5 Behaviors That Make You Trash
People aren’t trashy because of who they are, they’re trashy because of how they behave. That means the cast of Jersey Shore, Perez Hilton, and the Kardashians didn’t pop out of their mamas’ wombs wrong. To the contrary, they all had to learn how to be as trashy as a Louisiana landfill. Now trashy people have always been around, but the difference is that in our “any attention is good attention,” 15-minutes-of-fame society, a lot of people consider “trashy” to be an asset if it gets more people looking in their direction. Having every eye in the room on you isn’t worth it if the word “trash” is going through every head at the same time. The good news is that it’s easy to avoid the sort of behavior that gets you labeled as trash.
1) Profanity in Public.
Last time I was in D.C., I was in a cab with a female friend and the cabby was playing rap music. Five minutes into the ride, the music got dirty. A song came on that actually referenced “p*ssy,” at which point I, his paying customer, had to actually ask him to change the station. Later that weekend, when we were on the metro, we had someone playing loud music in the back of the train. Of course, since it was D.C., maybe he had just arrived from some country that doesn’t have headphones — but I doubt it.
It’s just as grating when people curse in public or get loud in a restaurant. Are these backwards idiots not aware there are other people in the room? How about a modicum of courtesy to other human beings who are sharing space with you? Nobody wants to hear you rant on your cell phone, yell across the table to your cousin, or hear about how much you hate the F-ing Panthers. Pretend like you weren’t raised in a barn and show a little class.
The phrases “Baby-daddy,” “…decided to blow off work,” and “my fourth abortion.”
Li’l Wayne. I thought the gov’t torpedoed Devil’s Reef in 1928.
Maximum points for the HPL allusion, Burton. Li’l Wayne does indeed have traces of the Innsmouth Look.
Yes, well-played, sir. Apparently the Deep Ones were not all wiped out, as I have long suspected.
I think this list has to be adjusted for geography. In my neck of the woods you won’t see a lot of gansta-wannabes, but you will see a whole lot of trucks with really offensive adornments. Among these are plastic bull balls dangling from the trailer hitch, decals of Calvin pissing on a rival brand’s logo, and bumper stickers that say “If you want to ride my a**, at least pull my hair.”
It’s getting to be where I long for the good old days of the reclining naked ladies silhouetted in chrome on the mudflaps. At least that left something to the imagination.
Oh geez….doesn’t surprise me but indeed, equally vulgar.
I once heard two lawyers on the radio discuss whether or not to ask their clients to remove their skin piercings before they come to court. One of them said that the reason they wear piercings in the first place is “I gotta be me.” So, when you see someone do something trashy, like blasting his car stereo at ear-splitting volume at a stoplight, or covering her body in tattoos, or wearing his pants below his butt, you’re looking at a person with a fear of going unnoticed. That’s the motive behind turning one’s teeth into a garish fashion item, wearing a Rolex whether real or fake, or wearing your baseball cap not forward, or even backward, but sideways. It’s the pathetic need to get noticed.
spot on Jack. I ignore them.
The author needs to update his bio. The title “arbiter of the socially acceptable” seems to have been left out. And the purpose of this little elitist rant is what? Filler? Do you think those who fit into the little box you paint are among the readers here or did you just feel the need to be snippy?
Really Al? You can’t figure out the purpose of this article?
Alas, despair for the civilization in which common sense is considered “elitist” and “snippy”.
So tell us. How many garish tats do you have?
LOL, none, how many stereotypes do you believe in? How many veterans have tattoos, or unkept lawns, or curse? How is a piece who’s sole purpose is judgmentally propagating stereotypes worthy of a place that values discussion and debate of serious issues?
My point is simple really, the article accomplishes nothing, notta, zip, we’ve got a born again Bolshevik in the White House, a Milquetoast liberal running against him, religious zealots on one side who want to control everything we do, religious zealots on the other side who simply want to kill us, and “this” is worth writing?
“…religious zealots on one side who want to control everything we do…”
And atheists are going to save us? Hooray.
Check out Richard Dawkins chatting casually about killing 2-year-olds that he deems inferior.
I’ll take the religious zealots any day of the week, thank you very much.
Nope, just leave you alone to save yourself.
I think you mean Peter Singer–unless Dawkins has expressed similar views as well. If so, do you know where I can find it?
He said religious ZEALOTS, not the religious. Stop finding reasons to be offended; you sound like Jesse Jackson.
“…religious zealots on one side who want to control everything we do…”
And who would those religious zealots be? The ones that want to remove memorial crosses? Memorial plaques? ANYTHING having to do with the expression of religion in public? Those zealots?
OH…wait…Those are the ANTI-Religious zealots! You know the ones. They believe the phrase “separation of church and state” actually exists in the Constitution, but have never been able to point it out.
Not being a religious zealot myself, or even a Christian for that matter, I’ve never actually met one that tried to control my life. The worst they’ve done is offer to say a prayer for me. And it didn’t cost me a thing.
So which of the categories list by the author are you part of? At least be honest and say you take offense because you engage in one or more of the behaviors called out.
I’ll bet he is one of those pick up artists. They hang around PJ Media a lot.
What you do to your body says a great deal about yourself.
An arm tattoo of “Sempter Fi” says you’re either a marine, or you wish you were one.
A gonad tattoo of “Inset Large Meat Here” says that you are either a slut, or you would like to be.
I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware this was “reason.com”.
Al, this is all a superficial manifestation of a deeper issue. These matter are important because our lack of self respect and respect for our neighbors are manifested in these behaviors. The “real” issues to which you refer are the result of these and other behaviors that indicate disrespect for ourselves and our fellow man. There are many who take pride in being offensive, rather than taking pride in honoring and supporting their fellow man. The little things do matter because they lead to the big things. We have no holy things left in our society today. Just as that led to the downfall of the Greeks and the Romans, it will lead to the fall of America. We will soon be the servants of the Chinese.
Al, Al, Al. This article is pointing out what it means to be civilized, not, as you put it, elitist or snippy. Being civilized takes effort and it requires people to have consideration for others.
As I’ve tried to explain to people many times: the better mannered and respectful to others people were, the less government and fewer laws we would need. It’s the behavior of the thugs and “I gotta effing be me and you ain’t like it eff yourself” crowd that cause more laws regulating behavior to be imposed. The more laws, the worse they get in order to get attention, thus meaning more laws, etc. Either that of they just get violent with the same result: more laws. But then laws or not, society still degenerates all the same as decent folk retreat and more of the others come out to fill the void and get their attention.
Strike a nerve, Al?
Al, surely you have been around PJM long enough to note its diversity of subject matter. Yes, we must focus on the serious issues if there is ever to be any hope of solving the most urgent & pertinent problems of the day. But it’s nice to be able to soften the focus just a bit & lend our attention to other topics of interest, particularly those which shine a bit of light on issues that might, to a large degree, account for some of the more serious problems we face. Our society, to be quite blunt, is rotting from the inside out. We tolerate all sorts of things that really should not be tolerated. We have allowed what I like to call “healthy stigmas” to be obliterated from the town square, so to speak, for the sake of political correctness. I really wish we didn’t have to live in such a decadent society; at some point there will be the proverbial apocalypse that will set us all back to the point that we get to start all over again. Will probably be the best thing that ever happened to us.
The writer has got this exactly right. Funny youre bothered by his dislike of all things stupid, boorish, and antisocial. Maybe youd fit nicely in the little box he has constructed.
Consider it a corollary of the Wilson theory of broken windows. Fix the manners, attitude and looks of people, and you will fix many of the problems you listed.
Giulani started by going after the windshield cleaners; he ended up with a clean NYC.
Same principle
Did it leave a mark?
The article was spot on. And sadly enough, it needs to be said. And said. And said.
Nothing says trashy like tramp stamps on the tata’s.
Or 1/2 an inch above the butt crack while said butt crack is hanging out with thong showing.
LOL. My daughters tell me that the thong showing is called a Whale Tail. I’ve seen plenty of those tails on whales. Sometimes you just want to scratch your eyes out…
Any female that has a whale’s tail should not be wearing a thong.
Or anywhere.
We’d better hope that any Alien “evaluators”–sent here to Earth to look us over, and to decide if we here on Earth would be useful friends and allies, or if they should just wipe us out–never run across the mug shots on “The Smoking Gun,” or the pictures on “People of Walmart” because, if they do, we are doomed.
Ever read all of Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001″ series of novels? Not to give too much away but let’s just say we were judged and found wanting. Fortunately for us there were the light speed barrier and convenient universal computer language tropes in our favor.
#3– Did it occur to you that his yard is a disaster because he spends his time and energy trying to make a living cleaning up other people’s yards.
You are going to judge that guy after he spent hours in the sun doing the work on your yard that you did not want to do? Did you even provide water or facilities to the guy? No, probably not. So, the first thing he did was go and get a big glass of water, then use the bathroom, then sit down in a cool house. After that I suppose the most important thing in his life should be to clean up his yard, right?
#6 Behaviors that make you trash. Judging those who do the work you won’t more harshly than you judge yourself. Just saying.
In reality.. you said NOTHING.
We work as hard as anyone else and our yard/house is neat. Having a job to do is no excuse for living like a pig. Having said that, I understand that cultural differences account for a lot of the mess, not laziness. I live in the deep south in the middle of Bubbaville and that’s the way they do things here. This mentality also contributes to their being poor too but for generation after generation this is “normal.”
Well, white trash has gone “uppity” here in SC. I recently passed a house that has the usual yard-trash but…a couple of new additions were there. The car on blocks was a BMW and the TV thrown out in the yard was a 60″ plasma. Back in the day, one would see a beat up old Motorola 27″ console or an old Chevy on perpetual “hover-mode”. Guess the economy is improving.
As to trashy people, I remember something I learned in the military:
“You can’t judge a book by the cover, but you can tell a lot about it.”
Hello fellow South Carolinian! Nice to have neighbors here.
There is such a thing as “The White Trash” cookbook. It featured recipes for opossum and fruit salad made with Tang. Come to think of it, I’m surprised the dish made with or without Tang. hasn’t been swept from menus.
I bought copies for my son and nephew and we had laughs over the recipes.
Simply must ask: since you bought the White Trash Cook Book, did you perhaps also buy “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner)”? My copy of the former just went to the Salvy before this last move…..but I did hang onto the Planner just in case I need some advice down the road
Its funny, there are paintings out there that people spend millions of dollars on and to me alot of them are trash and I would burn them if I had had them. A lot of people are turned off by yards that look like a golf course, find them sterile and unappealing. One mans trash is another mans art and the complaints in the article there do not fit with the rest of the points made.
keith
What would you think of an auto mechanic whose car always needed repair? Would you use him?
The neighbor-loving Mr. Clean-up guy has usually prepared for rest periods by moving his indoor furniture…sofa, chairs, and even some kitchen equipment, outside. I think the author of remarks savaging such preparation should take a trip through parts of thi country.
I agree with this article. It boils down to social standards. historically, people bend to the standards that the society sets (they are called norms). These days Americans want to disregard ANY norms and do whatever they want….that is fine but you also have to accept the social stigma from doing so.
You DO have the right to do what you want…but you do NOT have the right to complain about how others react to your choice. Societies police themselves in this manner…but now in America we look at that as a bad thing. This leads to social collapse…
Pet peve, direct from the trash set: assigning yourself a nickname. Always something bad-ass or faux “cool.”
I mean, “J-Wow?” The “Situation?” Really now.
Agreed, but there’s worse. Referring to oneself in the third person, with “…ster” at the end of your name, and the definite article in front of it.
“Look out folks, the Danster is here!”
Not just trash, but self-important trash.
I have a feeling you are unaware of the reality of the world around you.
Profanity in Public? You do know who Dick Cheney is?
The trash in your yard? Maybe if the city had some money they could offer to haul it away like they do in DC.
You show Lady Gaga saying she is a slut because she has sex with people. Yet you do support David Vitter as the head of family morals for the GOP right? Just saying.
Then you show a photo of lil’Wayne who can buy you. hmmm…
And so we see the truth of the saying “power corrupts”.
“Lil Wayne can buy you” says nothing about the value of “Lil Wayne” as a person. It says he’s been paid a huge amount of money to put on an act and wear clown clothes — and that he lacks the self respect to turn down that “bargain”.
Dick Cheney never used profanity in public. He told a collegue to F-off to his face and the collegue told the world. Hardly an indictment on Cheney’s foul mouth.
Trash in the yard? Try hauling it to the dump yourself like my dad used to do n the old days instead of expecting people to do it for you on the taxpayers dime.
Lady Gaga self identifies as a slut and you’re upset about that. Vitter’s problem is between him and his wife. Unlike you, we believe in redemption – and that goes for Lady Gaga.
Little Wayne looks like trash. I’m sick of the “gangsta” culture.
Just saying…. WHAT???
That is probably the most anti-thinking collection of syllables that has ever crawled out of the ghetto.
It sucks the intelligence right out of a room.
So government should solve our personal problems? Although I do agree we have to allow for poverty.
Another sure sign of trash..someone who thinks that being rich makes you classy.
Little (sorry, but I can’t stoop so low) Wayne is low-class, as are all thug rappers who have made “b****” and “h*” synonyms for “female.” One of the biggest disasters to the culture in centuries. I actually saw a place called “P***” Your Hair” the other day. Thanks, rappers.
I also disagree on the trash-filled yards. Sorry, but I live in Southern MO, just N. of Arkansas and OK, in a region commonly known as the Ozarks. And that is trashy here. So geography is no excuse.
The weird thing is, I knew before I read this piece, some where going to have a problem with it. Sure enough…..
Relax, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
If you wrote an article condemning the rape of children, some poor fool would feel the need to defend it. You touched on the reason: the fear of going unnoticed. Way too many people love to play Devil’s Advocate, for no other reason than to attract attention.
Moral equivalence is a poor compass. Just because you can make a moral equivalence argument doesn’t mean you’re right, but it’s the basis for a lot of liberal thinking. War is always bad, it’s just about sex, gays have rights too, capital punishment is always wrong, a woman’s right to choose, religion is superstiition, you pick the topic, there’s a liberal argument to support it, and they just won’t shut up about it.
Wish I could say this was original with me; it isn’t, but I’ve used it. To a ten-year old, screaming and yelling in an airplane, at 35,000 feet, said audibly for the parent’s benefit: “Little boy, why don’t you go outside and play?
Rotten kids on flights and the parents that REFUSE to control them is a pet peeve of mine. One kid kicked the back of this poor woman’s seat for HOURS regardless of how many time we would turn around and demand she control her child.
On the flip side, I was flying somewhere and a mother was seated across from her children who were in front of me. She told them to behave and then she pointed to me and said, “You can hit them if they get out of control!” then went to her kids, “I may not be able to reach you but that lady can – now behave.” They were angels!
I was once on a flight to Orlando to attend a business meeting. My boss decides to bring his two sons and his wife along. Boys prolly 3 & 5. 747 leaves New York at 7AM. As soon as we are airborne, the boys decide to chase each other up and down the aisles, hooting and hollering. Most everyone else was trying to sleep (I had left for the airport at 4 AM). The flight attendent comes up to the wife and says “Madam, can you please control your children?” And she answers, with a deep sigh, “I am so sorry, but I really can’t.” Their father (my boss) has no input. I am thinking “lady if you can’t control them now, good luck when they hit their teens.”
Well, I think I understand where you want to go with this article, and I agree.
But on the other side we must admit, and I am not joking, that we we are all part of the “going trash”.
Do you wear tails for supper ?
I thought so.
Me neither, but I am not sure that it’s a good thing.
The “dress as a proletarian” movement that we have observed in the last fifty years is part of the same destruction of the society that we find in the “talk as a thug” media.
When I was in Carnaby Street in the early Sixties, I saw a lot of people wearing very nice XVIII century uniforms. There was something good in it. How did it turn to gangsta hoodies ?
Someone one day will have to write a history of this part of the subversive strategy.
On the upside, with the bar set so low the ease and marginal benefit of stepping over it is truly remarkable. Where I live, to see a woman outside of a professional environment wearing a skirt of any kind is very rare, and I get a lot of mileage out of that one simple fact.
And it is part of the subversive strategy.
I insist that my family “dress” for meals. My mother explained to me that someone took time to prepare a meal and it is out of respect for that person that table manners exist, dressing is polite, topics need to be carefully choosen and the television will be off. Since I am now that person, I completely understand the statement. No need to wear tails, but clean clothes is necessary at my house. Set the bar low and people will please you, set the bar high and prepare for dissapointment- but some will suprise you and it is worth it!
What makes it worse is all the techno and jungle music and energy drinks and energy vodka that turns regular douches into turbo-douches.
Do you mean Paris or Perez Hiltion, or both ? Look up the difference.
One’s an attention whore and the other is a whore with attention.
“Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
That being said, with the exception of the poorly behaved darlings in stores, or perhaps the assault on your tender ears by the profane or high-decibel crowd, just exactly how do these behaviors harm you? Does the guy who slaved on your yard live close enough to you that your property value might suffer? Maybe he could use some help with his – did you think to offer? Do the so-called sluts and gangsta-wannabes offend you so much that you can’t just look the other way? Are you sure that the woman with five kids by four fathers is on welfare, or is that just a bigoted stereotype you’re applying? It must be nice to be a Pharisee, so perfect in the eyes of God and the neighbors, that you never have to take an honest look at yourself. Maybe you should go to a proctologist and have him remove that rod that someone jammed up there; a more bigoted and intolerant piece I have yet to read on any site, liberal or conservative.
My advice to you: don’t worry about the speck in your fellow man’s eye, when you are ignoring the log in your own.
“a more bigoted and intolerant piece I have yet to read on any site, liberal or conservative.”
Oh please. Come down off your sanctimonious high horse already & admit to the fact that your definitions of bigotry & intolerance are way too broad to be taken seriously. There is nothing at all whatsoever bigoted in refusing to put up with abject boorishness. Again, we tolerate way too much rudeness & bellicosity to be defined as a truly civilized society.
“Elephant4life”… sure… like we haven’t heard “life long conservative” before.
An attack on my name is the best you can do? That’s generally a liberal tactic. However, since you obviously have not followed any of my other posts, you wouldn’t know just how conservative my views are.
Really, you people who have nothing better to do than to criticize what the other fellow is doing, or how he is dressed, or his kids are behaving, or whether his grass is two inches taller than your own, need to step back and get a life. At least, try realizing that life is too short to waste puffing your own egos up by damning the other guy, instead of thinking, erroneously, that freedom means never having to be offended. Sounds like an awful lot of people just need to grow up.
Maybe that’s just the perspective of someone who has actually looked death in the face.
Why is the “judge not, lest ye be judged” admonition so poorly understood by the modern generation? By the way, that is a rhetorical question. Do you honestly think it means that one is compelled to freely accept sinfulness in others without consequence? Or just might it be a reminder that one’s own transgressions are likewise subject to judgment? One of the big reasons this civilization is circling the drain is that any notion of shame or stigma has been thrown out as just some outmoded throwback. I know the Left likes to think this will lead us to an enlightened civilization with themselves, naturally, standing at the helm as our philosopher-kings. In reality it is leading us to the sort of society depicted in the film Idiocracy.
“just exactly how do these behaviors harm you? ” Foul language cheapens the person who uses it and those who are forced to hear it. It gives the impression of disrespect for everyone within it’s range. Not everyone uses filthy, degenerate and disgusting language. It promotes the coarsening of humanity and desensitizes one to civility causing offense, embarrassment and misunderstandings.
“Brats” who run wild add to the cost of government by becoming non-producers, welfare recipients or incarcerated wards of the state, which we all pay for one way or another. They also can cause damage to property and business.
“Nasty Yards” cause sanitary issues with bugs, vermin and diseases the primary concern. Then there is the impact on property values. Laziness and sloppiness are the hallmarks of “trash” no matter the color, ethnicity or culture. Nothing like reinforcing stereotypes.
“Sleeping around” nothing says class like a STD or AIDS. Why would that be a problem or affect anyone? The blood supply being compromised, birth rates plunging, not to mention birth defects and medical cost through the roof are all consequences but those don’t affect anyone, surely. We don’t even want to go the subject of whole generations of progeny flushed away, any of whom may have cured cancer, developed sustainable energy or ended hunger.
“Dress for failure” I’ve got nothing for this. Personally I wouldn’t let whoever the guy in the picture is pick up my garbage. If he wants to look like a poster child for “What never ever to wear” that’s his business. Anyone who would hire him for anything, including cleaning the pool, deserves what they get.
“just exactly how do these behaviors harm you? “Civilized behavior helps to maintain cultural cohesion and mutual respect, without which we become degenerate bores. Selfishness is behind the idea “It’s my life, I can do whatever I want.” No matter how you spin it we are not alone on this planet and to act as if we are is self-absorbed and narcissistic. I’m sure some will find this as offensive as I find the five behaviors in this article.
Welcome to my world.
Correct, but one step further – if people fail to follow cultural norms, somebody in the government decides we need a law or regulation and government action to fix the problem that used to be addressed by the following of cultural norms. Most of the expansion of government over the past 50 years can be viewed as caused by chunks of society deciding they did not need to follow cultural norms.
See comment 11 from SAL. Either regulation or money. Same thing.
Why do people go all-or-nothing apeshit over this?……
He criticises ONE person, he doesn’t criticise everyone in that situation. He enumerates ONE example, he doesn’t offer a blanket condemnation of an entire class, but you assume he does……..
Get off of it……..
Yes, boorish behavior diminishes us all. Kids out of control are a sad commentary of parenting, making me wish for some parent licensing requirement. Trashy yards do impact my property values, and will also encourage other bad and violent behavior. Slutty dressing starlets make it easier for my daughter to copy and my sons to think that all girls are or should be sluts too.
None of this should be regulated, because regulations should not be required for people to have courtesy and good manners.
All of these behaviors you decry have irked me at one time or another. Hell, I might have been guilty of one of them at one time or another. I’ve even stooped to judging others during those times when humility was lacking. But, in general, I try to see the things you describe pretty much ss one form of poverty or another, and tend to mind the offense, not the offender.
The garbage in the front yard is no excuse especially if they have a back yard. You affect the whole look of the neighborhood in your own selfishness.
Same with the boorish behavior. I’ve been so close on a bus to just taking someones cell phone and throwing it out the window I can’t even tell you. In Japan it’s considered so offensive they will tell you to get of your phone. THEY have no problem enforcing behavioral standards they wish to live by.
I wish we could go back to being that kind of country. We used to be like that until the liberals attacked us for being mean and using, “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Well, I’ll judge all day long if I like on a person’s behavior – I’m not judging what’s in their heart or soul, I’m judging their actions.
You know the tree by the fruit it produces. Big difference between that and judgment. God judges the soul, but we are to inspect the fruit.
Dividing a post by 5 in order to inflate pageviews is pretty trashy.
Click “view as single page.”
+1000!
this is behavior worthy of Salon.com, not PJ.
I still have some Christmas lights up.
p.s. you forgot about dipping!
“Pump ‘em and dump ‘em” came about because of the over-abundance of gold digging shrews. Men did the right thing and they paid a heavy price for it. So they will no longer reward that behavior with their lives.
It doesn’t make them trash. That makes them smart.
It doesn’t make them smart, it makes them male versions of the gold digging shrews.
Okay, smart my be a little too much credit for them, but it’s certainly clever enough to get what they want without having to run the gamut of lifetime commitment until the daughters of American feminism get bored, take all their resources and leave them broken for something as basic as a sex.
It’s far too complicated to break down into a soundbite, but we both know it. I tend to think that being able to see the game is rigged, and being able to play and win even with it being rigged, as a sign of intelligence.
Why not just look for something different? That’s what smart men do. Not all women are gold digging shrews of course.
Of course, and some men opt for that. But the risks are high and the rewards are low.
After 3 bad females in a row I hit the galactic jackpot and met the woman that is the entire reason feminim should exist at all. She’s incredible, warm, brilliant, wickedly funny, and lets me be me. She understands I’m not some neutered wimp and there are things I will not have questioned.
But I really can’t fault the guys who go the other route, either.
I guess it all comes down to esperiences and what you’re exposed to.
AMS, I understand. For me it was neutered wimp after neutered wimp until I met my husband. I mean women’s choices have been narrowed down too, between neutered wimps and pump-em and dump-em types. I definitely see it as feminism’s fault. But feminism is just one offspring of the left.
ps My husband wasn’t rich, so he never had to worry about gold-diggers! ha ha
Zing! Harry wins the cigar!
The point about brats hits home with me. My line is: “Curb those things.”
About #2: I hope you’re keeping in mind that there’s a difference between a two-year-old who is throwing a tantrum at Target because the parents AREN’T giving in to his or her demands, and a rude older kid who knows better. Because it’s a whole lot harder not to give in to the Terrible Two when people are giving nasty looks even though it makes things that much difficult the next time. It might help to remember that you want the parents to raise the kid right so you get Social Security, or Marines, when the time comes.
I take exception to the “Louisiana Landfill” comparison. WTF do you know about LA? I’ve been in (small letter) la, and I’ve been in LA. I’ll take Louisiana every time. Your whole city looks like a landfill (lol).
If you’re looking for Red State sympathy you blew it, boy’o.
Charlie (and quit usurping out state abbreviation, OK dork?)
Agreed. Why not just a landfill? And most of his human examples not from the south.
For an old fart like me this article might as well been written in sanskrit. What the hell is it all about?
A lot of the responses boil down to “live and let live”. Well, I agree. How about you turn down your music, so I can enjoy the day? How about you clean up your language, so as not to offend my sensibilities? How about you pull up your pants, so i do not have to see your butt-crack? How about you clean up your yard, so I do nor feel I am driving past a landfill or a third-world country?
So busy thinking about your own prerogatives, “I can do whatever I want.”, that you completely ignore MY prerogatives. I want the world around me to not be made so ugly by Man, that I cannot enjoy God’s creation.
Manners and courtesies make you far more attractive than any adornment. Comport yourself well, and earn the respect of others, rather than comport yourself poorly and then demand the respect of others.
If you are so discourteous as to do the things listed in the article, you have no legitimate gripe to complain when others chastise you for your boorishness. Disrespect begets disrespect.
“Oh my gawwwwwd, didn’t you have any toilet paper the last time you pooped?!!’
Another example of trash. Starting any sentence with “Oh my Gawdddd”
A neverfail tool to identify poor trash regardless of race, ethnicity and sex.
But usually associated with a white, teen aged, female, loud, obnoxious, with tatoos, piercings and a very active and well advertised sex life.
I’m always getting into it with my daughter, who thinks that people shouldn’t be judged by their appearance. I always ask her why then do they dress like that? Is it not to be judged by others of that culture to see that here is one of our own?
Appearance is the fastest way to send a message about yourself. And other people have opinions based on that appearance. So if my experience with overly-pierced and tattooed people is that they don’t really amount to much, don’t be surprised if that’s my first opinion of you, if you choose to look like that. I always say, aren’t you trying to make a statement? And if that’s the statement you’re making, then maybe you really are like that after all.
Not only public profanity, but making any kind of excessive and/or inappropriate noises anywhere is trashy behavior.
That means chewing food or gum with your mouth open, loud blabbering or whistling when other people are trying to think and get some work done, thoughtlessly interrupting, intrusively loud sound systems that can be heard from well outside your vehicle or a residence (especially at night), belching into the P.A. system at work, you name it.
Not only keeping a nasty yard, but making other people’s property look nasty by improperly disposing of your own rubbish, is trashy behavior – literally!
I work at a place that has both an outdoor trash can (frequently emptied) and an outdoor cement flower pot with sand in it for disposal of cigarette butts (cleaned out by me). I am amazed at how many people throw their rubbish right next to – but not in – the trash can, and discard their cigarettes on the pavement next to – but not in – the flower pot! The effort to put the cigarette in the flower pot, and the trash in the bin, is truly minimal, but these slobs can’t be bothered. Yes, sloth IS a sin.
First off, referring to “behaviors” makes you, if not trashy, at least kinda moronic.
I’m always reminded of an Edgar G. Robinson movie where he takes over a luggage shop. And his one dim-bulb assistant says at one point, “I could have sold him a luggage.” People who can speak of “luggages,” “behaviors” — there’s some basic inability to deal with words at all in that kind of nonsense.
(However, the author made some very cogent points.)
Agree entirely, Larry E. People use neologisms as a way to sound pretentious in speech. They don’t learn lessons, but “learnings.” Not behavior but “behaviors.” As soon as I hear someone refer to “truthiness”, I know the truthiness ain’t in him. The simple “now” mutated into “at this point” which begat “at this point in time” which begat “at this particular point in time”, because to an ignoramus a six-word phrase sounds so much more impressive than a one-syllable word which means the same thing.
Well, I feel sorry that you don’t appreciate the subtle differences in phrasing, which is why English is such a rich language (or should I have just called it a “good” language?). Behavior and behaviors convey slightly different meanings. Behaviors imply a pattern, set, or grouping, that behavior does not.
If you don’t know why “at this point in time” and “now” convey different nuances, I doubt that I can edify (I’m sorry, “teach”) you here. Although I will concede that the word “particular” in “at this particular point in time” is a bit of fluff.
You’ll be just fine if the shades of meaning elude you. The same way that I can’t tell the difference between two fine wine vintages, but I can enjoy a glass of wine.
I have mixed feelings on this. I know some of those people. Some of them are my f(r)iends. Hell, sometimes I am some of those people. I’ve been known to show up at the hardware store wearing a greasy T shirt and epoxy encrusted dungarees. But it’s honest dirt. I’m an old Infantryman, and have been known to swear like one. (They don’t teach them to swear like in the Good Old Days(tm). ) For a while, my neighbors were taking up a collection to burn me out. (I never found out who had The Envelope. I wanted to contribute.) So I can appreciate that sort of conduct. IN CONTEXT.
When my people show up on a jobsite, I insist they be in uniform. Not gold braid and epaulettes, but a clean Company shirt and clean pants. They will not smoke on the job or in the truck. I don’t want my customers to have to put up with the smell. They will use respectful, moderate, and technically correct language. I don’t want my customers to have to put up with some mope in a T shirt covered with skulls, butt glued to the corner of his mouth, who looks like someone set his head on fire and fired scrap metal into his face from a shotgun. I don’t want them to have to listen to someone who sounds like a drunken Chief Boatswains Mate with offensive political opinions.
When he comes to my house for a Saturday barbecue, we can compete as to who has the most offensive T shirt, or who is the most politically incorrect!
That shows a need for attention and lack of self confidence. Going to a hardware store in a greasy t shirt is not abnormal. Most people are there because they are working on something at home or on the job. But seeing who can wear the most offensive t shirt is indeed trashy. But it’s a free country even for people who want to act ignorant.
Cussing in public? The only folks that I know that do that are educated liberals.
Exercising judgement is part of the human make-up and leads to the societally useful guardrails of shame and guilt. Shame and guilt are mechanisms of internal, individual control and as such, are necessary in reducing the number of external controls, aka laws, that society needs to enact to maintain order. It’s only since the leftist hippie explosion of the ’60′s that judgement came to be seen as something wrong or ironically, shameful. To the point where seemingly the greatest crime someone could commit would be to be ‘judgemental’. And of course, that leftist stricture is a lie, because leftists are the most judgemental people on the planet. Just look at all the judgement – and accompanying shame and guilt – they heap on anyone accused of political incorrectness. Oh the left well understands the power of judgement and disapproval. They just rig the rules so that they can focus it like a weapon on those they disapprove of, while making any of their destructive behaviors off limits to criticism.
Everything in leftist ideaology is a lie.
Manners are what you have to make other people comfortable. Class is defined as the ability to put others at ease (this crosses all socioeconomic borders). Without obligation to a peaceful society, consideration of others does not exist. That’s what makes you trash. You can debate the merits of the individual parts of this article, but the bottom line is that you’re trash if you think you and you alone have the only feelings that matter.
Beautifully put and I am copying this to read to my 2 stepchildren!
Shrooms are in season.
That’s not profanity. That’s obscenity.
You should learn the difference.
If you say so. But the issue I take umbrage with is the author taking the moral authority to declare those who offend his sensibilities as human trash. I’m only surprised that wine drinkers who might enjoy burgundy didn’t make the list, it was that snobbish.
What do you call people who offend (assuming that is possible) your sensibilities?
The article struck a nerve. Many of our cultural attitudes and behaviors are directed by television, movies, music, and advertising. Those industries exploit our coarser inclinations way too often. The result being we willing join the lowest common demonminators
You have the right to say, wear and do whatever you would like so long as it’s legal. I have the right to judge you by what you say, wear and do.
In most instances, my judgment means diddly. When I see a pants-on-the-ground clown on a city street, I judge him to be a lowlife gang-banger. My opinion means nothing to him.
When the same guy shows up at my job site looking for work, (granted, it rarely happens) my judgment means everything when I send him packing.
Many years ago, just out of school, I did inspection work at construction sites. My usual outfit was jeans and t-shirts. One summer, I decided that work khakis and golf shirts would be more comfortable than jeans and t-shirts. I immediately noted a huge difference in the way I was treated at sites where I was not known. Very simply, I did not look like a laborer on the site and was not treated like one.
You can holler all you want about that being judgmental, it’s reality. You are first judged by what people perceive you to be, not by what you are, and first judgments make lasting impressions.
If you’ve ever uttered the phrase “I got sooooo wasted last night!”, you might be trash.
If you’ve ever demanded that taxpayers fund your birth control, you’ve removed all remaining doubt.
Let me remind you that the American Way is for each generation to be more “casual” than the previous generation. It makes us more inclusive when competent people act like incompetent people (since incompetent people can’t act like competent people).
I may or may not be alive when it gets to people just peeing and pooping wherever they happen to be standing, but that’s somewhere in the future.
Wow – I couldn’t agree with this more – and I could probably add a few more items to the list. I used to think my Mom was stuck up because she demanded we dress in a certain manner when we went places, but now that I am older, I see the wisdom in what she was demanding of us. Too bad more parents aren’t like my Mom (and me).
You left out at least one.
Putting your bare feet on the dashboard of the car you’re riding in is trashy.
I don’t know when or how this became a thing, but it’s trashy as anything, and I wish people would stop doing it.
Also, Whale Tail and wearing tee-backed tank tops with over-the-shoulder brassieres. Basic rule of fashion: If I can see your underwear, it’s trashy.
Great list. Here are some others:
putting your feet on the furniture with your shoes on
not wearing underarm deodorant
eating your food at the speed of light (with your mouth open makes it extra trashy)
having a shiny, clean car w fancy accessories but owning a home that looks like a dump
for men-wearing a tank top to a restaurant where everyone can see your hairy arm pits
(this might also apply in France where women don’t shave under their arms or legs)
not brushing your teeth or going to the dentist for cleanings
displaying offensive logos or slogans on your clothing, car etc.
having the money to pay for necessities like rent,house payment and utilities but blowing it on a tattoo, going out to eat or $100 tennis shoes instead.
Showing up to every family gathering and not bringing a dish when one is requested. (if you’re bringing family members who are big eaters, you get extra trashy on this one)
Showing up at every family gathering drunk and complaining about your wife.
Passing gas, belching in public and then thinking it’s funny
(I have family members like this and I see them as little as possible)
Trashy people park on the street in front of your house to go to the party house a couple of houses up. Then at 3 AM, they stumble to their cars, screaming the f word as loudly as possible, and making as much noise as they can. Sometimes they even come up your driveway and barf right outside your bedroom window (or take a leak on your landscaping). We’ve had beer cans and trash thrown in our yard, too, which is more trashy behavior. What makes it worse is that they’re college kids, which means they usually get away with this crap, while tax-paying citizens have to put up with it.