Coarse, Crude, and Cruel

There are some days when it seems that the world just grates on me.  People around me seem coarse, crude, and, well, at times downright cruel.  I sit in a coffee shop and hear a couple of customers loudly insult another nearby customer who for all practical purposes (as far as I know) is a complete stranger to them.  For my part, someone with whom I have an acquaintance from many years ago walks in, notices that I am studying foreign languages, and in a heavy-handed tone, demands to know how I plan to apply it.  The idea that I would be justified in studying them because I enjoy it isn't enough, apparently, to this individual who I now realize feels justified somehow in judging me. 

People are entitled to their own opinions about things.  This even extends, in my own opinion, to entertaining prejudices about people and value assumptions regarding which priorities others should be exercising in their lives.  But to think something is one thing.  Sharply expressing in public one's judgmental views, on the other hand, comes under the category of coarse, crude, and even cruel behavior.  And, frankly, it's THESE people that I see as some of the biggest contributors to misery and suffering in the world.  You don't have to be a criminal or a dictator to contribute your own share to the world's troubles. Just a generally nasty, overbearing attitude can go a long way...

Is it just my imagination or is the tone in today's society becoming uglier, with insults, offenses, profiling, and bullying becoming more and more commonplace...and acceptable in social, public settings?  Maybe I'm just living within a bubble of this negativity and elsewhere people behave as if they honor and respect other's presence, opinions, and lifestyles, even if they privately disagree with them.  I sincerely hope that this is the case and things aren't worsening, as I sadly suspect the case to be...