"What do you say?"

"Say thank you to the lady."

"What's the magic word?"

Polite people are just the ones that resembled parrots the most when they were young, repeating what they told to say "to the nice lady/ man" endlesly and eventually without thought or real feeling.

Even now, if these people forget to ask nicely for something ("Could I please have a chicken and pea pie, please. Thank you very much") they expect a giant hand to come out of nowhere and smack them on the butt, or take their pie away from them until they learn how to "be nice".

Yes, society has a lot to answer for.