zlacker

Years back we rented a flat in a building that housed a lot of retired people. A regulation we weren't aware of was that you weren't allowed to hang anything on the railings of your balcony. On a day off we were cleaning and left a mat we'd washed to dry, hanging over the railing. It wasn't there an hour before we had a delegation at our door of angry elderly residents. They weren't one bit nice about it even after we immediately apologised, took down the offending item and explained that we were unaware of the regulation. Later we got an apologetic call from our landlord who said he was ringing because he'd received a complaint about us.

>>stormd+(OP)
I'm always curious what is it about old people that make some behave in this way? Is it the way people used to be raised, cognitive decline, or simple nothing better to do? I also notice it in the comment's section where older people tend to be far less forgiving of discretions than younger people.

>>potbel+eo
Some people are just rude and you see it in all ages.

Older people probably have an expectation that you have read and understood the rules as well

>>potbel+eo
My attempt:

Old people are frail. The world appears frail to them. And as you age, the flaws of the world become more apparent, and the world appears even more like it is hanging on an edge.

Of course most people also have rosy glasses about their good old days, where people followed the law and things just worked.

So old people think adhering to rules and avoiding chaos is what kept everything from falling apart.

Also, as you get older, your routine becomes everything, as your neuroplasticity decreases and ability to deal with change. Rules keep things the same.

EDIT:

Also, one of my favorite explanations of popular vs nerd people in high school: popular kids spend all their free time being popular. Nerds work on school and other things.

In that vein, old people don't really have anything to do other than be nosy. They sleep less, are retired, and living off social security means "hanging around where you're at and not doing much".

They are perversely like teenagers.

>>s1arti+Ws
Life was extremely rigid not that long ago. People knew their place and did not break the rules.

I am not sure if this is better or worse than my idiot downstairs neighbors that would party every weekend til 3am with zero regard for any of their neighbors. Then they are banging on the ceiling at 4pm on a Wednesday because we were moving furniture around for 15 minutes.

>>AtlasB+EB
Also the first ten times you ask someone to stop doing something, you may be polite.

It's harder the fifty-five thousandth time, and that seeps into everything you do.

Also the old people who give absolutely zero shits; those you don't hear from.

>>potbel+eo
It's not just old people. It's idle people. If you aren't focusing most of your attention on something outward in your life, you're going to hyper-focus inwardly and let tiny things eat at you all day.

>>potbel+eo
The older you get the more the world changes around you, that rate of change is also increasing. Simultaneously your ability to adapt is diminishing.

It's easy to imagine elderly people clinging desperately to what little resistance to change they have power over. It's motivated by a mix of fear and spite for a world they no longer understand. They may not be able to prevent other races from moving in next door, but remove that mat from the handrail, and stay off the lawn!

>>potbel+eo
Retired people have lots of free time.

>>potbel+eo
> I'm always curious what is it about old people that make some behave in this way?

It should also be noted that you don't notice the nice old people who leave you alone because they're not in your face complaining. (A type of availability bias?)

>>supert+Y41
This is why they're the largest voting bloc.

>>sys_64+TJ1
And why their voting preferences can be summarized as 'complaining'

>>93po+QT
That makes sense. It sounds like people on the internet honestly. Hyper focusing on inconsequential things just to have a reason to get at others

>>potbel+eo
Territorial behavior. It happens all the time between different groups of people

>>pengar+r31
I'm 40 and the older I get, the less patience I have. I see it for example with my love of Linux. Back in my 20s I loved to fiddle for hours to get things to work. Nowadays I dont have the patience for bullshit and spending time in small things.

I can only imagine how I'll be in another 40 years.

>>bel_ma+uJ
I disagree there was far less rigidness to life than today. People broke way more rules back then. Laws weren't taken as seriously. You could break many laws and cops would let you off the hook easily if you were nice. Now days life is very strict and there is zero room for error if you make a mistake. You can screw up once you won't get another chance in today's world. Especially with cancel culture.

Everyday the country is developing new useless laws to control people. Soon there will be only one set way to live and thats it because all laws and rules will be written.