The "rude".
We know them .
They know other rude people, recognize them and even call them out on it, yet never know themselves. I know people who are rude without them knowing. But rude isn't whether they sneeze into their sleeve or burp or fart in public... It's the non listener. The non listener thinks everything is about them and could basically give a crap about you.
Recently I started dating someone. That ended quickly. Basically it was after them accompanying me to an event, a few days later they said "so... we're dating, right?". I said in a cavalier and yet unsure way..."sssssure." The hesitating 's' could've been a hint, but they're so high on themselves they didn't notice. We went out on a few dates. No matter what, I noticed that talking to them whether in person or via phone was like trying to stop a train with dental floss across the tracks. They talked and talked and never listened. You had to scream to get then to pay attention if you had something to say. She thought everything was a fad, felt no need for technology like blogs or twitter or even having an internet presence in the modern world. She basically thought it was all for yuppies and had a great disdain for said yuppies, yet she herself acted like a "Sex and the City" yuppie debutant. They wanted nothing to do with my interests and found anything I thought to be fun to be "childish". They didn't want to "relate" or have a sane healthy "relationship". They wanted a "daddy" to listen to their problems and fix them, give them a pat on the head and a kiss and take them out on occasion. Bitch, get a therapist.
When I broke up with her, I had to do it via email. That may sound cruel, but they'd never hear it any other way over their own bloviations anyhow. Basically it was all about her. I remember how I wanted to tell them something about myself that was from a shadier past. She said she didn't want to hear anything about my past from when I might have been a "loser". Let me explain something about people; Everything in their past is part of the recipe that made them what they are today, whether they were molested as a child, were a drug or alcohol addict, hurtfully scorned in a relationship, raped or any other travesty, that a) doesn't make them a loser nor a victim and b) allots to their current psyche.. These experiences made them what they are today. If you don't want to know, well then you're not only rude, you're an insensitive douche. What's odd about this is that I could tell you this persons name right here and never have to worry about them reading it because they are so stuck on themselves they wouldn't care to come to someone else's blog to see what's on the other persons mind.
I'm not a rude person. Try as I might, I will listen to just about any inanity you deem important whether I think it is or not. That's what friends do. That's why I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who actually want to be around me because I at least appear to want to listen to them. Listening is a commodity and as I watch humanity I see it's as rare as gold.
I have a friend who thinks he knows everything about everything. Then again, I have several of those. What's worse is he's the type who tries to play as if he's "hip". Like the person in the prior paragraphs, he thought everything was a trendy fad to him, nothing new is good and most things new are retreads of old. This may be true but he's the type whose opinionated manner causes people to back away from him. His mind is too closed on most matters and too far lost in time of decades gone by to relate to the real world. I think we argue for the sake of arguing. Like no matter what he makes you want to take the opposing side just to defend it.
This friend is the type that hates almost every type of music I like if it came after 1970. The same with TV and movies except for some Science Fiction. Nevermind that I have a pretty reasonable grasp on pop culture, dark culture and cool culture. Kinda why I have one of the top rated shows on KMRL. He came to my show once and told the live chatroom that my music was boring him and he was going to log off to go watch some ancient television show on DVD and play with his cats. I went on a 12 minute rant about how rude that was to do in a chatroom of your friends show. He was gone so he never heard it...but it was on the podcast.
How you interact with and treat people and how you make them feel in the end is key to your success with them in the great rat race. It's a) who well you deal with people, b) how well you you'll advance amongst the ranks of the world.
I mean... is it me? Am I wrong? Am I dealing with people the wrong way? Am I childish? I admit I have Peter Pan disease, but still, I listen to people, don't down talk what they like and I'm inherently cheerful around them. I like to make people feel good and good about themselves. These are good things, right? People like being around those types, right? This has nothing to do with my being the Devil in sheep's clothing for that's a different aspect entirely.