Male-Female, Jerk or helpful....what would you have done? Cookies and little girls involved

[spunko12345]

No one has been sold a fucking cookie on their doorstep burned or otherwise for 30 years so stop chatting shit. It was a decent enough conversation starter but don't milk it.

Why so angry all the time?

This actually happened. Believe what you want. If I was going to make up a story I could come up with something way more creative than girls selling cookies.

Where do you live? I have kids coming by almost on a weekly basis selling stuff, mainly for school or sports fundraisers. Today a couple little girls came by selling raffle tickets for a ballet fundraiser.

The last baseball all star team I coached went door-to-door selling lumpia and sweatshirts. We won the state championship and this helped raised to pay for the trip.

Happens all the time.

It's just that I've never had any kids selling food door to door in my life but you get them round yours every week, that would do my head in. Have you ever worked for the BBC?

[SoulMonster]

Empathy and feeling protective of kids can certainly be rationalized.

Well do it and make me fuckin' feel better please

Why would you even feel bad for being kind? It's not like anyone in this thread in their attempts to explain why they'd turn away girls selling cookies, have come near to presenting any good reason for doing so. So why are you confused about whether it is right for you to do?

Anyway, empathy and being protective of kids is ingrained in our DNA - to various degrees. We are born that way because such traits stimulate behaviour that is good for people living together in society. They are evolutionary adaptions that give groups of people living together an advantage. Empathy because it allows groups of people to cooperate and individual sacrifices for the weakest, especially towards kids who are always the weakest. This doesn't mean we can't suppress these instincts if we wanted to (there are other "natural" behaviours that are results of evolution that we are best to suppress in modern socities - like xenophobia, aggression, etc), and some people have these instincts suppressed through how they are brought up; just that there is really no reason to do so. Being kind to kids selling cookies at your door really doesn't make any harm (the argument about making them soft due to this specific thing or that there is a slippery slope so that you'd have to give any person who tried to sell you anything, are flawed), and you feel better about it because you have instincts that are fullfilled (the evolututionary "reward" for doing things you are supposed to do).

So there are absolutely rational explanations for why we are inclined to slip kids who sell us stuff at the door a few quid.

Lastly, I feel a bit sorry for magisme. He seemed so agitated by any suggestions he is a bad guy for agreeing with Apollo. He shouldn't. magisme isn't a bad guy, we know that because he has told us he isn't, even just a few posts ago. As I said earlier, there are many reasons why people don't pay for scout cookies, and not all of them are reflections of assholishness. But most are.

[DieselDaisy]

You have to remember that me and Len are English. We have made a virtue of, 'doing our best', 'competing is more important than winning', etc.

[magisme]

lol SoulMiser

[SoulMonster]

I think the misers in this thread are those that would rather send girls away with unsold cookies than to depart with their money.

[magisme]

OK, SoulMiser. Stay mad about it. We know how much it galls you that not everyone is a rain man like you.

[Len Cnut]

I love when clever people have a row, you have to really really use your brain to be able to tell when they're having a go at each other

[SoulMonster]

I love when clever people have a row, you have to really really use your brain to be able to tell when they're having a go at each other

Heh. And then we have people like magisme whose ad hominem attacks are hardly subtle or clever:

It's incredible how much dumber the conversation becomes every time soul monster enters.

See exponential stupidity as soon as he posts.

lol SoulMiser

OK, SoulMiser. Stay mad about it. We know how much it galls you that not everyone is a rain man like you.

[magisme]

SoulMiser

[Apollo]

I have absolutely no problem with people not buying girl scout cookies, or whatever it was, it is slightly douchy but okay, each to his own. Maybe you are really poor or just don't like kids or like being an asshole. The problem with, or more precicely, the hilarious aspect of, Apollo's story was that he had to diss the cookies of 9 year-olds and try to teach them entrepreneurial lessons.

Please. Our entire conversation lasted about one minute. The girls were laughing. The way you people over exaggerate and automatically point a negative aspect to things is pretty funny.

Huh? It is still hilarious. But I am happy to hear they handled the situation much better than you.

Zing!!!!! You got me again. Educated and ridiculed....you win again! Well played.

[Apollo]

I love when clever people have a row, you have to really really use your brain to be able to tell when they're having a go at each other

It can be fun.

The sad thing is when they are more interested in having rows with people rather than just chatting about the actual topic.

I suppose the internet is a place for those that were friendless and picked on in high school to anonymously get the chance to get verbal revenge on the ones that were popular back In the day.

And then it drives the nerd crazy when he realizes life doesn't end up like a John Hughes movie. Twenty years later he is still a nerd and the popular high school jock didn't turn into Al Bundy and is still more successful in life than they are.

It drives them crazy and is a bit Soul crushing for them. So they continually ridicule others and try to educate them to show off how intelligent they are. Winning arguments is very important to them because it's the only place they can feel superior to others.

Like I said. Must be Soul crushing for them.