Everyone has their own unique frame of reference. Some people don’t know what it’s like to live pay check to pay check, some don’t know what a loaf of bread costs.
Here, people share the surest signs that a person is out of touch with their larger society.
Many thanks to all the Redditors who responded. Check out more answers from the source at the end of this article!
1. What’s the big deal?
When they say: “You feel depressed? You should take a year off and travel the world. It will cheer you up.”
Nomeia
2. That should cover it…
A former boss, an incredibly great guy, but also someone who has been worth upwards of 100 million since the time he was about 20 once spotted me cash for lunch. Handed me two $100 bills and asked if that was enough.
gatorblu
3. People have to take care of that, especially in a shared space.
They don’t understand that even though they don’t care if they smell as if they haven’t showered in weeks, the people they interact with do care.
I’ve got a coworker who doesn’t shower more than once every two weeks, and I can always tell when she’s in the office or where she’s been in the office. No one says anything.
We don’t have an HR department because it’s such a small business, and I don’t think I could bring myself to tell her myself, no matter how passive-aggressively.
MouthOfTheGiftHorse
4. This is a great test!
In the UK, journalists ask politicians about the cost of basic grocery items, or see how out of touch they are.
If they don’t know how much a loaf of bread or pint of milk costs – then they are out of touch.
Our last prime minister apparently had a crib sheet with info about this, current songs in the charts etc. He even pretended to support a football team.
OldGoldMould
5. “I don’t do that…”
Lady in front of me at the grocery store refused to take her bags from the cashier because she “doesn’t touch the help.” Made him set them down then she picked them up.
RRuruurrr
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6. This.
Treating people with low level jobs like crap.
TurboCider
7. Easy peazy.
“Just get a job, like I did at your age.”
Anterich
8. Don’t believe everything you see.
They watch a lot of cable news programs.
They actually believe things such as that we live in more violent and scary times than previous generations. Hint: this is hands down the most peaceful time in human history in basically every way you could possibly define it.
anonymoushero1
9. Everything!
“Millennials are ruining the ____”
PM-SOME-TS
10. This takes a lot to admit.
I can honestly say I know that I’m out of touch with society when it comes to the workforce.
I’m almost 30 and only have had 4 “jobs” every single one was through a family friend. I landscaped and did construction with no resume/application not even an interview. I was just told to show up.
After college, I told a family friend what I studied and they needed a person in that area of “expertises” at their small company.
(continued…)
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Again, I was just told to show up. They showed me the ropes and now I have a real career with an important sounding job title.
I know I’m lucky and I also know this is not typical for most people. That’s why my only advice to my friends is to “network” as much as they can.
ta58s
11. I do. I know I do.
“No one HAS to use the internet.”
Try finding a job, paying bills, booking a ticket or even getting into college without the internet.
omgpick1
12. Not so sure about this one.
People who I know make $40,000 a year and have multiple kids yet insist that they are middle class.
Yes, you may have been raised middle class…. and yes, you have a degree, but no… making $40,000 as a single parent with multiple kids means that you are probably one or two missed paychecks away from ruin.
It’s not to denigrate those people. There’s nothing wrong with them. They just have been told that they are on a better position than they are, and probably want to believe that they are.
Incontinentiabutts
13. The BEST!
I was at a small conference in 2014, and one of the organisers was basically a real-life Ned Flanders. Middle-aged, but very boring and vanilla. Might have actually thought babies were delivered by storks, not midwives. At one point, he asked if everyone could write their “email numbers” on a piece of paper being passed around.
Email numbers. In 2014. Best thing I’ve ever heard.
DerUrVogel
14. No biggie, just get it to me when you can.
They don’t come into the office on Friday’s to hand out pay-checks to their employees because what’s the big deal, you can wait to get it on Monday.
biggmeech
15. We have an effect.
When they believe crime has gotten worse over the last 20 years.
When they believe global warming either (1) isn’t real, or (2) isn’t caused, in whole or in substantial part, by human actions.
CowboyLaw
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16. Get out!
Complaining about how young people aren’t independent enough and need to move out on their own sooner and get less help from their parents. These people act like ties to family and community resources are ruining young people. This view is out of touch with the large portion of the world’s population in which young people don’t leave their family’s home until they are ready to be married and join a new family home.
AlaskanOverlord
17. If only…
Acting like people who actually do the work would be wealthy if they where not lazy.
JavierLoustaunau
18. Get out there and meet people!
“You don’t have a job? You’re not trying hard enough. Hit the pavement and hand out resumes, buddy.”
lasteclipse
19. Stealing = wrong.
In my school a group of students were selling goody bags for their project and some dude literally just took something from their goods without paying. Later in class this guy doesn’t even deny he literally stole something (he actually admitted that he stole something), but instead he tried to justify his action by saying “in the store this doesn’t even cost a dollar”.
Everyone in class (except for his other “cool” friends) just couldn’t believe how this kid was struggling to understand that stealing is not ok. Even though 5 people were literally trying to talk sense into him he just wouldn’t grasp the concept of stealing and even got verbally aggressive at some of them.
It just wouldn’t get into this kid’s head that stealing anything is not acceptable (btw this clown is 18 years old and wants to become a police officer, which makes this whole ordeal very ironic).
In the end he was forced to pay the price by the principal. Sadly, no more sanctions were held on him.
CarbonNanoPlate
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20. It’s never too late to change.
My father is 80 years old but has been a pariah his whole life, although it’s slightly more excusable now that he’s elderly.
He has spent his whole life alienating himself, even from his own children, and then blaming everyone but himself.
And the reasons he comes up with are asinine. You didn’t want to be an engineer? You must be lazy and bad at math. Your brother married into a wealthy Jewish family? Guess I better become anti Semitic. You have a tattoo? What a fad.
And his whole life as been like that. He invents reasons why people don’t like him, such as his old boss not liking him because he didn’t like people who grew up on a farm.
As a result, in his old age, he is single and rarely sees his kids and grand kids. We recently started planning a birthday celebration for him, which he promptly took over all of the planning for. It’s going to be a disaster.
izwald88
21. Like I never thought of that…
A young 20 year old once said to me (also 20) “why don’t you just have your parents pay for it?” He wasn’t trying to be a dick, he genuinely thought everyones parents would just buy them a $350 ski lift season pass.
Jordan_the_Hutt
22. More work, that’s all it takes.
When they look at someone who works their butt off, and see that they don’t have a nice car or a house or anything, and say, “That person should have tried harder,” or if the hard worker mentions benefits that would keep them fit for work, or heavens forbid might just improve their quality of living, “What a lazy socialist.”
When they see someone doing a non-office job, and assume the person doesn’t pay their own bills.
nonameisokay
23. And my own two hands…
I clawed my way up from the very bottom with nothing but a laptop and an 8 million dollar loan from my father.
sesquach
24. Indeed.
When someone screams about poor/homeless people having cell phones and says they need to be pounding the pavement for a job. Like how do you expect them to apply, to keep in touch with work, get called for interviews? There’s so many people out of touch with how technology-driven the world is now.
saintofhate
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25. Empathy is so important.
Showing no empathy for other people.
Also, anyone that can hurt a pet is someone that could easily hurt a human. There are some seriously sick people out there!
Booner999
26. Duh!
“The reason I don’t have friends is because everyone knows I’m smarter than them and they’re just jealous.”
lambomang
27. There’s just no convincing some people.
Here’s one I experienced a few days ago. When faced with the issue of how Walmart doesn’t pay their employees a living wage, this guy tells me, “the thing is, they have the choice to work there or not. If they don’t like working there, they can always go find a different job.”
I said to him, “I don’t know if that’s true. I think for a lot of small towns, Walmart may be one of the biggest employers in their town. There might not be other job openings for things they can do.”
“They can work in a factory. I’ve always been able to find jobs when I didn’t like one.”
“And you have a good back, two working legs, no major injuries, no criminal record, no severe learning disability. Take away any one of those things, and you might not have such an easy time finding work in a factory.”
“And a lot of the people I see working at Walmart have all of those things!”
At that point I let him just continue his rant. That was the point when I knew he was the kind of person to believe they can tell all about a person from looking at them without speaking to them. I don’t know about you, but I can’t always just look at a person and tell whether or not they have a health condition that would limit them from routinely lifting 50 lbs.
ToBePacific
28. There’s a time and a place.
If they start loudly and confidently making statements about politically divisive topics in a room of people, looking for affirmative support, without having accurately discerned their general stance on the subject.
Receiving a class on new transgender protection/policies in the workplace, in a room full of people who largely lean left on social issues? Probably not the place to openly question the validity of the basis for someone identifying as transgender, or the need to have a policy for treating them appropriately at work.
tagged2high