Giving the Benefit of the Doubt

Just be like Bob and chill out.

Just be like Bob and chill out.

If you read a lot of etiquette columns and websites like I do, you probably enjoy seeing all the terrible etiquette faux pas people commit and cringing.

However, you might start to notice a creep of people automatically jumping to the worst conclusion- that the people committing the faux pas are boors who are acting incorrectly out of spite to purposefully hurt or offend the innocent person who is writing into the advice column.

I think that it is important to remember that a lot of etiquette blunders are committed out of ignorance rather than purposeful spite and that since a part of etiquette means not countering rudeness with more rudeness, we need to give the benefit of the doubt and just roll with things more. Unless someone repeatedly does that same thing after being told that their actions are hurtful.

 

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2 thoughts on “Giving the Benefit of the Doubt

  1. You could mean “bores,” but I wondered if you meant “boors” instead.

    This feels like a rude comment to leave on a post like this one, but I promise I’m commenting only out of a spirit of helpfulness that’s hard to resist as an English teacher and editor!

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