It was just an example, one that came to mind b/c in my low-mid-class residential 'hood in a medium-sized city, I have nearby neighbors who seem to think nothing of blasting rap (it’s always rap for some reason) at a gazillion Db and drenching the entire block in pure noise. All, apparently, because of some sort of “I can do whatever the fuck I want, suck it up” attitude. Now, I personally loathe rap, don’t consider it music at all, but this behavior would be every bit as bad/wrong if they were blasting out symphonic music or trumpet concertos or Coltrane or classic rock or blues or, really, any kind of unnecessary sound that their neighb’s might just not be fans of, or in the mood for. And that includes fireworks noise, which actually is kind of a year-round thing here, just concentrated around calendar events when people can manufacture an excuse to set them off. Stupid riceburner street-racers with, evidently, straight-pipes, actively racing, are also a weekly scourge around here and the cops seem to just look the other way.

What seems to have vanished, in the loud-noises in public sphere, is any kind of common courtesy. I don’t blast my loud “music” in random places where other people are going to be forced to listen to it because that’s just rude - they might have their own tunes on, hate my fave genres, or simply want some peace - I don’t automatically expect that they’re going to be totally down with my noisemaking just because I have the ability to make it. If I pull up to someone with their windows down at at red light and I’ve got some loud tunes on, I turn them down. Basic civility. But now the attitude seems to be “fuck you, I’ll do whatever I want and you’d better like it and if not, tough shit, try to stop me.”

people yelling at their mobile phone set to speaker while in public

After rejoining a gym recently (had been away ~5yrs) I was astonished to find people doing this right there in the weight room. Blabbing away, having personal conversations at high volume mere feet from all the other paying customers who are just trying to concentrate on their workouts. I’d seen the signs on the wall asking people NOT to do this and take their phone conversations elsewhere, but of course those rules are for OTHER people, not for precious entitled blabbermouths.

Welp, depends on where you live. When I was growing up in New England it was illegal to set off fireworks if you weren’t a licensed pro. Illegal to buy/own them too AFAIK. Here in WA you can buy them on NA reservations but AFAIK it’s still illegal to set them off. But of course, the yahoos do it anyway and it seems to get worse and worse every year - more, bigger, louder, and for days on end. And all this while the climate gets drier and drier and more fire-prone.

Explosives were fascinating when I was, like, 10 years old. Now, as an adult, they’re just stupid, but we have an ever-growing population of people who derive their sense of self-worth from producing maximally loud, obnoxious, pathetic spectacles (think street-racers, coal-rollers, rap-blasters to name a few), so there you have it. When you’re a nobody and have no attributes that anyone would look up to, well, at least you can force people to pay attention to you and do it on the cheap (important because you’re poor). Boom boom pop pop.