Extremely Bizarre and disturbing Automobile Attitude

[Wurm]

Sounds to me that it could have been typical of the average redneck Bush-voter, who sees everything now through an "Amurcuh - Love it or Leave it" myopicness, with a distinct but unjustified dislike for "furrinurs" - especially Frenchies.



Whatever that mouthy hunk-o-fat was, she should have been asked to leave by the Postal employees, not the cyclist. Paying her quarter for the parking space did not mean that she owned the meter itself or the sidewalk in front of it.

 

[martin_j001]

typical of the average redneck Bush-voter

I don't recall who you vote for coming up in the original post. This is the kind of statement that makes me believe what Chance and wilmar pointed out--that stupidity isn't only available and outspoken in the US.

 

[jaguar75]

I think she is one of those extremely bitter, morbidly obese people that are generally just very angry about their situation and are too lazy to take the steps necessary to lose weight and when she saw a healthy, fit cyclist decided to find a reason to attack that person. Any normal person on the planet would have not even given it another thought...

I for one would have written on a piece of paper 1-800-jenny-craig and handed it to her on my way out the door...

 

[Wurm]

I don't recall who you vote for coming up in the original post. This is the kind of statement that makes me believe what Chance and wilmar pointed out--that stupidity isn't only available and outspoken in the US.

I don't care if who you vote for was brought up by the OP or not - I raised the issue because there may be some relevancy to the woman's frame of mind.

The stupidity is in not considering the various possibilities.

 

[wilmar13]

I don't care if who you vote for was brought up by the OP or not - I raised the issue because there may be some relevancy to the woman's frame of mind.

The stupidity is in not considering the various possibilities.

No matter how much you hate bush and his supporters, she would not be welcome there either, lets just be grateful she probably spends most of her time in her trailer eating Fritos and watching trash talk shows.

 

[Chance3290]

Sounds to me that it could have been typical of the average redneck Bush-voter, who sees everything now through an "Amurcuh - Love it or Leave it" myopicness, with a distinct but unjustified dislike for "furrinurs" - especially Frenchies.



I voted for Bush and I love America, and I have never been a fat women, nor have I yelled at a cyclist in a Post Office before. I live in Georgia and while some call us all rednecks, I have found that these are the same people who call all blacks ****er. I don't appreciate your biggoted comments.

I see that you are either ashamed or afraid of your home. Please don't try to pass on this behavior to others.

 

[House]

Two comments:

1) Personally I would have said something like "you ought to try one of those before you die a premature death" as I walked past the lady.

2) Why does it seem to always be the liberals making comments like wurm made in threads that have nothing to do with politics. Of course these are the people who made Kerry out to be such a big brain compared to Bush using W's grades at Yale...yet we now find out that Kerry had grades that were almost exactly the same!

 

[wilmar13]

1) Personally I would have said something like "you ought to try one of those before you die a premature death" as I walked past the lady.

Really the only thing that could be said that would have turned out positive would have been for the clerk of the mailroom to remind the beast that she only paid to park her car, not to own the meter, and if she didn't settle down she would need to leave (a variation could have been for some one else to say that, and then for the clerk to agree)... any attempts to rationalize or berate/embarass/insult her would just have gotten even uglier.

It seems everyone is blaming the woman who clearly had a screw loose, what about the system that allows her to get away with it? Anybody see any foriegn policy analogies here... if so it should probably go to the soapbox

 

[baj32161]

Sounds to me that it could have been typical of the average redneck Bush-voter, who sees everything now through an "Amurcuh - Love it or Leave it" myopicness, with a distinct but unjustified dislike for "furrinurs" - especially Frenchies.



I voted for Bush and I love America, and I have never been a fat women, nor have I yelled at a cyclist in a Post Office before. I live in Georgia and while some call us all rednecks, I have found that these are the same people who call all blacks ****er. I don't appreciate your biggoted comments.

I see that you are either ashamed or afraid of your home. Please don't try to pass on this behavior to others.

This kind of thing always rears its ugly head in theads of this nature. It is unfortunate that there are still people who think their racist, stereotypical views are acceptable today...Wurm...I pity you, as much as the fat woman who is the subject of this post

 

[baj32161]

I was a soldier for 20 years and visited a lot of countries and I found, in general, that rudeness is not solely a USA commodity. We probably have more than our fair share, but, if you remember, France was known as the rudest place on Earth for many decades. (While there, I found the French people very nice and polite.) I've been all over Europe, SA, and some part of Asia and Africa, and let me tell you something-THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!

I agree with Hoosier, I would have done something to insult and embarass the woman. Ask her, and her friends to hold the noise down. "Oh, I sorry, I thought you were several people." Or, tell the cyclist to please move the bike before she gets mad and eats us.

I have also traveled quite extensively thorugh Europe and I have found that the people are very polite and friendly towards Americans, as long as we remember our manners and courtesy. It is true that rudeness exists everywhere, but in my expreiences it is only here that we don't even let the other person prove that he/she is a jerk before being rude to them. And I grw up in NY!

 

[Wurm]

This kind of thing always rears its ugly head in theads of this nature. It is unfortunate that there are still people who think their racist, stereotypical views are acceptable today...Wurm...I pity you, as much as the fat woman who is the subject of this post

Oh, thank you for the pity! You're too kind!

BTW - maybe you should reserve some for yourself, since what I said has nothing to do with "racist". Therefore, isn't it you who's stereotyping?

And while you're at it, I said, "could have been" and "may be" the case. Just as the woman in question could be completely psychologically normal and almost everyone on this thread could be wrong (and probably are) in their assumptions.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

 

[CrankHead71]

I would have walked outside and stuck a quarter in the meter and told the fat chick the meter is mine now and she needed to move her car!!!!

 

[artmichalek]

I would have walked outside and stuck a quarter in the meter and told the fat chick the meter is mine now and she needed to move her car!!!!

Strangely, it's illegal in most parts of the US to put money into a meter that doesn't have your car paked next to it.

 

[kaian]

WOW! I feel really bad for the French guy. Had it been me, I would not have moved my bike. I would've just said "lady, yell all you want, I'm not moving the bike until I'm done here". I can imagine being confused if I wasn't from the U.S. and didn't speak English very well and he probably felt outnumbered because he is foreign. The attitude/behavior by this woman is very similar to the attitude/behavior I see in motorists every day: "This is MY space because I have a car". Not only is it obnoxious, but it can be deadly. I think it's important to be polite and calm when faced with irrational bike-hating people, but I also thinks it's important to stand our ground (when possible). I hope the French guy recruits 10 of his best biking friends to move to the US. We need more bike-friendly people in this country!!!!

 

[jhuskey]

Hi all!

Its been aquite a while since I posted last but I've been looking in often to keep caught up

The other day I saw a bit of car culture that I found rather disturbing and it prompted me to consider just how ingrained that type of mindset might be:

I was standing in line at the post office the other day and just wistfully trying to pass the waiting time by checking out the FBI's 10 most wanted poster when all of a sudden I heard a woman say rather loudly "You need to move that"

I turned around and about three people behind me was a large woman (I'm actually trying to be kind here because she was more than large... ok, to be really honest she was grotesquely obese) I surveyed the rest of the scene behind me; there were a few more people in line then when I last observed, but right at the end of the line was a road rider in shorts and local club jersey with a backback, helmet and a few letters in his hand... He was also sporting a confused look.

Pardon? (French Accent)

"I said you have to move your bike, I paid for that meter and its mine, you don't have any right to put your bike there until I'm done"

I Looked out the window with everyone else in line (the woman really was quite loud) and sure enough, there was a Colnago kryptonited to the parking meter right outside the front window. Itwas on the sidewalk side of the meter...

"Excuse me please, I am not understanding, I am just locking my bike to the, how you say? to the pole?"

The woman continued on, and starting talking about how while the meter was running with her money the parking spot and the meter were her property and he HAD to move his bike. In fact she started to get pretty agitated and people ahead of her and behind her were putting in a bit of distance. She then said "In America we drive cars, you can take your bike somewhere else"

The cyclist was in a state of utter confusion and probably either did not have the vocabularly in english to respond, or was just stunned into disbelief as I was.

One of the women behind the postal counter asked the woman to please calm down. Then they turned to the gentleman and to my absolute disbelief asked him to move his bike!!!

Now the cyclist was doubly confused as was I, and I HAD to say something... It came out something like "Are you kidding? He just has his bike locked to the meter, what's wrong with that?!"

"The postal worker who asked the cyclist to move his bike then turned to me and said "I'm not speaking to you sir..."

It was kind of this interactive stand-off, where there was a moment of uncomfortable silence... Then suddenly the cyclist threw up his hands, said something in French and walked out of the Post office after adding "You Americans are all crazy!"

After he left the large woman said "If they come to this country they need to learn the rules here"

It was all getting too surreal to me and I decided to forego the stamps I needed to buy and walked out too... as I passed the woman I really could not think of anything to say, and so I said "That wasn't right"

She just glared at me and said "Then you can leave too"

I walked out wondering very intensely wether it bothers people to act so rudely that it makes people uncomfortable... I was also wondering how much of her attitude was simply her being "nuts" and how much of it was indicative of any undercurrent of animosity car drivers have of cyclists...

It bugged me for quite a while... I really hope it was a one time deal...

Feanor

Yes she is an exception to the rule ,fortunately, but bigots come in all shapes and sizes and you are one if you condem or belittle any group as a whole rather than looking at the individual.
Beside,shes fat, she will probably die of a stroke,heart attack or choke on sandwich SOON!

 

[Insight Driver]

Wow, Feanor, that was a disturbing scene you were involved in. Obviously the woman has issues. Having a bike locked to the meter does not prevent a car from parking there. I assume the bike was on the sidewalk. It was a good thing you posted for at least you got it off your chest.