Can You Earn the Right to Be a Jerk?

What if you’re a “protestor?”

What if your great-uncle earned the Congressional Medal of Honor fighting the “Japs” in WWII. And at the age of 98, he throws his plate of food at you if there’s not enough salt on it. And you’re expected to clean it up on your hands and knees while he berates you. (He’s also a millionaire, so people will grovel to him.)

Because he’s old and a war hero, that makes it okay for him to be a jerk? Some would say he earned the right to act like that. He deserves to walk all over people. His behavior should be tolerated.

Anyone with any sense will say that’s absurd and wrong. It does no one any good, including your great-uncle. When he dies, likely by himself, there will be no mourning. His relatives will be relieved at his passing. That’s because, medal or not, he was miserable, and he made everyone else around him miserable.

That personal example aside, the same can be said for anyone who claims to have some special, important grievance that allows them to be a jerk in public. Particularly, if they are “protesting” something. Such as, when a mob starts fires, vandalizes and loots businesses, and blocks traffic (or, yes, trespasses on Federal property). That’s okay because it’s labeled a protest?

Again, absurd nonsense. There’s no special exception in the law for horrendous behavior during protests, at least there shouldn’t be.

Some seem to think there should be an exception, even when a so-called protestor actually shoots and kills a man in the street. For example, I give you this Luigi fellow who shot the UnitedHealthcare CEO in the back. Somehow, some weak-minded individuals buy into the idea that this was a form of protest, and that makes it okay.

What if we all did this? My dentist wouldn’t accept my dental insurance and didn’t catch an abscess tooth in time to prevent a blood infection. I’m allowed now to butcher him in front of his office? It’s okay as long as I’m just protesting for all aggrieved dental patients. I did it for all of you.

No, thanks, Luigi. That “alleged” intentional first-degree murder is on you alone.

The same can be said about many of those who play the victimhood game. This includes individuals who place themselves in some or other carve-out grievance group. Who, by being a group member, it’s decided they have “special” rights that are more equal than others. One from an “historically oppressed” group, some would say, has the right to shoplift, resist arrest, or, even to abandon their own children.

Absurd, at least if we want to have an ongoing civilization and society.

The same with those who demand that we accept their own metaphysical worldview, no matter how unmoored from reality it may be. How many countless social media posts have we seen of these unpleasant, obnoxious men acting horrified when they are not actually mistaken as women? If they really wanted sympathy from the public, that was definitely the wrong way going about it. Any flicker of compassion at all for such creatures has now been squashed out like a used match stick.

And this goes for all those people who expect to be treated like visiting royalty whenever they enter any public-facing establishment. The customer may “always be right,” but that does not permit you to behave like an ass. You can certainly ask for him, but even the manager has no authority to give you that license.

And, lastly, how about all those self-appointed policers of awakened behavior on social media? Those self-righteous people who make videos explaining to the rest of us how we are to think and behave on a given topic. They are sincere; they have moral authority. They demand our respect!

Smugness is terribly off-putting.

People suck. But, guess what? So do you, especially when you act like a jerk. And you’ll never earn the right to be a jerk.

And if you don’t stop, we will all be happier and relieved when you do go away.

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