The Strange Thrill of Being Polite to Rude People

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Ann. She lived in a small town with her mom and dad. One day she went out to buy some bread at the bakery. When she got there, she saw someone coming towards her. The person looked like they were in a bad mood and they shouted at her: "Move! Get out of the way!"

The girl was very scared and started running away from the angry stranger. But when she looked back, she realized that the woman who yelled at her was actually very old and had trouble walking because of her age and bad health. The girl felt very sorry for her, so she went back and helped the old lady cross the street safely.

That's a nice story, right?

Well, here's another.

I used to be really good at keeping my cool when I was faced with rude strangers. But then I got into an argument with someone who called me a "dumb toad," and it just kind of ruined it for me.

I think most people have had this experience: you're minding your own business, and some stranger comes up and starts being rude to you for no reason. Because if there's one thing that strangers know how to do, it's being rude for no reason! I'm sure everyone has had that moment—you're just walking along and the next thing you know, some stranger is yelling at you or spitting on your shoes or whatever.

But the worst part about these encounters is that they make us feel powerless. We start feeling like we have no control over what happens to us and how people treat us, which makes us feel like we should just give up on life altogether and become a passive aggressive ghost who haunts people's dreams.

The thing is, while most of these encounters are annoying as hell, they don't actually matter all that much in the grand scheme of things! People who are rude to others aren't usually going out of their way to ruin lives—they're just have a lot of self-growth to work on themselves.

I'm not talking about the way you talk to your friends, or the way you treat your family members, or even the way you treat people who are important to you. I mean the kind of treatment we give to strangers—people we don't know, people we don't care about, people who are just there.

So why should we allow them to lower ourselves, and affect our mental health?

Sometimes, when you're out and about, you'll encounter people who are just… rude. And it's hard to know what to do when you're faced with rudeness. Should you just ignore them? Should you say something? Should you walk away?

The answer is: it depends.

Sometimes, the best course of action is to let the rude person go on being rude without saying anything at all. That may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes people are just having a bad day, or they've had a bad week, or they're just in a bad mood and not thinking clearly. In these cases, it's best to just let them be themselves, because they aren't really doing anything wrong—they're just being themselves.

Other times, though—and this happens more than we'd like to admit—the person who is being rude isn't actually just being themselves; they're purposefully being mean and hurtful towards us for no good reason, and that's when it's time for us to step up and defend ourselves!

It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster ride this episode.

I'm so glad you're here with me, because I think it's important to talk about the fact that we all contradict ourselves sometimes.

It's natural and normal, and it can help us grow if we don't let it get the best of us.

So what do you think? Do you ever find yourself contradicting yourself? And how do you handle it?