Jan 19, 2021, 8:38 PM

@cassite said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

if I'm well enough to push that cart around the store, I'm well enough to push it the ten-to-fifteen feet from my car to the return.

You might be. Someone else might not be. Maybe @Too-Old-For-This is able to leave their kid securely fastened in a car seat for the time it takes to return the cart. Maybe someone else isn't, because their kid is a car seat escape artist, or has panic attacks if they feel alone, etc.

Empathy works both ways. If you can have empathy for the person whose job it is to round up all the stray carts, you can have empathy for the people whose circumstances are different that yours, for whom depositing the cart is a big deal for whatever reason.

And all these justifications of why people should be able to just suck it up and do it are exactly why this meme is a pet peeve for me. It may have been meant as a joke, but it results in people feeling judged and guilty.