynesian peoples. Nice tropical climate, plenty of good food, nice ocean, lots of free love, and great sunny attitudes until the white boys showed up. I don't think the human species evolved to be unhappy. And sure, you can find an occasional person whose entire family was murdered by drug crazed members of some cult or a person living at 300% below the Federal poverty guidelines who is being evicted from his home who is somehow happy as a lark and quotes Anne Frank, saying "I think there must be some good in everyone." Generally, such individuals have severe personality disorders and should be locked up for the good of society, let's face it.

I think the reasons for the animosity you see on the Internet are:

1) Its really pretty impersonal. You don't see the person you are replying to. Its just words on a computer screen. Outside of road rage, people are at least minimally civilized to one another in real life - mano a mano.

2) People feel powerless to do much about issues that really upset them and may even impact them personally. Fine, you read all about the hole in the ozone layer and then find out that your aunt is dying of a melanoma. Is there much you can do about this? Not really. You can join 10 worthy environmental causes and tithe 10% of your paycheck to cancer research, but you're still going to be attending your aunt's funeral in about 6 months.

So, some innocent posts something about "stupid environmentalists". Its time to go in for the kill big time! After all, its just the computer, right? :headshake

I beg to differ on the point about people who face hardships do it serenely. Maybe this is only a personal experience of mine but my grandmother, who got a stroke, afterwards bemoans her illness all the time. Sometimes, I think it might be her sense of helplessness since she can't walk around much anymore (and even then painfully). It's understandable but not every person in the midst of hardship is going to be serene or happy.

what's an asshat?

I haven't been around enough lately to notice, but I can assure you that my patience and spirits are high, as usual.

I think it's the time of year as well. Everyone hates August.

It's fuckin' HOT, and it's the only month without a federal holiday, for starters.

Someone with their head up their ass.

Ahh! And you'd think I, off all people would know that. :smirk:

Marichiko:) Hiya! didnt know you still frequented the cellar:)
I dont think people are angrier now than they ever were. Maybe we just have more ways to express it these days. We can come online and have a bloody good rant if we want to. .....Hell I feel like having a rant now! :P

90% of humanity's troubles could be cured by a 80% reduction in population. One of the many reasons I'm a member of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. :headshake

That's another thing that I question, though. Are our hardships really as hard as we think they are, or do we simply not have anything REALLY bad to compare them with? By the way, I also know people who have a really hard time coping with illness or bad times -- I wasn't saying all sick people are serene. I was saying that the most serene person you know is one who has successfully dealt with hardship, not one who has never endured it. Sloppy writing.

but marichiko, in disagreeing with me, you emphasize (kind of) my point. What happened to whatever Polynesian tribe in 17XX, and how it proves that white people suck is an abstraction. The fact that you (and I) are thinking in those kind of terms is evidence that our brains don't have nearly enough to do :lol: insofar as our personal survival and well-being is concerned.

I can point to my own family over the last year/s to illustrate. My family is close, as many are. Things that happen to another member hit close to home, and the effects are keenly felt by all.

My baby nephew is going in for surgery Sept. 1 to correct something with his skull. It fused too soon, and has to be broken/cut apart again to allow for growth. That sucks.

My grandmother died because the staff at her nursing home failed to give her heart medicine for 15 days. We had struggled for years to take care of her at home, and only when the situation became unmanageable did we reluctantly allow her to be admitted to that place. That seems unfair.

I just got arrested for DUI at a checkpoint, and will lose my license for a year (it's 15 miles to work) and possibly get a month in jail. My fault, but had some lousy luck involved too (.087 BAC, resulting from 3 1/2 beers and no supper). This is going to put a financial strain not only on me, but on my parents, who are fast losing precious retirement years bailing out their dumbass kid. They deserve better -- particularly since neither of them have ever so much as even touched the stuff. They don't even fudge on their taxes. My dad said, when I told him about the arrest, "Why get a lawyer? You did it, didn't you? Just go take what the judge gives you." They deserve kids who are as straight as they are, but we 3 have broken their hearts countless times over the years with drugs, premarital sex, booze, and money trouble. The other two are married with kids, and living like their parents raised em too. I've still got one or two hanger-on demons, but things generally are looking up.

Dad got prostate cancer, the aftereffects of which are both highly personal and emotionally devastating.

One cousin I grew up with was killed in a car accident in TX. He had been drinking. He was in the process of divorcing his wife, who, upon learning of his death, went to his parents' ranch, entered the son's house and removed all the saddles and buckles he had won in rodeos since childhood. So she could sell them. For drugs. The sheriff was called, but could only stand there because they were still legally married and the stuff was more hers than his parents'. Even though she had only known him for 3 years. She drove off with 25 years' worth of their son's history, flipping them the bird over her shoulder.

The next year, that same guy's grandfather (same ranch), whose health had collapsed after the grandson's death, fell while closing a gate and broke his hip. He was found 4 hours later and taken to the hospital. They needed to perform surgery to fix the hip, but he developed an infection and lost his leg. The infection was not completely removed, however, and soon after, he lost the other leg. Got sick after a stroke, nursing home for a couple years, and he died. A month later, his despondent wife (who lived in the same nursing home) followed suit. The father, who lost his parents and son in the same year, has a look in his eyes that can only be described as worn out.

Another cousin went in for his 2nd kidney transplant two days ago. the first one was rejected 10 years ago, and he's been on dialysis ever since. He's not even 30 yet.

But I ate 3 meals yesterday, slept in my own bed in an air-conditioned house. I came to work this morning, and because I have relative freedom to do whatever I want as long as the articles are in on time, I spent an hour at the Cellar. Tonight we're having a band practice. I made my car payment on time this month, and found the $700 to finish paying off my lawyer (whose brother committed suicide over the weekend -- no shit).

Life could be so much worse. Yet, the sight of someone applying makeup while driving makes me homicidal, even though it makes absolutely no difference to my ETA at work.

I lost my point a long time ago, but it was therapeutic to write about all that shit for some reason.

You did it, got caught at the currently in vogue artificially deflated BAL levels ... and are probably, at .007 over, within the error for the field breath test device. Or was that a subsequent blood draw number? And didja know that because they swab your arm with alcohol for the blood draw, there's a miniscule raise in your BAL. Usually something under .01 or .02, but that changes your results enough that you could arguably have been legally under ...

Get the lawyer.

At the very least, plead out and try to keep your license as part of the deal.

I think that people seem angry because they no longer listen. They already have their canned rants ready and prefer to come across as a jerk. I've seen it on here, I've seen it on TV, I've experienced it in real life...

Yeah, I got the lawyer. In CO, unfortunately, what happens with your license and what happens in court are two different things. The DMV oversees license revocations, and they have no power to make judgements on anything but the blood test. If it's over .08, bye bye license, even if you are the grandmother of the governor. No provision for a work license either. The only two things that could conceivably change this outcome are: 1) the alcohol swab thing, 2) the fact that flouride is present on the cap of the vial they keep the blood in, which could cause the blood to ferment and thus invalidate the results if the second test shows a change in BAC, and 3) the arresting officer fails to show for the DMV hearing.

As for the court part, the best result (again, barring a no-show by the arresting officer), is that I can plea down to first-offense status based on the fact that I completed the requirements for a deferred sentence on the first one (no offenses for X years, class, community service). The first one being the time that I was sleeping in my car in my friend's driveway with the keys in the ignition.

Yah, beer is expensive for me.

Sorry to hear about the DUI thing, Mr. Noodle. They ARE very tough on that here in Colorado. :(

I think your post sort of proves my point, though. No, you're not in danger of being eaten by a saber toothed tiger, but, like many folks, you have a high background level of anxiety going on. Not saying that you do or do NOT do this, but its very easy to take one's frustrations out on the Internet.

MrNoodle--how about telling them that you burped RIGHT BEFORE you blew into the breathalyzer?

And I know this is too late, but:

Don't ever submit to the breathalyzer. Ever. :headshake

And, PS I'm not mad. I'm moody.

They make it worse for you if you don't. You think they haven't heard, and made adjustments for, every excuse known to man? They bully you from start to finish. Technically, I didn't have to roll down the window of my car and speak to the officer at the checkpoint. But realistically, I would've been in worse trouble by not doing so. I did the tests, including the retarded track-the-pen-with-your-eyes hocus pocus (bright lights in your face, anyone?) I was told that I was going to jail, then they said if I took a blood test, they'd release me on a PR bond at the scene. Right. I already knew that I could blow another breath test at the station instead, but he wouldn't tell me what I blew on the initial test until I had completed the paperwork. I didn't know if an additional breath test would help.

They run you through like a cow at the slaughterhouse, applying shocks and pressure where necessary to get you down the chute. The tactics are designed to keep a truly drunk person off-balance and controllable, but I wasn't drunk. I just knew that they were going to have their way or make it hell on me all the way.

Don't try to tell a cop his job. He sees a dozen armchair constitutional experts a day, and they all go to jail. Better to get in the system without a fight, and give them as many opportunities as possible to screw up, something they excel at.

Yeah, and so much is just luck of the draw, too, Noodle. I was stopped by the cops once on New Year's Eve. I was all dressed up in my finest, complete with a pair of very stylish, very high heeled shoes. Well, the cops had me get out and wanted me to walk a straight line. I flashed my heels at them and said, "You really expect me to walk a straight line on this icy road in THESE?" They conferred with each other for a while, then one of them laughed and came up to me and told me to just go ahead and drive home. Safely of course. Saved by the bell! Or in my case, my high heels. But for the grace of the god of fashion, I could have been in your same predicament! :mg:

i disagree. (really? lookout disagrees with something?) seriously though. they may bully and threaten you that it will be worse if you don't do what they ask, but there really isn't anything more they can do to you as long as you aren't belligerent or threatening in your manner.

Ex. 1 = after my experiences i won't use a breathalyzer. about a month ago i was leaving a bar and was pulled over about a block away. the guy was fishing for a DUI by stating he wanted to check the registration on my new truck. he asked if i had been drinking and i told him that i'd had two beers with dinner. he said that i was going to have to do the field sobriety test and a breathalyzer. i told him, very politely, that i refuse to comply but if he likes i would willingly go to the station for a blood sample. he threatened me with all kinds of crap, but in the end he told me to drive safe and sent me on my way.

Ex. 2 = after my experiences i refuse to deal with bike cops without a second officer present because they don't have cameras to record events. When i got pulled over about a year ago by a bike cop she got extremely pissed when i told her i would only open my window a crack, but wouldn't step out of the vehicle until she had a second officer on the scene. she was even more pissed when i told her the reason was that i don't trust single bike cops without a camera on them, but she had to give in and request another officer.

they can't go out of their way to jack with you or beat you with a nightstick just for exercising your rights and asking them to comply with the laws they are hired to enforce. lets face it - with the shortage of qualified LE out there, we aren't dealing with the cream of the crop in many instances.

That can actually go either way ... if enough time passes between tests (1/2 hour or more) AND your liver still works pretty good, and it's a sufficient length of time since you stopped drinking ... your BAC does go down.

I've heard different amounts on that, though, anywhere from .08 (this is what I remember best) to .25/hr. I'm pretty sure the .25 is wrong, because if we send someone with a .25 to the ER s/he is guaranteed to be there for a couple hours before we deem them medically stable enough to bring back in.

i learn the coolest things AFTER they won't do me any good any more.

paying cash for time machine, pm me.

well, how do you think we know some things? we learned them after it was too late for us. nobody is going to be sitting at the bar with you and say, "lishen here mishtrnoo *hic*dle, if you get*hic* pulllled ove' tnight, asshhk fer ablud tesh - ish yer right*hic*" they will invariably sit at the bar the next night and say "know what you *hic* shhhoulda done?"

Is John Titor still around? He'd probably let his go, cheap.

I learned about breathalyzers from an operator standpoint, you know, the side the numbers point towards.

I have never been pulled over for DUI. I am not saying I have or haven't been eligible to have been pulled over for DUI, I'm just saying it hasn't happened.

Learning how to become invisible helps a lot.

i hear that having all of the local LE well aware that you can outgun them helps as well.

My wife claims that I have been really grumpy lately, and I have. I don't know why. I grump at the kids, the wife, and the little things that don't matter. I think some people just like being angry. For me, I think it's genetic. My mom's pretty much unhappy, has been all her life. Bitches and complains about everything even if it's a positive thing. Some people like confronation too. They like to argue for some reason.


BTW Lookout, I completely aprove of the use of the word asshat! :lol: I personally like assclown myself, but that's just personal preference. Asshat sounds more...angry.

:lol:

The guy who arrested me the first time competed in the same local pistol shoots I did. He can't shoot for crap. He didn't know me, unfortunately -- not that it would've helped.

re: invisibility
I got in the habit long ago of using side roads (but not too far on the side), not making eye contact, not projecting myself mentally, not speeding, not tapping the brakes, avoiding known patrol routes. Used to be out of necessity, but now it's just habit. The checkpoint was very cleverly situated to screen out people like me.

All this stuff doesn't really address the root cause, however. If you drink anything stronger than a Shirley Temple, don't be behind the wheel in Colorado. They get positively moist at the thought of it. Loads of revenue and an almost bulletproof prosecution scheme. If I had taken a baseball bat to a homeless pregnant woman, I'd have a better chance of ducking the consequences.

I don't think the Cellar would exist without folks like this. :)

Would to! :mad2:

Would TOO


:smashfrea

Wouldn't! :mad:

would too. and as proof i will now regurgitate the entire encyclopedia britannica as support of my claim. ;) (the cellar couldn't survive without these people either)

You failed to capitalize those letters! :mad2:

no i didn't. i succeeded in leaving those letters lower case.

Revisionist!

revisionist=truth teller to fix the inaccuracies of the anglo capitalist war mongering racists?

Reactionary!

These ad hominem personal attacks are so typical. What are you trying to hide?

Murderer.

that was uncalled for. pedophile.

You're all just like Hitler. Every one of you.

what a jingoistic statement - you must be from luxembourg.

Just cuz we're short and white? Europhobic Heightist!

pffft all those big words don't hide your small penis.

If she really sounded like Fran Drescher, then somebody has to die. It's really not that important who, her or me. It's gonna happen.

Yeah, Lookout, well anyone can detect that French accent in your typing a mile away, you capitalist oppressor of the downtrodden, you! Go slink off behind your gated community and tip a few people in wheelchairs. That should cheer you up!

Perhaps you're more familiar with the term "dark room"?

mrnoodle, when do you go to trial? my g/f is locked up until november for dui. in fact i took her to court tuesday and sat with her until it was time to start serving. i'm going to go see her tonight after i drop off my son to the ex. we've been inseperable since the day we met and now i have to wait 84~87 days to feel her touch. also, have your lawyer reschedule your ALR hearing. if you can wing it, have that trial before your dui trial and in the same week. texas is a pretty bad state to get dui in as well and i know i already pm'd you on this but my ALR was on a monday and the DA didn't want my lawyer to be able to talk to the arresting officer so they didn't show and the prosicution moved to dismiss. then on wednesday i showed up for my trial as well as the arresting officer. something happened and it was rescheduled for the next day. i got lucky. the cop had night shift and slept through his summons so i was found not guilty. luck works in mysterious ways.

why is everyone so angry? - well everyone has pretty much covered the bases here, stress, asshats, anger mongers that want to argue. myself i just keep it to myself usually. what good is it going to do [shrug/]? mrnoodle and i have pretty much had the same "luck" over the last few years it sounds like and i'll say this: what doesn't put you down only makes you stronger. well, that and learning how to say "i don't give a fuck" helps too on some matters.

I'll let you know what happens...haven't gotten any word yet, and my lawyer had a death in the family over the weekend, so it'll be awhile before I learn court dates, etc.

Did you forget to include the major magnetic storm the earth has just come out of? It ended about 7 PM on the 24th.

Then, of course, there was that full moon last week.

And the Mars thing coming up this weekend (no, not the spectacular one from a couple years ago in the error-ridden email that's going around, but still a closer pass than usual)

Everyday we hear and experience more and more about stuff we have little or no control over. Like the hippos. Sad situation and none of us can do anything about it. Iraq war? Same thing more or less. Pulled over by cops? Helplessness in mass quantity breeds discontent and anger.

I also think it's the sense that we have lost control over our own political process. In a Republic we are supposed to be able to pick the people who control our tax money and laws. Thanks to apathy, gerrymandering, and special interests, we seem to have fewer choices and politicians who feel less answerable to us.

We know the system is breaking, but not how to fix it.

Radar is working on that for us. :D

people are crackign under the kingdom of fear, everyone is a psycologist and can see other peoples subcontious but not their own, yesterday an old white guy who looked like my granpa called me a terrorist because i was wearing baggy pants and almost bumped into some guy by accident cause i was stoned, i think people get off on trying to be smarter then the people they think hate them by using some james jones gonzo speech wich satisfys their animal sense of power.

errrrmmm.......

eeeep.

this thread is starting to hurt me.

Mercury is going retrograde this weekend ... that won't help matters at all.

But it's a nice excuse.

sorry i stopped taking my medication a few days ago.....look theres two woman fucking a polar bear.