That lack of manners/rudeness/sense of entitlement is increasing

[mollyminniemo]

Does anyone else feel the same? Mainly notice this when driving but it's rare I don't encounter several incidents like stopping to allow a car to pass/pull out of side street/give way etc and its 50/50 if anyone even acknowledges let alone says thankyou. Same on public transport or in supermarket if I let someone to go ahead or pull in trolley to let them pass etc- no thanks, no smile, no gesture of appreciation or acknowledgement. Just grabby, rude entitled people everywhere who have truly forgotten how to thank someone who sacrifices their own time/space/placer (however minor a sacrifice it is) to make that person’s life easier.

Yes I've noticed it too and I don't even go out much! Our school has a small entrance gate with no room for passing others, if someone allows me through first I always thank them and wouldn't dream of not doing so. There is an increasing number of parents now who wont even acknowledge when someone has allowed them to pass first let alone say thanks, their children obviously have not learned any manners from their parents either as they will just barge past people.

The other thing that winds me up is the rudeness and impatience of drivers. We live in a small village which many people use as a rat-run. During the school run many parents completely block the pavement outside the school by parking all the way on it, despite having been asked not to by the school. So those of us who walk to/from school are forced out into the narrow road and then the rat-run drivers are trying to push past us in their vehicles or revving their engines angrily behind us.

@mollyminniemo with regards to the driving thing- I find women worse than men for this suprisingly

What’s sad is, when someone lets me past and I say thank you, they look so surprised. It makes me feel embarrassed for thanking them!

I don't

Most people are self centred arseholes.

I don't think the expectations of modern day society help. Always working, stressed to the max, no money, time pressured ALL the time - need to here at this time, there at that time, alongside all the boring, day to day chores and life admin. It's all just a bit much and turns people into those self centred arseholes.

with regards to the driving thing- I find women worse than men for this suprisingly

Why is it surprising?

Yup. I’ll agree with that.

Do all of the situations in your OP actually require thanks? I wouldn’t necessarily thank somebody in the supermarket for something as basic manners as moving their trolley which is in the way out of the way. If you’re consistently expecting thanks in public situations and not receiving any, perhaps your behaviour isn’t perceived in the way you think it is?

Majority if the time it's because they're so focused on their phone that they pay absolutely no attention to the world around them. The fact that some people are still alive is a miracle given that they walk around with headphones in so they have no sense of hearing and also can't see a thing if it's not on their phone screen.

I agree, I find myself muttering a sarcastic "you're welcome" to myself increasingly often these days!

My no. 1 annoyance is when someone in a supermarket goes to the till whilst on the phone, talks all the way through the transaction and then leaves without acknowledge the server.

Or people who use buses that never say thank you to the driver either when paying or leaving.

Or or or when you're in a restaurant and the wait staff put your food down without a single word, I always say thanks anyway but it does annoy me

It’s also basic manners to thank someone who moves for you. The trolley was in a perfectly legitimate position. It may be “in your way”, but who are you to expect everyone to make adjustments for you?

I don't think people are less polite, but there are a lot of aggressive drivers. Where I live you often have to wait to pass parked cars and the majority raise a hand to say thanks when they pass. I also live near Bristol and "Thanks Drive" is the standard brizzle refrain to bus drivers as you get off.
We also have a lot of narrow pavements and most times people smile or acknowledge if you step aside to allow passing.
Not everyone does though, for sure, but I wonder if those who think it's common to be rude now are more focused on noticing it? I can't really say if I'd always notice or not and I don't let it bother me if I think a stranger in the street should have thanked me.

Kept my sons learner plates on recently and got so much abuse from older people when driving!!!
Very odd that people think they can abuse learner drivers

Took them off and no abuse since

Yea OP all the time.

Women dawdling along in the middle of the pavement with a pushchair on their phone with a dog on a long lead.. just where am I supposed to walk?
School kids walking in groups across the pavement... ditto
Drivers who don't acknowledge when I stop to let them pass
People who don't reply when I say good morning.
Ill mannered, selfish people everywhere

I think that's just an excuse. "Normal" people have always had to work hard.

@Jumbojem the Brizzle salutation to the bus driver as you alight, is 'Cheers, Drive' - and a new road in a housing estate was named this, after a local competition! Makes me smile every time!

Nope, I think there has always been rude people. It's stayed the same, but people like to make out young people are ruder than previous generations and society is degenerating, when from my experience it is the older people who push in queues and don't say thank you.

That’s me, all the time! 😆
’Fucking pleasure, mate!’

I used to mutter it to myself, now I shout it!

I've noticed that people just aren't very friendly towards each other anymore - people of all ages. I feel like it's a remnant of covid - people are slightly suspicious of one another and content in their small bubble.

People who gather right by a doorway really piss me off and then they look irritated when I say ‘excuse me please’. Don’t stand by a bloody doorway then! I was in a large Tesco this morning and the number of (mainly elderly people) who just walked past me without any form of acknowledgment when I’d stood out of their way to let them pass, just rude 🤬

People who just stop walking and stand in the middle of the pavement to look at their phones really annoy me.

Yes people lack self awareness and have very few manners. I put on a relaxation day as a charity event and the knitting group in the other room made so much noise scraping their chairs and crashing about. And people just coming in talking during the meditation! I thought, do people just not give a shit about anyone else any more?

It’s hard to say. People have always looked back and thought things were better when they were young.

My feeling, however, is that yes, people are nastier and more aggressive. Just a few thoughts:

1. The country is more crowded. And the more people you squeeze into an area, the nastier, more impatient and bad-tempered they become. In other words, they get on each other’s nerves.

2. Thatcherism. I’m a conservative, but I’m a ‘wet’, left-leaning conservative. Thatcher made everything about money. Her policies encouraged greed and aggression and selfishness, and we are living with the consequences.

3. The Americanisation of British culture. I have nothing against Americans. On the contrary, I have loved and admired several Americans in my life. But American culture does have a brash, nasty, vulgar edge to it, and we have embraced that. Indeed, young British people seem to ignore their own literature. Some of them even seem to be adopting an American accent.

4. The collapse of the class system. I’m a republican, and in many ways am glad to see the end of the class system (which massively held this country back), but it did have an upside. When I was a child (in the 1980s), people were polite because they didn’t want to be thought lower class. Manners, accent, etc gave you away. People were almost shamed into behaving well. For example, as a child I heard people described as ‘vulgar’ and ‘common’. I haven’t heard either of those words for twenty years. Today, young women seem proud to be noisy, brash and vulgar. It’s like they just don’t know how to behave. Half of them don’t even seem able to hold a knife and fork properly, let alone speak in a polite, civilised way.