Comment on Basic courtesy
laranis@lemmy.zip 4 days agoI want to agree with this sooo badly. But I have some empathy for crazy gun guy. And in some dispicable sense, the gun guy is acting completely rationally, if being severely short sighted.
Hypothetical: You drop litter on the ground. On purpose because you’re a thoughtless asshat. Someone calls you on it. Shouting ensues. They slap a magnet on your car. You rip it off and throw it on the ground because you have already demonstrated your unwillingness to give a shit about leaving things to rot in mother nature. They, in response, give your car a nice new scratch with a key and the damage is now permanent.
What’s your next move? Walk away? Call the police? Try to get their license plate and submit to your insurance company? Shame them on Tik Tok?
You’ve lost because your opponent was willing to escalate to vandalism, a crime for which you suffer and that no one is likely to take seriously enough to bring justice.
Society has broken down in this little ecosystem of two. Anyone can injure you, threaten your livelihood. Take away your security. What’s stopping them?
Until you unholster that 1.5lb mechanism of steel, lead, and brass. Now, you’re back in control. You are secure. Things are certain again. No one will be scratching your car, breaking your window, stealing food out of the mouths of your children.
There’s a certain rationality behind it, is all I’m saying.
Of course, we as rational thinkers can see the folly inherent in this escalation. Every petty spat becomes a life or death scenario. If we assume the rule of law still punished outright murder, then you are right back to your original quandary of whether to walk away or be the ultimate kind of “right”.
This is where mores in a society become critical. Maybe we’ve lost our sense of right and wrong behind a veil of rule-of-law. Maybe we’ve become too virtual to truly have a society based on mutual values. Maybe I’m just high and should go stare out a window.
TL;DR: Don’t litter.
Maybe I’m just high and should go stare out a window.
You’ve unironically provided verbal support for a guy wanting to use lethal force against someone causing no property damage while attempting to bring attention to anti-social behavior.
Yes, you should probably reflect some on why you believe that murdering someone over a magnet is appropriate (brandishing a firearm is assault with a deadly weapon, and in some places attempted murder for a reason).
Wow USA is strange, how did calling the police after the vandalism become “losing” or “irrational”.
It sounds like the thought process is: just in case someone might commit a crime, preemptive escalation is the best choice.
Wild. I’d call that thought procecess verging on sociopathic not rational. If a person’s fear of crime is so crippling that they think society has broken down because they fear a crime that they dream might happen; that person was never a well adjusted member of society. I’d think anyone trying to do business with or interact with such people should be careful - they’re unlikely to follow predictable or normal behaviour patterns.
I’d get that mindset might be rational for the BLM-type victims in those states /areas where law and order does seem to systematically fail some communities. But if it’s based on fear rather than evidence of law and order having broken down then, it’s less rational.
I agree the guy shouldn’t be so quick to pull a gun, but it also solved his problem very quickly. He was getting harassed, gun came out, he was no longer harassed. Nobody got hurt, nothing was damaged, and the situation was resolved quickly.
The Cart Narc guy was fine at first, but he should’ve said his business and left it at that. He kept arguing, pulled out a magnet and was just harassing the guy over a cart. The guy in the van has no idea when the dude will stop, so he stops him safely (for him). He didn’t jump out to fight.
How does this resolve in California? Same people, no gun? Do they all hug at the end?
I agree the guy shouldn’t be so quick to pull a gun, but it also solved his problem very quickly. He was making sure carts were returned, gun came out, no more carts in the parking lot. Nobody got hurt, nothing was damaged, and the situation was resolved quickly.
Does it sound insane yet?
Yes, its insane the most effective way to say “don’t put that thing on my truck and go away” is a gun. Both are in the wrong.
Cart guy should’ve left earlier, gun guy should never pulled a gun (and put the fucking cart away)
zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 4 days ago
Dude, going from my car got a removable magnet on it to my car got keyed to my children’s lives are at stake is an insane take, not a rational one. Justifying shooting someone because you’re generally scared is something cops do when they shoot an unarmed, handcuffed black man because an acorn sounds like danger. It’s not a defensible position.