I don't really believe in karma, but I believe in idiosyncrasies. To me, baseball players not washing their uniforms during playoffs isn't a luck thing. They're comfortable in their uniform. It's what they're used to performing well in. I think how we exert ourselves socially can be similar. Poor hygiene and manners, for example, tell people that you can't see someone else's point of view as half-chewed food falls to your plate, or a room recoils from your B.O. People will either scold or avoid you. How you act leads to how you're treated.

On topic, if there's a situation where I'm angry, but I don't really have anything to say, I keep my mouth shut. If I end up saying something stupid and/or self-righteous that would only appeal to me, I look like an angry, self-absorbed dick. Since that's how people view me, that's how they'll treat me. It's an unnecessary step that only throws misery back at me, and the people who say they "don't care about what people think" are typically people I know to avoid. They lack awareness of themselves and their surroundings. They spread misery, but are confused when it comes back to them.

What if the coughing man had a respiratory illness, or some physiological deficiency? In that case, if you harass him, you are the asshole whether you like it or not. It's part of your thought process and will hardly be an isolated incident. On the flip side, this may have been a man unaware of his poor hygiene habits. Even if he deserves to be scolded, who the fuck am I to do it? Am I someone he'll listen to? If he doesn't, then what was the point about me being a person who feels it to be necessary to tell people what to do? In that situation, I'd check to just see if he's okay. If he says "yes" then it's none of my business and I let it be.

The thing about the people who "don't care about what people think" or are "proud of being an asshole," care more about what people think than anyone. They have this idea in their head that they'll be cool if they pound in this idea of them just being this cool guy who runs the world and is a total badass. Unfortunately, when you act and think like an insufferable asshole, that's what you are, whether you like it or not. There is no such thing as the cool asshole everyone looks up to. Eventually, after you give in to that crap, you just hang around a bunch of pricks who try to be the same way, and either end up lonely or at the throat of each other forever.

I'm not saying you have to please everyone, but self-indulgently treating annoyances like a chance to be a cool, angry douchebag. Because when something becomes a regular act, it's part of who you are, for better or worse.

Preng wrote:

I am pleased to see that the majority of the Syd Lexia crew are normal, well-adjusted people that I would have dinner and a drink with. But if you chew with your mouth open so help me God I'm going to slit your throat.

If there's one table manners thing that drives me nuts it's people who can't keep food in their mouth. I hate watching rubes eat spaghetti by getting a huge gob, and biting down to let the rest fall to the plate.

Whoa, hey, I didn't bring my dad into this. You did.