December 11, 2019 | Jess Silverberg

People Share The Things Terrible People Do That They Think Is Perfectly Fine


Some people are just outright terrible. Those who consciously litter, act rude to customer service workers, and speak with intentionally acid tongues give the rest of us humans a bad rep. The worst part is, most of these terrible people don't even think they're doing anything wrong—they genuinely think their bad behavior is the norm, or somehow justified by some invalid reasoning. People from around the world took to the internet to share the things terrible people do that they think is perfectly fine. Their stories are full of awkward and cringeworthy moments that may make you lose faith in humanity. Brace yourself, this is going to be a wild ride:

Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!

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#1 The Litterbug Epidemic

You'd be surprised how many tourists don't bother to walk the 50 feet to the nearest trash can on the beach. Plastic bags and containers by the hundreds of thousands. Used bottles. Cans. Dirty diapers. More litter than you can imagine. It all just goes right on the beach—someone else will pick it up, right? The worst part is people who aren't tourists litter too. It's unacceptable to throw your waste on the beach, regardless of who you are.

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#2 Good On Paper

A kid at the high school I graduated from had his friends film him, in the bathroom, pulling his pants all the way down to mimic an autistic kid who was in the bathroom at the same time. While his friends were filming this, he decided it would be funny to ask the autistic boy to be spanked. He was the kind of kid who looked great on paper but had the eyes of a cat strangler.

He obviously thought there was nothing wrong with what he did because he laughed and taunted the poor kid the whole time and posted it on social media, which lead to him losing a full ride to a state college for swimming. He was also expelled from school.

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#3 The Worst Kind

"Well, at least my baby will go to heaven!" My wife and I were at a weekly group session for parents of deceased children. This woman asked my wife how our son passed away, and she replied with that when she found out he lost his life due to an overdose. There were plenty of people trying to one-up each other in sadness.

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#4 Repressed Anger

We had neighbors who intended to turn their 8-year-old into an NHL player, whether he liked it or not. He did not like it. He did not excel in any way at the sport. They forced him, from ages 8 to 18, to attend hockey camps and play in every league he could. They spent tens of thousands of dollars per year traveling to different games all over the country to make him play.

They were intensely convinced he would become a super-rich NHL player and they, the parents, would be set for life. They always went on about how they would live a life of leisure off their kid's career. Well, at age 18, as an adult, his repressed anger and resentment showed up. He ended up using all sorts of heavy substances, getting arrested (it made international news in one ridiculous event that only embarrassed himself and harmed no one) and never had the slightest chance at the NHL. In fact, he's still mentally screwed up and he's nearly 30.

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#5 Ungrateful Crasher

One of my worst ex-friends stayed over with another friend after his parents kicked him out. My friend let him stay rent-free and he complained about everything. He complained about her cats, about not having a key, about not being allowed to stay longer when my friend had enough. He's long gone across the country and out of our lives now, thankfully.

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#6 What Doesn't Kill You...

I walked in the restroom the other day, and the smell was just awful. There was only one guy in there, and he obviously just went #2. The dude walked over to the sink, looking like he was going to wash his hands. Instead, he cupped his hands, collected some water and took a nice big gulp. He then splashed the rest on his face.

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#7 Elderly Mistreatment

Some people treat the elderly in nursing homes so badly. I work at a nursing home, and while I have a lot of awesome coworkers who are very good at their job, I also have a lot of trashy ones. To give an example: I, one time, overheard one of the patients say to a coworker that she really needed to go to the toilet. This lady was in a wheelchair and needed help. My coworker said: well, you’re wearing a diaper, aren’t you? Those can hold up to 8 liters. Just go already!”

I was shocked.  Yes, she did wear special Tena pants, but a lot of my coworkers don’t seem to understand that these kinds of pants are to prevent accidents, not to encourage incontinence. The sad thing is, these kind of things are very hard to prove, especially when the patients have dementia-like states as they do in the nursing home I work at. I think the shortage of staff doesn’t help with this problem, either.

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#8 Barbecue Jerks

Using a disposable barbecue on the beach and leaving it half-buried in the sand for someone to step on with their bare feet. Happens all the time on the beach near me.  The problem is that people think that sand will smother the fire, thinking it's the right thing to do. But since it's coal, it will keep burning under the sand. It's a dangerous mistake and I'm happy to see it announced every season, so more people are aware. Every year there are kids in the ICU with burned feet due to this.

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#9 A Horrifying Moment

I was bagging a customer's groceries like any other day. When I bagged some raw meat, I noticed my hand was sticky. Looking at it, I had what looked like blood on my hand. Thinking it was the raw meat and the packaging had a cut, I checked it to see if we should get the customer a different package. The customer saw me doing this and smiled, informed me that the package was not damaged. The blood was, in fact, his. As he showed me his hand with a giant open cut on it. After discovering the horror, the cashier and I realized the blood was everywhere, and his wound was still leaking blood onto the ground. The customer laughed the entire time.

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#10 The Vanishing Co-worker

A work colleague of mine lets everyone else on the team do the work while he vanishes. Only on the odd occasion does he do a bit of the work. When someone calls him lazy, his response is that the company pays him for what he knows not for what he can do... In other words, he picks the jobs he wants to do, which isn’t very much.

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#11 A Total Creep

I was once on the NYC subway in early February. The train was pretty packed. We got delayed in a tunnel and the heat kicked off. This young blonde girl, who shivering in the middle of this, said, "Oh my God, I am SO cold!!!” After five seconds, the same girl shrieked at the top of her lungs. Everyone in the car then watched as the dude behind released her hips. Everyone was staring and he said, totally straight-faced, “What?!? She SAID she was cold!”

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#12 You Mean It

If you say something mean or cruel to someone you supposedly love, then follow it up with "I didn't mean it," but you still say it over and over again—yeah, you really do mean it.  I'm a sensitive guy and I can't tell my sister that she hurt my feelings because she'll just tell me to "stop being so sensitive." I don't understand how some people are unable to realize the gravity of their words.

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#13 Karma Will Get You

I had a roommate in college who had her entire tuition, which was $60K a year, by a very wealthy friend’s parents. However, all she ever did was complain about how rich and spoiled this friend was. She constantly talked trash behind her back about how much of a lazy “princess” she was. The freaking audacity. I hope karma works its magic on this one.

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#14 Line-Skipping Rules

Someone cut in line because "they were in a hurry." As if their schedule somehow trumped the need to conform to the line. The only time I have found this to be acceptable is at airports when someone's connection is late coming in and they have to change terminals. I have had to skip security lines a few times for this reason and people have been understanding.

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#15 When An Idiot Asks A Question

My first job was wrangling carts at Walmart. One time after using the bathroom, I was washing my hands. A guy in a suit washed his hands next to me very quickly and, while drying his hands, he asked me, "Are you paid hourly?" I was taken a bit off guard but managed, "Uh, yeah?" He smirked and said, "I can tell," and left. As far as I can gather, the guy thought I was lazy because I was washing my hands too well. Looking back, the fact that he thought he was so smart guessing that a Walmart employee wasn't salaried makes me laugh.

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#16 Rudeness Is Not A Solution

Insulting retail workers or servers. Yes, I’m sure it was 25% off but the register isn’t cooperating. Telling the person that they are a useless human being isn’t going to help the situation. I’m sure something can go wrong in your job that isn’t your fault too and being yelled at isn’t gonna make you want to do it faster.

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#17 Sorry, Danielle

Someone yelled at me last week (over the course of several days) for not getting their medication authorized by insurance. We send it to specialty pharmacies do on our behalf and then move on with our day, and this woman was sitting there berating me for not doing it myself (honestly, by the second day, I was going to try to do it myself, but I literally didn't have time). Screw you, lady, you're not the only person in the world. Yelling at me didn't get her meds authorized. All it did was stress me out and make me add her to our office's caller ID. Now whenever she calls, she's going to get automatically rejected and sent to my coworker. Sorry, Danielle.

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#18 Messy People

Littering. It really annoys me. If you take care of your environment then your environment takes care of you.Unfortunately, some people just do not care about living in a dump. They can’t even take care of their own property, so there’s no expectation that they will care for public property. Especially when they feel that “it’s someone’s job to clean that up.”

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#19 Casual Littering

I was serving an extremely rude lady at the drive-thru. We serve rude customers all the time, so I was just acting normal. I handed her the drink and then the straw. She proceeded to take the straw out of the paper sleeve and toss it out the window before driving away. Just casual littering. It drove me nuts and I really wish the worst for her.

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#20 Monsters In Law

Honestly, the way my in-laws treat my wife. Unless she ended the family dog before we met and they're forever punishing her for that, there is no reason for why they are so terrible to her. The worst part is if you call them out on it, they act as if they're so confused. It makes me think they truly think it's acceptable. Monsters, they are.

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#21 Unqualified Pet Owners

A lot of dogs over where I live froze to death over the recent blizzard because their owners left them outside in the chilling winds and snowstorms. Their reasoning: "I don't want that wet dog smell inside my house." I wish people like this could get banned from ever having pets. If you really don't want the smell, don't get a pet. Or stick a heater in a well-built shelter for them.

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#22 Kleptomaniac Tendencies

My mom used to stuff her purse every time we went to a restaurant. I’m talking silverware, salt shakers... don’t even get me started on buffets. She was mentally ill but she knew it was wrong. She was just a master at being able to delude herself into justifying every wrong thing she did. I mean, it's not bad to take a sugar packet or two, but salt shakers?! Dang.

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#23 Free Tutor

I had a friend in high school who would call almost every night for help with calculus. The night my cat died, I was not okay. She called and got right into math. She never asked how I was doing. I tried to help but I stopped to tell her that my cat had died and I was not able to help her that night. She understood, said she was sorry for my loss and hung up immediately. She did not ask me, “How are you?” She did not hear me crying while tutoring her. She did not hear my sadness. I realized that she is not actually a friend. I was her free tutor. She did not care about me.

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#24 Shopping Cart Chaos

Leaving their shopping cart anywhere but the cart return. The first time I went grocery shopping in the US, I saw plenty of carts abandoned everywhere. I found weird to be able to take the carts "for free," since in the UK you need to insert a coin to use them. Later, I was "driving" the cart in the parking and the cart just locked. I thought I caught some paper in the wheels and this woman told me I was too far from Target. The European in me laughed thinking she was joking, but she was not...

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#25 Spreading Fake Rumors

Spreading fake rumors and generally talking ill about other people behind their backs. I’ve had this happen to me when I landed a job at a new company. And what makes me really sad is that most people seem to gladly believe the fake rumors instead of getting to know me. Was it out of laziness? I wonder. The worst part is you can’t just start explaining yourself to the people you are talking to...

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#26 Pity Parties

People who throw themselves pity parties. I had an ex-friend who would constantly say horrible things about me and use insult humor on me. But if I retaliated, she would cry dramatically and get everyone to crowd around her. I'd then have to deal with stares for the rest of the night as if I just kicked a puppy or did something unforgivable.

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#27 Flaking On Purpose

Flaking on plans or never being available, but still expecting to be included and invited to everything. The number of people I know who have literally said: "You should still invite me even though I won't go" has really surprised me. When I notice people inviting me to do stuff less, I take it on myself to make more of an effort to be available.

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#28 Horrible Relatives

When I came out, several of my relatives (but luckily not my parents) made extremely homophobic comments. One even disowned me. Most of them were shocked when more supportive family members weren't having any of it and couldn't understand why someone might have issues with the cruel and hurtful statements they were making about me and "my kind."

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#29 Lacking Compassion

When people go out of their way to be rude or terrible to homeless people. It makes my blood boil. They're already having a hard enough time without your mockery. Als,o homelessness can happen to ANYONE. If you can't be compassionate, keep to yourself.

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#30 Hospital Bullies

A surgeon and the entire OR staff (myself excepted) spent an entire surgery to fix an inguinal hernia talking about how gross the patient's genital warts were. I kept my mouth shut for a few comments, but after a while, I started to express annoyance. Like, come on guys, we're STILL talking about this? It didn't faze them: they just kept on making jokes about the person, who was unconscious, vulnerable and paying for the privilege.

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#31 Saved By The Lawyer

One of my teachers in high school got her car towed because the towing company would watch a vacant lot near a wilderness park, wait for someone to park there, put up a "No Parking" sign, then leave with their car. Unfortunately for the tow company, her son is a lawyer—the cops were called and they were not happy that someone called out their scam.

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#32 They Have To Be Polite

My mom will go into stores and restaurants right before they close. When we tell her it's a bad idea, she says, "Oh, the cashier or waitstaff said it was fine!" They have to be polite... inside, they're really telling you to screw off. It surprises me because she used to waitress. I guess she just forgot what it's like dealing with people.

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#33 No Manners

My wife worked her butt off making Christmas Eve lunch for my parents when they came over. There were lots of leftovers, but they didn't want to take any. Instead, they had a pizza delivered to our house right before they left for them to take home.

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#34 A Bad Influence

When I was a kid, I was hanging out with this other kid on an overpass. I was casually lighting bottle rockets off in my hand. Then, apparently trying to show me up, he picked up a big chunk of concrete with steel bar sticking out of it and threw it off the overpass. It didn't hit anyone, but it was messed up.

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#35 Making Herself The Victim

An ex-friend started sleeping with a guy who was in a relationship. This lasted for a while and she would tell us all really graphic details about the cheating. When I snapped and told her to knock it off, she said, and I quote, “I’m proud to be the other woman.” Well, the girlfriend found out and confronted them both. She came crawling back to us and tried to make it seem like she was the victim in all of this.

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#36 Totally Tactless

A person asked me to wipe off their table at the coffee shop I work at and then proceeded to say, “If things keep going the way they are for me, I’ll be wiping tables soon too.” How can you belittle the people that do service jobs that you utilize? And to their face, nonetheless? In what scenario is that a good thing to say to any service worker?

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#37 Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Yesterday at a restaurant, this lady just changed her two-year-old son’s diaper ON A BOOTH IN A RESTAURANT. There was a changing table in the bathroom and she had no cover over the booth.  Everyone had the joy of seeing her kid flail around nude while she tried to put a new diaper on. It was really disgusting and unsanitary.

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#38 Pointing Fingers

Treating service staff badly. A lot of people think that the more you yell at staff, the faster they will work to get you what you want. I once saw a guy who was yelling at a ground stewardess at the airport because he was unable to check-in. Turns out, the airline overbooked the flight and only those who checked in early got to board. But that guy kept on yelling at the ground crew as if they were at fault.

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#39 Signs Of A Bad Caretaker

I hate, I mean HATE people who hit kids and pets. Children and pets put their trust in others to nurture them, to protect them, and those who hit their kids and pets break that trust. How would those hitters like it if THEY were vulnerable and were hit? I bet it wouldn't feel good.

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#40 Hypocritical Guitarist

Just last night I was at an open mic bar. This one guy was talking loudly and obnoxiously while people were performing. In between songs, he announced loud enough for the whole bar to hear: “This is so freaking boring!” Imagine my shock when a few songs later he got on stage with his band...

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#41 Salad Drama

Last weekend, my ex told me that he didn’t know when he’d see the kids next because he had "too much going on." He said that he had to throw out a salad he had made. He said this right in front of our eldest child.

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#42 Dirtbag Teens

I saw some college kids leave all of their trash on the table instead of throwing it away in the trash can that was right next to them (not a few feet away, right next to them). Before they left, however, they called some janitor to come and clean it and they walked away laughing as if what they did was completely normal. Sometimes I wish I could have one legal opportunity to slap someone with no repercussions.

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#43 Get With The Times

One of my teachers who is an old and traditional guy said some pretty homophobic stuff. When the class ended, he said, "I'm just kidding" because everyone got quiet and just stared at him. I'm pretty sure at least five people dropped the class.

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#44 Staring Is Bad

People who stare at disabled people. I can't count on my own two hands how many people willfully ignored or stared at this kid who looked to be autistic, deaf, and had Down's Syndrome who was sitting on the floor in front of me playing with his car. Every time he looked at me I couldn't help but smile.

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#45 Entitled Little Brats

I live in the Berkeley and North Oakland area. I usually head up towards the campus for lunch or dinner. The amount of times I see a group of frat-looking dudes just get up and leave huge massive messes is astounding. Like, they have absolutely zero regard for the workers. They’re just so completely up their own butts.

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