A former colleague once complained to me that they could never find a parking spot for their humongous SUV in Berlin and that the city should be more accommodating in that regard. They weren’t even a permanent resident or a commuter but a foreign diplomat.
To my discredit I wasn’t assertive enough back then to calmly explain public transportation to them, I was just dumbfounded.
“You chose to be the problem. Have you tried not being one?”
I do admit that it sounds catchy in my head, too. But I don’t think it would be a good or practical approach to convince others, starting off a retort with an ad-hominem right away 😅
“If the others are the problem, then why do you choose to have a big vehicle that has trouble parking? Couldn’t you get a smaller vehicle that’s easier to step into, can transport just as easily, and is cheaper in terms of fuel usage?”
“If the others are the problem, then why do you choose to have a big vehicle that has trouble parking? Couldn’t you get a smaller vehicle that’s easier to step into, can transport just as easily, and is cheaper in terms of fuel usage?”
Much better, and it automatically picks a fight with the advertising industry (that has a very clear answer to that question), so double-plus good.
A former colleague once complained to me that they could never find a parking spot for their humongous SUV in Berlin and that the city should be more accommodating in that regard. They weren’t even a permanent resident or a commuter but a foreign diplomat.
To my discredit I wasn’t assertive enough back then to calmly explain public transportation to them, I was just dumbfounded.
My mental response to that kind of people is,
“You chose to be the problem. Have you tried not being one?”
I do admit that it sounds catchy in my head, too. But I don’t think it would be a good or practical approach to convince others, starting off a retort with an ad-hominem right away 😅
Maybe then this:
“If the others are the problem, then why do you choose to have a big vehicle that has trouble parking? Couldn’t you get a smaller vehicle that’s easier to step into, can transport just as easily, and is cheaper in terms of fuel usage?”
Much better, and it automatically picks a fight with the advertising industry (that has a very clear answer to that question), so double-plus good.