[picture a red-faced, white-haired, colonel-saunders kind of old guy here]
Today I was in a copy shop, minding my own business, when a rather old man came in and started making color copies on the machine next to mine. He was giggling. [Weird. I know.] Finally I guess he couldn't stand it anymore; he wandered over to where I was working to show me what he was copying. Super offensive, and very racist.
I said, um, that is offensive, sir.
He got all red in the face and sort of yelled, so you're a communist.
I had no idea how to take this outburst, but I knew one thing for sure. I wasn't about to get into it with a nine-hundred-year-old-guy who's idea of funny was formed in 1930s Mississippi. So I said, I am not a communist, and left.
When I got home and told my husband all about this bizarre encounter he said, do you think the guy is still there?
I said, what, you're going to go battle it out with a geriatric playing with an incomplete deck?
He said, you're right, but you should have put him in his place.
Frankly, I don't see it as my job to put people in their place. If I did, I'd be the old-faithful of reprimand-spouting. But I'm still thinking on the situation. What IS the right thing to do when someone confronts you with their craziness???
Any suggestions?
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