Rudness in Toronto
Rudeness in Toronto (tags: rude people, rude Toronto)
What are the characteristics of rudeness in Toronto? What makes a person rude? Here’s my analysis:
1) Releasing of bodily fluids (especially: spitting). Spitting (horking, snotting, snorting, smutting or any such release of fluids/solids from the body) is by far, the most rude action one can do. Let me tell you something about biology and natural physics. Saliva or snot or whatever comes out of one’s body onto the sidewalk, street or green space, is usually some form of fluid. This fluid contains bacteria, viruses and a number of other micro-agents. This fluid is then evaporated over time. When the evaporation occurs, these bacteria and viruses are released into the air. Then, we innocent bystanders, who are walking along side this fluid, breathe this into our lungs. We, as the non-spitters, the ones who are saving the environment and our lungs by not driving in cars, who are walking along minding our own business and continuously possessing our fluids (or being so kind as to use a napkin, which we later compost at home) have the right not to inhale this junk from the street from careless, mindless, idiots who choose to use the street as their tissue or toilet.
2) Cell Phone Users. I hate cell phones. I do not own a cell phone. I am certainly not suggesting that all people not have cell phones. Surely, there are emergency doctors and nurses who visit ill patients at their home who need to use a cell phone. However, the vast majority of cell phone users, at least the ones I get to hear daily, are not nurses or doctors who are caring for their ill patients. In fact, I don’t think I have ever heard a nurse or doctor use a cell phone nor do I think doctors or nurses visit patients in their home (they do in Europe!). No. I hear, daily, all the boring activities, mindless chatter about nothing, plans for tonight’s dinner, judgements of previous conversations or events, in these peoples boring, moronic, lives. I get to her “Did you see what she was wearing?” and “Like, um, like, so, what the fuck, fuckin’ hell, shit man, oh-my-god!” and “I’m on the bus (street car, street etc.) and I’ll be home in 10 minutes, what’s for dinner?” I have the explicit right, or so I should, not to be subjugated to this treatment. I can’t escape. Even if I have an MP3 player turned on really loud (another rude activity) I can still hear these folks because they’re speaking so loudly (it’s a cell phone, not a bullhorn), practically yelling, that we all on the bus (street car, street etc.) know exactly what you think, what you’re doing, who you are talking to and understand that you are 10 minutes away from wherever it is you are going and could have this conversation in person. Cell phones cause brain cancer? Well, surely they cause idiocy.
3) The third, and by no means final, example of the rudest behaviour in Toronto has to be: public transportation etiquette. I have only lived in Toronto for 9 years. I have managed to learn how to behave on the bus, subway, or street car (in my former city, we had bus and a light rail system… so, I’m not a country-fried rube). I know not to block the subway, bus or streetcar doors. Despite the fact that I can read the signs, I know that if my stop isn’t the next one, I can only imagine that when the subway, bus or streetcar stops, someone is going to want to get on or off. I do have this nasty tendency to not think I am the only person in the universe. Therefore, I do not block the door. I used to huff and puff and try to give hints that my stop was next and these folks who are blocking the door should be warned that I am going to get off. It never worked. Hinting and being polite is not rewarded in this city, obviously. So, now I just plough right into them. If they get knocked over, too bad for them. Rudeness begets rudeness in Toronto, unfortunately. Other etiquette rules continuously broken: eating on public transit. The smells emanating from people is bad enough without having to smell, see and hear people cramming disgusting food into their gobs. I once saw a woman eating fried chicken, with no napkin, wiping her hands on her jacket and then proceed to touch the hand rails/poles. Other forms of inappropriate ‘touching’ include: wiping one’s nose and touching a poles/handrails, coughing into one’s hand and then touching a poles/handrails, rubbing ones’ eyes and then touching poles/handrails, or eating various gross ‘foods’ and/or picking one’s teeth and then touching the poles/handrails. Conversely, one touches a pole/handrail and then sticks their fingers into their mouth somehow. One of the only reasons I like winter, which, I absolutely hate winter, is the fact that I can wear gloves from my front door to my office without having to touch anyone else’s disgusting fluid. I still do, however, wash my hands immediately entering my home or office after using public transit, despite the gloves.
Those are my top three observations of rudeness in Toronto. There are many, many more including: smelling those who don’t bathe or brush their teeth; having coffee spilled on me by a careless coffee-drinker; overhearing (impossible not to) ridiculous in-person conversations, especially those of youth, which include more slang words (like, um, fuck, shit, hell, ya’know, like, like, like etc.) than actual real words; those mistreating animals; mistreating nature; mistreating their kids, mistreating each other, oh yes, being whistled or oogled by gross disgusting men on the street... and...littering.
