In fact, I need to add something to my last point that is of great importance.. In our society, driving a car is indeed a privilege under the law.. However when is the last time someone told you that if you don't stop to let someone out the a side street when you have the Right of Way" under the law, that you are being "discourteous, & hurting the reputation of drivers everywhere? "
I never hear that.. That kind of pressure is only put on Gun owners these days, because of political correctness! Yet AAA estimates there are about 1,200 road rage related deaths a year in this country..
http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/ ... n=agdrtext
Nobody is running around as far as I can tell though, taking people to task for chucking each other the finger on the road... I saw that happen just a couple days ago..
My point is not that people shouldn't be polite.. If any of you drove around with me, or hung around with me all the time, I guarantee that you would find that I am polite to people 99% of the time.
My point here is that perceptions, morality, congeniality are all apart from the law of the land, & that's because Mind Policing is a Pandoras Box.. Our founding father's new that, & that's why they protected free speech as the first order of business..
I also don't like overbearing undercover cops that hang around in Movie theaters either, & I'm not going to be polite to any cop who refuses to show identification, & threatens me verbally. And if he makes a move on me without showing identification, he may even get physically harmed, because I'm not required to take him at his word, & he has no authority over me if I have done nothing wrong. Furthermore, if he uses unnecessary physical force on me, he may be injured as well.. That is not an act of impoliteness, or decadence, that is an act of self preservation, & one of my inalienable rights. "Self Protection". You have to keep in mind, that I've never been in a physical confrontation with any police officer, though I've been harassed by about 6 in my life for no reason... If I was always walking around causing trouble, I would have a record by now, & be in fights all of the time. That's not the case though. The case is, that I'm not willing to let people whittle my rights away incrementally, for the sake of being cordial, or making people feel all fuzzy inside..