The scene: A McDonald’s in Ottawa. A man orders a chicken sandwich. The woman behind the counter tells him they’re out. He calls her a bitch.
And then this happens:
[VIDEO REMOVED. Several people have come to me with information that made me question whether it was appropriate to post this video, and so I have removed the link. –DF]
It’s a little confusing, I’ll admit, but this is a film worth multiple viewings. Some of the highlights, in case you were thrown off by all the shouting.
- Dude trying repeatedly to “explain” to the woman behind the counter, who is calling the cops, that “bitch” is in fact a “proper English word.”
- Dude raising the important Men’s Rights issue of how come he can’t hit women but he can hit men?
- Dude raising the equally important Men’s Rights issue of how come women get all mad when men hold doors open for them?
- The unseen guy who tells angry dude “don’t even look over here for help” when angry dude turns to the crowd for support. “You’re on your own, buddy,” the unseen fellow adds.
- Dude positively AGHAST that someone would call the cops on him “cause I wanted proper service. And you’re not properly servicing me.”
- Dude realizing that “servicing” sounds vaguely salacious. and adding “maybe you should get on your knees.”
- The inevitable shout of “Worldstar” near the end.
I only wish we’d been able to see the guy get escorted off the premises by police, but, hey, they have to save something for the sequel, right?
That old Married To The Sea cartoon turned out to be pretty uncannily accurate, huh?
H/T — Thanks to r/againstmensrights for bringing this lovely video to my attention.
Bartender, I’ll have what Chiomara is having.
(Seriously, am I tired or are those even proper words – such as can be found in Oxford English Dictionary? 😉
Safe to say I’m missing the joke here, though. If anyone has time/energy to explain that would be appreciated.)
@Verily Baroque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_Game
@IP
Heh, thanks for the link – that explains a lot.
PS. Läste du mitt mejl?
@Petal & Chio
Kupo kupo!
@Robert
I’m always bored reading that site. “Really, that’s the worst customer you got that day and you felt it was interesting enough to share? That’s normal and polite; just a communication issue. Can we trade customers?”
@kupo:
I like Not Always Right, but I agree that a lot of stories are pretty mild. I used to work the complaints line for a major airline and some of the customers we dealt with were terrifying. I am completely willing to believe that it was the same in customer support.
It’s nice to be able to turn unpleasant experiences into comedy though. I feel it’s not only a way to survive, but also a way to bond with other people who’ve had to work with customers and feel better because you’re not alone in it.
I think this is because their cynicism is a coping mechanism for dealing with the fear of rejection/failure, rather than the end result of actual lessons learned.
In the story of the sour grapes, you could say that the fox is cynical, but it isn’t, really – It uses its “cynicism” to console itself for its hungry belly, rather than to guard against poison. if it came across another bunch of grapes closer to the ground, it wouldn’t assume that those grapes are sour. In fact, due to its hunger, it’s likely to snap up whatever grapes it can get its mouth on; and given that it’s already shown a penchant for rationalization, it’s likely to decide that because these grapes are available, they’re sweet.
The grapes, in this case, are “ways to be special, impressive, or meaningful.” It’s hard to be meaningful in a psychologically satisfying way in an increasingly interconnected world – especially for people who grew up with the outdated narrative of finding meaning through supporting a family & being master of your household.
The grapes they had their eyes on turned out to be sour, and it’s all feminism’s fault for making them unreachable. But look: here are the “grapes” of Secret Knowledge. You’re hungry for meaning, right?
@Verily Baroque
Oops! I always forget to check that gmail address! I’m sorry! I’ve read it now, and I will reply tomorrow. Sorry to keep you waiting so long. :/
…But I literally love using the word literally!!
What this is, is anti-literally-ism! And I won’t stand for it, literally!
@Chio
Huggity hugs <3
Can we require people read the comments policy before commenting? Like a terms of service, ya know? That’d be grand
@Scildfreja
Beautiful cinnamon roll, too pure. Thanks for that 🙂
Speaking of which, I’ve recently been getting more combative on this blog. Call outs, biting sarcasm, the works. That’s typical for me, but I’m doing it more than usual, and I’m a bit concerned about that. Are other people just acting up more, or is it me? Am I being unnecessarily aggressive recently? (*Mostly talking to myself*)
Re: Clearly Canadian, Aldi sells a knockoff for like 80 cents a bottle. 🙂
@Button: Good point.
@Axecalibur (I spelled it right!): I don’t know if it’s you, but I’ve found myself being more aggressive in my head. I don’t often actually put it into comments, at least here, but it’s definitely present for me.
@Axe
I feel like people are less receptive to being called out recently. That seems to come in waves around here, from what I’ve noticed.
@Axe “Danger” Calibur:
I can’t speak for how you’ve been feeling, but it just seems like things on the internet have been increasingly tense over the past few weeks in general. There have been multiple high-profile terrorism attacks and police killings caught on film, terrorism overseas is being reported a bit more widely, the ever-present Republican Tragedy, and then nontroversies in geekdom like Ghostbusters finally coming out, etc.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that all translates to increased aggressiveness and, as kupo puts it, reduced receptiveness overall.
@Phryne, kupo, dslucia
Gotcha. I’ll keep an eye on it 🙂
Chicken and egg?
My. god. Did you guys catch the picture on the /againstmensrights subreddit linked at the foot of this post? I think it’s an exact portrait of WWTH or mayb SFHC! (kidding). Clearly all who have the temerity, nay, the ovaries to oppose the *totally* legit and righteous man-dude-cause of shout-splaining misandry to women are levitatey spell-casty ye Olde Witchys with cat familiars and computers from 1989. Love it. Love everything about that picture. It is majestic. It is life. It is love. <3
@EJ (the Other One)
Have you read Jenny Trout’s blog about awful, shitty things that awful, shitty people did to her while she worked retail at a JCPenney’s? The comments section has some Nightmare-mode customer horror stories. One poor girl worked near a large evangelical fundie community (not hating on all Christians, calm down; just the ones that are ultra super duper restrictive of women and who look down their noses at the world and act holier-than-thou) and would routinely have the most horrid customers come in acting like they were due the most fawning, no-questions-asked service, as if their presence in the store was a theophany in and of itself. The stories in that comments section are positively cringe-inducing, which I both love and hate.
My wonderful wife and I spent the 2 hours or so of waiting for fireworks to start waaaay after it had gotten pitch black on the 4th of July reading those stories and reminiscing about some of the awfulness we’ve seen from MRAs/MGTOWs over the years while celebrating America’s birthday (and America is certainly thoroughly fertilized with some SERIOUS male-centric horse crap, but that is way off topic so I’m not gonna go there tonight; I’d be preaching to the choir if I did, anyway, I’m sure! :D).
Delurking again to say:
Hi! As a middle aged person (cis female white post-het, fwiw) who is pretty new to social media, I love the articles and the comments section here. I’m learning a lot about the vocabulary of the topics under discussion, some concepts I was unfamiliar with, and ways to discuss things without descending into the awfulness that is so often found comments sections.
I was a bit surprised frankly to see someone mansplain autism to someone who has it as if nobody here is in that group. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about this place is not interpreting everyone’s words through a filter of their gender / race / preference / reproductive status / ability etc, even when they sometimes reference these things when it’s relevant to the topic. Their references remind me this is a diverse place and not everyone here shares my particular privileges.
Having just seen the last eruptions over fat- and mental health- shamings, and Hitler’s unacknowledged fine qualities, and islamophobia, I’m really surprised to see autism (or indeed a subset of gaming some people here like) raised so negatively by people who have been here far longer than I’ve been lurking.
@Axcalibur: do you think the combination of so many awful world events in so short a time and so many trollings here ditto might be increasing your combativeness? I feel like they might be increasing mine.
@Croquembouche
It’s usually good times around here. Minor flare up, I’ve been responsible for a few myself. Hope you’ll keep commenting. It’s always nice to see a new kaleidoscope 🙂
If I’m not being too forward, might I ask what “post-het” means?
Long time appreciative reader, first time commenter…
The mammoth ate my previous comment so I’ll try to get the same thoughts down again.
If the chicken sandwich guy has a brain injury or an illness that caused his behaviour and so his freakout was the result of his illness and not just entitlement/jerkishness I certainly feel bad for laughing at it earlier and thinking he was a complete ass.
However if he’s that impaired that he reacts to everyday (and completely trivial) problems with a violent outburst then shouldn’t he be accompanied by a carer or other competent adult who can look out for him and explain his situation to others he may harrass or threaten? Not to mention that it would help to protect others from his behaviour.
I don’t think it’s reasonable that everyone else should just accept feeling afraid and threatened whenever he goes off.
I do find it a bit hard to believe that a brain injury affecting someone’s impulse control could make them into a raging misogynist who repeats red pill/mra/mgtow talking points when angry. Maybe he already thought those things before he was sick anyway? Maybe I’m just horrible for thinking that.
I don’t think you should feel bad David, as you certainly didn’t think he was ill when you posted this. No one was trying to defend that cook my burritos bitch guy, even though years of steroid use has probably shrunk his brain to the size and consistency of a dried apple slice. Everyone has their problems or their reasons or their excuses.
Maybe only public figures should be targets for mockery? But i guess that would be almost impossible today.
I suppose overall it’s kind of unhelpful to film someone so you can put them on YouTube for puposes of public mockery…personally i wouldn’t do it but i still laughed and shared it when i thought he was just a big mean jerk.
Such a many sided spiky sword, this Internet.
@Dywalgi
Still, “poor impulse control” just means “I say shit I’m thinking without pausing to consider the consequences,” and not “I say random shit that has nothing to do with my beliefs and/or thought processes,” so he’s still an asshole either way. Just that this way, he’s not able to exercise the sense to conceal it better.
As you say, not an excuse, although since no doubt all of us, at some point at least, have thought a thing that we knew better than to say out loud, it might merit him a bit more sympathy than he would otherwise rate.
@kupo, Ax:
I’ve been thinking it over. Thanks for calling me out on the other thread.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in non-progressive internet spaces recently in an attempt to prevent them becoming alt-right echo chambers, and I think it’s had the opposite effect on me; I’m not bringing out the best in others, but I’m slowly bringing out the worst in myself in all areas of my web presence. It’s not right that you should have to put up with this.
Thanks for being friends, for putting up with me when I’m stressed and for calling me out when I overstep the line. This is a really good community and I’m grateful to be part of it; and that means I need to be a better member of it.
@DS:
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check it out when I have a chance.
Yay, insomnia.
@EJ
No worries. I understand the place you were coming from and why you were angry. I agreed with most of it. Thanks for taking time to reflect and for not doubling down.
@Chiomara : I (and most people I guess) can say stupid things, and not realize that. I may not stand on the exact formulation of everything I said either.
That also reminded me that
@Axe : if your answer to people who don’t have a good enough english level is “you need to talk that well to be authorized to talk”, there is a problem. One part of it is that it will interfere with my ability to take you seriously, because of the bizarre elitist slant to it.
I am still unconvinced that the term “normal” is problematic as long as people remember that being normal isn’t a good thing by itself. I see it as the “homosexual” standard term where “normie” is the one who stigmatize people (usually disabled people, of course), and the concept of social norm and of things designed for thoses peoples who actually can conform to it is important. It’s also important because what is normal *is* something that need to evolve and for which reflexions on what should be normal or not.
Not naming that hamper revisions and reflexions about that. The whole blog here exist because some people are outraged that women equality is becoming normal. Some behaviors aren’t accepted from people who are able to follow social normal convention, but are for the people who can’t follow them. And there is an awful lot of arbitrary convention, who don’t make sense anymore, and yet more are somewhat discutable (like public nudity taboo ; good or bad ?).
Also, and I might not have insisted enough on that yet, “normal” isn’t the same as able ; there is a lot of people who can’t or don’t want to fit in a normal society, and yet don’t have any kind of disability. And, of course, there are both disabled people who want to fit in as much as they can, and other who don’t care.
Let’s take a firm who is at the second floor, and have a stair and a lift for wheelchairs. “Normal” people take the stair to it, because they can. Relevantly disabled people take the lift, because they need to. But there is also a bunch of people who aren’t disabled who will want to take the lift ; and there will be some disabled people who have trouble using the stair, but will insist in taking the stair, because it’s possible but harder for them, and they have a need to feel normal that they accomplish doing so.
That example show that “normal” is a set of expectancy, who aren’t linked to the ability to actually fulfill them, and the difference between accepting to fulfill them and being able to fulfill them can be very relevant.
I guess it also highlight that there is almost alway a continuous spectrum between not having a disability at all and having the worse form of it, and that a decent amount of people have the choice between asking for accomodations and refusing them.
In other words, you say I should shut the fuck up, which I would do if you convinced me I did say absolutely out of touch things. I honestly more have the impression that we disagree on fundamental level on some things, one of them is that normal should not be a taboo word, because norm discussions and distinguishing disability and normalcy are important, but if you feel I totally misunderstand everything, feel free to explain how.
… And I forgot to finally remove the start of a sentence I started despite me thinking it wasn’t interesting.
@EJ
You mean Fuck You: A Freeform Poem? Don’t even worry about it, fam. I was being a bit hostile anyway. I mean, if that’s the worst thing you ever post…
Alright, asshole, you can fuck off with that one. Do you even sleep!? ?
Forreal tho, relax. You’re tryna be perfect (or near enough) and fix the whole world. Basically, you’re too nice. So of course swimming in alt right filth is gonna dirty you up. You don’t have the temperament. You’re not about that life
I’m not gonna tell you to be less nice, you’re wonderful the way you are. Just accept (not just acknowledge) you have limits. Realizing when to back out is pretty important. I should know, I was in the YouTube comment sections, fighting the good fight. Emphasis on was 😛
PS. Nice apology, dude! Crafted and delivered expertly. 10/10 would forgive again 😀
–from Ohlmann
This. Can we agree that demanding someone to leave a conversation because you think they made too many typos or grammatical errors is elitist and as such unacceptable?
Especially since in this specific case Ohlmann’s comments were pretty easy to understand even though they admittedly contained some awkward language and grammatical mistakes. Consequently, that demand seemed totally uncalled-for and made it seem like Axe was just trying to be mean.