This reasoning would justify violating any social convention whatsoever. “Refusing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ signals confidence and self-esteem”.
Yes, it does, but signalling those things and signalling social cluelessness are entwined. “My self esteem is more important than these petty rules” can mean that you think you are really important compared to the rules, or that the rules are unimportant compared to you. You’re also overrating self-esteem. Signalling self-esteem is often a bad thing.
(Remember how fedoras became a sign of cluelessness? It’s not very different from out of context suits.)
This reasoning would justify violating any social convention whatsoever. “Refusing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ signals confidence and self-esteem”.
Wrong. I distinguished between conventions that people have a reason to respond negatively to if you violate them (e.g. wearing a suit to the gym or swimming pool which is stupid since it will ruin both your exercise and your suit), and behaviors that just happen to be unusual but not intrinsically negative. Refusing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ would fall squarely in the category that people would have a reason to feel negative about.
My understanding is that fedoras became a sign of cluelessness because they got associated with groups like pick-up artists, which is also an explicit reason to have a negative reaction to them.
Refusing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ would fall squarely in the category that people would have a reason to feel negative about.
It’s not like wearing a suit in a swimming pool. Never saying “thank you” doesn’t physically damage things. It just makes people upset because of the social inappropriateness, like the inappropriate suit.
This reasoning would justify violating any social convention whatsoever. “Refusing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ signals confidence and self-esteem”.
Yes, it does, but signalling those things and signalling social cluelessness are entwined. “My self esteem is more important than these petty rules” can mean that you think you are really important compared to the rules, or that the rules are unimportant compared to you. You’re also overrating self-esteem. Signalling self-esteem is often a bad thing.
(Remember how fedoras became a sign of cluelessness? It’s not very different from out of context suits.)
Wrong. I distinguished between conventions that people have a reason to respond negatively to if you violate them (e.g. wearing a suit to the gym or swimming pool which is stupid since it will ruin both your exercise and your suit), and behaviors that just happen to be unusual but not intrinsically negative. Refusing to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ would fall squarely in the category that people would have a reason to feel negative about.
My understanding is that fedoras became a sign of cluelessness because they got associated with groups like pick-up artists, which is also an explicit reason to have a negative reaction to them.
It’s not like wearing a suit in a swimming pool. Never saying “thank you” doesn’t physically damage things. It just makes people upset because of the social inappropriateness, like the inappropriate suit.