Speaking as a former motorcycle addict, I will never understand motorcycle riders with blaring radio speakers. I put this firmly (Firmily?) in the “this is why aliens don’t talk to us” category.
@tinyroofnail How about bicyclists blasting music? Passing me on the greenway? Should I just be grateful they’re not staring at their phones?
@dwalbert @tinyroofnail I’ve seen both the motorcyclists and bicyclists blasting music. Also walkers. Damn the portable music machines. Also neighbors sitting on their porches playing slots games on their phones at high volume. I’m a grouchy old man.
@jabel my neighbor’s housesitter sitting outside to smoke, playing bing bong games on her phone with an audio book loud enough I could hear it while grilling… although I hate to criticize, I have better conversations with her than with the people who live there. At least she goes outside.
@dwalbert Ha, yup. Reminds me of the few times that I’ve seen a group of hip-looking hikers starting a hike at the bottom of a mountain with a boombox blasting on one of their shoulders. “The creatures of this forest and of this mountain are rightfully annoyed by you. I ordered you zero points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
@jabel I am also that grouchy old man. e.g.,We have three “slow down, children and pets at play” sign along our road, and we’re ready to but a dozen more. I remember Matthew Crawford mentioning something called (I think) “tiny tyrannies.” I don’t think that’s quite right but it’s something like that.
@tinyroofnail I hiked a 2-month solo hike. Coming across day hikers during that time was not pleasant, at best comical.
@dwalbert @jabel Correction: “petty harms” is the phrase. I put an old drafted rant up on the other blog.
@tinyroofnail I’m right there with you, buddy. I could multiply examples of my own. I hear the voice in my head that says every aging man in every age complains about kids these days but, dangit, it really does feel worse.
@jonah I’m with you there. I’ve done 20 mile solo hikes where all I do is look and think, and so the inability to stand an hour unplugged… the best you can do is laugh. Now I try to do my day hikes early on weekday mornings. :)
@dwalbert I just did a 30-mile day hike alone. Though I did have an audio book running some of the time for company. But with open-ear headphones that don’t disturb critters!
@jabel @tinyroofnail No, it’s definitely worse. In the spring of 2020 I still had to drive a few times a week between Raleigh and Durham, on the highway, and I said that although traffic was way down, the number of assholes on the road seemed to have stayed about the same. Then, as traffic returned, I observed that the fraction of assholes on the road had stayed at lockdown levels. And still has. Seeing that rapid acceleration, and then seeing the worse behavior effectively ratchet into place, convinced me that I hadn’t just been imagining things.