Crowd control...

[FactionHeir]

In London, its usually the Brits who do it, and most of them are in classy looking vehicles, half the time windows closed even. Doesn't really block the noise from shaking floor and windows across the block though, and most people just look at them in a bored fashion while some swoon...go figure.

In China, I don't think I ever experienced said phenomenon. Not even in the expat crowded places. But then the expats and their kids who come here tend to be more careful, while the average Chinese has enough discipline not to do it. I doubt what Husar says would happen though - its quite a bit more liberal here than you think.

In Germany, there are quite a few, maybe as many as in London. Most are Germans in open roof cars. Police doesn't care, sometimes even points and laughs. Locals usually don't care, rarely you get someone shouting at them though.

[Don Corleone]

I appreciate all the helpful suggestions. I don't think I explained myself very well though. Booming sound-systems in cars is just one particular example of publicly annoying behavior (the one that got me thinking about all this).

But other examples:

-Street corner preaching
-Poor hygiene
-Yelling at people (in the mall) etectera
-Cutting lines (or, I think in other parts of the world, you call it breaking queue)

My point wasn't the particular behavior. My point was wondering out loud how you deal with said behavior from a more communal approach. If you don't keep up your yard in the Netherlands, what happens to you? If you don't bathe in Spain, will you still be treated with respect?

What forms of 'public disapproval' happen in your respective countries?

[Tribesman]

Oh come off it Don

-Street corner preaching

thats street theatre , and they don't even expect the audience to throw money for the performance
Theres a couple of really entertaining Ugandan ones in town this year , though they are not on a par with the Plymouth Brethren I used to come across in Britian , them brethren really give a good show , plenty of old time old testament smiting and damnation stuff .

[Don Corleone]

I mean the guys that come up and scream at you and get in your face. I mean anybody can climb up on a soapbox, the rest of us are free to walk around them. I'm talking about the wild-eyed sandwich board wearing guys that chase you down the street.

[Goofball]

I find that a small chuckle combined with an indulgent shake of your head and an eye roll (like you would give your three year old who had just dumped his ice cream sundae all over his shirt) really pisses them off, because it gives them an indication of how silly they look to others.

[Haudegen]

The best tip I can think of is: be spontaneous. Say or do something erratic that leaves the bugger speechless.

[Husar]

Worst I have experienced was some guy shouting around in the city, might've been racist, I just ignored him completely as did most others.

I don't really think it's very annoying, one time I listened to a nature activist girl secretly waiting for her to ask for some money only to block off completely at that point. I did sth similar with a guy who wanted to sell me an internet contract, in the end he had everything but my signature, after he wasted a lot of time and still didn't get it, he wished me a nice day and went on.

People who smell are somewhat annoying though, especially smokers, but you live and let live or how was that again?

[Shaka_Khan]

*BOOM* *BOOM* *uhuhahuahaha* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *SHAKA* *BOOM*

[Fragony]

What forms of 'public disapproval' happen in your respective countries?

Nothing really, ignore it, but then again we don't need to be noticed that much. People will look at eachother, shake shake their heads in a display of disaproval and continue with whatever they were doing.

[Sigurd]

I depend on my mood and the situation.

I really dislike beggars in the streets. Especially here in Norway where there is no need to beg. My disliking started when some idiot beggar boasted in a newspaper article that he received 30 000 NoK ($5000) a month tax-free from begging in the streets. This was far more than I earned busting my @ss off at the time in the military. From that moment I usually tell them were to go if they stop me in the street asking for money (which is the work centre, the social office or some place where it is rather hot). I am remembering my fellow beings when abroad though.
One time in Lithuania, I and a couple of friends had been to a concert in one of the beautiful churches in Kaunas. When we got out there was an old beggar woman there with a tin cup at the bottom of the stairs. We emptied our pockets and gave her all our change. We didn’t realise that what we gave her amounted to a months pay in Lithuania. To us it wouldn’t buy much in Norway. Tears streamed down her chin and we asked a by passer to tell us what this lady was trying to communicate to us. She had prayed for help when her pension had not come this month and thanked her Lord for the three Angles that had helped her in her time of need. Yeah, we were all tall blond guys, but wings we had not.

I dislike people talking on the phone in shops and on public transportation or people being rude to others. But I usually don’t do anything other than sending them an evil look.
Again it depends on the mood. I once told a guy to shut the hell up on a bus. This particular bus you don’t pay to ride. It is a service for those that park a little outside the town centre and it takes a roundtrip into the city. This particular day the bus broke down when it was about to leave. It was full of people both standing and sitting down. This guy was obviously either a drug addict or a general trouble maker. He started to mouth off to the driver about the bad service and the driver's lacking abilities to drive buses. There was an elderly Danish couple there where the man had a slight touch of claustrophobia and this trouble maker started mouthing to them as well.
I turned to this fellow and with drill instructor piercing eyes and voice, I told the man to shut up, drop to the floor and give 20. Ok, not the last part, but I explained why his behaviour was making him sound really stupid. This was a free bus service and he hadn’t paid to be there, in fact I bet he had no car parked in the parking house (I said some other stuff as well not fit for printing). The bus driver was on his walkie talkie and didn’t notice the Danish elderly man and his wife because of the throng on the bus. I opened the back door by using the emergency lever to let them out and they thanked me for handling the situation.

With queue cutting (called “smiting” here). I usually don’t make a scene when it happens. I don’t think there is a culture to cut lines here and people usually ask if they can get in front of you. I am not one to decline, and will usually let people in front of me if they are elderly or pregnant even if they don’t ask.

I can’t speak for all of Norway but my feel is that the elderly and people not from big cities are bolder and more up front than people in cities. It is not unusual to see an elderly man scolding an adolescent young man for putting his feet on the seat in front of him, or a youngster for sitting when they should give their seat up for an old lady or a pregnant woman.

I guess people should be told how to behave in public... If they don't like what you say, tough!

[Fragony]

I really dislike beggars in the streets. Especially here in Norway where there is no need to beg.

Was kinda surprised how many of them there are in Bergen, beggars everywhere, all drunk. Which is quite odd considering liquor prices in Norway. Hate it as well, they get 850 euro a month, that buys you a lot here. It can be fun to buy a junk a sandwich and watch them struggling eating it but that's just me.

[Randarkmaan]

Well, in my hometown, or should I say village, we have these people we call "rånere" (maybe some other Norwegians know of an English term for this), they are usually Norwegians, from a farm or something or just living in a place there are a quite a few farms (I live in a sort of... agricultural place), they "attend" (meaning they mostly skip) some sort of mechanical school and spend most of their time by a kebab shop down by the bus-stop, there some of them have "pimped out" rides, usually some old car with lots of "bitz" and a sound system which may or may not have been stolen, the fashion is shaved heads and "snus"-lips, they listen to rap (both Norwegian and "gangsta").
They are one of the most pathetic breeds of people I know.

I don't know that much about if "ganstas" in the city (usually Pakistanis, Turks, Serbs or Bosnians) drive pimped out rides though, many of them probably do. Norwegians aren't usually gangstas, they're either a "wannabe
gangstas" if they're from the city or they are "rånere" from more rural regions.

[HoreTore]

Well, in my hometown, or should I say village, we have these people we call "rånere" (maybe some other Norwegians know of an English term for this), they are usually Norwegians, from a farm or something or just living in a place there are a quite a few farms (I live in a sort of... agricultural place), they "attend" (meaning they mostly skip) some sort of mechanical school and spend most of their time by a kebab shop down by the bus-stop, there some of them have "pimped out" rides, usually some old car with lots of "bitz" and a sound system which may or may not have been stolen, the fashion is shaved heads and "snus"-lips, they listen to rap (both Norwegian and "gangsta").
They are one of the most pathetic breeds of people I know.

I don't know that much about if "ganstas" in the city (usually Pakistanis, Turks, Serbs or Bosnians) drive pimped out rides though, many of them probably do. Norwegians aren't usually gangstas, they're either a "wannabe
gangstas" if they're from the city or they are "rånere" from more rural regions.

The annoying ones are all Norwegians. Unfortunately, and it pains me to say this, they all come from Mjøndalen. That might be where I'm from too.... Their home base is the Statoil gas station, which is why I'm forced to buy my gas at Shell...

There are 3 different breeds of that race:

1. The main leaders, ie. the ones who actually own a car.
2. Their underage "girlfriends".
3. The slaves, ie. those without a car, who thinks that sitting in the backseat of an '84 Volvo 240 painted like a cow makes them cool.

Edit: btw, calling Lier "sort of an agricultural area"... That's an understatement if ever there was one.