Dots wrote:
Temple Grandin talks about how children who grew up in the 50s and 60s were expected to be polite and the politeness rules were much clearer back then, every family had pretty much the same rules. She thinks it's harder for people on the spectrum who grow up now, because family politeness rules aren't taught as much.
Yes the politeness rules were clear and consistent when I was a child in the 50s and 60s. But in secondary school there was a counter-culture of rudeness....it was a larger school than the early ones, so we weren't watched so closely, and if you didn't show you were a bit of a roughneck, you'd likely get bullied. So then I needed 2 masks. But even that didn't work. I brought a couple of fights onto myself by insulting bullies.
These days I go for an overall courteous and respectful approach, with a dash of earthy vernacular just to stop it getting too robotic and inhibited. There is a kind of refreshing quality to a bit of rudeness, I think, if it's done with care. Thinks can get so politically correct you just know it's fake, and a good raspberry at the right time can really cheer everybody up. I seem to be seen as a polite guy, on the whole. I find it a lot more fun to try to make people feel good, than to piss them off.