Ask Lemmy

Anyone pushing their religion to others.

I've had parents come to me and demand that their child would be excluded from classes involving sex education or something else they think is "wrong". Simple but strict "no" usually infuriates them.

I will teach every student according to the national curriculum and the matter will not be discussed further. Then the parents threaten to take this to the principal and see me reprimanded. Good luck with that, our principal is much stricter than me about going by the book.

Salespeople.

Any kind of pushy religious people.

Republican politicians.

I'm not really rude by default to anyone. If I'm in a bad mood I guess I can sometimes get rude when irritated. But I feel like all humans deserve some base level of respect and courtesy.

If it's someone horrible like a serial killer or child rapist or something I wouldn't even be rude, just not interact at all with them.

But generally speaking, people are all humans. Scam callers are third worlders from poor countries. If I lived in Nigeria making less than $800 a month in salary, I wouldn't feel bad about scamming rich westerners. We live in prosperity and luxury whereas they get the shit end of the stick. I don't blame them.

Debt collectors are just doing their job. They have a family to feed, have hopes and dreams, probably hate their job, etc.

I don't like Trumpers generally but I try to be polite and friendly. I like planting seeds of doubt into their mind. Criticize Republicans in ways they can understand.

"Man Trump is such a shithead, he doesn't believe in free market capitalism"

They hear the phrase "free market capitalism" and know it's something they're supposed to support, so they ask for clarification

"Well he put taxes on imports on foreign goods so now steel is more expensive for regular Americans. It's anti-free market"

They sometimes just shrug and look a bit concerned. Republicans have a lot of little inconsistencies. "Fiscal conservatives" but they balloon the national debt everytime. "Freedom and liberty" but they try banning books, drag shows, abortions, trans surgeries, etc. Reagan is an idol but he supported getting rid of guns, gave amnesty to illegals, his economic advisor Friedman supported open borders, etc.

It's really not that hard to throw a little cognitive dissonance their way. It only works if they see you as a friend though. If they think of you as an enemy or threat, they will immediately get defensive and you'll probably just make them more set in their beliefs.