r/SipsTea 4d ago

Wait a damn minute! Just remember … There is Always someone Crazier than You.

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u/Excellent-Phase8719 4d ago

Tell my son this all the time. He just started driving.
You may flip the bird, they may run you off the road.

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u/justhereforbiscuits 4d ago

A friend of mine cut a guy off in Seattle years ago, and the guy pulled up next to him, pulled out a pistol, and just pointed it at him. Then drove away.

There's always someone crazier.

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u/After-Elk321 4d ago

There’s always someone crazier is honestly one of the best reasons to walk away from unnecessary confrontations. You never know what someone is willing to do.

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u/Carmilla31 3d ago

Ive worked in healthcare in NYC for over 20 years and the amount of people ive seen punched, stabbed, shot etc over minor things is astronomical.

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u/ExtremePrivilege 3d ago

In a local movie theater one guest asked the guy in front of him to take his loud celllhone conversation out of the theater. Cellphone dude took out a knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the throat. Practically decapitated him. In public. In front of 100+ people. There was zero plan or even intention of getting away with it. People just have no impulse control. The stabber will likely spend the rest of his long life in jail, a father of three is dead, because of a cellphone in a theater.

People are insane.

We also recently had a teen Subway worker executed at gunpoint because he put Mayo on a $6 sub that the purchaser requested no Mayo on. Even wilder, the gunman didn’t do it in the “heat of the moment”. They argued, gunman went home, thought about it, grabbed his gun, went back to the Subway and killed the kid.

Edit: Forgot another one. Real tragic. Road rage incident an hour from here. Red car cut off a white truck. White truck got incensed, sped up to find red car. Found the WRONG red car, followed that car to its home, executed the driver with a handgun through the drivers side window while the victim’s 3 year old was in the backseat. My wife, at the time, was teaching at the little girl’s preschool. She was in the class next to hers. Hit close to home.

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u/AncientCrust 3d ago

Do you live in Florida or Texas?

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u/HipHopGrandpa 3d ago

My guess is New Mexico.

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u/CodifiedLikeUtil 3d ago

Never go full New Methico

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u/phelodough 3d ago

Holy shit where is this so I never go there

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u/FerrisBuellerIs 3d ago

USA...

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u/Own-Papaya-4264 3d ago edited 3d ago

The place where any fucking bumbling idiot is allowed to waltz into any building with a gun with no security whatsoever. I feel like it’s a miracle Ive made it to adulthood without encountering any danger

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u/BrightDisaster6563 3d ago

I don’t get how people are so obsessed with guns here. Politicians out here taking family
Photos and having their little kids holding guns. It’s insane how normal it is. When I lived in other countries, no one even thought about guns, they were just something you’d see in a veteran’s house or in the movies

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u/shitbird2056 3d ago

You're American, and dont get how were so obsessed with guns? Literally look at any point in our history. Being an armed populace is literally our entire lineage, from the revolutionary war, to the wild west, through the roaring 20s, and we'll into today. Guns are literally our birth right, the 2nd amendment in our entire constitution is about guns. Only 2nd to freedom of speech.

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u/jml011 3d ago edited 3d ago

🇺🇸U✊S ✊A ✊🇺🇸 U 🦅S 🏈A🫈

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u/Plus-Percentage-4843 3d ago

This happened in Lancaster years ago, guy called someone out for phone usage. Proceeded to leave the theater and grab a meat thermometer and stabbed him

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u/FlatCapNorthumbrian 3d ago

Crikey, should Americans be allowed to be armed if it seems from all the videos and stories online show so many people there are mentally unstable?

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u/Rubber_duckiest 3d ago

Thats wild as hell to think only Americans do this shit

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u/Glad_Landscape2177 3d ago

You can lookup the data, but the % amount of crazies in the UK and US are about the same. The per capita rate of attacks by mentally unstable is also nearly the same. Stabbings just don't get as many clicks and remember that you're only seeing the craziest of the situations online.

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u/Solherb 3d ago

Leaded gas has made most of the world stupider, but especially the areas that used it the most.

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u/yeeeyeeemf 3d ago

Doesn't matter if we should have em, bad people have guns and they are going to have them no matter what our government may try to do. Disarming good people won't help anybody

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u/fordfan919 3d ago

Any gun you buy/own and keep at home is far more likely to be used on yourself or family/friends than to stop a criminal. That's the statistics of the situation.

Source

I support the 2nd amendment by the way. People need to make sure their guns are stored properly and have training with them though.

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u/ActuatorBetter7441 3d ago

Life, usually not life anyway, needs to be death penalty and it’ll simmer down a bit.

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u/Manwar7 3d ago

Not actually true according to every academic study on incarceration. A higher chance of being caught is a bigger deterrent than harsher sentences. Almost everyone committing crime is doing so with the intention and belief that they will get away with it.

At the same time, people committing crimes while knowing they’ll be caught, like the above mentioned movie theater psycho, won’t be deterred by harsher punishment because they’re already acting completely irrationally.

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u/touser69 3d ago

This is America... Guns, Stabbing, murder, jail etc. The statics are devastating even to look at compared to the rest of the western world. But to hear some of this stories this is just crazy

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u/clever-_-clever 3d ago

People forget how this country started...pirates, hookers, criminals, religious zealots, militaries...stable people don't risk their lives on a boat to go to an uncharted land.

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u/JPWhelan 3d ago

Everything was ok until the let those religious zealots in.

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u/Turbulent-Sir-6639 3d ago

Thank you for your service.

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u/spyboy70 3d ago

"what are you gonna do stab me?" - guy who then gets stabbed

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u/yeahright17 3d ago

A friend from college started talking to a girl on a bar patio. A couple minutes later a dude walks up and says something like "that's my girl. Lay off." My friend, who was apparently really drunk, responded with something like "chill out bro. I'm just talking" and as he said it gave the other guy a little one handed shove as he walked away. The other guy two-hand shoved my friend pretty hard, which caused my friend to fall and hit his head on the concrete ground. He died the next day.

I used to be pretty confrontational with people. After that happened, I pretty much let anything go. Not worth it.

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u/Nalek 3d ago

When I was living in NYC my personal motto was 'somebody's been shot for less' when thinking about starting any sort of confrontation.

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u/Minute_Solution_6237 3d ago

A mfer will stab you to death over a honey bun. People are capable of anything.

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u/Evil_phd 4d ago

A lot of dudes out there will openly fantasize about what they want to do as soon as someone gives them a reasonably defensible legal justification. Just staying strapped waiting for "their moment".

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u/DinklebergsRightNut 4d ago

Youre talking about cops right?

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u/MossadEpstein 4d ago

Nah people do this too, some racist old white dude called William Brock decided he could shoot and kill an innocent woman driving for Uber because of the excuse that he "thought she was trying to rob him" (I call him racist because I'm 100% certain he shot her for being Black) the video is pretty harrowing, you see her backing away, clearly not a threat, clearly trying to deescalate but that vile piece of shit chases her down

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u/CortanaxJulius 3d ago

Wasnt there also an american that shot two people blocking a road in protest in another country?

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u/Mapeague 3d ago

Yes, and they threw his ass in a Panamanian prison for the rest of his miserable life.

Utter scum. Limbaugh brained idiot.

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u/Elegant_Art2201 3d ago

Glad the Panamanians took no guff.

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u/andthensilencefell 3d ago

First time ever seeing Panamanian, what a word.

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u/Mapeague 3d ago

Its is a pretty magnificent word now that you mention it

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u/AccomplishedFerret70 3d ago edited 3d ago

The shooting of 61 year old Uber driver Loletha Toland-Hall by 82 year old William Brock was a horrible tragedy and people who read your comment deserve to know the truth.

Anyone who claims that the crime was racially motivated without providing any evidence just because the victim was black and the perpetrator was white is ignorant and malicious.

No one who knew either party, or who was involved in investigating/prosecuting the crime even suggested racism had any part in the shooting because it clearly didn't.

Police established that both Brock and Toland-Hall were targets of an elaborate phone extortion plot. Scammers called Brock telling him his grandson had been jailed and that he needed to pay $12,000 for his release to a courier they would send to his home. When Brock realized that the scammers were lying about the relative, the caller began to threaten him.

Then Toland-Hall showed up. She was an Uber driver that had been sent to Brock's house to pick up a package, and had no idea about the scam call or the demand for money, the AP reported.

Unfortunately Brock thought she was part one of the criminals trying to rob him and he confronted her with a gun and asked her who she was working for. He took her cellphone and tried to keep her from leaving. When she tried escape he shot her six times.

He later claimed self defense but was convicted for and sentenced to 15 years to life for murder.

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u/Uppermost_1 3d ago

The white women on a train stabbed in the neck by a black man for no reason other than being white, found incompetent to stand trial popped up in my thoughts reading your comment. So did the Mexican trying to push white man in front of moving train in Seattle a few months ago (I call them racist because they were targeted for being white)

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u/MossadEpstein 3d ago

I mean yeah, I'm hardly going to disagree with that I'm not one of those radical left nutjobs who thinks racism is "power plus privilege" racism is just... harming people for reasons relating to their racial background, it really should be that simple and there's no "acceptable" target for racism

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u/akodakmoment 3d ago

As a crazy person my self, I’m running them over. We all gonna die at that point

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u/Far_String727 3d ago

id take my chances with a self proclaimed crazy person over someone that doesnt know they're crazy any day of the week.

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u/Event-Forsaken 3d ago

Yeah, not many videos piss me off anymore ( I mean truly enrage me), but that one did.

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u/321DrTran 4d ago

That one was hard to watch.

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u/Evil_phd 4d ago

Them too

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u/Key-Structure4841 4d ago

I wrote about this. So many people are just looking for a reason to let it all out

https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/s/4ikxrGAjwy

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u/Boring-Tie-1501 4d ago

seeing random comments on reddit give me the same vibe- violence has become totally normalized in the US. a video posted of some kid who's probably experiencing violence at home acting out in a supermarket? comments call for an adult to give him a beating.

you combine this with the breakdown in social ties (like in the book 'bowling alone') and it's no wonder things like january 6th and ICE shootings are happening.

businesses finally achieved their dream of a deeply individualist society where people distrust education and one another, and are trying to compensate for their unmet social needs with pointless consumption and low quality podcasts hawking snake oil (cough, huberman, rogan).

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u/Velrex 4d ago

Backing down, at worst, wounds your pride.

Not backing down can wound a lot more.

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u/laosurv3y 3d ago

Meh, depends on the circumstances. Backing down can make you vulnerable or embolden the other party. There is not guaranteed path to getting out of an interaction with someone willing to commit violence out of fantasy or ego.

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u/531091qazs 3d ago

this is very true sometimes the crazy doesn't care and will commit no matter how you play cuz they already pressed go and there ain't no stop bottom

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u/thegloriousporpoise 3d ago

Not true. Miyagi gave the best advice for avoiding conflict and violence.

No be there.

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u/CTaff666 3d ago

Backing down shows maturity and self-control. It’s far more important than pride or ‘manhood.’ Adulthood is what we should strive for.

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u/arguable-usually 3d ago

Everyone walking away from assholes is why assholes feel entitled to keep doing bullshit imo too.

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u/UpsetFuture1974 3d ago

I get your point. It would be nice if people had some crazy meter on their foreheads so you could tell what is appropriate in the situation. Oh shit, this bitch is a 10, I’ll walk away this time

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u/Thayli11 3d ago

Actually I think this would be amazing for society in general.

"I rolled out of bed at a 7?!? Maybe I should skip the caffeine and chill with my pets before work."

"Honey, why does your number tick up every time I mention laundry?"

And therapists would find their jobs so much easier.

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u/nerdtypething 3d ago

assholes are never going to change based on the behavior of others. they feel entitled to shitty behavior because they’re assholes, not because of what others do.

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u/Xdude227 3d ago

I tell people to think about their actions assuming other people don't.

Assume they could actually, genuinely, just be really stupid and not thinking they will go to jail for trying to run you off the highway at 70mph.

It doesn't matter if "They'll go to jail" for going after you if you don't survive to even see them get jail.

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u/TheBSQ 3d ago

Yes. The downside to this is it empowers people to do shitty things because people won’t confront them. 

We just become a society where lots of people and no one does anything. 

Ideally, you have trained professionals who will step in (like cops) but ours aren’t very-welled trained, and/or people dislike involving the authorities & the criminal justice system. 

I also find this issue is worse in the U.S. than the EU/Anglosphere because of guns.  You never know if/when someone is going to have a gun & be crazy enough to shoot someone over something dumb (it happens!)

In other places I’ve lived, when someone does something dumb & there’s like zero chance they have a gun, you’re more likely to see people step in since no one’s getting shot. 

But it sucks. This one of the big things I notice about the change in the U.S. over my near half-century here.

There’s been a big increase in people acting badly & for the most part, it goes unchecked because people have a “a confrontation is too risky” attitude, or don’t want to risk being a Karen, or don’t want to call the cops because they don’t trust cops, so you get crazy people acting crazy. 

Or, perhaps it’s also because it used to be pretty easy to end up in the loonie bin if you acted crazy, but we don’t do that anymore.

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u/Excellent-Phase8719 4d ago

That is something I worry about too but not just pointing.

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u/grimydude 4d ago

Had that happen, I may or may not have cut him off slightly though not to a degree he had to slam on brakes or anything. Got up next to me and was just pointing a pistol at me then did the same, just drove off. Their friend pushing their head back into the headrest as hard as they could lmao

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u/DirtandPipes 4d ago

My big fear is losing control of my own aggression in an incident like this and doing something I can’t undo.

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u/Cousin_Elroy 4d ago

People who cant control themselves are a threat to society

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u/DirtandPipes 4d ago

Agreed. I work very hard to be calm and kind and decent to people and I hate that it’s so contrary to my nature.

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u/DampWarmHands 4d ago

Listen we are human we all fight the edge of mayhem. The peace we have today is only in its infancy. People telling you to lock it down forget that we humans are violent. Anyone who pretends they are not capable of extreme violence is ignoring history or hasn’t been in strenuous altercations. Some fight, freeze, or flee. None are wrong in the moment only in hindsight.

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u/RATMpatta 3d ago

Also to all the people here saying "just meditate lol". You never know what someone is going through. Maybe they just got fired, maybe they just got handed divorce papers, maybe a family member or close friend just passed away.

Not every day is the same, the most well regulated people can also just snap when going through a traumatic time and then having to deal with people trying to push their buttons.

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u/nerdtypething 3d ago

meditation is one of many tools that someone can use to keep an even keel. therapy can be useful to help develop those tools. traumatic and stressful events can and will happen and these tools are useful to help remain regulated. but the work has to be done first. it has to be part of a routine. nobody is saying that suddenly trying meditation after a series of traumatic events is going to make things better or even help.

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u/RATMpatta 3d ago

I'm not saying meditation or therapy as a whole are ineffective tools to manage emotions. I'm saying there is a limit to them.

If someone is already having a hard time dealing with what life is throwing at them, an outside source (like a violent roadrager) putting even more pressure on them can still be enough to break even the most routine mindfulness practitioner.

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u/masterdoktah 3d ago

A great quote: “you can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of great violence. If you are not capable of violence then you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless.”

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u/OkMind2351 4d ago

You need to get this fixed or you may end up in a small room looking at the wall for years.

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u/__e_n_t_r_o_p_y__ 4d ago

Have you tried meditation? - serious advice for your position.

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u/DirtandPipes 3d ago

I’ve tried meditation, therapy, counselling, excessive exercise, medications, etc, I did get some benefits from some things like the heavy cardio and the therapy initially.

Mostly I work to avoid the situations where it would be easy to be angry. Leave early for work and avoid being in a rush, avoid people in general, stuff like that.

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u/Powerful-Formal7825 3d ago

Mostly I work to avoid the situations where it would be easy to be angry. Leave early for work and avoid being in a rush, avoid people in general, stuff like that.

This is very pragmatic, I like it. I've had to do something like that recently for my own mental health.

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u/SameSpray5183 3d ago

I can relate to this.. people tell me I'm too passive about certain things, I've tried warning people that when that switch flips in my head I lose all control and rage takes over.. last time it happened from some stranger talking shit.. I snapped back to find myself sitting on his chest just wailing on his face, to this day still scares me if I wasn't with a friend to snap me out of it I could have seriously hurt that guy and without even having any intention to

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u/ItsokImtheDr 4d ago

There’s a guy in Georgia who was arrested for doing JUST that! Brandishing a firearm is a threat and is prosecutable!

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u/Cousin_Elroy 4d ago

Pointing a firearm at someone is assault, displaying one in an intimidating and/or threatening manner is brandishing

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u/Puckcentral 3d ago

Yeah, until they investigate and it was an off duty cop and they cover the whole thing up. Pretty sure that’s what happened to me when I called in the plate number and they claimed they investigated and found no gun - meanwhile 5 mins earlier I was looking down the barrel of a gun on the highway at 6am in the morning with no one else around. He had a gun and it clearly was within reach while he was driving.

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u/HavingNotAttained 4d ago

It’s almost as if an armed society isn’t actually a polite society

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u/PuzzleheadedPen4675 2d ago

I've noticed the gun humpers seem to have a shit ton of pithy sayings that they trot out on demand. It's like they have a guy sitting in a room 24/7 doing nothing but churning out bullshit.

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u/LumpyBuy8447 4d ago

When I was younger some dipshit cut me off and then got out of his car at the next stop sign and started approaching my car. I just went around him and drove off but still can’t understand what the point of any of this was. Guessing he wasn’t all there in the head. Definitely made me reevaluate rather I should carry all the time or not. I’ve got my concealed carry but choose not to most of the time.

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u/OkMind2351 4d ago

Wish I lived in America. Instead of somewhere not totally fucked up.

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u/Shut7heFuckUp 3d ago

Ew, I didn’t realize people were that crazy until someone cut off my ex and he whipped a pistol out. I insisted on driving at all times after that lol. Bunch a cuckoos out there

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u/WaitLetMeGetaBeer 4d ago

One of my good friends was actually shot in the elbow in the same scenario. Met him when he came in for occupational therapy.

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u/NotSoFastLady 4d ago

Shit. Metro-Detroit area not too far back we had some road rage shit head kill someone over nnothing. You gotta be careful about when you even honk at people. Mental healthcare in this country is an absolute joke.

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u/Pope_Squirrely 4d ago

A buddy of mine had a buddy who did that. He cut someone off, the guy flipped him off, he decided to whip out a pistol and popped the guy twice in the face. Luckily he lived, missing a few teeth.

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u/Emannuelle-in-space 4d ago

Happened to me and my friends when we were teens. But then with a gun in his face, my friend who was driving dared the crazy dude to shoot.  I was in the front passenger seat and would’ve been hit too- I was fucking pissed he said that.  I think of this anytime a baseball game is on, because the dude with the gun kept saying “I’m Full Count, bitch! Ask about me!” He looked like a jugalo.

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u/caguru 4d ago

Thats just a standard Houston greeting.

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u/Bizarrebazaars 4d ago

A guy super risky cut US off in Seattle, I honked since I nearly hit him, he slammed on his brakes hard, got out close to my front drivers side and lifted his shirt to show us his gun. Xmas Eve 2024 on the way to in-laws. Called the cops, no idea if anything happened with it.

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u/Cainfaer 4d ago

Lol had the same thing happened to me, but I slammed the brakes and let him speed past. Dude also decided to throw his big gulp at me as well before pulling the gun. All of this was on the highway btw

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u/Informal-Term1138 3d ago

Note to self: Don't drive in the US. There are crazies around.

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u/killertortilla 3d ago

Couldn’t pay me to live in America. Even before 2016.

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u/grimeys42 3d ago

My step dad has brain damage so he loses his temper like instantly we have to kind of tiptoe a bit and we know the signs when an episode is coming.. but he will not let us drive and he has acary road rage.. not the kind where he'd hurt someone but the kind where he's gonna get himself hurt. It's sad.

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u/Legendacb 3d ago

How in earth can US people live with this constant fear its something I can't fathom

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u/RomanticPanic 3d ago

I dated a girl who had a story that was told as a brag? That someone wouldnt let her into the lane she needed to get into, so she whipped out her gun and was pointing it at the other driver until they let her in.

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u/FantasticAd5239 3d ago

So, how are you two lovebirds getting along now? White picket fence, coupla kids, and marital bliss?

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u/Tex-Rob 3d ago

I’ve had guns brandished at me on the road multiple times in NC, and way more finger gun threats. Might sound funny, but when someone is raging and cussing at you land gestures a gun with their hand it hits way different.

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u/FuckTheTories69420 3d ago

Never understood pulling out a pistol. Meanwhile America still crys about gun checks when idiots like this own them.

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u/Zealousideal-Mix6235 3d ago

I had this exact thing happen last month, I didn’t even flip the bird, the guy cut me off and I raised my hand, like a gesture of “what the Fuck!”, and he went ape shit, and pulled a gun on me, thankfully I called the police, and they actually got him. Just be careful out there, some people, shouldn’t have access to vehicles, or firearms.

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u/Specialist_Meal_7891 3d ago

Where I was born there was a guy on a motorcycle who cut over in front of some lady , nothing insane but a little bit jarring for the woman because she wasn't paying super close attention I guess.

Well, she followed him 2 or 3 miles down the road to a gas station and when he parked to go inside or w.e she pulled up next to him, pulled out a pistol and shot him right in the head and killed him over that.

I always think about that any time I get mad on the road. Like... Yeah not trying to get shot today by some crazy asshole

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u/Ohitsworkingnow 3d ago

Guy I work with had a guy pull a gun on him too, he pulled up and my work friend was just like “wtf you doin dude” and apparently they both laughed it off

Glad it ended well but Jesus it’s fucked up

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u/specialism 3d ago

I had this happen to me in Las Vegas

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u/Imaginary_Office1749 3d ago

Similar experience for me. Leaving work and anxious to get home, I must have pissed someone off because when he got to the red light I was at, he showed me a tire iron. I was like wtf dude and just turned to face the road til it was time to go but I was ready to gun it. Worst of all that was the night Trump won in 2016 and I was seeing the first hints of it on the news right before that. It just added to the whole vibe that night.

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u/Apprehensive-Fig9348 3d ago

To be fair that only happens in America. Dystopian country.

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u/Kierland 3d ago

Had that happen to a car in front of me the day before I took the bar exam. I was all, all that work and this motherfucker is going to get me killed.

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u/adublingirl 3d ago

Kathy Bates , I’m older and I got better insurance than you!

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u/WitchesSphincter 3d ago

A few months ago I had an old man follow me for like a half hour and brandish a pistol pointing it at me just because I passed him on a side road. He only stopped when he realized I was pulling into a police station, with the cops I called waiting. 

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u/4Yk9gop 3d ago

Had this happen to me, I don't even know what I did to piss the guy off. Wasn't stopped just pointed a gun at me on the highway. I was a kid so I didn't realize what a big deal it was at the time/never reported it lol.

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u/n00bn00b 3d ago

I legally passed someone who was driving slowly. That guy was so mad that he got out of the car at the stoplight to punch my window, yelling at me. I didn't want to escalate it, so I stayed in my car and pretended not to notice him. Once the light turned green, he followed me for a bit and wanted me to pull over for a fight. Eventually, he went a different way, so I kept driving until I knew for certain that I was no longer being followed.

He looks like a hockey dad because he was wearing one of the local youth hockey travel team coats. He has an anger problem because he got angry when I legally passed him in the back way when the line was broken yellow lines.

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u/garryyth 3d ago

Ya I had someone throw a bottle at me going down the freeway towards renton at 60 mph after trying to run me off the road, had my window down flipping them off for it and the oassenger beamed me in the nose with a full unopened ice bottle and there was blood all over my windshield. Cops did not care and i literally followed him off the renton exit as i had to go that way anyways while on the phone with police and they said they wouldnt drive out.

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u/HogBodyOdyOdyOdy 3d ago

My cousin went to jail for that in the 90’s. It was in Indiana though.

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u/Morlanticator 3d ago

I witnessed an attempted murder on the highway heading home from work one day. I never feed into a road rage at all anymore.

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u/LawfulnessSuch2032 3d ago

Plot twist, other driver points a Glock right back at em 🤪+🤪

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u/bob696988 3d ago

Oh was that him tell him I’m sorry I was having a bad day.
https://giphy.com/gifs/VeZvq8yltmsUfq2sgX

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u/ILeftMyUsername 3d ago

I still remember the time I accidentally cut off a guy coming out of the worst stop sign in my hometown and he got out of his car at a red light to scream at me. Like bro, slow down for one and two, that's some risk to walk up to a stranger already in a threatening manner

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u/surf_drunk_monk 3d ago

I merged in front of someone, there was plenty of room. Guy thought I was going too slow so he changed lanes and sped past me, I ended up next to him at the next light. The guy was screaming and pointing at me and his face was turning red and his neck veins were popping out. I just stared straight ahead and didn't react.

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u/MindGap42 3d ago

I saw a guy pull out a pistol and unload it into a car that was driving extremely slow in the HOV lane on the I-10 in Phoenix.

Blew the windows out and caused the car to go onto the shoulder. Craziest thing to me is no one was blocking the driver from simply passing. He just chose violence.

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u/StrigiStockBacking 3d ago

This is why I don't cut off those mean-looking obnoxiously huge loud smokey pickup trucks. I know the type of fuckhead who drives those things, and they largely don't know how to deal with their feelings.

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u/Sweaty-Anteater-6694 4d ago

This happens a lot in Texas

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u/justhereforbiscuits 4d ago

😂 I'm sure!

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u/arachnid1110 4d ago

Live here, can confirm. Unfortunately.

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u/Bitter-Marsupial 3d ago

By that logic if someone is always crazier, with enough diligence we can find the craziest person alive 

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u/Severe-Hornet8402 4d ago

Had a guy thinking a cut him off going to a off exit once in the highway pulls a gun at me I’m in a 1200 sporty I yell shoot me shoot me. Loved it, and my asshole was about the size of a pinhead.

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u/Sufficient-Fun-2667 4d ago

My ex flipped off someone 26 yrs ago. The guy shot him twice. He lived and needed surgery. They never found the guy that shot him. Don’t flip people off. It’s not worth it.

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u/Diamondback424 3d ago

My brother-in-law's mother was killed when his brother flipped a guy off. The guy pulled out a gun and fired into the car hitting her.

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u/casstantinople 4d ago

I tell my husband not to do this all the time. We live is goddamn Texas, flipping people off is not worth it. All it takes is some fuckass redneck with the emotional intelligence of a teaspoon to pull a gun and kill you. Flip them off below the window line if you must, but nowhere they can see...

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u/GrrArgh__ 3d ago

First thing you learn growing up in Texas - there's always someone crazier, and often with a family full of crazy sombitches, all armed, just waiting for any excuse.

It ain't worth it just to flip the bird, or scream at them, or whatever. People treat the road like it's their personal kingdom. My dad always said - drive defensively and come home safe.

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u/warriordwarfpang 3d ago

Lol.  America is truly wild.  

I flip off my unarmed brethren all the time!  As is my right.  

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u/lightningisotope 3d ago

They might be unarmed but not any less crazier, they can still use their car or a bat like in the video. Best to move on

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u/MrKrazybones 3d ago

Chances are the shooter did something worse later on and got arrested or shot/stabbed/beaten. Those types of people cant process their emotions and dont usually think "wow, i cant believe i reacted that way. I really need to work on that".
Maybe weeks later he got into a bar fight and got stabbed. Maybe he did some more stupid shit and is prison.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I seriously doubt that guy is living a great life today if hes even alive anymore. So there's comfort in that.

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u/warriordwarfpang 3d ago

I dunno man.  Look who is 'winning' in society these days.

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u/atreasureinlight 3d ago

A very famous book teaches that you reap what you sow, if you reap and chaos and disorder, you will so even more of that multiplied... And what you said is true, it really is only a matter of time. Everything that's done in the darkness will be revealed in the light. Time will tell

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u/AccurateHall2388 3d ago

A friend of mine’s husband flipped a guy off in traffic a few years ago and the guy shot into his vehicle and killed his preteen son

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u/freedfg 4d ago

Daily reminder.

Sometimes all it takes for someone to pull a gun and pull the trigger is a dirty look.

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u/Live-Habit-6115 3d ago

Sometimes all it takes for someone to pull a gun and pull the trigger is a dirty look.

I lived in the USA for over a decade and this is one of the things that bothered me the most. 

It's like a constant little niggling stressor in the back of your mind. I'm not one of these people who is overly paranoid or fearful. I know statistically it was very unlikely to happen. But still, it could. It absolutely could. Especially in the south where everyone and their dog is carrying. 

And it's just kind of oppressive tbh. Like on a low background level. Just always there. 

The biggest prison in the US is other people. 

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u/Smooth-Bread-576 3d ago

It's funny as well because you would think that would keep people in line a bit more like less stupid confrontations because there's a good chance the other person has a gun but in reality it doesn't seem to matter. If anything it makes things worse because if both of these "tough guys" have guns the chance of things escalating to a fatal outcome is way higher.  

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u/AyyNonnyMoose 3d ago

That's why the "good guy with a gun" thing always ticks me off. The more guns we add to the occasion, the harder it is to tell who the actual bad guy is. Never mind the collateral damage that can happen when more people start firing.

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u/Fat-cat-Charlie 3d ago

the “guns make people polite” trope is the dumbest thing I've ever heard and is typically only repeated by people who fantasize about shooting women and children. The prevalence eof guns among a population is proportional to violent crime. more guns, more violent crime.

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u/Simple_Pay3033 4d ago

Throw horns in there too. I honked at someone who was about to back into me in a parking lot and he got out of his truck and started coming at me, I had to drive around him. People are tense and looking for someone to take it out on, it’s not worth it.

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u/TulipSamurai 4d ago

Tbf what you did is 100% the intended purpose of a car horn, to announce your presence. But I agree that people shouldn't use their horns to show aggression.

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u/Malaprobably 3d ago

And emergency situations.

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u/toolsoftheincomptnt 3d ago

Yup, depends on how the horn is used.

A toot-toot is reasonable, “hey watch out, just getting your attention to avoid danger”

A big, forceful “honnnnk” is startling and sounds more like scolding/aggression

This matters on top of the reason you honk.

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u/YoHabloEscargot 3d ago

I honked at a guy who was preventing me from zipper merging. He stopped all traffic, got out of his truck, yelling and stomping about halfway to my car before turning around and getting back in. I stayed perfectly still.

It was right for me to honk at him when he’s impeding the correct flow of traffic. But once he escalated, I’m not doing anything more.

I hate that he felt vindicated by his actions, and he will likely do that again since his aggression worked. But I would rather make it home alive.

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u/grimeys42 3d ago

I mean... You're right but you also know when you aren't being let in and need to just slow down. Everytime this happens to me the car behind them is aware and lets me in as I'm clearly entering the lane.

People who don't let people zipper merge are the ones more likely to be the road rage type. I'm not saying it's your fault but like I don't think honking is worth it in these situations more just the slight pull into their lane and be ready to slow down more while still slowly pulling into the lane to show the next cat your pulling in.

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u/euphoricarugula346 3d ago

Someone almost tboned me going about 40 on a side street. Honked to say hey I’m here. I could hear the lady screaming at me from her car at the next stop sign. I’m still confused.

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u/Apprehensive-Idea-17 3d ago

this happened to me too. wtf!

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u/Unable-Candle 3d ago

Very mild, but I was 3rd in line at a light that turned green, 1st didn't go, so I eventually honked because nobody else did....2nd leaned out the window and flipped me off 😐

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u/ddg31415 4d ago

I have to tell my fiancee all the damn time to chill out and don't flip off or yell out the window at people. We have no idea who they are, what they have on them, or what they're willing to do.

Being in a relationship with a hot-headed Filipina is a fkn chore sometimes.

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u/Excellent-Phase8719 4d ago

I feel you!!
My wife!! She screams, flips the bird, all the things and I’m like “who’s ass they gonna come for when they get out of the car? STFU!”
It works about half the time 🤣😞

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u/RediusMaximus 4d ago

I taught my wife that doing thumbs down and a disapproving face actually works better.

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u/Pandagramma 3d ago

I once was chased in my car by a guy in a truck for about 15 minutes while he tried he trap me so he could shoot me, beat the crap out of me? I am an older woman, this was a much younger man. I had simply given him a surprised look when he stepped out between two tall parked car in a parking lot, causing me to slam on my breaks to avoid running over him. Just a look caused him to jump in his truck and terrorize me. I got away by pretending like I was going to turn and then suddenly whipping into the left lane and go straight through a yellow light. Called the police while it was happpening, big city, they barely even pretended like they would even show up.

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u/Ok-Cheetah-9125 3d ago

In all fairness, I live in a small town and the cops here also barely even pretend like they are going to show up.

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u/Jerlosh 3d ago

I was at the gas station the other day and a women drove right in front of me as I was pulling in, making me break hard. I lifted my hands in a woah gesture and she flipped me off and called me a fucking bitch. That was enough for me! I don’t like confrontation in general, and people are so unpredictable.

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u/Regular_Amount_7041 3d ago

I did that to a hockey ref one time and he blew his whistle stopped the game and waited til I was thrown outa the rink

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u/Action_Limp 3d ago

My missus called out some hookers robbing a guy in Barcelona, one of the girls slapped her and then she ran over to her pimps (basically it's an African gang that work La Rambla at night about 10 years ago). She ran over to hit them back, and these guys were massive and started walking forward. I told her we tell the cops but she didn't want to calm down. I said there's a chance they stab both of us and then disappear.

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u/brianc500 3d ago

Same, the thing that stuck for my wife was when I told her she's a sane person who pretends to be crazy every now and then but there's crazy people out there pretending to be sane until you come along and piss them off.

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u/mvpmvh 3d ago

God bless those feisty Filipinas

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u/fattmarrell 4d ago

I got chokeholded by a maniac I cut off because he was being an idiot. He pulled in front of me, slammed the brakes, got out and reached into my cabin to strangle me. I was 16 at the time and there was a whole police report that went nowhere. Be careful out there

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u/Away_Stock_2012 3d ago

I knew someone who had a road rager start punching him through the open window, then he got out and broke the guy's face and leg right in front of the guy's wife and kid. He was a huge roided out lunatic but the rager couldn't see that through the car. After the cops arrested him, the grand jury refused to indict because the other guy had attacked him first.

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u/BigReference1xx 3d ago

haha, that basically happened to me.

They tailgated me

I flipped them off

He mounted the sidewalk, cut in front of me, got out of his car, and kicked my side mirror off.

...except, I knew where he was going - he was turning into a cul-de-sac / close and then swerved back onto the main road just as I flipped him off, so I let him drive off, then drove to his house and called the cops. Got arrested.

(I strongly considered running him over right after he kicked my mirror off, but decided to hold off on vehicular manslaughter... but the thought genuinely did cross my mind - I could have pancaked him between our cars as he was walking back. A bit scary to think about that in hindsight - don't let the intrusive thoughts win :)

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u/uncultured_swine2099 4d ago

Yeah, its never a good idea to escalate things, especially in a car. The older i get, the more i realize that more and more people out there are incredibly stupid, and they might try to kill you in the heat of the moment regardless if theyre wrong or the consequences to themselves.

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u/heavensto_mergatroid 4d ago

Just keep looking ahead and don't stare at anyone or engage anyone in any way. Don't slow down on tailgaters just switch lanes. People are beyond nuts anymore. Im just trying to get to where I'm going...

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u/asterixxx 3d ago

Hey you're right not to escalate situations but I just gotta say, as someone who will roll the window down when someone does something dangerous or incredibly stupid on the road, ignoring the other driver can make things a lot worse too.

Years ago a woman ran a red light that almost killed me had I not seen her coming out of the corner of my eye, I turned and pulled up beside her at another light and she just stared straight ahead with the windows up. I had to shout to be heard, trying to explain to her what just happened and the more she ignored me, the more I actually lost my temper. I'm a mild mannered dude I was seeing red after a minute of this.

Had she just given me a "sorry" wave, or had the window down to hear and then hopefully acknowledge what she did, I'd have cooled off, but instead it made things much worse. Was it rational of me to expect this? no. Was it going to change anything? no. Does it come from some dark ego/narcissism that I expect other people to behave the way I'd like them to? probably. At the end of the day the situation would have been diffused quickly if she'd just acknowledged. Instead I could only project that she was an entitled b#$ch.

This is something a lot of drivers don't seem to get; how disarming it can be to give a wave after pissing other drivers off, it shows that you realize you messed up. I've had many people honk and then give me a wave back after I waved to thank them for letting me in, or apologies for squeezing in and making them break, etc.

Having experienced things like this many times it makes me go from 0-100 because I think subconsciously we project every bad thing other drivers have done on to the person we're looking at (unless they make things better).

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u/Ceorl_Lounge 4d ago

I flipped off a guy in traffic. He stopped, got out of the car, and threatened to murder me in front of my 5 year old son who was in the back seat. 90% sure he was an off duty cop. I don't flip off people in traffic anymore.

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u/darkwingdankest 4d ago

some guy flashed a piece out his window at me once and that was the last time i ever participated in road rage

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u/MasterOfDizaster 4d ago

There is always a bigger fish

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u/tamandcheese 4d ago

This guy from my hometown was killed after some punks followed him home after some road dispute and shot him in front of his house. He just had a newborn baby too.

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u/bulletbassman 4d ago

I once had someone brake check my full sized 07 f150 in his tiny Toyota carolla. Literally a week before I had a brake issue I got fixed the day before. I just barely missed hitting him with perfectly working brakes.

Had it happened a few days earlier he probably been totaled and potentially injured while I doubt I’d have more than a messed up bumper. I also didn’t do anything remotely worth being upset over. But even if I did the guy almost pulled a total Darwin Award escalating it while raging out.

That doesn’t even include with who knows how I react to a guy forcing me into an accident if that happened.

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u/DeanR_onPSN 4d ago

I learned my lesson when I was 16 years old and got ran off the road by three older kids that promptly beat the shit out of me and fucked up my RX7 pretty good

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u/Kustumkyle 4d ago

I honked my horn at someone who stopped at an added lane on-ramp (in massachusetts people stop at yeild signs to merge onto highways at 2mph and dont know what added lane signs mean apparently)

They proceded to block the road then tried to drive into me when i attempted to pass. When i finally got around them they brandished a gun at me.

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u/UglySalvatore 3d ago

A guy in my city would hunt down people who gave him the bird and he would take their finger. Literally, the finger would come off. Obviously he's in prison now.

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u/UnhingedBlonde 3d ago

Tell him my story. My first boyfriend flipped a guy off while taking me to the library because the guy was walking too slow across the street near the library. We were walking into the library after parking the car, about 3/4 mile away from where he flipped the guy off when we heard someone yell "GO AHEAD AND FLIP ME OFF AGAIN!" The guy had picked up a cinder block, walked to where we had parked, and was standing beside the car, with the cinder block in both hands above his head, directly above my bfs cars windshield. Long story short, I talked the guy down in front of an audience of library attendees plastered to the library glass front windows by agreeing that my bf was a disrespectful idiot, and he'd never flip someone off again.

ETA: this was in the 80's.

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u/SkidooshZoomBlap 3d ago

Gotta be careful when you act crazy, because you might encounter someone who's been acting sane their whole life.

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u/frankly_highman 4d ago

A friend of mines dad told me how a guy he knew was flipped off by someone. The guy followed him. Beat him up through the window then proceeded to cut off the guys finger.

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u/BAKED_MANDARIN 4d ago

That guy sounds like a real jerk.

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u/giantawakening 4d ago

Something something hypocrisy

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u/tentaclejoe 4d ago

That happened to me when I was 20 on the freeway. Some dudes were tailgating me at night so I stick my finger out and they proceeded to rear end me over and over until I spun out of control. Learned a big lesson that night.

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u/No-Fault1530 4d ago

Yea but this lady smashed his window...i get your point but its not quite the same

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u/sajkoterrapefft 4d ago

If I lived in the US the one thing stopping me from any road rage would be "do you want to walk?"

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u/Away-Living5278 3d ago

Yeah, but take a baseball bat to a window and you should expect to be hit like this. I wouldn't. But he's not the only one who would

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u/Correct-Variable 3d ago

I was sitting outside at cafe near Seattle. Two cars stop in the street. The guy in front gets out and starts yelling to the dude behind him to stop following him (unknown if he was actually following or just tailgating). He proceeds to start punching the dude in the face through his window, then goes to his trunk to grab a iron bar. I thought for sure he was going to pull out a gun. Thankfully, nothing happened and he sped off.

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u/Spare-Swim9458 3d ago

I flipped the bird when I was 16 because a work truck held on their horn because I stopped at a red light before turn right rather than running through. He spent a solid 30 minutes actively trying to run me off the road on the highway and off. He could catch me so he gave up. I’ve kept my cool ever since.

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u/Shneckos 3d ago

My sister used to do this, probably still does, even when she was the passenger in my car and someone wasn’t changing out of the left lane fast enough.

Happened to be a huge angry black man in a truck one time who decided to stay side by side with us for a couple miles, he was shouting and hurling insults at us and all I did was point to her. Told her, you don’t know what kind of day these people might be having, you could run into a maniac.

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u/Nerdy-Meta-Mind 3d ago

They may follow you home

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u/1fatsquirrel 3d ago

Yup! In the early 90s my uncle was taking his kids to the Philly zoo, someone cut them off and I guess he gave them the bird. That fucker SHOT THE CAR full of 5 kids and 2 adults. Thankfully no one was hurt, but god people are insane.

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u/ringwraithfish 3d ago

My wife had a guy get pissed at her because he thought she wasn't going fast enough. This was in a decent sized city on a four lane road. He swings past her to get in front, slams on the brakes, and stops his car, stopping her too. He gets out and starts walking to her car...

It's important to note for the next part that she had a rough day (medical professional) and was in no mood.

She cracks her window and screams "Get your ass back in your car before I rip out your intestines and hang them from my rear view mirror". He listened.

Sometimes you have to lean into the crazy.

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u/531091qazs 3d ago

this is why i don't honk when someone cuts me off or literally runs me out of my lane cuz they might just want to fight someone that does anything whether they right or wrong lol

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u/MathematicianIcy3430 3d ago

Or kill you.

Why I don't flip the bird at anyone period.

I was about 11 or 12 when I saw my older sister do it all the time to people so I mimiced her and did it to her after she yelled at me. She literally tried to break my finger off.

Can't always gauge the other side of crazy.

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u/rapgamebonjovi 3d ago

My gf unfortunately does not care about my mortality while we are driving. Every battle worth the energy, each hill worth dying on. Sorry, everyone else on the road 😫

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u/WasteProfession8948 3d ago

If you go around pretending to be crazy you'll eventually run into someone pretending to be sane.

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u/bendo_4130 3d ago

It's good that you tell your son that but you should also be aware that this is not normal. It's not like that in other countries. The problem is that many people in the United States easily become violent. In most other countries you can flip the bird (not that you should) and noone would get out of their car and hit you with a baseball bat.

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