Sometimes, other people are annoying.

And sometimes, just sometimes, we’ve all had enough of people being annoying and feel compelled to take a stand.

Whether that’s someone playing music aloud on public transport or someone being rude to a retail employee, it’s sometimes all you can do but step in and call an end to their behavior with your own hands.

Such was the case when the person in this story asked something of a fellow pharmacy customer.

But they were not prepared for their response.

Read on to find out what happened.

AITA for asking someone to stop smacking their gum in a public setting?

Recently I asked the man next to me at the pharmacy seating area to stop smacking his gum.

I very kindly said “I’m not trying to be an ******* but could you please stop smacking your gum?”

He goes, “mmm a little bit of an *******”.

He then went on to talk about how he would rather have less Christmas music and made a big scene about throwing away the gum, which is not something I asked or implied he should do.

Let’s see why the gum sound was a problem for this guy.

Now two things: firstly, I am autistic and sound is a huge sensory overload for me. The sound was making me want to scream.

Obviously doing that would make me the *******, however I was very kind and patient in how I asked him to stop making the noise. I also waited about ten minutes before saying anything.

Secondly, if there was anywhere else to go sit and wait, I would have.

I acknowledge this is a me-nerve to have hit, but I was literally losing my mind, and again, I was very kind and patient in my request. I didn’t snap or cop an attitude.

AITA?

It’s true that this is an annoying sound, and having to deal with an adult repeatedly making this noise must have been a lot for this guy to have to deal with.

It seems like the gum-chewer was irritated to have another adult try to tell them what to do (or, in this case, what not to do), but he didn’t need to be so rude.

After all, this guy tolerated the noise for a while before he politely asked him to stop.

Let’s see what the Reddit community thought about this.

This person agreed that the gum-chewer was out of order in his response.

Though others encouraged him to find a self-focused way of handling such things.

Meanwhile, this Redditor explained how they block out triggering sounds.

Sure there’s plenty that this person could have done to block out the sound, but that doesn’t change the fact that the gum-chewer was rude to them.

They’ve got to accept that if the sound was annoying the person who confronted them, the chances are that others find his behavior annoying too, but aren’t brave enough to confront him.

After all, what grown adult smacks his gum these days.

It doesn’t make you look cool buddy.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.