In the America I grew up in, only a psychopath would poke a stranger with a pen. I still don’t regard it as a normal human interaction.
I didn’t mean that her act was normal, but that these kind of things that we read about all day used to be part of life and we were expected to deal with them, or us and the people there.
Today, insults, a small scuffle, a weirdo poking you with something, or bumping your seat, or all kinds of things, requires the government or big time authorities to get involved.
Poking someone with a pen, that you were sitting next to, was not exactly freakish and unheard of 50 years ago.
Yeah this is Not what you do. You accidentally shift in the seat and bump the person.