Do You Get Enraged When Someone Does Not Take Off Their Hat Poll

(hopefully a harmless distraction from the more serious stuff – so if you are always serious don’t read any further)

I had a student who wore a baseball cap to all my classes.  At first I had an emotional response – who does this guy think he is wearing a baseball cap in my class.  Then I got used to it and realized – it does not matter if he wears a cap or not.  As long as he does the work and acts civilly in class - who cares?

 

Next thing you know I was a convert.  So much so that I wore a hat and got tossed out of a dinner party.  My experience is that most people ignore you when you do not remove your hat at a hockey game when the national anthem is being played.  But, a few get downright venomous.

 

Is there some evolutionary advantage of requiring a hat to be removed at certain times or in some venues?

 

After visiting Hair Club for Men a few years ago and realizing it was way too expensive to buy a new wig every few months and getting locked into an expensive styling plan even more frequently, I decided to go with the immensely cheaper option of wearing stylish hats for my bald spot.

 

Nobody expects someone to remove their wig when the national anthem is being played – so why should they have to remove their hat which is being used for the same purpose.  Removal of a hat for the anthem can be done by the most morally depraved person who has no respect at all for his countries laws.  What is wrong with me substituting hat removal with my hand over my heart instead?

What is wrong with me wearing my hat at dinner?

 

I suspect the majority of people get enraged with people not removing their hat. I am curious as to what a group of freethinkers will say.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on April 6, 2012 at 11:11am

"Threats of physical violence, thinly veiled or not"

Try; non existent.

Stop misrepresenting my comments, there was no threat explicit or implied.

This was about the context (where he found) those signs, and why I asked about context. If, in fact this:

“CAUTION
In general great care should be taken in removing your hat or tipping your hat to another man except in special circumstances discussed above. It will be taken as an insult.”

...Is a warning to foreigners visiting a country with cultural prohibitions they may not know about, they may indeed risk injury indulging the otherwise benign "tip of the hat" as it is apparently seen as "an insult". I had not heard of this one, which is why I asked about context.

Just as flashing someone a peace sign in the wrong country will likely result in an incitement to violence (in certain areas of the Balkans, it will more than likely get you killed).

Do remember, that eschewing cultural norms in some places can get you jail time, or even worse, whether or not they are subjectively benign or silly.

"I won't be playing that game either."

You are playing a game, it's called a "Straw Man" argument. Obviously you seek to employ it as a deceitful means in order to bully. Which, as you say is unacceptable. Or, perhaps you just didn't understand context?

Permalink Reply by Ralph Smith on April 6, 2012 at 11:53am

Thanks Richard. Good call and I accept it, mostly (except the parts I'm still blind to). Sorry for the misrepesentation. Apologies too (to everyone) for *my* bullying behaviour.

Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on April 6, 2012 at 12:07pm

That's big of you Ralph, I respect a sincere apology. Thank you.

Russell, if you would, please delete it all (the two posts and anything related), as far as I'm concerned now, it never happened.

Though, I'd still like to know "where" I shouldn't "tip my hat", …at least in the name of self-preservation.

Permalink Reply by Jason Fleming on April 6, 2012 at 11:15am

Unless I am missing something unspoken here, I think perhaps you've misunderstood Richards remarks.

I think was simply stating that disregarding social norms, even the silly ones can have consequences, and people in some cultures are quicker to resort to violence. If you say went to Afghanistan whereing a t-shirt depicting the Prophet Muhammed, you would likely be killed. Not that you should be killed or anyone here is threatening to do it; but it would likely be the consequence.

However, Richard is perfectly capable of speaking for himself, so I'll shut up now.

Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on April 6, 2012 at 11:21am

"If you say went to Afghanistan whereing a t-shirt depicting the Prophet Muhammed, you would likely be killed."

Careful now, apparently some here perceive this as a threat.

[/sarcasm]

…the chat room must be empty.

Permalink Reply by Jason Fleming on April 6, 2012 at 11:54am

I think we have more to fear from grammar nazis. "whereing"? WTF was I thinking there?

Permalink Reply by Ralph Smith on April 6, 2012 at 12:20pm

Thanks Jason. That's a good illustration of cross-context issues, the place where I usually stumble. Appreciate you taking time to clarify.

Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on April 6, 2012 at 12:31pm

One thing I've found to be important (context-wise) are these:

In the absence of a block quote (to denote context), it's always best to trace a dialog back to source. Anything else is a reply to the original post. I've had people launch attacks on me who didn't observe that I wasn't addressing them, …even when the comments are explicitly benign. 

Permalink Reply by Russell Pangborn on April 6, 2012 at 8:43am

That was an awesome bit by George Carlin. The hat customs always really bugged me which is why I entered a couple that I thought everyone would agree are passe - removing your hat in the presence of a lady and not tipping your hat to a man because that is an insult.  The custom that is not passe is removing your hat for a national anthem - it still evokes strong feeling from some people. I was hoping to convince those people I mean no harm to any institution.  I spent time and money coming to the reason rally to defend U.S  secular principals that are being attacked.  Please don't marginalize or think less of me because I don't want to remove my hat.  But Carlin says it way more eloquently than I ever could with humor.

Permalink Reply by Russell Pangborn on April 6, 2012 at 8:47am

That was a powerful hat slap by PowerfulHitchSlap

Permalink Reply by Idaho Spud on April 6, 2012 at 1:16pm

I like what George Carlin has to say, and the road-trip is slightly interesting, but what do they have to do with each other?

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on April 6, 2012 at 8:49am

No I don't get bothered by it. Students wear their baseball hats in class all the time .. it's a fashion or something.

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