After approximately 15 minutes of this one-sided exchange, I blurted out, “Can we not talk about this?
I’d like to know if there is a gentler way to end these types of conversations -- both for etiquette’s sake, and to avoid upsetting someone enough to be left on the side of the road.
How enlightening that was, Miss Manners cannot presume to say. But the toxic state of current political discourse makes the casual airing of opinions among strangers unappealing, if not dangerous. She came back before I finished checking out and proceeded to shame me in a loud voice for “cutting in line.” To my chagrin, another young matron, also with an overflowing cart and a toddler in tow, was bagging her items ahead of me and chimed in.
I feel the rules of etiquette have been turned upside down. I think I did the right thing in not saying anything, as it would have made things worse. I felt terrible and spent the day depressed and wondering if this was a harbinger of things to come.Miss Manners has gotten dozens of these lately. Aren’t people advised to eat before they shop, so they won’t overbuy? Maybe if they weren’t hungry, they wouldn’t be quite so growly.
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