Rude woman on the bus, WWYD?

[DontReinMeIn]

Last night I got on the bus like normal, there was a guy watching the news out loud without headphones on. It was annoying but it is what it is, you can’t force someone to put headphones on, so I put my AirPods in and that was that.

a couple of stops later an older woman (probably 50-ish?), got on and goes straight up to the man, starts jabbing him and shouting at him to turn it off, because the news was now about Trump and a speech he made and the woman “can’t bear to listen to it”. The man said no and turned back to his phone. She started screaming hysterically about the fact she can’t stand Trump, shouldn’t be subjected to listening to him in a public place, and demanding that the bus driver remove him from the bus.

The driver refused and told her that she needed to sit down or get off, as he couldn’t continue his route with her being disruptive. She sat down, but was crying loudly and told every single person that got on about what had happened, how she was so much better than that man and criticising everyone else on the bus for not “speaking up” about him listening to it.

AIBU to think I should’ve just told her to shut up? Looking back I regret it because as much as I dislike Trump (and people not using headphones on public transport), the man wasn’t actually doing anything wrong and shouldn’t have been attacked like he was.

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2025/august/new-tfl-campaign-encourages-customers-to-use-headphones-on-public-transport

Ireland has just brought in fines for it. It’s really selfish. We all get that you shouldn’t assault someone for it but he was still being a wanker. Once he knew she had issues and was upset by it, why dig his heels in? Because he’s a twat.

The more this thread goes on, the more I disbelieve it was a man listening with no head phones and think it was the op. Who gets this invested in something that did not involve them at all?

Oooh good shout!

AIBU to think I should’ve just told her to shut up?

And what do you think would have happened if you had? The woman who was apparently screaming at a man, pushing him, jabbing his face and so on would have suddenly stopped and said, “You know, you’re right - I’m sorry. I’ll just sit here quietly”?

Why do you think you had the magic words to make her stop? Surely she’d have ignored you like she ignored the driver and kept on yelling.

The thought had crossed my mind, too!

Screaming 'hysterically'. Don't forget the 'hysterically' 🙄

That would be ironic given OP’s answer to any level of noise is to stick their AirPods on!

Why are you assuming that everyone who thinks he's wrong is older than you?

I think people here shouldn't refer to lady as mental or bonkers this is unfair and patronising. Nobody knows her problems. She may have been told she has terminal illness. We all need to be a little kinder in our outlook. The no headphone man is an a*s hat , but my experience in public transport is ignore it. Either of them could turn on you without much thought.

Would it be ok if a parent allowed a child to listen to baby shark? No.

It's not ok to play anything without headphones. It's rude and entitled

Is the man related to you in some way OP? Tell him to buy some headphones.

Not in your first post you didn't. You made a point of saying in your first post it was "an older woman (probably 50-ish?), got on and goes straight up to the man ...". You didn't give your estimate of the man's age until your FOURTEENTH post, and then only because you were asked by a pp.

Sounds like a reverse to me, why are you defending his behaviour?

"I couldn’t care less what other people were doing." And yet here you are, not only caring about what this woman did, but starting a thread about it on MN. 🙄

Definitely isn’t.

is it actually beyond the realm of possibility that I might have a different opinion and think that her jabbing him and screaming at him is more of an issue than watching the news?

I wouldn’t have an issue with it personally, but apparently that puts me in the minority

Shall we ask, say 10 people on here if it would be ok? See if you are in the minority?
I'll go first
It's not ok

It's not OK (it's anti-social).

Indeed, the anti-social minority.

Just stay out of it. It's not your argument and there didn't seem to be any worry on either part about what was happening.
Personally, if it looked like she was clearly unwell, had I been him, I'd have turned it off or put in earbuds - if only to spare the other passengers. I do think he was rude - but thats beside the point.

I think you may be over-egging the pudding here. If she was in your words ‘screaming hysterically, crying loudly, physically assaulting him, physically violent'; then someone would have called the police. The picture you paint is one of extreme uncontrolled aggression.
However your own descriptors and the crescendo you reach is less of a concerned citizen and more of someone with inherent rage. Stay well out of it.

OP, you’re clearly exaggerating because it’s just not credible that someone would think “oh how rude!” rather than “gosh that person is struggling mentally” in response to actual screaming - and especially hysterical screaming - directed towards something non-traumatic.

So either she wasn’t actually “hysterically screaming” - which most people will thankfully never hear in their life unless they are a witness to serious trauma - or she was, but you are an android that doesn’t have the human capacity to respond with concern rather than disgust to hysteria. Which is it? I suspect the former and you have exaggerated to get people to agree with you - was she perhaps distressed and shouting instead?

Yes he was. He was causing noise pollution and being an ignorant a hole.

It's not okay.

And it's fantastic that transport companies are starting to, slowly, do something about it.

I don’t think I am - I see the bus as my transport to and from work. It’s not a social place for me 🤷🏼‍♀️