Episode 187: Elevated Education

Why do people no longer seem able to function in a society?

Transcript

Laura 0:00

Consider this a public service announcement.

Male VO 0:04

This is Bad Attitudes.

Laura 0:21

Hello, friends and strangers. Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes, an uninspiring podcast about disability. I'm your host, Laura.

Laura 0:32

This week's supporter shout out goes to Erica Sue. Thank you for your continuing support.

Laura 0:38

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Laura 1:06

For questions, comments, or ideas, visit the website at badattitudespod.com, email badattitudespod at gmail.com, or reach out on social media. Follow at Bad Attitudes Pod on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Blue Sky.

Laura 1:25

As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community, but I am not the only voice.

Laura 1:41

It seems like, ever since lockdown, people have lost the ability to function in a society. I guess being locked in your home for the better part of a year has a dire side effect. Main character syndrome.

Laura 1:55

This is especially obvious whenever I have to use an elevator. We got season tickets for touring theater productions, so this year I've been using elevators more than average. Elevators and parking decks, elevators to the theater, elevators in the theater, and do it all again in reverse when we leave. It's definitely worse when we leave because everyone is leaving at the same time, as opposed to staggered arrival times.

Laura 2:22

For the most part, these aren't large elevators either. Several of them can fit my family of four comfortably, three standing and me in my wheelchair. And when I say comfortably, I don't mean roomy. It's close quarters even when it's only the four of us. I'm also almost always the first one on and the last one off an elevator, which means I'm generally crammed into a corner with my face at waist height, surrounded by standing people. If you think your butt is your best feature, I can assure you it's probably not.

Laura 2:59

But apparently, people see the few inches of space between me and the others, and somehow think that means several more people can cram into the elevator with us. Earlier this year, a boomer woman with a roll leader decided she and her companions could fit in a very small elevator with me and my family.

Laura 3:19

Look, I'm very vocal about disabled people being allowed to take up space, including with our mobility aids, and I stand by that. What we're not allowed to do is force ourselves into other people's space and cause them problems. Said Boomer Woman kept shoving her rollator into my sister, and when my sister expressed displeasure, she was on the receiving end of the stink eye.

Laura 3:44

I know that I and my wheelchair take up space. I do not try to cram into a space where I know I will not fit and expect people to just accept it because, oh, I'm disabled. Although I spend a lot of time telling you that disabled people can be assholes, it's not okay to be an asshole simply because you're disabled. We still have a responsibility to be considerate of others. Everyone, disabled or not, has the same responsibility. That's what it means to live in a society.

Laura 4:18

More recently, we were in a parking deck elevator, just trying to get back to our car. The elevator was already crowded with more than our immediate family when some women decided they too could fit. Just have some fucking consideration. That's all I'm asking. Before those women got on, I had a small but clear path out of the elevator. We were only going one floor up. After those women got on, I was once again relegated to being crammed in the corner. When the elevator stopped on the next floor, all those women had to get out of the elevator so I could exit, which might have occurred to them if they had taken a second to think about someone other than themselves. I even had to verbalize, you have to get out of the way, in order to make some of them move. I wasn't going out of my way to inject extra venom into my words, but I certainly wasn't trying to be nice either.

Laura 5:12

We're all guilty of sometimes thinking the world revolves around us, but I learned a long time ago that that is rarely the case, and that I have a responsibility to spare a thought now and then for other people. People have always been self-centered, but I swear it's gotten worse.

Laura 5:30

That same night we almost ended up in a wreck because some self-centered asshole darted out from between two parked cars on a busy street without checking the traffic first. And he just smiled like an idiot when we slammed on the brakes. I wanted, with everything in me, to roll down my window and scream, You fucking moron! But I didn't. I didn't even flip him off, though it was a near thing.

Laura 5:56

It seems like a fair number of people would benefit from a thorough shaking by the shoulders, but maybe I'm also old and crotchety. I mean, I've always thought people as a whole are stupid, but are they really getting stupider?

Laura 6:13

Yes, the answer is unequivocally yes. I'm not imagining it. With the advent of social media and AI, people are in fact getting dumber.

Laura 6:23

So if you ever wonder why I rarely leave my house anymore, the answer is simple. People. There are people out there.

Laura 6:30

Seriously, just think about other people for two seconds. It takes very little effort, I promise. You might be the main character in your story, but you are not the main character in every story. And in some stories, you might even be the villain.

Laura 6:47

Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you in the next one.