If Brits are known for their good manners, why are British subreddits so full of rudeness?

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Neddlings55@reddit

Anonymity makes people behave differently.

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MickHucknallsMumsDog@reddit

Find Mick Hucknall, find his mum, ask her where her dog is.

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pinpoint321@reddit

Me Google searching Mick Hucknall’s Mums Dog. For about five minutes because I didn’t read your username and wondered what the fuck you were talking about!

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TomVonServo@reddit

You mean manners and overt politeness are really only a function of social pressure and fear of group exclusion and not a result of some deeper natural kindness or empathy? Whaaaaaaaat.

Next you’ll tell me our forebears built a global empire and enslaved or killed millions.

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matomo23@reddit

Reddit in the UK is weird. People act and say things on here that I never hear in real life. I wonder if half of them are actually British.

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EatingCoooolo@reddit

It’s an internet thing not a UK thing. A lot of people are much nicer in person but act the fool on the internet.

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It’s not even just politeness though. It’s the sentence structure, weird American sayings and turn of phrases. That’s the type of thing I mean. I’m not convinced many of these people are actually from the UK.

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Cielo11@reddit

I just read a comment on another UK sub that said Gordon Brown was Labours Liz Truss...

I'm still stunned.

97-08 were the best years this country has had since WW2. The economic crash in 08 was caused by the Americans.

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escapingfromelba@reddit

He was known to be unsuited to being PM. Couldn't work well with others etc.

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Not sure anybodys ever had an equivalent to the Lettuce! Browns surely more Labours Sunak - largely doomed by their predecessors decisions and global turmoil...how so many people seem to blame him for 2008 when he did one of the best jobs of dealing with it is odd.

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Scrombolo@reddit

You mean, Reddit.

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franki-pinks@reddit

Yep I agree.

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DangerousDisplay7664@reddit

*human

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SnooCakes1636@reddit

In a strange way that reinforces the politeness that OP refers to, because in real life, a lot of the words people say on Reddit are only thoughts in ones mind that aren’t suitable to be shared.

On an anonymous platform with zero consequences of sharing controversial thoughts, people do behave differently.

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Volumetricform@reddit

U wot m8 you having a giggle?

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Reeelfantasy@reddit

That’s not weird, it’s feeling free from the fear of speaking out in real life

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DrLucianSanchez@reddit

This isn’t just limited to Reddit or the UK.

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Martinonfire@reddit

Most of them are not Brits

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rustytromboneXXx@reddit

Not true Englishman, yeah?

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NiceGuyEdddy@reddit

What do you have against the Scottish, Welsh and Irish?

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PassiveChemistry@reddit

Ah yes, you had to change the usual form of that phrase for this joke because as we all know, Scotsmen aren't British...

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disappointingcryptid@reddit

It's not "no true Scotsman" to identify bots

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rustytromboneXXx@reddit

No true botswain

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8thTimeLucky@reddit

Yeah particularly news subs like r/uknews and r/unitedkingdom I’m convinced are not genuine British accounts in the comments

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Alternative-Emu9189@reddit

I don't think everything having fake internet points exactly helps.

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Kapika96@reddit

Online is different to in-person. Plus Brits are also known for taking the piss out of each other. Politeness is for certain situations, not a permanent thing.

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MegaMolehill@reddit

There are plenty of people who have pretty lonely and sad existences whose idea of fun is belittling and being rude to other people online. Easier to pretend everyone else’s life is as rubbish as yours than to solve your own problems.

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OldChorleian@reddit

The UK has a population of nearly 70,000,000 people. Even if only 0.001% (one in a thousand) of them are not nice people, that leaves 70,000 twerps. Plenty to skew appearances on Reddit.

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Born-Neighborhood505@reddit

Math no mathing.

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SpiderLight97@reddit

I would, in the most polite way possible, like to point out that one in a thousand is 0.1%.

0.001% is one thousandth of a percent, i.e. one in a hundred thousand.

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White_Swiss@reddit

Brits are polite only on the surface. Once you look beyond that, you'll actually notice that a lot of them are actually rude, mean spirited and incredibly selfish.

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TheLightStalker@reddit

Prick

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yubnubster@reddit

Possibly because a lot of perpetually online people, regardless of nationality are badly socialised. It's certainly not just British people that are rude while online, is it?

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PW_73@reddit

Sarcasm if often misread as being rude and we Brits are the best in the world for sarcasm

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cardinalb@reddit

Nah the Americans are much better at sarcasm than we are.

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jackgrafter@reddit

I assume you’re being sarcastic.

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man-flu@reddit

Surely you are not been sarcastic too...

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jackgrafter@reddit

Never

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man-flu@reddit

Damn it I'm out of sarcastic replies

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Ok-Answer-7138@reddit

Sarcasm?

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Tora-bora83@reddit

Nah, they didn’t even know what sarcasm was until we taught them

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Christian-Metal@reddit

Welcome to the online world of social media.

It's quite often a cesspit. Have you ever visited a local community group on Facebook? They're even worse.

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He_ofshadowsandtouch@reddit

Interesting question. My response is that British people are good at masking, and using a veneer of conviviality, which slips when online

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Hoboaz@reddit

Tribalism and fear from people that don’t go outside, UK is a delightful and mostly pleasant place full of delightful and mostly pleasant people.

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Danielharris1260@reddit

I’ve noticed this a lot of sarcastic rude replies to genuine questions yeah I get it’s somewhat a part of our humour but we do need to remember it’s mostly foreigners asking these questions and they simply don’t really get our humour and think we’re just being unnecessarily rude.

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AdAffectionate2418@reddit

Because politeness is a social function and reddit isn't really a society. Plus the bots, larpers and bad actors...

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Max_Power_332@reddit

Of course we’re not as polite as we think we are. We feign politeness in public but put a Brit behind the wheel of a car where they think they’re anonymous and they’ll show their true colours - jumping queues and being a prick about parking spaces.

I’ll let you in on a secret as well - it ain’t Germans causing havoc saving sun beds all over Europe, either.

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Livid-Needleworker65@reddit

This behaviour suggests a sense of entitlement is what drives the behaviour.

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Bounty_drillah@reddit

I don't think Brits are known for their good manners, especially in popular holiday destinations.

I find UK subreddits more smarmy and passive aggressive that straight up rude. My home citys sub is the worst.

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OneDimension7066@reddit

Politeness doesn't necessarily equal niceness.

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easyjo@reddit

easy to be angry behind a keyboard

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TomVonServo@reddit

Easy to be kind when it has an obvious benefit.

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Drath101@reddit

Generally this is it. It's mostly a fear of consequences. They're polite at work because they don't want to get in trouble at work, and polite with random members of the general public to avoid a confrontation.

If you work in a retail or hospitality job you soon learn how fake it is. Of course many people still are decent to you, but alot of people see that uniform and somebody "beneath" them who can't "punish" them and all politeness flies out the window. I have had somebody scream at me about how I'm fucking useless, I deserve to be sacked, who the fuck do I think I am. Then I've seen them at the pub later with no uniform, made eye contact, and they've not said a word. The Internet anonymity has a similar effect.

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SerafinaSheffield@reddit

Definitely this. The "keyboard warriors" that feel they can say what they want to who they want and nobody's going to bat an eyelid and whether from the UK or not, probably wouldn't say boo to a goose irl.

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quasarr007@reddit

Rudeness hidden in humour

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XSjacketfiller@reddit

Because it's a bunkum stereotype that lost even its veneer of truth a long time ago (like queuing). What would it involve anyway, starting posts with 'good day' & an update as to how many cups of tea I've not had?

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Interesting_Net1297@reddit (OP)

Not speaking to other people like utter shite would be a good start.

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Tancred1099@reddit

Yeh, these Redditors would be afraid to make eye contact with you IRL

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AbbreviationsEast776@reddit

have you been on a bus in london? we're not polite. we're just quiet. those are very different things.

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Gent415@reddit

[ Removed by Reddit ]

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DangerousDisplay7664@reddit

Do Brits have good manners? They definitely USED TO but I think since Covid a LOT has changed!

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datguysadz@reddit

That's what the Internet is like

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lost-in-midgard@reddit

Brits have the same level of prickishness as every other country.

Culturally we're just more likely to be indirect, avoid confrontation and be polite to your face, then be arseholes behind your back or in anonymous situations.

I found Japan to be similar.

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Feema13@reddit

Brits and especially southern Brits, are two faced.
Overly polite and sickly sweet to your face but negative and judgy in their heads. This allows them to tell everyone how polite and nice they are whilst calling you a c*%t behind your back.
The anonymity of the internet just allows them to say the quiet part out loud.
Said as a southern Brit btw

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Glittering-Jello-388@reddit

It's all over the UK. Don't be fooled by northerners being seen as the more genuinely friendly and happy-go-lucky types. These people can have an even worse side to them. Said as a northerner.

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Eyfura@reddit

I've lived in the south for over a decade now and this is what I tell my husband (a southerner) all the time. The politeness is all fake.

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FlaviousTiberius@reddit

Brits being polite hasn't been a thing for a very long time. Most brits are abrasive and rude these days as the idea of 'society' has declined since the thatcher years.

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roxieh@reddit

Online maybe. Outside all I see are people being kind to each other to be honest, for the most part.

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Ok-Answer-7138@reddit

This is just an assumption but I think a lot of British people are upset with the state of their country, the past couple decades have brought some awful times

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cannon4344@reddit

There's an old Japanese proverb.

Everyone has three faces: the first face, which you show to the world; the second face, which you show to your close friends and family; and the third face, which you show on anonymous internet forums. It is the truest reflection of who you are.

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coolpall33@reddit

1) Annomity allows people to say crap they wouldn't dare say in real life. A lot of our good manners isn't policing our thoughts, it's just not letting those thoughts become an outburst, which people seem to have problems doing on an anonymous platform. 2) Alot of the users, particularly the controversial users, seems to be bots, ai agents or not from the UK. There was a phase a few months ago where all these users where slipping in quirky Americanisms that I don't think 95% of Brits would be using 3) I think "nice" people tend to stick to local, hobby, or other such subs, so you don't see them much 4) The above encourages self selection to a point that some subs are so toxic that only fools, rage baiters and general cunts seem stay there anymore

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durontochele@reddit

Brits are known for hypocrisy not good manners.

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Gloomy_Custard_3914@reddit

Because no one is going to deck you online.

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

There's a difference between being polite and being direct.

If I'm teaching ESL English, I'll say "That's wrong" instead of "Actually, that isn't exactly quite the best way of saying it - although you're on the right tracks, I really suggest you consider using a capital letter..." because it'd be ridiculous.

I didn't get where I am today by pussy-footing around the prevarication bush.

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Hairy_Addendum7789@reddit

I don’t know. I’m banned from askbrits and I have zero clue why. Must be run by a very sensitive soul. Bless.

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Max_Power_332@reddit

I am, too! I got banned for defending Islam 🤷🏼‍♂️.

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TomVonServo@reddit

Because British people by and large are “polite” out of fear of social backlash, not because we are innately nice or kind.

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Mammoth_logfarm@reddit

Because social media ≠ real life.

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Ok-Answer-7138@reddit

Idk if you can call Reddit a "social media" considering no one knows who you are

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DesiRose3621@reddit

Are we known for good manners? News to me.

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Ok-Answer-7138@reddit

We're known for criticising others for their bad manners, regardless of the state of our own.

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Killybug@reddit

Here you go 🗞️.

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Ok-Answer-7138@reddit

I'd say it's a combination of being sarcastic and quick to mock, especially in a post where OP is asking a serious question. That stuff doesn't rub off the same online

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gimmematcha@reddit

Been wondering this too. If you call it out you’re a downvoted or it’s like you’re being difficult - as if I want to protect vibes of a place where being rude is okay?

I miss old internet where moderators or other posters would call out rude replies. Makes me think either people posting are young to have not experienced being called out, or people who think manners and decency are lame. I bet the same people who are rude moan about the social contract breaking down. Close to unsubscribing from UK subreddits because of this.

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