Comment by noduerme
3 years ago
>> Maybe you were doing it near children?
YES that is precisely what happened. That's so funny you said this.
I was standing in heavy falling snow, at the corner of an empty boulevard, next to a woman with two little daughters and a young boy. I stood for a moment and then walked across and she started yelling at me. I suppose she was trying to teach her children to be patient and wait for the light to change. What went through my head at that moment was, I kid you not, "ah, that's how they learn to follow orders".
And this is entirely in sync with my original point above, but also personally, I loathe Munich. There's nothing like being told holocaust jokes when people don't know you're Jewish. I believe the people there would vote for Hitler in a heartbeat if he were alive and running for office.
I mean, that makes sense though, she was probably angry at you. "If you're angry at someone you yell at them" is very normal behavior, and has nothing to do with "following orders".
It sounds like you have some hangups that you are projecting onto this situation.
The question is then why she was sufficiently angry to voice it out to a stranger. Neither was she a policewoman, nor was she a driver, nor was GP stringing along somebody she should be concerned about. She clearly wanted to avoid her kids learning that it's on to nilly-willy cross a red light (kids can't see in GPs head and appreciate that GP considered the risks)
I mean. It seems you've answered your own question?
She wants to avoid her kids considering it acceptable to cross a red light. Parent violated community norms by crossing a red light. So now she has to signal that this person has violated community norms, so that her kids learn "red light crossing is bad" rather than "red light crossing is normal".
This is not a "german" thing, this is a "human" thing.
You begin by sharing an anecdote where you perceived Germans as strictly law-abiding, only to have your assumption reevaluated when someone pointed out the presence of children, and the possible intention to teach them patience and safety.
However, instead of reconsidering your stance on Germans' law-abiding behavior, you reassert your bias by invoking Godwin's Law, linking a contemporary incident to the actions of Hitler.
Do you see any issue with this?
(I'm not German)
I do, from an outside perspective, see how ridiculous it sounds for me to conflate all those things. But Munich severely unsettled me and left me so distraught and angry that, as a whole, this minor incident which I'd previously forgotten only serves to reinforce my overall view. Taken together, it makes perfect sense.
You don't shout at a man in the street in order to demonstrate good behavior to your children.
Obedience, yes. Good behavior, no.
> You don't shout at a man in the street in order to demonstrate good behavior to your children.
You do if you are angry that said man is sabotaging your efforts to raise your children correctly. Also, said man is breaking a law instituted for a good reason.
I’m also personally of the opinion that speaking up when you are angry instead of passively taking it is good for society.
> There's nothing like being told holocaust jokes when people don't know you're Jewish
this is literally how every minority (basically anyone but the waspiest of wasps) feels in america. terrible jokes about <insert race here> are completely normalized.
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