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.
@Ohlmann:
In germany you get documentation for diagnosed Autism/Aspergers, because you are officially considered handicapped, which (this being germany) has to be officially documented, because you get discounts on the bus and stuff. (Which is all fine and dandy)
And I have seen a lot of this documentation.
Mostly accompanied by “You are discriminating me, I’m going to get you fired!”. (Which is a real possibility in Germany)
@SFHC:
I’m not getting into an internet slapfight
“Autistic” gets thrown around as a synonym for inconsiderate, self-involved, indifferent to social norms. Which is bullshit, because people on the spectrum often work harder than anyone else to understand nonverbal cues and what others are feeling.
I do think there’s been a decline in people’s ability to internalize social norms, and a weakening of consequences for transgressing them. We’re losing our sense of shared collective consciousness (just look at the way “hive mind” gets used as an insult, as though widely shared beliefs are the result of brainwashing rather than common sense). Social disapproval is no longer such a strong check on bad behavior. Technology may be partly to blame for fostering anonymity, polarization, attention-seeking, trolling and harassment. That’s not the whole story, but I feel like we’re witnessing more and more instances of “online” behavior spilling over into the real world. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chicken Dude spent a lot of time on the computer.
Manners are about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and making them feel comfortable. As such, they’re a form of respect. I think alt-righters (who are overwhelmingly white men) resort to rudeness as a form of protest against a more egalitarian society.
@Axecalibur – well, you know how it goes. Brown skinned perp, they publish his rap sheet. White skinned perp, they publish his swim times.
@Buttercup
Or brown skinned victim.
I absolutely agree. People are starting to detach themselves from a sense of social responsibility in order to feed their own personal priorities, whatever they may be. Consequences in meatspace aren’t working as efficiently as before since the people in question can always run to their groups on the internet and get their affirmation there. I’m also starting to see a worrying rise in said people mocking and slandering attempts to keep a civilised society running i.e. promoting LGBT rights, gender equality and fighting anti-immigrant sentiments. How many times are such campaigns met with cries of indignation about “betraying the white race/your country” or “lol stupid libtards” et al? Always. The concept of “treat others how you want to be treated” is slowly dying, I fear.
On a related note, are alt-righters starting to use the term “virtue signalling” to bash SJW discussions? I got accused of doing so under a Facebook post when I pointed out the problem of xenophobia and the recent rise of racially motivated attacks in Britain. My first thought was “I don’t think those words mean what you think they mean.”
Wow, you are talking like this about autistic people because you just guess those people were autistic? Just like those YouTube commenters are just guessing this guy is too, and judging autistic people using him as basis?
What. The. Hell. I don’t even think I can put it down in words.
I wonder WHY it flew over their head? Maybe because being autistic means A LOT flies over your head? And why are you speaking like that? Do autistic people talk like that?!?! Wtf, even if they did (they don’t, those are characteristics of completely different disorders), why would you mock THIS?!
Aww. Okay, I got it, you’re better than 90% of people, congratulations. How is the weather up there? That horse is so high it’s beggiNing to look like a giraffe.
Unlike you, who say “speshul snewflaiks”, right? Not insufferable at all.
Yeah, SFHC, how dare you be so immature? You’re a grown (wo)man. What are you, autistic? Speshul snewflaik? Plus, you can’t slapfight him/her, you wouldn’t reach, your pony is not tall enough.
I have read a bit about cults, primarily Scientology, and building their own lexicon or vocabulary is what these groups do.
It’s not necessarily the inventing of new words, it’s mostly just changing the meaning of existing words.
This serves two purposes, as far as I can tell: The first is a subtle form of hypnosis, or brainwashing, the other is creating something like rotwelsch. (A kind of insider language that allows the group to communicate concepts that, if uttered uncoded, would give away their true nature. Basically a dogwhistle).
We have seen the same thing with online subcultures, first the channers, then the MRAs, then the alt-right.
The problem for these online subcultures is, they use their insiderlanguage in interactions with outsiders, which basically just causes utter confusion.
Remember when they started calling everyone a cuck, and the world went “What the fuck do you mean by that?!”?
@Chiomara : the behavior LinuxLea talk of *isn’t* anything close to actual autistic people. They may still be autistic, but they are also assholes, which sadly isn’t mutually exclusive.
I can agree we don’t know enough of the situation to condemn them for sure. But that also work for LinuxLea.
There’s also the tiny problems that not everybody is at every time able to deal with the worse excess of peoples, whether or not they are normal. If, supposedly, they are low-functioning autist (or other mental diseases), who are left unmonitored into a shop, then their caretakers are assholes who let people suffer instead of doing their responsabilities.
If they *aren’t* low functioning autists and should be able to work in society, it’s normal to actually apply some societal norm to them and not accept everything from them. Most autists are, you know, good willed. Among the remaining, a bunch aren’t able to work in a normal society, and need constant monitoring, the rest are just assholes, which isn’t excused by autism.
(I did not however encounter people for who I am sure they had Asperger)
TL;DR : being autist isn’t being immune to criticism, and LinuxLea especially don’t seem to describe people who could be excused. If they are intelligent enough to know the concept of firing people because of supposed slights, they are very likely able to know not everything is acceptable in society and that people can get mad at you. Especially since nothing point to Lea being abusive or even mean to them, but just him/her being annoyed by them.
Starting shit then following up with this cowardly mouthfart when called out – yep, textbook bully behaviour.
You know how MRAs are always whining that “Feminists hate men,” to which we point out that, no, we just hate them? Yeah. If every autistic person you meet (including me!) thinks that you’re an ableist fuckface, the problem may just be that you’re an ableist fuckface.
@Ohlmann
“Autist” is a slur that 4Channers made up. Don’t use it.
@ axe
In The Grauniad’s case this is just a matter of house writing style. The guide says to use ‘boy’ (or ‘girl’) only for people under 16. It’s related to their editorial stance on lowering the voting age and similar capacity issues.
Other house style controversies include whether it’s ‘NASA’ or ‘Nasa’ (the latter according the guide) and the avoidance of gender based job titles, which once lead to a rather interesting bit about Helen Mirren (“‘I prefer to be called actress” said the award winning actor’)
I know a lot of Mammotheers are interested in how gender is dealt with in the media, so I’ll reproduce the relevant bit from the guide in case it’s of interest….
Customer meltdowns can be unsettling. Working in the service industry it’s practically unavoidable. I’m lucky I don’t see it very often.
One of the things that occurs on a regular basis at the grocery where I work is customers who feel compelled to rant because in this city those annoying plastic bags are no longer given away for free due to their being a huge littering problem. So we are required by law to charge a nickel for paper bags.
Some people seem to think it’s de rigueur to hold up the rest of the shoppers so everyone can hear them loudly and self-righteously voice their complaints about ‘socialism’. Then, it’s not uncommon to see them steal a bag from another checkout station after they’ve refused to buy one.
Yep, sure looks that way. I get the feeling that they think everyone else is as superficial and insincere as they, and that everyone else only says certain things (which happen to be true) in order to come off as “politically correct” or “virtuous”, and that deep down, if only they were “honest” and “said what they’re afraid to say”, they’d be as overtly and odiously racist as any “alt”-‘winger.
But since the majority of people are decent folks who have good reasons to oppose racism, sexism and other discriminatory isms, of course the “alt”-right isn’t going to get enough traction. And so, to cover their loss of face, they snap back something along the lines of “Oh yeah? Well, you’re just virtue-signalling! You PC wuss!” Et cetera.
They can’t face the fact that being a jerk is not just socially unacceptable due to hypocritical “virtue-signalling”, it’s that because it’s just plain WRONG. And since ‘wingers are NEVER WRONG, they have to make up new terms to flick boogers at those who have proved them wrong. And thus, signal their own “virtue” to like-minded ‘wingers.
Sorry for run on sentences and confusing syntax. Somehow ran out of time for editing!
I wanted also to add that I think it’s a good law – the town is noticeably cleaner since the ban.
But the combination of self-righteous indignation and then craven theft is too common to be surprised at anymore.
@SFHC : might be a lost in translation thing, but “autiste” in french, while useable as a slur, primaly designate people who have autistic syndrom. Is there a way other than a long sentence to designate someone who have autistic problems heavy enough to actually be noticeable ?
The vast majority of people with autistic behavior hard enough to require people to know about it I encountered do not throw tantrums and actually ask authorization for everything. Like all disabled people, they tend to work thrice as hard at everything to fit in, which is usually the main problem to take care of with them.
I also encountered a bunch with very low level autistic problems (of which I heard only because they were family or stepfamily), who basically are normal people who need a bit more effort in their everyday routines, and for who the only thing to do is being patient, which is something I extent to anyone anyway (in the limit of my actual calm ; I am not exactly a parangon of serenity, but I work on that).
None of that prevent them from being asshole, independantly of their other problems.
People with autistic troubles tend to feel too nice and too shy for this world. They also are relatively speaking rare, and rarer in nerd circles I frequented. Hence the concept that it’s pretty likely that LinuxLea did not encounter people with actual problems other than assholery, and hence why “special snowflake” isn’t something that outrage me when I see it applied to an asshole that tried to find an excuse.
I am also much, much, much, much more likely to give special attention to someone who need them but don’t feel entitled to them. That’s the case of almost all disabled people I ever encountered. The guys who want privileges for their disabilities are much more likely to be faker, because while faking disability is rare, they tend to do it for the attention and privilege, where actually disabled people usually long to not *need* privileges, and that start by not even having to say to people what they have.
@proudfoot
That’s funny because giving the bag away would be pure socialism and selling them the bag they need would be pure capitalism.
Giving bag is neither socialist nor capitalist. It might be anti-liberalist to force them to be sold, which is something else.
@Ohlmann
You’re not using French tho. It’s not OK in English, so don’t. You made the distinction between autistic and “normal” as well. Don’t do that either. I understand English ain’t your 1st language, and you’re obviously not fluent. Considering the sensitivity of the subject at hand, you might, perhaps, sit this one out…
@Alan
K
The initialism for National Aeronautics and Space Administration is rendered using lowercase letters? I’m not sure who’s ass they pulled that from…
“Autistic people.”
@SFHC
Some groups prefer ‘people/persons with autism’. Kinda like how ‘person with cancer’ is fine, but ‘cancerous person’ is fucked up
@ axe
They make a distinction between acronyms and initialisms based on whether it can be pronounced as a word.
So it’s “FBI”; but “Nato” and “Norad”. Better linguists than I can probably explain the reasoning.
The guide is a pedant’s delight though 🙂
@LinuxLea
I don’t even know where to start. Would you mind just shutting the fuck up for a while?
@LaterSpaceCowboy
The comments aren’t actually all that bad. It’s mostly people making fun of MRMGPUAs (I don’t care bout the difference anymore). I’d say it is indicative of how these things are actually perceived by a *truly* broad audience.
@Axecalibur : eh, the fact of the matter is that the topic do interest me, so I prefer to know how to express myself.
For the actual details, my parents alway were persuaded I was mentally disabled in some way from a young age, and the official doctor judgement midway through my teens is that I am definitely not autistic, but that I have non-disabling other problem, mostly insomnia and very low level paranoia. (in case it’s not clear : none of thoses two are developed enough to qualify as actual disability or illness)
The fact my brother is actually physically disabled (hemiplegia) and mostly was seen as universally more successful than me at everything is also something that I never quite shaked off, and likely the reason for which my parents jumped at the conclusions about me.
A *lot* of people do have said to me I was autistic, and between 10 and 16 years I actually believed them. Apparently (according to my parents and friend at least), the symptoms did regress almost completely once a doctor diagnosed me and explained me I wasn’t ill of that at all. I will let as an exercice to the reader which part is me conforming to the role society gave me and which part is people misunderstanding my actions to make them fit in the role I was supposed to be in.
Which may also be why I tend to be skeptikal when someone claim a disability and that supposed disability only benefit him, like when a people claim autistic disorder, but never actually struggle with following conversation or socializing, while benefiting from increased patience from people and a free pass for strange and disrupting behavior. I am also very (x3) skeptikal of people diagnosed by anything but a doctor, doubly so if they overlap with the first category.
I guess it also explain why I use the word normal. “you’re not special, you’re just an asshole” is mostly the revelation I believe I had done when the doctor said to me that I was normal.
Was that article linked about the MRA/MGTOW chicken recipe for real?! I’m sorry to be O/T but that’s heeelarious stuff, I may have to tell my family about this one. I try and keep them up to date with the goings on of the Manosphere as best I can so they can go home and misander at their boyfriends 😀
Also O/T: Paradoxical Intention – after your cautious words of recommendation on the Lady Ghostbuster thread, I have picked up Silent Hill Homecoming for a few quid. Thanks for the comments regarding it.
As for this topic, I haven’t been able to watch the video as my PC is currently minus a working audio socket. I feel sorry for the poor woman getting abused like that though, I’ve never been to a McDonalds but I can’t imagine they are particularly life affirming places to work. I try and be as pleasant as possible to counter staff I couldn’t do that type of job either physically or mentally.
@Ohlmann: Completely right, having any disability doesn’t make you a good person by default.
@SFHC:
Alright, here we go:
I don’t care if you think I’m an asshole, I can be one.
A bully on the other hand, I am not.
I don’t think I am ableist, either.
I am quite blunt, and that sometimes causes problems for me online. It’s something I’m aware of, and am trying to rectify.
So let’s take this from the top:
I worked in a shop that sold a lot of board/card/roleplaying games, books, actionfigures and merchandise for film/tv/etc.
We didn’t sell videogames or “normal” toys (the toy cars we had were movie tie ins costing upwards of 300€ for example).
It’s a selection that tends to draw a crowd that are not the best with etiquette or basic decency.
You might not believe this, but I can be quite charming in real life, and I know my stuff about a lot of “geeky” stuff. I can also be very patient and lenient with people, because that was my job. And because I want you to be satisfied with my service and come back (because that’s basically what pays my wage).
It doesn’t matter if I wanted to have anything to do with you in my free time, cause “Job is’ Job, und Schnapps is’ Schnapps”.
So if you come into the shop, expect decent service, 1 hour of my attention because you need help making a purchase decision, while treating me like shit and then buying what I recommend on amazon anyway, because you save 50Cents on a 36€ game, I’m sorry you’re an asshole.
If you come in, start pulling the books from the shelves and throw them to the floor, abuse me verbally, and pull out an official document that states that you have an autistic spectrum disorder when I order you to stop as if that excuses anything, I’m sorry, you’re an asshole.
If you then try to get my ass fired when I order you to leave the store, because I discriminated you, you are a real asshole.
As I said, 90% of people that entered the store were assholes, and I did my best for them anyway. Because that was my job.
The people really liked me for that, even though none of them showed it, and when I stopped working there and I met some of them on the street, imagine their surprise when I told them what I thought of them.
The important part here is that 90% of all people coming into the store were assholes, not 90% of people on the spectrum and the rest was fine. They really weren’t. But these are stories for another time.
But a few guys with a documented disability tried to get me fired for their temper tantrums and the resulting ban for the day. Imagine the injustice! You behave like a little prick and are told to go home, cool off, and come back tomorrow. The Horror! And I don’t feel bad for calling people out for that, because if you play your “get out of prison card”, I will slap you in the face with it. Because it doesn’t excuse being a terrible human being.
If you don’t pull shit like that, congratulations, you are not an asshole!
I’m certainly not perfect, but I try to not make the life of every person I meet miserable and more complicated than necessary, especially not the lives of those I interact with on a regular basis.
And from my experience that places one in the top 10%.
If that is elitist, I’m fine with it.