I want to sign up at the gym in the college near us. First you have to sign up for an ID number, then you sign up for the membership. I received my number, but when I tried to get the membership, the number was wrong, a different person's name came up. So, I went to the gym to see if they could help me figure out what was wrong, and what I should do to fix it.
So I went up to the front desk of the gym. There's this guy there, maybe 50. First, before my wife and I even opened our mouths, he asked us to step aside so he could see the front door and scan people's cards. That was rude, but not too bad. Then I explained what I said above. He told us that he can't do anything with his computer, he doesn't have any access to do anything to an account. I said, okay, well, could you just type in the number---" That was as far as I got. What I was going to say was, "could you just type in the number to see what name comes up? Just to make sure I didn't type it in wrong, and that it really is the wrong account number?"
But I only got as far as "could you just type in the number---" before he interrupted. This is a typical, insanely obnoxious thing Minnesotans do. They can't talk to you like a normal person. They aren't talking with you, they are talking over you, to hammer home their point without ever listening to what you're saying. So he interrupted me to say, "I don't have any access. I can't do anything. I'm technologically illiterate. My whole job is just scanning in ID cards. I can't do anything else. I don't have any access to anything else."
I am not kidding you when I say this speech went on for five minutes. All I wanted him to do was enter my number and see what it said. I didn't want him to change anything. Notice he had already told me that there was nothing he could do. With a normal, non-Minnesota person, they would know that I had absorbed what they had already said, and that what I was saying now was something different. But for these people, he just knows that what I am trying to do is somehow ask him to do something he already told me he couldn't do. (It doesn't even make sense.) So rather than let me finish my question and respond to it, he has to badger me with a five minute harangue.
I am always trying to respond properly to these encounters. In this case, the proper response would have been to interrupt him right back and say "would you shut the fuck up, please, and let me finish my question, then respond to my question?" But my instinctual response when confronted with a moron is to turn away. It's embarrassing and difficult to listen to. My wife feels more need to please people, so she stood there and actually pretended to listen to him, while I turned sideways and waited for him to finish. Then he finally stopped and we walked away, talking to each other about what an unbelievable asshole the guy behind the counter at a gym was.
It's just so insane. It's not even possible to ask someone at a gym for al little information without having an encounter like this. And please notice, we didn't egg him on! My total output was 1.5 sentences. It's insane. One day I'll tell you what happens when I do have the presence of mind to throw it right back at them. That's only happened a couple times, but it is not pretty. Anyone who ever entertains the notion that Minnesotans are polite? Just needs to one time say "excuse me you're being rude" to see how they respond to THAT. They explode into a rage like you wouldn't believe.
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