3/21/2026 at 6:16:50 PM
Is this really a thing?!? Blasting the others with unwanted noise.I never been in a flight, or train across Europe where passengers showed just lack of respect for the others.
The only ones pumping anything loud, on trains or busses, usually get quickly pointed down by other passengers, personal or security.
Ah, and then there are the rebellious kids or gangs, as the other exception, which usually don't take flights anyway.
by pjmlp
3/21/2026 at 6:41:00 PM
I am astonished how many people now use speakerphone as their default interaction. On subway, go train, in grocery stores, on the streets, sometimes even in the office, they blast their conversations with zero care.And so yes, I've definitely seen and experienced people watching inane tiktoks on speaker in subway or bus or airplane. It's the epitome of complete lack of empathy or self awareness to me, but I guess that's the way culture is going.
by NikolaNovak
3/21/2026 at 9:39:32 PM
I'm curious what people think of people who use their speakerphone in public, but have the volume set low enough and themselves speak low enough that the conversation is no louder than an in person conversation would be.Still annoying?
If so, is the problem usually the loudness of the speakerphone, or the loudness of the person who is there? I've noticed some people talk louder when on speakerphone than when on regular phone (and some people talk louder on regular phone than when talking to someone in person).
Back before mobile phones there was a tendency for people to talk louder on the phone at first, but after being reminded a few times that just because the other person is far away doesn't mean you have to shout most people learned to talk at normal volume.
I wonder if loud talkers don't get that feedback now? With old phone handsets there was pretty much only one position for them, so the mic was about the same distance from the mouth for all speakers. Talk to loud and it would be annoying on the receiving end.
But with modern phones there are a variety of positions people hold them in, which can lead to quite different mic positions. My understanding is that they do a lot more automatic gain control and other processing to try to keep the level the same despite all those different positions. Perhaps this means that the person on the other end doesn't know you are talking loud and so unless someone on your end tells you to keep it down you might never realize you are a loud phone talker.
by tzs
3/21/2026 at 10:37:04 PM
> Still annoying?Naturally it is extremely rude. If two people have a conversation in public both pay attention to the surroundings and feedback to change their volume tone and topics. If you put someone on speaker without introducing everyone present then they should hang up on you.
by follie
3/22/2026 at 2:55:02 PM
> If you put someone on speaker without introducing everyone present then they should hang up on you.This is silly. Just tell the person you are talking to that they are on speaker.
Assuming the party on the phone has been informed and the volume is not excessive, having a conversation on speaker is equivalent to having a physical conversation in person.
by RS-232
3/21/2026 at 6:44:00 PM
Phone makers deleted the speaker is the ‘courage’ I want.by lostlogin
3/21/2026 at 7:17:15 PM
There are times you need speaker-phone mode. My parents almost always turn on speaker-phone when they call me because they both want to be part of the conversation. I don't think they will ever take a plane or a bus trip in their lives so their speaker-phone isn't going to hurt anyone.by fhdkweig
3/21/2026 at 9:55:17 PM
Speaker phone is probably necessary nowadays since many people only have a smartphone.With the old phones you could reasonably tilt your head and raise your shoulder to hold the handset in place so you could do something that required two hands while talking/listening, like looking up something in a book or taking notes.
Smartphones are smaller than the old handsets and much flatter. I can pinch mine between my shoulder and head but I've got to raise my should pretty high and do some other contortions to get my head tilted enough making it much more awkward to do anything with my hands. Also that phone is small enough that it is pretty well covered in that position by the side of my face and my shoulder, so I'm not sure the mic could pick up much.
by tzs
3/22/2026 at 1:28:10 AM
Can't you just hold it with your hand?by jghn
3/22/2026 at 3:02:06 AM
Sometimes you need both hands for something else while on the phone.Landline telephones mostly had handsets that looked like the top photo here [1]. When held with a hand they were positioned as shown in the second photo there.
Because of its thickness and length you only had to tilt your head and/or raise you should a little to hold it hands free with the speaker end right at the ear and the mic end still near the mouth.
If you were taking a call while standing for example and needed to write something down in a notebook that was no problem.
by tzs
3/22/2026 at 4:13:00 AM
Sure. At home. And yes, I'm old enough to have walked around with a phone tucked in my neck.But if you're in public, and using a smartphone, headphones are always an option. There s absolutely no reason why anyone needs to use speakerphone in public if they're just one person.
by jghn
3/21/2026 at 7:42:52 PM
I need speakerphone when I'm home alone and attempting to be on a phone call while doing other things. Some of those calls are even about instructing me to look for something, so it necessitates me to be moving about. Speakerphone is an incredibly useful utility.Don't take functionality away because of a few bad actors. That'd be like getting rid of drones because a few people are assholes.
Put rules in place to correct the bad behavior. Kicking them off planes seems fair.
by echelon
3/21/2026 at 7:59:09 PM
I've seen it everywhere except airplanes. I don't recall ever seeing it on planes. How often have you seen that? Do passengers or flight attendants do anything? How does the person respond?by dataflow
3/21/2026 at 8:09:12 PM
I had it happen to me, on a long-haul flight, in business class. I was shocked. I stood up to look at the guy after no-one did anything.I told him that phone speakers "make me gassy" and then he turned it off.
by cromulent
3/21/2026 at 8:15:08 PM
You’re an every day hero. Thank you!by thedougd
3/21/2026 at 8:18:00 PM
Thanks mate. If he can assault my ears, I can assault his nose, right. Or threaten to ;)by cromulent
3/21/2026 at 10:01:01 PM
Can you follow through on that? I don’t really know how I would assault someone’s nose on command. Would appreciate some tips.by pfannkuchen
3/21/2026 at 9:22:34 PM
Kids playing games is the truly annoying one. You feel terrible saying anything but it’s also some of the most annoying sounds.by etrautmann
3/22/2026 at 11:31:01 AM
Totally... unlike watching a movie, games keep them addicted. I have experienced situations where even toddlers played for 5 hours straight... I couldn't even muster the courage to ask them to lower their volume :-)by born2web
3/21/2026 at 10:15:06 PM
Agreed, but not on a plane.by pjmlp
3/21/2026 at 6:19:07 PM
In America, a small number of people derive pleasure from being disruptive to everybody, and blasting music on public transit with captive audiences is a very "traditional" way of fucking with people and expressing your broad contempt for their society. I'd estimate that maybe one in five times you get on a city bus in America, you'll encounter somebody like this.Very rarely does anybody call them out or otherwise try to reign it in, because you're as likely as not to be physically attacked and in America, the odds of bystanders coming to your rescue are... Not zero, but not great.
by mikkupikku
3/21/2026 at 6:36:55 PM
Pretty sure on planes this is more ignorance than malice. It’s self absorbed people that are too selfish to consider someone else might not want to hear what they’re watching, rather than some deliberate anti society thing.Regardless, no punishment is too harsh, this should be considered the equivalent of lighting up a cigarette on a plane.
by andy99
3/21/2026 at 6:50:26 PM
Another angle is kids who have been given a tablet as a pacifier. Their parents are often on autopilot, having checked out months or years earlier.On topic (and discussed already on HN): https://github.com/Pankajtanwarbanna/stfu
by sowbug
3/22/2026 at 12:49:49 PM
discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649142by password4321
3/21/2026 at 7:05:00 PM
I'm not a fan of the tablet as a pacifier approach but it's not my business. What is my business is when the parents do so without providing a way for the child to indulge without annoying everybody else. I consider that to be absolutely unacceptable in that if they can afford a tablet they can afford cheap headphones.by pstuart
3/21/2026 at 9:44:06 PM
Yes, only the open-air noise-making kind (per the article topic). Don't care what the rectangle is as long as we can't hear it.by sowbug
3/21/2026 at 7:21:38 PM
When young children are on airplanes you cheat in whatever way you can.by mothballed
3/21/2026 at 7:42:47 PM
Perhaps people can cheat while still giving them headphones or turning devices on silent mode?by jghn
3/21/2026 at 9:24:22 PM
I have a three year old and would still never subject others to tablet noise. Yes they’re the literal worst to fly with but don’t export your misery to others.by etrautmann
3/21/2026 at 7:37:31 PM
Tell me you don’t have kids without telling me you don’t have kidsby zeroonetwothree
3/21/2026 at 7:54:41 PM
I’ve brought a tablet on airplanes to watch movies with kids on long flights, but we bring headphones. Flights are the only time we do this.There is nothing about a tablet or a flight that requires letting them blast audio at full volume. It’s not even a good experience.
by Aurornis
3/21/2026 at 9:32:52 PM
That's rather defeatist. Surely you believe there are other options.We traveled with a single Nexus 7 and one pair of headphones shared by three kids. Having to take turns taught them to be OK with having entertainment, being a spectator, or being bored. And they understood that if we ever heard it, they'd all have to be bored for a while.
by sowbug
3/21/2026 at 6:39:32 PM
The idea someone doesn’t know they bothering everyone around them is absurd. It is 100% malice.by e40
3/21/2026 at 6:47:39 PM
I don’t know if anyone remembers the movie Inside Man where at the beginning they are waiting in line at the bank and the woman is having a loud conversation on her phone and the guard comes and tells here to keep it down. It’s this kind of person that I see not using speakers (when the movie was made I don’t think they contemplated humanity could sink that low), at best it’s entitlement, but I still think in most cases it boils down to not thinking about others vs actively trying to annoy them.by andy99
3/21/2026 at 6:47:41 PM
I’m sure it is, much of the time. But I also believe many people are just completely self absorbed and devoid of empathy.by y1n0
3/21/2026 at 7:10:36 PM
I am self-absorbed and devoid of empathy but it is still easy to logically deduce that other people don't want to hear my games, videos, or phone calls.by plagiarist
3/21/2026 at 7:58:07 PM
Being devoid of empathy would mean you may realize that people don't want to hear your shit, but you wouldn't care what other people wantby bluefirebrand
3/21/2026 at 7:33:33 PM
Hanlon's razor applies. Yes, some people have a bad case of the main character syndrome simply because nobody has ever called them out on it.by Sharlin
3/21/2026 at 7:38:30 PM
Usually they have been called out on it a time or two. They are often signaling that if you want to stop them, you'll have to use violence, and look -- no one or almost no one is willing to do that.There are a couple of us who have actually seen someone call them out that are warning folks here what commonly happens. I saw someone get attacked with a knife, another commenter here had a gun pulled on him when they asked them to stop. It isn't about the loud music itself, it's that they're openly saying they are king shit, that no one is willing to challenge them, and broadcasting their eagerness to deliver violence upon anyone that might.
The other side of this is that they often do it on places you can't easily escape, like a train car with stops only every 5 minutes. This gives them a very long time to go to town on anyone that might challenges them. Something I've seen with my own eyes when they were asked to tone down the music.
by mothballed
3/21/2026 at 7:46:25 PM
> They are often signaling that if you want to stop them, you'll have to use violenceI'm well aware of the types you're talking about, but in my experience this has largely changed. It used to be that these sorts were the most common offenders. But now it's just, well, everyone and anyone. For instance I don't think the little, old lady in front of me on the bus the other day was challenging people to violence.
by jghn
3/21/2026 at 7:57:37 PM
I think we're talking about two different groups of people. The ones I mean don't look dangerous, just self-absorbed. The ones you mean I don't have much experience of, they're not common around here. And they're certainly not common on airplanes.by Sharlin
3/21/2026 at 8:07:20 PM
> I saw someone get attacked with a knife, another commenter here had a gun pulled on himI though the discussion here was about people not using their headphones on airplanes.
by andy99
3/21/2026 at 7:00:09 PM
A lot of people don’t get a lot of things; you know the adage about stupidity being a more likely cause than malice. Just last week I had to explain to a grown adult why spitting on the sauna floor was disgusting and rude to the other gym members. He was shocked.by Fezzik
3/21/2026 at 6:54:36 PM
It's apathyby dymk
3/21/2026 at 7:18:46 PM
I experienced this in real life and this creature was unable to understand the bus driver telling her to stop. It's like they didn't understand English nor social signals. To me it seemed to stem from a lack of intelligence than from intentionally being malicious.by charcircuit
3/21/2026 at 7:48:12 PM
They understand English. They just don't want to stop doing what they want to do. This is a quality that they share with everyone else on the planet by definition, but they think they're more important than other people.There are angry people playing dominance games on one hand, and on the other people who simply don't care what anybody else wants and will do what they can get away with. There's no difference in intelligence between the two, but only the first type can actually be reasoned with. The second type will only pretend to be reasonable until the person that they're intimidated by leaves the room.
Everybody says "social cues," but as you said, the people who "don't get social cues" also don't seem to "get" direct requests or orders.
by pessimizer
3/21/2026 at 7:06:15 PM
Sorry to disagree -- stupidity and self-centeredness have a plan in that too.by pstuart
3/21/2026 at 8:00:46 PM
> no punishment is too harsh, this should be considered the equivalent of lighting up a cigarette on a plane.Okay this is ridiculous. One is a fire hazard and the other is not. Do you really need the hyperbole here?
by dataflow
3/21/2026 at 11:44:41 PM
Are you aware that smoking used to be allowed on planes? We didn't stop allowing it because of a rash of airplane fires either.by 0xffff2
3/22/2026 at 3:24:05 AM
Yes, I'm fully aware. And it is emphatically irrelevant. It's kind of ridiculous to suggest the original motivations for the rule somehow render the associated risks on people's safety, lives, and properties permanently ineligible for consideration.by dataflow
3/22/2026 at 3:15:03 PM
Japanese pilots still smoke every flightby eudamoniac
3/21/2026 at 8:40:49 PM
The lack of cigarettes on a plane isn't due to the fire hazard.by BenjiWiebe
3/21/2026 at 6:34:04 PM
I don't think I'd have the wherewithal to jump in and do something if I were a bystander. I'm not the sort to throw hands, I don't carry, and these disruptive types are already a bit feral.I'm not sure it's contempt they're expressing, or if they're expressing anything at all. There really are people who enjoy and defend it, too; "it's just a guy playing music, mind your own business." Truly alien.
by hallole
3/21/2026 at 6:36:28 PM
My business includes my ears. If you don't want me in your business, keep your business to your ears.by AnimalMuppet
3/21/2026 at 6:51:28 PM
I've found that looking the person in the eye and giving a quick "hey, forget your headphones?" sometimes does the trick, and has yet to start a fight. Everyone has to act in ways they are comfortable with - but mass inaction is what creates space for this shitty behavior in the first place.by standardUser
3/21/2026 at 6:55:15 PM
I did this on a bus and had a gun pulled on me, so your mileage may varyby dymk
3/21/2026 at 7:14:13 PM
Yes exactly. If they are blasting ethnic music while in an ethnic hood it is usually because they are repping their hood, and sometimes in a way to intentionally bait someone to say something. If you ask them to stop they will pretend it is a challenge on their hood/race (no matter that they will play it so loud everyone's ears are splitting and all they want is not to get hearing damage). I watched a guy pull out a knife and start slashing as soon as he was asked to stop.If you ask such person to stop it is implied they expect you to back that up with violence and you've already consented to a battle.
by mothballed
3/21/2026 at 7:49:17 PM
>you've already consented to a battle.More like you've already admitted cowardice, which makes you fair game. If it's the music that upsets you, come at me with louder speakers!
by balamatom
3/21/2026 at 6:49:04 PM
My go-to technique has been to offer the offender a pair of headphones, saying something to insinuate that they must forgotten theirs or be too poor to afford them. Most of the time they say “oh I have headphones!” and then realize that they’ve outed themselves. (I stockpile the free headphones from gyms or airplanes, or get the $2 ones from AliExpress)by wanderingstan
3/21/2026 at 9:12:22 PM
But on a plane they'll have already been asked by a flight attendant either by the time the plane takes off, or as soon as it stops climbing. So clearly this isn't working on the people this rule targets. In fact I think this rule is actually the ideal response from the airline and should be adopted everywhere, as anyone who is so unconcerned with the wellbeing of others as to play audio on their device without headphones shouldn't be allowed to fly, as they're obviously happy to fuck up everyone's day, and won't follow instructions.by CamJN
3/21/2026 at 7:23:27 PM
Bluetooth headphones too?This is actually a really good response though. Because the act of having a device blaring demonstrates contempt for everyone one around them. It's hard to act in a hateful way to someone who just offered you something for free.
by oidar
3/21/2026 at 8:54:47 PM
Exactly. To refuse the “gift” is an explicit statement of “I know I could do this silently but I want to bother everyone around me.”by wanderingstan
3/21/2026 at 7:52:27 PM
Big "Kill them with kindness" energy.by boxedemp
3/21/2026 at 6:32:18 PM
Happens elsewhere too. Can be an issue in Dutch trainsby CalRobert
3/21/2026 at 8:20:05 PM
It happenes in Dutch trains, but it's not the Dutch doing this.by zulux
3/21/2026 at 6:22:21 PM
20%? That's a bit insane. This does happen in Europe but is heavily looked down up on and usually quickly corrected.On the other hand I did get a chewing out from an older guy for having a conversation with friends on a train once, so some people take it perhaps a bit too serious.
by LaurensBER
3/21/2026 at 6:24:38 PM
It’s very much a thing on US public transit, with the added negative bonus that no one ever confronts the person doing it, because chances are they’re either crazy, armed, or both.by keiferski
3/21/2026 at 7:53:05 PM
Happens in Canada too. Calling them out can be dangerous, people have been injured.by boxedemp
3/21/2026 at 7:22:14 PM
I can guarantee you that's not only America's problem.by baal80spam
3/21/2026 at 6:41:47 PM
Sure, but also you might be on a city bus for... half an hour? It's not pleasant to have someone blast noise but it's nothing like a multi-hour flight. Why bother?by striking
3/21/2026 at 6:51:02 PM
I mean, you are painting it as some moralistic judgement, but if you’re asking me for on one hand listening to some annoying music, and on the other hand having some chance (however slight) of bodily injury, knife wound, or whatever… I know which one I am going to choose.by johnfn
3/21/2026 at 6:54:21 PM
> and in America, the odds of bystanders coming to your rescue are... Not zero, but not greatYes, because there's been a recent push to more heavily punish good Samaritans than perpetrators. When good men get metaphorically crucified for helping, they stop helping.
If that seems like a common sense outcome of such policies, you're right. But as we've seen time and again, common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden.
by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS
3/21/2026 at 6:20:54 PM
I’ve absolutely seen this nonsense in the UK.by JumpCrisscross
3/21/2026 at 6:24:14 PM
Doesn't surprise me, but I'm only speaking from my experience in America.by mikkupikku
3/21/2026 at 6:30:40 PM
Yup. Eg guys getting on Thameslink services in south London, walking right up to the area behind the driver's cab and and start creating a disturbance. Driver stops the train and has a go at them if he's feeling in the mood...by gib444
3/21/2026 at 6:26:25 PM
>is a very "traditional" way of fucking with people and expressing your broad contempt for their society.Motivated in large part as a response to society saying fuck them. I'm not defending assholes being assholes, but I think what we have been seeing in the US over the last 5 or 10 years is classic collapse of the social contract stuff. The less a society cares about its people the less its people will care about the rest of society.
by slg
3/21/2026 at 6:31:58 PM
I get what you're saying, but blasting music on buses has been a thing since boom-boxes were invented, it's nothing new. I am also not inclined to blame systems instead of individuals because most people with the same background of injustice will choose to respond to that injustice by being better than it. It's only a very small number of people being disruptive like this, while the number of people with fair and understandable grievances against society is massive.by mikkupikku
3/21/2026 at 6:44:25 PM
It was referenced in the 1986 Star Trek movie -Spock incapacitates a guy after he refuses to turn down his stereo.by 3eb7988a1663
3/21/2026 at 7:47:34 PM
He returned in Picard (notice his reaction with his neck). https://youtu.be/r6wDR6heQcUWhat I did not know is that he was one of the producers for Voyage Home. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0857130/
by shagie
3/22/2026 at 12:20:27 AM
Digging more into this... because why not... it appears that he (Kirk Thatcher) also wrote the song and there's a nice bit of real life lore in the Wired article.https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/I_Hate_You
> According to the movie credits, the song was performed by the obscure band Edge of Etiquette. (Edge of Etiquette was, indeed, so obscure that it is rather difficult to find anything more about them than their having performed this particular song.) The punk on the bus who flipped Kirk "the bird" was played by Star Trek IV associate producer Kirk Thatcher. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 354, Edge of Etiquette was a pseudonym for Thatcher.
> Thatcher also wrote the lyrics for the song to music written by Mark Mangini. A game card, from the Star Trek Customizable Card Game released by Decipher, excerpted the lyrics of the song. Thatcher had complained that the new wave music previously considered would not have been an accurate representation of what a 1980s punk would listen to, and offered to write "I Hate You" instead.
This links to https://www.wired.com/2016/09/punk-star-trek-iv-vulcan-nerve... ( https://web.archive.org/web/20161222223425/https://www.wired... ... ghads, their "you must log in" blocker even worked through the wayback machine ... use reader mode)
> But portraying “Punk on the Bus” would turn out to be Thatcher’s most lasting contribution to The Voyage Home. He and Nimoy had grown chummy during filming, so when the filmmakers were looking to cast the punk, Thatcher lobbied the director to get the role. “I told him, ‘Look, I used to have a mohawk, and I’ll dress the part—you won’t recognize me,'” Thatcher says. “Leonard said, ‘Huh, really,’ in that deep, basso profondo way. I couldn’t tell if he thought it was a stupid idea.”
> ...
> The song itself came later. Paramount Pictures had a music-licensing deal that gave it to access to songs by new-wave artists like Duran Duran, but none of those bands seemed like a good fit for Thatcher’s snarling character. “I said, ‘Leonard, that’s not punk. I could write you a punk song and it will cost you nothing. I’ll do it for [a few hundred dollars],'” says Thatcher. He wrote out the nihilistic lyrics, which he brought to his friend (and future Mad Max: Fury Road Oscar winner) Mark Mangini, a sound editor who came up with the song’s snotty, simple guitar riff. Thatcher himself sang vocals, and the whole tune was recorded on a weekend night, in a hallway that would provide the necessarily shitty sound.
> “My idea of punk at the time was the Dead Kennedys, Germs, Black Flag—real West Coast hardcore punk, that real raw sound,” Thatcher says. “I also wanted a Sex Pistols ‘God Save the Queen’ vibe, which is why I did the British accent.”
> As for Nimoy’s response? “He came by, heard it, and said, ‘OK. That’s very punk.'”
by shagie
3/21/2026 at 6:41:53 PM
>I get what you're saying, but blasting music on buses has been a thing since boom-boxes were invented, it's nothing new.Yes, because people have always felt like outsiders in relation to society. My point was that this sort of public misbehaving is getting worse because social cohesion is getting even worse. Not everyone with grievances against society will respond this way, but as more people have grievances against society, more people will respond in a manner like this.
by slg
3/21/2026 at 7:17:25 PM
[dead]by 3842056935870
3/21/2026 at 6:56:26 PM
It is - there are three groups of people that do this generally the completely self absorbed, people from places where it’s culturally acceptable, and people that like the feeling of empowerment that comes from inconveniencing others (the same people that will walk out into traffic with no light / crosswalk)by balderdash
3/21/2026 at 6:59:34 PM
How is walking over a road without a light inconveniencing anyone? I’ll cross the road when it’s clear. I don’t blast music in public places though.by callamdelaney
3/21/2026 at 7:02:39 PM
> How is walking over a road without a light inconveniencing anyone?They said “walk out into traffic.” That’s rude. You should wait for a signal or a break in the flow so nobody has to brake for you.
by JumpCrisscross
3/21/2026 at 7:36:47 PM
I never see this being an issue. On the other hand I often see cars blast by stop signs without stopping or ignore marked crosswalks with passengers inside.No wonder pedestrian deaths are up so much the past few years
by zeroonetwothree
3/21/2026 at 8:00:07 PM
Walking into traffic in an undesignated crossing is rude (and illegal). Likewise with trying to cross at an intersection when traffic has the green light.But when there’s a designated crossing area, it’s the responsibility of traffic to stop. Pedestrians should not stand and wait at the intersection for a break in traffic because it’s a confusing signal to drivers. If you’re standing at a designated crosswalk you need to be either signaling your intent to cross or moving away from the crosswalk
by Aurornis
3/21/2026 at 7:07:27 PM
Getting pedantic now but depending on the circumstances the traffic is supposed to have stopped for you.Assuming there is no paint on the road an (unmarked) crosswalk may still exist [1] and drivers are supposed to yield to a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk [2].
[1]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....
[2]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
by lesuorac
3/21/2026 at 7:24:10 PM
Getting more pedantic, less than 1pct of the population is in California.Pretty clear parent meant people who cross against the light / mid-block when there is a crossing 50ft away / stepping in front of the one car on the road when they could look up for one second and step out behind that car etc. in other words the people who put off 'main character' vibes.
by gregatragenet3
3/21/2026 at 7:37:21 PM
[dead]by smohare
3/21/2026 at 7:17:16 PM
Getting pedantic here, "no light / crosswalk" means no crosswalk, painted or not.by sheiyei
3/22/2026 at 1:10:49 AM
Except it doesn't.Legally there is a crosswalk regardless of if it's painted or not see [1]. I get this wasn't on the drivers test but it's still in the law.
There were some complaints about not everybody living in California. It's a law in your state too; I'm not going to find it for you.
[1]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
by lesuorac
3/21/2026 at 7:14:34 PM
It’s going over your head. He’s talking about certain people.by Spooky23
3/21/2026 at 7:18:02 PM
Depending on where you live it may not really be relatable to you, but living in NYC -- there are people that will intentionally jay walk on a green light and even _stare you down_ knowing that you will stop and let them pass.People jay walk when there's no traffic all the time, that's totally fine. This is a totally different act of passive aggression.
by schrodinger
3/21/2026 at 7:33:34 PM
> Depending on where you live it may not really be relatable to you, but living in NYC -- there are people that will intentionally jay walk on a green light and even _stare you down_ knowing that you will stop and let them pass.This is the speed walking equivalent of picking up pennies in front of a steam roller. Saves a min here and then until you pay for it big time.
by koolba
3/21/2026 at 7:32:50 PM
[dead]by smohare
3/21/2026 at 7:16:39 PM
Last time I flew my family was very early to the gate; it was me, my wife, my 5 and 3 year old girls, and a very elderly lady in a wheelchair who was blasting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” from her phone speakers.by jraines
3/21/2026 at 6:36:55 PM
From what I can tell, if no rule is enforced, about 2-5% of people think it's totally normal to scroll tiktok or instagram at full volume in public.So on a crowded bus you've normally got 1 or 2. Behavior is actually much better on airplanes, usually (maybe 1-2 in ~150 passenger plane), and I have never seen someone who did not silence their phone after being asked politely by the attendant.
by verall
3/21/2026 at 6:29:23 PM
I've experienced it all over Europe. Trains with reserved seats tend to have a separate "silent car" for this reason.by Findecanor
3/21/2026 at 8:01:09 PM
Agree. It’s funny to see comments trying to act like this never happens in Europe, only America.by Aurornis
3/21/2026 at 6:27:07 PM
That's because in Europe certain demographics don't catch many planes or trains. But they do catch the tube or the bus, so get on one of those and enjoy the experience.by nslsm
3/21/2026 at 7:06:35 PM
Lol was wondering how long I would have to scroll before someone pointed out the obvious. People talking about the "collapse of the societal contract", like I wonder how that happened....by DaSHacka
3/21/2026 at 10:23:51 PM
Are there some dog whistles in your comment and its parent? If not then could you restate your point more clearly, it’s not immediately apparent what you’re talking about.by iron_albatross
3/21/2026 at 7:57:07 PM
> I never been in a flight, or train across Europe where passengers showed just lack of respect for the others.In my European travels I’ve definitely seen it. It depends entirely on the region. Europe is a big place. I’ve encountered it in Asian countries too. Again, Asia is huge and diverse.
Not coincidentally, it’s the same in the United States. I’ve never seen this on the local commuter train with people traveling to and from work. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it on a flight (flight attendants did intervene and request they stop).
Let’s not try to make this into another “America bad” topic because this is not a uniquely American problem.
by Aurornis
3/21/2026 at 7:28:18 PM
I was on a 2 hour flight this week. The guy in front of me listened to a political podcast on speaker that was loud enough it cut through my noise cancelling earbuds. There was absolutely no chance I was risking my safety calling him out on it in that scenario.> usually get quickly pointed down by other passengers, personnel or security
I’ve never, not once, heard a member of staff ask someone to use headphones on transport.
by maccard
3/21/2026 at 6:41:26 PM
It's a thing everywhere except very well-behaved places/countries. This means it's almost everywhere.The last time I had an uncle blast his Doujin feed at full volume next to me, I suggested he lower the volume, he didn't care, so I blasted my own feed at louder volume. He got it then. Sadly people a few rows back did the same on the next train...
by halapro
3/22/2026 at 2:51:37 AM
Yes, at least in my experience on flights in the USA. It’s very rare but it does happen. I was lucky one time that the person doing it sat next to me and I politely asked them to use headphones and no fuss was had.by hysan
3/21/2026 at 9:29:14 PM
I have been in flights, elevators (not joking), coffee shops where people were listening to music or were on phone calls, on speaker.There are some weirdos amongst us. There were a handful of reports of people singing religious music, in planes while on flight. I haven’t had the pleasure of listening to this, thankfully
by akudha
3/21/2026 at 7:08:30 PM
Very much a thing and one of the many reasons I'm becoming more of a recluse, shared public spaces are becoming rather unpleasant. Mostly in the US and LatAm, a fair amount in the UK, not so much in Germany.by cjbgkagh
3/21/2026 at 7:27:56 PM
There are fewer and fewer shared public spaces every year anyway. It feels like everything is getting taken over by franchises that want to maximize customer throughput.by plagiarist
3/21/2026 at 7:51:24 PM
I am already embarassed when my headphone jack slips and everyone can hear a targeted ad putting me on blast. To do so intentionally never occured to me. It would be mortifying.by arikrahman
3/21/2026 at 7:40:50 PM
I can't remember the last time I've been on a flight, train, or bus where there wasn't at least one person playing audio of some sort without headphones.by jghn
3/22/2026 at 1:53:18 AM
Big time!I fly every week. There's always ONE F**ING GUY who needs to have Instagram or TikTok going at full blast.
by nunez
3/22/2026 at 9:37:48 AM
It never used to happen in the UK but now people do it every day on tubes and trains. I had to move seats twice last week due to these assholes blasting their stuff out.I don't know what changed exactly. It was definitely seen as antisocial behaviour in the past. I'll just leave this clip here of Spock dealing with a noisy punk on a bus.
by MattPalmer1086
3/21/2026 at 7:45:39 PM
On planes I've mostly seen it with people playing stuff for very young children.I've heard a lot of Cocomelon crap at full volume on planes because I guess parents don't want to have their kids use headphones. I sort of understand it but at the same time I also think it's pretty inconsiderate for the rest of the people on the flight who likely do not want to listen to their kid's awful YouTube show.
In the NYC subway I've seen dozens of people who will blast their terrible music very loudly with a bluetooth speaker. These are full-grown adults. I don't know why they do that, I suspect it would sound better on the train with headphones. Maybe it's some form of evangelism, where they think the music is utterly fantastic that everyone should listen to it.
by tombert
3/21/2026 at 7:47:32 PM
Usually it's because the kid won't wear headphones. Not really an excuse, but a lot of the time the kid is just going to do what they want. What the parents should do in that situation is make them watch without sound, but that's harder than the alternative, so they just do whatever.by _se
3/21/2026 at 7:53:26 PM
Or the parent should just take the phone away! If the kid won't listen to it quietly then they should do that thing that I believe is called "parenting". Bring a picture book or something for them if they need to be entertained without the phone.This was done by my parents when I was a young kid. I wouldn't turn the volume down on my Game Boy on a flight, so my parents took it away from me until I promised to keep the volume down, which I did after that.
by tombert
3/21/2026 at 9:24:08 PM
I've been on a flight where a set of parents took away their child's tablet, not for being noisy but as punishment for some other bad behaviour. What resulted was 6 hours of a child screaming on an 8 hour flight. Aside from wanting to punt the little shit out the door, I was almost impressed at the kid not giving up after a few minutes, and then hours when nothing changed.by CamJN
3/21/2026 at 10:55:41 PM
I still think that's less actively inconsiderate than Cocomelon at full volume. At some level they can't control the kid crying but they can control the volume which their kid's media runs at.by tombert
3/21/2026 at 6:58:54 PM
My experience is the opposite. People blast music or other sounds on flights all the time. In Europe it's also very common to smoke in public, including beaches, restaurants, areas around building entrances. Literring is also very common.Even Switzerland is dirty because cigarette buts are everywhere. It's just that some % of the population are inconsiderate assholes and only heavy enforcement works vs than. Unfortunately this is something our current society is not willing to do.
by bluecalm
3/21/2026 at 7:09:28 PM
it's usually some guy on the neighbouring table at McDonald'sby wolfi1
3/21/2026 at 6:21:01 PM
I've definitely experienced this on public transit in cities in several different countries here in Europe. It's not an everyday experience, but it definitely happens.by gspr
3/21/2026 at 6:24:57 PM
Yes, but that isn't a flight.by pjmlp
3/21/2026 at 7:39:42 PM
But you said people on busses and trains doing this get shut down. My experience is they don't.by gspr
3/22/2026 at 2:42:21 AM
It's a problem everywhere. People on the golf course walk around with bluetooth speakers audible to players in front and behind. Mountain bikers play music audible to other trail users. Many people have absolutely no regard for others around them and this manifests through noise nuisance.by mvdtnz
3/21/2026 at 6:53:06 PM
Local trains are full of them.by Hamuko
3/21/2026 at 6:51:44 PM
[flagged]by throaway75463