Not sure if "everyone" knew these, but philosopher Dan Kaufman (Missouri State) is definitely on to something interesting about the evolution (or devolution) of cultural norms (in part due to the Internet). As I'm also a New Yorker, I can confirm that a lot of these would have been widely shared norms and expectations of the 1970s and 80s (some do seem to me to capture more the kind of ideological compromises stressed middle class existence requires). Some norms do change, for the better, but certainly not all. Here's a few notable ones that particularly resonated with me:
[4] Confronting strangers with a raftload of stipulations as to how they must engage with you assumes that they care to engage with you in the first place, which may be untrue. And if they do, they probably will cease wanting to, unless you bring something so extraordinary to the table that it justifies all the trouble....
[15] Offense, insult, and hurt feelings are not particularly important, other than to oneself and to one’s intimates. This does not mean that you should go out of your way to offend others but rather that if you are offended, you shouldn’t be surprised if those outside your friends-and-family circle aren’t inclined to make a federal case out of it.
[16] You don’t accost random strangers on the street and unload your personal meshugas on them, because it’s not their business and they don’t give a damn. Nothing about these reasons fails to apply when you replace ‘street’ with ‘internet’.
[17] Scores of millions of people, most of whom neither know nor live near one another cannot constitute a “community"....
[22] The most virtuous people are the quietest about it. The least are the loudest.
[23] Terrible people have produced and continue to produce great works of art and popular culture, the value of which persists, regardless of the character or conduct of their creators.
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