Poll: Americans are rude

[nickel]

A new poll suggests Americans may be getting ruder.

Nearly 70-percent of those questioned in The Associated Press-Ipsos poll think Americans are more rude than they were 20 or 30 years ago. And most people think parents are to blame for not teaching good manners to their children.

The worst offenses in the eyes of many involve road rage and using cell phones in public.

Still, most don't see themselves as offenders. More than 60 percent deny they themselves uttered profanity in public in the last few months. And more than 90 percent say they don't use cell phones in a "loud or annoying manner."
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=3978255&nav=9qrx

so do you think from your own day to day experiences that Americans are getting ruder?

[nickel]

MUCH more detailed version in a Russian online newspage:


74% of Americans have rude manners, poll shows

11:58 2005-10-14
Americans' fast-paced, high-tech existence has taken a toll on the civil in society. From road rage in the morning commute to high decibel cell-phone conversations that ruin dinner out, men and women behaving badly has become the hallmark of a hurry-up world.

An increasing informality, flip-flops at the White House, even, combined with self-absorbed communication gadgets and a demand for instant gratification have strained common courtesies to the breaking point.

"All of these things lead to a world with more stress, more chances for people to be rude to each other," said Peter Post, a descendent of etiquette expert Emily Post and an instructor on business manners through the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vermont.

In some cases, the harried single parent has replaced the traditional nuclear family and there's little time to teach the basics of polite living, let alone how to hold a knife and fork, according to Post.

A slippage in manners is obvious to many Americans. Nearly 70 percent questioned in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll said people are ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago. The trend is noticed in large and small places alike, although more urban people report bad manners, 74 percent, then do people in rural areas, 67 percent.

Peggy Newfield, founder and president of Personal Best, said the generation that came of age in the times-a-changin' 1960s and 1970s are now parents who do not stress the importance of manners, such as opening a door for a female.

So it was no surprise to Newfield that those children wouldn't understand how impolite it was to wear flip-flops to a White House meeting with the president, as some members of the Northwestern women's lacrosse team did in the summer.

A whopping 93 percent in the AP-Ipsos poll faulted parents for failing to teach their children well.

"Parents are very much to blame," said Newfield, whose Atlanta-based company started teaching etiquette to young people and now focuses on corporate employees. "And the media."

Sulking athletes and boorish celebrities grab the headlines while television and Hollywood often glorify crude behavior.

"It's not like the old shows 'Father Knows Best,"' said Norm Demers, 47, of Sutton, Massachusetts. "People just copy it. How do you change it?" Demers would like to see more family friendly television but isn't holding his breath.

Nearly everyone has a story of the rude or the crude, but fewer are willing to admit to boorish behavior themselves.

Only 13 percent in the poll would admit to making an obscene gesture while driving; only 8 percent said they had used their cell phones in a loud or annoying manner around others. But 37 percent in the survey of 1,001 adults questioned Aug. 22-23 said they had used a swear word in public.

Yvette Sienkiewicz, 41, a claims adjustor from Wilmington, Delaware, recalled in frustration how a bigger boy cut in front of her 8-year-old son as he waited in line to play a game at the local Chuck E. Cheese pizza restaurant.

"It wasn't my thing to say something to the little boy," said Sienkiewicz, who remembered that the adult accompanying the child never acknowledged what he had done. In the AP-Ipsos poll, 38 percent said they have asked someone to stop behaving rudely.

More and more, manners are taught less and less.

Carole Krohn, 71, a retired school bus driver in Deer Park, Washington, said she has seen children's behavior deteriorate over the years, including one time when a boy tossed a snowball at the back of another driver's head. In this litigious society, she argued, a grown-up risks trouble correcting someone else's kid.

One solution for bad behavior "is to put a kid off in the middle of the road. Nowadays all people want to do is sue, to say you're to blame, get you fired," Krohn said.

Krohn, who often greeted students by name and with a hearty "good morning," once was asked by a child if she got tired of offering pleasantries.
http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2005/10/14/65240.html

[LegendKiller]

Well screw them.

[nickel]

Well screw them.
add a flying finger to that and you're golden. :laugh:

[Kim]

If I teach my kids nothing else, they WILL have good manners. ;)

[MikeD]

It's all Kanye's fault!!!

:)

All kidding aside, hell yeah folks are becoming more and more rude. It's astounding. Some of the 9-10 year olds in my daughter's class at school and softball team have ZERO respect for their elders, especially their parents.

Can't wait to see what the future holds...

[ialsohaveadream]

Well screw them.
Amen, brother. If they don't like it, they can go back to....America.

[Burzhui]

On our trip to Italy we saw why americans are hated all over the world. They are loud and obnoxious!

Not all of course, but every time there is an incident it's an American

This one woman was in a church screaming at a guard because she needed to find the main altar. And he was telling her to be quiet because it's a religious place and she was screaming how he doesn't speak english etc... I had to intervene, and point her in the right direction

[gear02]

f*ck you all

[Burzhui]

f*ck you all


blow it out of your blow hole

[Grimm]

For some strange reason many Americans don't realize that when they are a guest in another country, they should behave as a guest.

[smeakim]

Well not to say that these incidents are non existent but those are the ones that people remember. I know for a fact when we were in Europe we both went out of our ways to be polite. However, when you talk about rude, the European tourists as well as the Asian tourists were way worse than any American we ran into. We were constantly pushed out of the way and many cut in line. Also all over Europe people use cell phones everywhere. That was just our experience.

Now kids being rude hell yeah they are. There is no disicipline theses days. Kids can get away with murder. I reff little league football and on two different instances a 10 year old challenged me. No ten year old should be talking back or being rude to someone 3 times his age. I know for one when I have kids they will be well manered and will respect all adults. There will be no running around screaming in the store, no temper tantrums, and etc. My kids will be taught how to act in public and be punished if they dont. Just look at nanny911, you can see why kids are the way they are. You can teach your kids, but it takes work, which alot of people don't have the time in today's world. JMHO

[MikeD]

For some strange reason many Americans don't realize that when they are a guest in another country, they should behave as a guest.

Why would an American want to go to another country?

:)

(J/K)

[Grimm]

You can teach your kids, but it takes work, which alot of people don't have the time in today's world. JMHO
There are still 24 hours in a day, just like there was 10 years ago, 20 years ago and 100 years ago. The time is there, people just aren't living up to their responsibility and alloting the necissary time to teach their kids these things. They are too busy with their work, hobbies, social events and TV. They don't make the time. They are to self-absorbed.
A generation ago parents decided to do everything for their kids, they made them the most important things in their lives. They did everything they could for them. Those kids grew up knowing it was all about them. Today those same people are raising kids and they still think it is all about them. They haven't made it about their kids. So now we have a generation of kids that get to learn by example that it is all about being selfish.
Isn't this how the Roman Empire fell?

[esme]

You can teach your kids, but it takes work, which alot of people don't have the time in today's world


& who's going to teach the parents/adults ???

:shrug:

[Grimm]

& who's going to teach the parents/adults ???

:shrug:
Well, we could start ostracizing people with an absolute lack of manners. I mean disconnect their power and have everyone refuse to do business with them until they shaped up. We would have to start with the worst offenders and work our way up.

[esme]

Well, we could start ostracizing people with an absolute lack of manners. I mean disconnect their power and have everyone refuse to do business with them until they shaped up. We would have to start with the worst offenders and work our way up.


let's start w/the gas companies!! i can't afford 60+ for a full tank anymore!!

actually, i never could ....... :censored:

[bachviet]

Shut the f*ck up.


























j/k

[welfareloser]

A generation ago parents decided to do everything for their kids, they made them the most important things in their lives. They did everything they could for them. Those kids grew up knowing it was all about them. Today those same people are raising kids and they still think it is all about them. They haven't made it about their kids. So now we have a generation of kids that get to learn by example that it is all about being selfish.


i'd say it's the other way around.... today we are TOO child-centric. we've fetishized parenting. it's obnoxious. if you, as a mother, are not sacrificing yourself at the altar of mommy-martyr "giving-tree" parenting, you're a worthless sack o turds. you're supposed to give your kids the BEST of EVERYTHING. and yes, on the surface, it seems that of course you should give your kids the best... but no. too much of a good thing is bad. it's gone too far. there are no more boundaries between adults and kids. back in the day, kids played in their rooms or outside. kids stayed the heck out of the way when parents entertained for other adults. parents went out for the night or to florida or europe for a week or two WITHOUT THE KIDS. not so anymore. parents never go anywhere without their kids, and never stop catering to them for a second. they allow their kids to interrupt them (after all, anything your child has to say is of utmost importance, and you wouldn't want to impair little jonny's self-esteem) to make all the decisions, to run the show. family life is centered around the child in a wholly unhealthy fashion. little johnny's tutoring and sports and general ENRICHMENT (i have come to loathe the word) makes everything else take a back-seat. parents are orchestrating every moment of their childrens' lives to ensure that no opportunity for ENRICHMENT is squandered. i swear, i get so pissed when i go to the trouble of getting a babysitter and someone else shows up with their loud, obnoxious, messy (ie, normal) kid in tow to whatever the event is... the parents still catering to the kid, trying to turn MY f***ing night out into an enrichment opportunity for a kid who'd certainly be having a better time staying up late and eating popcorn and playing connect 4 with a teenage babysitter... i see red every time i'm talking to an adult, her kid interrupts, and takes over the conversation (or starts demanding something) and i'm supposed to go into "awwww, look, precious baby is saying something!" mode like all the other adults are... hell. naw.

so i got tickets to see norman blake, an awesome guitarist, at this gorgeous little venue in a couple of weeks, for us and another couple... we'll drop the kids with my parents and go to the concert. the other couple, nodamnedsense and his wife, have one kid, a year and half. my parents offered to watch their kid too. yeah.... turns out nds is planning on TAKING THE F***ING TODDLER to 2+ hour, acoustic guitar concert (without a ticket, i might add.) he was telling my husband about it on the phone, and the best prm could do was "uuuhhh, dude, you might want to think about that." uuuuuhhhh, yeah. because i will f***ing strangle him and give his kid to the first stranger who wants him before i will sit next to a toddler at a concert i have been looking forward to for 2 months. i told him as much and his response was "but... he really loves norman blake!" :2far: i'm sure he does. it's just that a toddler's "love" of norman blake is not as important as the enjoyment of the 5000+ ticket-holding adults... that's my opinion, anyway, though it seems to be a minority opinion these days...

and that anecdote's not unusual - not for him, not for anyone else i know with kids. we seem to be the only people around who like to ocassionally spend time doing things without our kids. :2far: i've been at a friggin BEER TASTING, a rather expensive event, where people had their freakin 8-year-olds along. i swear, i have come to loathe being at an event that SHOULD be adults only, and hearing some mommy-teacher shrilling (at the expense of everyone else's ability to talk or hear) "NOW SEEEE, HONEY, LET ME TEEEACH YOU ABOUT THIIIIIIIIIS..." arrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!

f*** that, i say. i don't exhaust myself (or my marriage :hmm: ) spoon-feeding my kids one optimized, orchestrated, enriching experience after another. they get some entertaining mommy time. they get some educational mommy time. and my kids can also damn well entertain themselves. heck, they can entertain me :P

in fact, college admissions people are beginning to notice the effects of this kind of parenting as the first generation of its victims has been hitting their doors... a whole generation of people with no creativity, no self-direction whatsoever. they've had everything orchestrated and planned for them, every moment of their lives fed to them on a silver spoon. they have a huge sense of entitlement, a dogged need to achieve at all costs, and very little to offer.

anyway... yeah. i think too many years of parents handing their kids everything they want and then some has made the children ruder... and the parents too, for goodness sake. parents will do all kinds of rude things to other adults for their children... and i mean they are willing to do HUGELY rude things for the sake of even the smallest, most insignificant gain for their children, and somehow the attitude seems to be that if it's FOR YOUR CHILD, it is sanctified, most holy, and thus not rude at all. bah.

[oblongmelon]

For some strange reason many Americans don't realize that when they are a guest in another country, they should behave as a guest.

Hmmm and vice versa? Let's tell this to all the immigrants legal and illegal who come to this country as "tourists" and end up on our welfare system bringing our economy even closer to becoming a big pile o sh*t, instead of them acting like guests and bringing their own money, insurance, food stamps..damn..They should have known better.

[RoniMan]

anyway... yeah. i think too many years of parents handing their kids everything they want and then some has made the children ruder... and the parents too, for goodness sake. parents will do all kinds of rude things to other adults for their children... and i mean they are willing to do HUGELY rude things for the sake of even the smallest, most insignificant gain for their children, and somehow the attitude seems to be that if it's FOR YOUR CHILD, it is sanctified, most holy, and thus not rude at all. bah.
AMEN!!! i run a tutoring agency for jr high and high schoolers. but in the same office, there's an after school day care center for elementary kids. these kids are cute as heck, but man! some of them are RUDE!

this is a can of worm that if i get started on, i'll be here forever. but i agree with what WFL said. in the asian community, the ones whose family owns a business are usually the worst. they see their parents talk to their employees in a condecending manner, they think that they get to talk the same way. i can't stand that. anyhoot, along with math and english, i make sure my students learn basic manners. like saying "please" and "thank you". like calling your elders by "Mr. ___" and "Ms. ____".

sigh :disa:

[speedracer120]

All I got to add to this thread is that y'all East Coast and Mid-Westerners are the rudest mother:censored:ers on the face of God's green earth.


:hihi:
All kidding aside, I still think so, especially around Philly.

[dougadam]

People say I’m a nice guy.

:hug:

[Grimm]

People say I’m a nice guy.

Now that's down right inconsiderate... all those people lying to you. :hehehmm:

[Sir_Froggy]

rude drivers are the worst, you're not too cool to use signals, moron

[guiseppewv]

For some strange reason many Americans don't realize that when they are a guest in another country, they should behave as a guest.

:stupid:

[guiseppewv]

Hmmm and vice versa? Let's tell this to all the immigrants legal and illegal who come to this country as "tourists" and end up on our welfare system bringing our economy even closer to becoming a big pile o sh*t, instead of them acting like guests and bringing their own money, insurance, food stamps..damn..They should have known better.

I agree. This is definitely a two way street but I think this poll and thread were mainly about how we, as Americans, act. We need to act better and treat people with more respect especially when we are overseas.

[cheapie]

snipped

while i usually gasp in horror at your parental escapades, i completely agree here. we have strived to teach our kids that they are a welcome addition to our family, not the center of it. my neighbor has a little girl and she is completely out of control because her parents don't want to force her to do anything. they never physically make her do something she doesn't want to do. they will tell her literally 30-40 times to give something to another kid or pick something up. she will absolutely ignore them until she feels like doing something else or goes ahead and does what they are asking. i have heard my friend tell her, "dora wouldn't like it if she saw you acting like that." :2far: dora??? shouldn't your daughter be more worried about what her dad thinks than what a cartoon figure would think of her?

and they only plan on having one kid which means that she will likely never have proper perspective of how important she is. everything is arranged around her schedule. if i invite him over to watch a game, nothing can happen after 8 at night because she can't sleep anywhere else. sigh...don't even get me started on where we can eat out and how they can't manage to keep her in her highchair.

the funny thing is she obeys my wife and i. probably because when my wife babysits her, she's told once or twice and then physically made to move, sit, stop playing with the plant, etc.