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Yeah.
Alexson, buddy, I think TL is right on this one. It sounds like you were the one being a bit too pushy, not her.
Not the end of the world, though. Everyone has their foot-in-mouth moments at work, and everyone misreads a situation from time to time. In the future, just remember to smile, say something polite, and save your opinions of the customers for the break room.
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United States5162 Posts
OP - do you really see nothing wrong with responding with 'mhm' when she complemented you? That was what caused everything to go wrong.
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sounds like the offense that she took was that you pretty much ignored a very nice compliment and tried to start an argument.
I know quite a few people who say god bless you just as a casual saying. its not a big deal, its just a saying
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Alexson, I used to work retail and I've heard a thousand things worse than "bless you" and I never once hand a slighted remark or scoffed because I was working. I've had to help people make copies of material that were offensive to me or someone else. Get over yourself and your high chair and let the lady give you a compliment without intentionally offending her.
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Kind of annoying how atheists have to tip toe around religion like in the conversation the OP described or else come off as rude. Sadly we are the minority. I'd say get over it.
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On March 17 2011 17:23 TheGreatWhiteHope_ wrote: Kind of annoying how atheists have to tip toe around religion like in the conversation the OP described or else come off as rude. Sadly we are the minority. I'd say get over it.
Way to miss the mark champ. Not even close to the actual issue. Take another gander at reading the replies.
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WTF saying that you don't believe is considered disregard ? I consider very rude and disregarding people bothering another people with god and all the bullshit religious stuff. So the lady was actually very rude and offended you. You should have replied: and Satan upon you fool. Biggest lie ever: god bless you AM i being rude, probably. Is it the same as someone bothering me with his god bless you nonsense - definately.
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You were being a prick, pure and simple. If someone gives you a compliment, which she clearly thought she was, the correct response is "thank you", or even in your case "I do my best".
This had nothing to do with you not caring about religion, and everything about you responding like a tit.
You clearly have a lot to learn when it comes to being respectful.
edit: Just thought i'd say thank god (appropriate dont you think) that most people here aren't supporting your actions.
edit 2:
On March 17 2011 15:53 Alexson wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2011 15:50 Torte de Lini wrote: Whenever I sneeze and someone says "God bless you" , I slap them silly and try to arch my disagreement with their polite incentive to perpetuate a catholic faith onto me.
I totally understand man. god you sound mad..
Lol, just found this little gem. You dont find this even slightly ironic?
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On March 17 2011 14:00 So no fek wrote: Simple thing is to just shrug it off and be polite, instead of pulling the "mhmm". I understand how it could get under your skin, but I'd assume when you're working getting into a theological discussion isn't really the best idea. It sucks that she went off like that, and it'd probably piss me off too, but you had the power to avoid that point.
What if he was black and she said, "I'm glad you niggers are finding jobs these days."?
It might not be intended to offend, but his reaction was fine.
On March 17 2011 17:28 Torte de Lini wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2011 17:23 TheGreatWhiteHope_ wrote: Kind of annoying how atheists have to tip toe around religion like in the conversation the OP described or else come off as rude. Sadly we are the minority. I'd say get over it. Way to miss the mark champ. Not even close to the actual issue. Take another gander at reading the replies.
Except he's right.
Lots of religious people in the U.S. will take offense if some Muslim were to come up to them and say "Allahu akbar, inshallah more young people like you follow in your steps." It's essentially the equivalent of what she said, but because that's not the "norm" here it wouldn't fly.
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I find this blog with comments included quite an interesting read, seeing how different cultures react to the way OP responded (who is from BELARUS). Americans are "used" to the 'god bless' and religious people from child-hood. It's a part of your lives whether you are religious or not. I'm not saying the way OP reacted was correct, but I completely understand that the comment from the lady might of surprised him a bit and perhaps took him out of his comfort zone, since he has never experienced something like this before.
If I went to a random person in public, such as a bank lady here in Denmark and said good bye with a god bless you, I have no doubt that it would cause some sort of awkward reaction. That's just because that's how society works over here. She may even be a Christian, but for Denmark, people don't say stuff like that in public.
Americans and others from countries with religious people within your communities, take a step back and try to understand that for many countries around the world, a comment such as the one the lady gave is quite unordinary. And OP, try also to understand that for some religious people, comments like the one the lady gave you is just something that has been incorporated into their lives, they say it to be polite or kind, it is how they were raised. Just take it as a compliment, no reason to be offended what so ever.
That's my view of this blog. I'm half Danish, half American by the way. Moved back to the States recently now as a young adult, and it took some getting use to again after the 11 years in Denmark.
On March 17 2011 19:10 wherebugsgo wrote:Except he's right.
Lots of religious people in the U.S. will take offense if some Muslim were to come up to them and say "Allahu akbar, inshallah more young people like you follow in your steps." It's essentially the equivalent of what she said, but because that's not the "norm" here it wouldn't fly. Brilliant post, I think this will help allow the others understand. This is not so much about religion but more of the way your society works. Saying something out of the norm will usually cause weird reactions, unless your international like me :D
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I would be pretty puzzled if someone would give me a compliment that involves "God bless you" or anything similar.
Never heard anything like that here... Peope in general keep religion pretty much to themselves.
But yeah, a simple "Thank You" would have been the appropriate response.
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I guess the OP didn't really want to hear anyone's feedback, however I do think his response could be appropriate depending on its intent. If his intent was to show the Christian woman the error of her beliefs then he could have an in-depth conversation with her regarding it. If he had no intention to follow-up and simply wanted to be rude then it was unnecessary.
I used to work as a checkout operator and one time I asked a man how his day was. He said he felt like his life had been turned inside out. I asked why and he said something along the lines of Jesus Christ. Anyhow, I can't remember how we got talking but I raised the issue that some people don't feel like life is fair and that God didn't give us the choice as to whether or not we actually wanted to be born.
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It's sad but allot of people act and think this way. Its only because they we're raised back in the day and din't have many distractions outside there local community, not like our generations with all our technology. Most people being catholic somewhere along the lines gotten to used to being surrounded by mostly catholics. Some go as far as to think that this is the religion of choice of the human race, and are ignorant towards others who may not believe in there beliefs ( gay marriage, abortion, other religious views). Not all catholics are like that I am catholic, or was raised catholic I should say.
They just take there believes very seriously.
I find being so rude to people will make them react in a uncanny way, this makes your character look bad. This surely is the reason for her response and any other run in like this.
Telling someone with faith that you don't believe can very well get you into a situation that you could care less for. Yes, it is wrong for them to force there beliefs on to others, but its not as wrong as it is to hurt on someones faith. Even without directly insulting there faith many people will feel the need to act a certain way if you are persistent in saying your a non believer.
Its just best to avoid the matter.
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So if you sneeze and someone in the room says God bless you, would you also tell them to fuck off? You're a prick dude, grow up.
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Russian Federation42 Posts
1. "mhmm" is not rude (kinda) response in post soviet countries 2. anyway would be better if you said thanks and leave it 3. btw we dont say "bless you" when someone sneeze, we say something more like "be healthy" "be good"
edit; and actually here (where i live at least), when someone mention "god" and stuff like that in a regular day life its sounds weird yeah.
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On March 17 2011 19:49 Essentia wrote: So if you sneeze and someone in the room says God bless you, would you also tell them to fuck off? You're a prick dude, grow up.
Where are you people getting this from? He didn't tell her to fuck off, so the answer is clearly no.
As for me, as I have been in similar situations before, when people say "bless you" or "God bless you" when I sneeze, I just ignore it.
Once or twice I've been given an ugly look because I've completely ignored the remark, but honestly, I don't care. lol.
EDIT: Also, in many other languages the response to a sneeze or something similar is non-religious. English is strange this way, for whatever reason.
Of course, a lot of languages have religious connotations in the way they say farewells. In English it's "goodbye," which is a contraction of "God be with ye". Now that connotation is gone, and we even say "bye", which, in a historical context, makes no sense whatsoever.
In other languages, like the romance languages, the similarities persist, likewise. Spanish, for example: adios= a dios vos acomiendo
So although it's debatable, the "religiosity" of a comment depends on its context. In this situation, it's ambiguous, although judging by her remark she is obviously a religious person, and she is not used to nonreligious people receiving her religiously slanted remark in an awkward manner. Her response of "go to hell" afterward exemplifies this, as he didn't set out to insult her, he just said "I don't care about religion."
He could have phrased it better, sure, but that doesn't change the fact that the only reason this happened is because it's "normal" to say in an English-speaking country. Like I said before, if some Muslim were to say the exact same thing to you, but substitute Allah for God or whatever, you'd probably act pretty weird too.
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Yea i dont get why you would reply "mhm" then proceed to tell her that you dont care about religion. Just say "thank you" and move on.
At work just leave religion out of it. I dont really care if someone is an Atheist, Christian or Shinto, and i dont see why you'd start an argument about it.
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All you had to do was smile in affirmation to her original comment. The fact that you said "mmhmm" is incredibly rude and disrespectful.
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On March 17 2011 19:10 wherebugsgo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2011 14:00 So no fek wrote: Simple thing is to just shrug it off and be polite, instead of pulling the "mhmm". I understand how it could get under your skin, but I'd assume when you're working getting into a theological discussion isn't really the best idea. It sucks that she went off like that, and it'd probably piss me off too, but you had the power to avoid that point.
What if he was black and she said, "I'm glad you niggers are finding jobs these days."? It might not be intended to offend, but his reaction was fine. Show nested quote +On March 17 2011 17:28 Torte de Lini wrote:On March 17 2011 17:23 TheGreatWhiteHope_ wrote: Kind of annoying how atheists have to tip toe around religion like in the conversation the OP described or else come off as rude. Sadly we are the minority. I'd say get over it. Way to miss the mark champ. Not even close to the actual issue. Take another gander at reading the replies. Except he's right. Lots of religious people in the U.S. will take offense if some Muslim were to come up to them and say "Allahu akbar, inshallah more young people like you follow in your steps." It's essentially the equivalent of what she said, but because that's not the "norm" here it wouldn't fly.
Noone says that dude. Really they don't.
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didnt uh..
Tdot...
say...
300 posts...
Lol this guy sounds like he might be trolling.
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