• GorbinOutOverHere [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    I flipped a guy off two or three weeks ago because he blew through a four way stop and almost got either of us killed. Well he did a u turn and blew through the stop again and followed me home and yelled at me about how I “shouldn’t do that because dangerous people will hurt me” and I asked if he was warning me or threatening me and he said “I’m threatening you” and then shoved me against my car before trying to run me over while I got his license plate number

    I still haven’t gone to the cops and a small part of why is everybody acts like I’m the fucking asshole. “You shouldn’t have done that” from my girlfriend, brother, parents. FUCK YOU. I made a rude gesture because someone did something dangerous that could have gotten someone killed. I’m not the fucking asshole here. Maybe if I weren’t male I’d get more sympathy but instead it’s like “woops you fucked around and found out” and it’s my fault instead of this person being utterly fucking insane.

  • Sightly related to the road rage stuff.

    I tend to drive very conservatively when it comes to acceleration. I have a hybrid and I love getting 50-60mpg, plus I find that my slow acceleration often makes it so I don’t get caught at red lights; all the while people who punch it end up hurrying up only to wait. So and way, had a guy in an F150 passing me pretty aggressively recently, but as he does so I hear a scraping and banging sound. I look left to see his kayak skidding down the road next to me.

    michael-laugh

  • Dagwood222
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    11 months ago

    The quote comes from a science fiction novel called ‘Beyond This Horizon.’ Written by Robert A. Heinlein.

    In the book, the government encourages particular couples to wed because of eugenics. A waiter spilling soup in a restaurant leads to a gunfight.

    Heinlein loved throwing crazy idea around.

    • richietozier4 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      It’s time for more “Deep Thoughts with Heinlein”. “Human society brainwashes us into accepting artificial limitations on our lives and our choices. This is wrong! Love should be free, and without limit. Unless it’s gay of course!” And that concludes our "Deep Thoughts with Heinlein.

      OSP’s review of Stranger in a Strange Land

      • Dagwood222
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        11 months ago

        OMG! Someone wrote bad things about gay people in 1964. They must be horrible, horrible people!!

          • Dagwood222
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            11 months ago

            So, I shouldn’t read Sherlock Holmes, because he was in favor of the British Empire?

            How about Greeks and Romans who endorsed slavery?

            • AlkaliMarxist [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              11 months ago

              Sorry, I should have explained. Here, we generally believe that it is ok to consume media made by shitty people but that you should place it into the correct context, which in Heinlein’s case is that he had bigoted and proto-fascist beliefs that influenced his work. We don’t think it’s necessary to defend someone (or their work) from fair criticism just because we enjoy consuming what they create.

              So yes, read Sherlock Holmes and Greek and Roman works, but do not think that Doyle’s western chauvinism doesn’t color his works and acknowledge that Plato or Cicero had crappy beliefs that should remain dead and buried with them, but still expand your mind by becoming aware of what they believed and why by reading them. Do not uncritically accept their beliefs and do not defend them or their beliefs just because they are talented or interesting or important.

              Criticism is not, in itself, censorship, and understanding requires context and critique.

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      Heinlein’s great because every one of his novels sounds like hack dystopia fiction, but then he’s like “yeah so pretty dope right? we should definitely do this, yeah? anyway please vote for me in the next school board election.”

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    Oh but the second someone nominally leftie shoots a republican fascist at a baseball game everyone wants gun control. Not when a white boater kulak shoots a black mom of three in the back for being rude to him at a gas station.

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    The fact that “road rage shootings” are a thing in the US is so fucked up. You can just get executed in broad daylight by a random lunatic because both of you are so alienated from one another through your individual metal boxes that a mild annoyance is enough for people to reach for a lethal weapon.

    • wopazoo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      “Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.”

      Get that? The intention of “an armed society” isn’t to reduce gun violence. The whole purpose is to increase gun violence, to generate an excuse for murder that helps “cull” the weaker members of society. That’s what people are promoting when they use this quote.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    It’s stressful how mad everyone in Texas is too. Especially while driving. If they’re delayed 5 seconds, it’s grounds for a shouting and slurs. If they’re delayed 1 minute or more, a gun comes out. Everyone here needs to go as fast as possible while visibly armed.

    I was fixing my bike on the sidewalk in a suburb about a year ago and two guys with guns came out to threaten me, told me I was acting suspicious. I have a feeling if I weren’t white I’d have been shot. I’ve also had drivers in big trucks tap me from behind while biking.

    My cousin once shot at a lost driver who was simply using his driveway to turn around. He carries an actual SMG to meet UPS at the door too. Everyone’s paranoid that a civil war will erupt at any moment. Pure narcissistic lily white panic.

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    I’m feeling fight or flight levels of anxiety just reading the replies here.

    Holy shit America…

    I’m glad I don’t live there and live in a normal society where life isn’t a parody of Grand Theft Auto.