Fuck Being Polite

Democracy is failing while stupid people save face

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

Fuck it. I’m in one of those moods again. You know the one. It’s where I’ve had a day reading crap about the state of the world.

A day where I watched a President once again insult and demean women. Another day of social turdness spewing dissent and anger from every corner.

Why even bother?

We all know we can’t get along. That humans, despite having the need to be social for survival, can’t help but kill each other. That stupid people keep breeding and we’ve all got to be kind to those stupid motherfuckers because it’s the polite thing to do.

What is politeness? How did that come about? Researchers in the 70’s, clever fellas from Stanford, put forward their theory on politeness. Being the clever sods that they were, they called this, The Politeness Theory. A name so polite it can’t help but toe the line.

It boiled down to saving face. The person you were conversing with was judged on Power, Distance and Rank.

Power refers to the perceived power dynamic between speaker and hearer. As a…