(no subject)

[fan_eunice]

Am safely here in Maryland. I would say 'awwwww, my little boy'...except my little boy is over six feet tall, able to vote ,and sporting a beard. Seriously, WTF? He gets his cap and gown tomorrow at rehearsal and then on Tuesday I will officially be the parent of a high school graduate. WHEE.

Of the not so whee was my cab driver this morning. Who tried to engage me in political discussion. About how universal health care was bad and wrong. And refused to shut up when I flat out said 'yeah, I just spent the last year in treatment for cancer without insurance, I am not going to agree with you and there's pretty much nothing you can say that would persuade me.' Just...kept going with his arguments. And then I flat out asked him 'so if someone can't come up with the money for treatment when they are ill, you find it acceptable if they die from that lack of care?' To which his answer boiled down to a rather wordy 'I'd feel bad, but yes.' At which point I tried to shut him up again, by reiterating that we were coming from such radically different perspectives that agreement was not possible. He kept going. And finally I just said 'I have not had enough coffee to talk politics' and went stone silent. And then he started talking about various planes that had crashed flying out of O'Hare. As we were pulling into the AIRPORT where I was GETTING ON A PLANE.

I didn't tip him. He doesn't care if I live, I don't much care if he eats. I'm sure that makes me a horrible person, but if he'd just SHUT THE HELL UP instead of continuing to argue that I should just accept that life is unfair and go away and die if it came down to it....even after repeated signals and me flat out asking for him to just *stop*. Y'know, or maybe it was the plane crash part that pushed me over the edge. Just...know your audience, dude.

Comments

[laurashapiro]

OMG WHAT AN ASSHOLE.

I wouldn't have tipped, either.

::hugs::

[fan_eunice]

*HUGS*

I just...yeah.

[everysecondtuesday]

What the actual fuck. Dear cab driver: why would you do that? D:

[fan_eunice]

I do not even know. I think he was so invested in making his point that I wasn't even really there to him? Like, he was having an argument with a straw liberal in his head and not talking to an actual *person*.

[violetisblue]

Oh, fuck him. He gets what he gives.

"He doesn't care if I live, I don't much care if he eats. I'm sure that makes me a horrible person..."

He expressed an overt desire to live in a world devoid of regard for others' needs, you gave him exactly what he asked for. Just tell him, "You're welcome."

[gwyn]

No, it does not make you a horrible person. It makes you a SMART person. I'm the schmuck that would have still given him a tip and then spent the next two weeks beating myself up for it. You on the other hand are much smarter than I am. He told you what he thought of people in your situation, and yeah, you told him what you thought of people in his!

I had a cabbie like that the last time I went to visit my sister. He was from Bulgaria, and I was quite interested to talk to him because I'd never met anyone from such a restricted and, well, terrible country. ANd he started talking about how TEH GAYS are ruining America, and I was like, um, you came here because you lived in a horrible repressive country and you wanted freedom and you're like stuck driving a cab to make ends meet just so you could be somewhere you could be free, and you're telling me people can't be free to be who they are in the country you came to? That you should repress and/or kill them for being gay?

And he just kept going on about it, so I stopped talking to him. I still had 15 minutes in the cab but I boiled in silence. My poor sister came out in her PJs and turban, and tried to tip him some more, but I gave him a few bucks and pushed her hand out of the way. The poor thing then had to listen to me raging about it for a good 20 minutes.

OTOH I"m so glad you get to be with your son!

[magic_at_mungos]

Hi. You don't know me but I have been lurking a little on your journal! And to be honest, I wouldn't ahave tipped either. As A Brit and coming form a country with with nationalised health care, I can't see what is wrong with that. It's not perfect but surely it's better than having people suffering because they can't afford treatment.

[amadyce]

As a customer who is paying for a service, I think it's perfectly within your rights to tell the cab driver you'd prefer them not to talk during the ride. I've done it before in extreme cases like this. Most people have the common sense to tell when someone doesn't want to listen to you but some morons need to be told outright. Sounds like this guy is one of them. Sorry you had such an unpleasant experience.