Quote Originally Posted by BCAC View Post
I think that perhaps these "young ladies" (and the "young men" also) react badly to common courtesy and good manners because they are lost, not used to it and don't really know how they should react. They have never been taught.
That's giving them far too much benefit of the doubt. Believe it or not, most of these youngsters do understand common courtesy enough to recognise it. The negative reaction they have is an outright rejection of it. It is an intentional refusal to accept "old fashioned" values. For whatever reason, they believe that such courtesies are tied to sexism, racism, class warfare, religious oppression, and pretty much any other social ill they can think of. They are part of a new generation which has accepted a new way of thinking, and they are adamant that certain old ways of thinking (and acting) must be stamped out.

Fortunately, I don't have people around me in real life who are like that. Heck, most of the youngsters around here in my small town still call their elders "sir" and "ma'am". Small-town kids just can't get away with the type of effrontery that big-city kids can. We probably know their parents!

But the internet is rife with these people, and I've had discussions with them in the past as to why they reject old-fashioned culture. To them, it's evil. I find that very, very sad. The aren't exactly confused about life; they just have viewpoints and perspectives that I'll never understand.