Best of Craigslist... found an actually humorous but quite true take on sheeple

[Pogue_Mahone]

best of craigslist: What is happening to people?
I thought this was mildly amusing, figured I would share it here.

"What is happening to people?
Date: 2011-05-08, 12:49AM EDT
[Errors when replying to ads?]
Let me preface by saying I've never posted anything on this section or any other section of Craigslist but I'm feeling very compelled to do so right now.

I just got back from a trip to Wegmans and am in awe at the current state/behaivor/mindset of "people". As I'm walking in, I go to grab a cart and notice three guys (late teens/early 20's) all standing together but on their cell phones texting and blocking the majortiy of carts. So I sidestep them and grab a cart from the sole lane they weren't blocking. I get my cart and proceed but I can't help but notice the people lined up to return bottles/cans. I'm not knocking them (I'm pro-recycle) but it looked like they literally crawled out of a dumpster and needed the deposit money to get through the night. I asked myself "why don't they just stop consuming this sugarwater and use the money for a necessity?" Then I realized Coke and Pepsi are a necessity for the majority of people in this country. I should also point out that each one was overweight (if not obese).

I get inside and start doing some shopping. The procuce section was the most "normal". I grabbed some apples, a few bananas, and some strawberries since it's that time of year. As I left the produce section, it started getting depressing. I see a kid poking his finger through a package of ground beef and laughing his cute little head off. I don't blame the kid (I did that once too when I was his age but my mother grabbed my hand and basically let me know if it ever happened again, I'd lose my hand). However, I DO blame his mother for not caring the least about her son destroying multiple packs of meat. She was actually entertained by his behaivor. So I grabbed some chicken breast and continued on. As I'm passing the "organic food" section, I hear two guys laughing hysterically so I walk back a few steps to see if George Carlin had risen from the dead doing one of his stand-up acts. Nope...wasn't him. The two guys were "tickling" each other. In laymans terms, they were a couple of gay guys. I'm not anti-gay, but it was just weird watching them be so flamoyant in public. Being "out" seems to be the "in" these days.

I get to the cereal isle and see a guy pushing around one of those carts that resembles a car for the kids to sit in. His gf/wife was about 10 feet away yelling out loudly which cereal he wanted. He had his back turned to her pushing the cart the opposite direction with the two kids screaming their heads off as he's looking at his cell phone. I stop at this point waiting for him to pass me but he's in the middle of the isle and knocks into my cart. One of the kids then throws a canned fruit. The guy stops looking at his phone and gives me this annoyed look as if it's my fault im in his lane. A fuse started to light up inside me. As he starts to move his cart back to the right side of the lane, I throw my shoulder into him and knock him off balance. He says "hey" but in a very non-threatening way, so I glace back and he looks away. His overweight gf didn't seem too pleased with me. I grabbed some Wegmans brand cereal with almonds (it's really good).

On to the next isle to get some pasta and sauce. I see a mom that resembles my math teacher in high school. Is it her? Can't be...nope, wasn't her but I instantly smile since I was very fond of my math teacher. She smiles back. Her daughter was next to her..I'd say she was 15 or 16. Lip peirced, glazed eyes, and of course TEXTING. The whole time, this girl is rolling her eyes and being dramatic. About what? Who knows. Most likely something to do with a text. I glance at her and she glances back at me really quickly and then looks back at her cell phone. For that split second when I was able to see her eyes, I felt a weight on my shoulders. This girl, along with the majority of people in the store, had severe mental issues.

What happened to these people? Is it the fluoridated tap water? The anti-depression medications? The fast food consumed on a daily basis? The chemicals in diet sodas and chewing gum? The constant need for people to feel "connected" by using a cell phone but really aren't connected to anything? Movies? Music? Reality televison? Lately, the majority of people I see look dead inside. Battered...beaten...tormented. SLAVES. I then ask myself, "What will these people do when civil unrest and social breakdowns occur in the not so distant future? It's going to be an ugly sight. Well, thank you for reading my thoughts (for anyone that made it to the end). Just the ramblings of a 30 year old male who's losing hope on "people".
"

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[moose]

Always a favorite of mine

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

 

[Old Hick]

Pretty good, but SAD read. How true these things are even when my wife, kids and i go shopping we see this. Don't get me wrong, my kids text too, but nothing like is described above.
total surrounding awareness is needed these days, and how can you be aware if your face is stuck in your phone.

I remember sticking my finger in some freshly wrapped meat when i was a young boy, my Mother slapped my hand, scolded me, and made ME tell the butcher behind the counter what I did. Yes, I learned my lesson, as many kids did back in the day of spankings and scoldings.

Thanks for the morning read.

Stay Safe.

 

[drew]

Good read. I notice similar things when I go to stores. Most trips do little to inspire confidence in humanity.

 

[Cougfan2]

I hear ya. I look at the way some parents let their children behave in public and my backside hurts just thinking about what my parents would have done to me if I had behaved like that when I was a kid. I don't believe in beating children, but sometimes a good swat to the rear is the only way to make them understand "Oh, you're serious!".

 

[tlfreek]

i see that too, but that description is highly hyperbolized. He missed the majority of people, but focused on the youth and poor. Sorry man - that's what it looks like. Mental illness sucks, poverty is not aesthetic and kids are kids.

however I do have to chuckle about the can thing.

 

[Burt Gummer]

The twittering twits will be helpless in the coming economic collapse. The days of spoiled American youth running amok is coming to an abrupt end. Future American youth will be more like Chinese sweatshop workers under the boot of tyranny and lot less like wannabe Paris Hiltons.

 

[74sporty]

with all the new social medias, text messaging, wi-fi, gps, and emails by phone, its seems that its only made us more distant

 

[netsecsys]

I used to be oblivious to this stuff around me but have recently woken up. Life seems to be a bit more stressful than when I was part of the problem..but I'll live with it. Just the price to pay when you take the red pill

 

[Grunwald]

Sort of ironic when you think what each one of us is doing right now, and the medium of exchange for this message.

 

[74sporty]

Sort of ironic when you think what each one of us is doing right now, and the medium of exchange for this message.

you make a valid point. but i have to say this site is by far a different beast then face book or my space. i dont know anyone here personally and its just really a spot for me to gather information about guns. i dont have a facebook. i dont text message whole conversations with my close friends. i know how to talk to them face to face or at the very least over the phone, which at one time or another, was considered a more impersonal way to communicate. the real life face to face conversation isn't there anymore. even on this forum i see people pop off at the mouth, err excuse me, keyboard with absolutely no regards to the people they're writing too. i cant tell if your really a tough guy from what your typing, but i can size a person up from their handshake and how they hold eye contact during a REAL conversation.

 

[Grunwald]

you make a valid point. but i have to say this site is by far a different beast then face book or my space. i dont know anyone here personally and its just really a spot for me to gather information about guns. i dont have a facebook. i dont text message whole conversations with my close friends. i know how to talk to them face to face or at the very least over the phone, which at one time or another, was considered a more impersonal way to communicate. the real life face to face conversation isn't there anymore. even on this forum i see people pop off at the mouth, err excuse me, keyboard with absolutely no regards to the people they're writing too. i cant tell if your really a tough guy from what your typing, but i can size a person up from their handshake and how they hold eye contact during a REAL conversation.

Oh I agree with you. I don't have Facebook nor MySpace accounts either. I find them, well pointless. I don't text and I never used instant messaging. Now here's a little kicker for you - I work on software for a living. It's what my degree is in and I remember that back about 17 years ago I was on AOL (a couple of years right before the internet took off) and emailing with this girl and she wanted to do a chat session. I told her that am not going to sit at a keyboard and type for 1/2 hour just to say what can be said in 5 minutes over the phone.
I know that there are times when sending a text is convenient, but..... never mind, I could go on a rant here.

 

[marty8587]

I've seen 3 teenage girls walking down the street together talking on their cell phones to different people at the same time. It seems they have become orally flatuant.

 

[FourTeeFive]

I am always amazed how clueless people have become. It must be a great time to be a pickpocket because nobody seems to have any sense of situational awareness. Evidently the survival instinct has been breed out of most of the population.

 

[Pogue_Mahone]

I'm in college, but I'm a bit older (and more mature) than most of the college crowd. I have noticed how "plugged in" generation "y" is. They are also their parents prized possessions, and as such are catered to and coddled from birth. Most have never ridden a bike without a helmet, or have gotten too far without having to check in with mommy by their cellphone. Unlike our parents theirs generally only have one child treat them as such. I recall being told as a kid "Go play in the freeway." We entertained ourselves, and learned skills, rather than just texting, emailing and playing video games. I'd say people in general have just become complacent and self absorbed. Situational awareness? I wish more people in traffic had situational awareness. After my most recent trip to the grocery store where little kids were running amok without a parent in sight, and a nice asian couple blocked an entire asile while they heatedly debated cereal choices in their native tongue, the people working the deli were just barely competent enough to graduate the special education program and only 3 of the 20 checkstands were open, I got in my truck and dealt with all those same people while trying to make my way out of the parking lot where geniuses are trying to turn left in the right turn only driveway and doing their best to run into me. Ahhh yes... I want to move to the country.

 

[Blue Devil PA]

Text-tards drive me nuts. I have had to ask, more times than I can count, for a teenage patient to stop texting so that I can get a decent history and physical from them or their children.

 

[sandman1212]

I refuse to have conversations over text, it drives me nuts. This is all a part of the social breakdown going on. A lot of parents don't give a damn because they are so self absorbed because they had kids too young and are still kids themselves. the lack of respect in kids makes me want to beat the tar out of thier parents and then teach the kids a lesson myself.

 

[Asp]

I throw my shoulder into him and knock him off balance.

I was in agreement with this person, until they resorted to physical contact as a means to get their point across.

As for texting over talking? I'll take talking any day, faster more efficient and sincere.

 

[kenno]

I shut my puter off for a week the 1st 2 days were the toughest but I got past the withdraw l actually accomplished some tasks and chores on the 3rd day went to bed at a reasonable hour, even talked to the wife in complete sentances! She left me the next day.

 

[Burt Gummer]

I was talking with a stripper the other night and noticed she had the attention span of a flea. She could only speak 5-6 words at a time or could only process the same.

I realized it was because she has been raised on text and social media. Her whole life is 'Meet me there off at 2".

Now strippers are not known for their intelligence, although most dance to put themselves through college (not). Surely a 70s or 80s stripper would be able to carry on a two-sentence back and forth conversation.