Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Perd Hapley on November 03, 2012, 12:53:05 AM
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Sorry if this is a bit late, but it just occurred to me. Halloween is a pretty popular holiday, and getting popular-er all the time. (Well, not all the time, since it's seasonal.) Most people seem OK with the fact that swarms of children will be knocking on the door, asking for stuff.
Most people seem a bit miffed (if not downright angry) at the idea of people knocking on their door to sell insurance, or offer religion, or whatever else. So should salesman and evangelists start dressing in costume? Should we give them a particular day? Would asking for candy make them more agreeable?
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Sure.
We'll call it Secondhand Lions Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idpU4UT8vc0&NR=1
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Seems to me that most people that actually take part in trick 'r treating tend to like kids, and we (roughly) know when they're going to be ringing the doorway (and plan for it)
Door to door salesmen show up kinda randomly, interrupting our lives without our permission. That's gonna irritate most people.
We've already discussed the attitude of some of the door to door preachers, you and I. And an insult, even given unknowingly, IS still an insult
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Kids don't knock on doors to houses where there are no decorations and the lights are off. :angel:
Teenagers toilet paper those houses. >:D
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Teenagers toilet paper those houses. >:D
Let the dog(s) loose?
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We've already discussed the attitude of some of the door to door preachers, you and I. And an insult, even given unknowingly, IS still an insult
Huh?
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Most people seem a bit miffed (if not downright angry) at the idea of people knocking on their door to sell insurance, or offer religion, or whatever else. So should salesman and evangelists start dressing in costume? Should we give them a particular day?
How about February 30 ???
Then again, if some gal wants to go around selling stuff in a Slave Leia costume ... :lol:
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Holloween is a scheduled event. Depending on where you live, it happens every year, on a set day (or days, as sometimes C-ville has "rescheduled" trick or treating to weekends when Holloween falls during the week) and you can opt out of participation (turn off lights, not at home, all that jazz)
Door to door salesman, missionaries and (because they do the same thing) telemarketers do not arrive on a scheduled day for such things and you can't "opt out". Many times they will show up (or call) regardless of no tresspassing signs, no solicitation signs and no call lists. Even if you don't answer the door or pick up the phone, it's still an annoyance and an intrusion on you're day.
Plus, they can be pushy. I know I've told the story of the Morman boys and Southwest. The fact that I yelled at them to leave from my front porch, wrapped in a freeking towel, and yet they come back when I'm clearly just trying to get my dog?
The point is Holloween, you know it's happening, you can choose to participate or not, and you won't end up running after your dogs, half dressed and your hair is still wet, because some idiots came on your property while you where taking a shower.
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Fortunately, where we live we get neither Halloween Beggars nor very many sales people.
I think the JWs came by once in nine years - I wasn't very friendly and I don't remember any of them coming back.
The "Hoots" (Hutterite colony/commune) used to come by a lot trying to sell vegetables, whole chickens, etc. At first I thought it might be a good deal to trade with them, but they always seemed to come on the day after we had stocked up in town, and their prices/quality really weren't that exceptional either. Even so, if they had made a point of coming by on a regular basis we might have counted on them for part of our food shopping. But they only seemed to go door to door when they had surplus or something. I'm not sure how it paid off for them to have three or four big German guys driving around in a diesel crew cab to hawk their produce =|
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So should salesman and evangelists start dressing in costume?
It would help. I'm curious to see what a Jehovah's witness would look like in a Belly Dancer or Hooker costume.
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Oh... maybe that wasn't you...
Door to door preacher stopped at our place a number of years ago. Household full of pagans, and I politely told him as much. He looked at me and asked if there was anything he could do to help...
Don't care how devout you are, or how damned you think I am. That was an insult
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Oh... maybe that wasn't you...
Door to door preacher stopped at our place a number of years ago. Household full of pagans, and I politely told him as much. He looked at me and asked if there was anything he could do to help...
Don't care how devout you are, or how damned you think I am. That was an insult
I don't offer anything more then a pointed "no thanks, move along and don't come back".
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Oh... maybe that wasn't you...
Door to door preacher stopped at our place a number of years ago. Household full of pagans, and I politely told him as much. He looked at me and asked if there was anything he could do to help...
Don't care how devout you are, or how damned you think I am. That was an insult
Yeah, I remember you telling that story. I remember pointing out that he probably just interpreted your statement in the way that most people would have intended it.
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Oh... maybe that wasn't you...
Door to door preacher stopped at our place a number of years ago. Household full of pagans, and I politely told him as much. He looked at me and asked if there was anything he could do to help...
Don't care how devout you are, or how damned you think I am. That was an insult
A local church has stopped by a couple times since I moved here. The first time I was braced for telling them to go away, but they just handed me a pamphlet and said "have a nice day" and left. I can live with that.
I already am Christian, I just don't care for Rock Band Churches in general.
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On Halloween, I like seeing the little 4 year olds and such having a good time. Less so for the older kids and teenagers. Also, my neighborhood is across the street from the expensive subdivision and there are way too many cars trailing groups of kids from across town.
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>he probably just interpreted your statement in the way that most people would have intended it. <
By all means, explain it again. Having a blonde moment
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Yeah, I remember you telling that story. I remember pointing out that he probably just interpreted your statement in the way that most people would have intended it.
Uhhh, fistful, it doesn't matter how you try to dress it up, that's an insult.
Someone who belives diffrently then you doesn't need to be "helped".
Honestly, one of my biggest beefs with certain religions is the idea that they willingly condem others for no reason more then personal diffrences, and pity those who need none.
It's a pretentious and disresptectful mindset. If that's what they (and you) choose to belive in, fine by me. But don't come to my door and talk down to me.
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This is one of the funniest scenes I've ever scene about halloween.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AQPOoTlIlA
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>he probably just interpreted your statement in the way that most people would have intended it. <
By all means, explain it again. Having a blonde moment
Well, did you actually say you had a household full of pagans? Because most of the time when people say that someone is a pagan, they're not referring to their religious beliefs. They're saying they're not well-behaved, or that they're mischievous or whatever. So, I would think that most people would interpret that as something like, "No, there's no hope for us; we're just wild, incorrigible sinners."
Then again, I wasn't there.
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Well, did you actually say you had a household full of pagans? Because most of the time when people say that someone is a pagan, they're not referring to their religious beliefs. They're saying they're not well-behaved, or that they're mischievous or whatever. So, I would think that most people would interpret that as something like, "No, there's no hope for us; we're just wild, incorrigible sinners."
Then again, I wasn't there.
I think you're mistaken. If he had said "a house full of heathens", you might have a point.
"A house full of pagans" is a diffrent thing.
heathen 1. One who adheres to a religion other then Judaism, Christianity or Islam. 2. One regarded as irreligious, uncivilized or unenlightened.
pagan - One who is not Christian, Muslim, or Jew.
The American Heritage has a crappy definition of "pagan", but the point is it doesn't have the second connintation that the word "heathen" has.
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The ONLY time I've ever heard someone refer to "not well-behaved, or that they're mischievous or whatever" as "Pagan", they were talking about the Pagans MC.
The actual phrasing was "this is a pagan household". To which he replied "Oh... I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Yes, it was probably meant as "You're not Saved? Can I help with that?". But it still comes across as insulting.
Then again, I don't think "door to door preaching" is what Christ meant by telling y'all to witness to people...
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I don't offer anything more then a pointed "no thanks, move along and don't come back".
Been almost 30 years ago now, had a group of JWs come to the door. I was more or less polite and told them I was happy with my religion. They asked what religion I practiced. I told them I was a Druid, actually a reformed Druid, we could pray at trees and bushes. I think the young fellow stripped a few gears trying to figure that out as I shut the door in his face.
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Been almost 30 years ago now, had a group of JWs come to the door. I was more or less polite and told them I was happy with my religion. They asked what religion I practiced. I told them I was a Druid, actually a reformed Druid, we could pray at trees and bushes. I think the young fellow stripped a few gears trying to figure that out as I shut the door in his face.
:rofl:
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My at-the-door fun with Jehovah's Witnesses took me a while to figure out. I had been repairing a bookshelf, was in the middle of reloading the books and had a book in hand when I answered the door. The JWs began their spiel, but quickly petered out and left. I was a bit baffled until, returning the book in hand to the shelf, I saw I had a Koran. :D
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In the 30 years my family has been down here there hasn't been a single trickortreater due to our distance from town.
However, we STILL get JWs, solicitors (particularly the random people selling meat out of a chest freezer in the back of a pickup), and, because they have an enclave about an hour and a half south of here, gypsies looking to rip you off.