"Dressing down a culture"

[adempsey10]

Well, I guess I'm an absolutist then. Manners are a set of mutually agreed upon behaviours. Those who have chosen to move in a different direction are merely behaving in an in-your-face rejection of those who still support an older set.

Yes, I'm offended.

I think it's incredibly arrogant to assume that someone who doesn't think the same way as you is doing so simply out of "in-your-face-rejection"

And it is not mutually agreed upon if we do not all agree on it. And an appeal to popularity, that 'most' people agree, is fallacious, so dont even go down that road.

I don't leave my hat on a restaurant as a F**k you to the norm, I do it because I see no practical purpose to such an arbitrary rule. Eating with one's mouth closed, on the other hand, is practical manners. It's gross to see churned up food in a person's mouth.