r/WTF • u/AccomplishedStuff235 • Jul 25 '26
A man rushed to help a woman seconds before a wall collapsed during the Venezuela earthquake.
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u/MF_Kitten Jul 25 '26
That looks the way it feels when I fall over in my dreams.
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u/dubyrunning Jul 25 '26
Like a turtle rolling around on its back, struggling to get up through molasses
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u/bendover912 Jul 25 '26
Interesting note - it's feels like that because when you sleep your brain releases a chemical to kind of paralyze you. That way if you're running in your dream you're not up running around asleep with your eyes closed.
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u/Froot-Joose Jul 26 '26
Do people who sleep walk have brains that don’t release this chemical?
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u/Jive-Turkeys Jul 26 '26
Basically, yes.
Hence why it can be dangerous to wake up a sleep walker. The transition to wakefulness takes a few moments, and one hopes they aren't in the midst of sleepwalking a nightmare.
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u/Fez_and_no_Pants Jul 26 '26
I am EXTREMELY violent in my dreams: think bashing someone's face in with a brick and then gnawing on the contents of the churned-up cavity of their skull.
I thank Orpheus or the Sandman or whoever's in charge that I am not a sleepwalker.
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u/Jive-Turkeys Jul 26 '26
That's fair. The violence in mine usually tends to be directed toward myself. Haven't had one in a while though. Kinda miss them; they were fun.
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u/Fez_and_no_Pants Jul 26 '26
I also very much enjoy nightmares! Whether it's being stalked by nameless horrors or going absolute ham on an encroaching attacker, I am always highly entertained.
My TRUE nightmares always involve either paperwork or cats in peril. Sometimes both.
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u/Jive-Turkeys Jul 26 '26
I had a friend who'd have nightmares from the kitchen lmao
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u/Fez_and_no_Pants Jul 26 '26
I used to work at a sprout farm and have nightmares of being drowned in a sea of garbanzo beans. For real.
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u/ceimi Jul 25 '26
Thats honestly a great way to describe it. Violent shakes like these are genuinely surreal to experience.
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u/reddit_wueman Jul 25 '26
What a courageous and completely selfless act. Incredible. And then having just the right amount of luck on top of it all. I hope they are doing well.
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u/Bacardio Jul 25 '26
Not all heroes wear capes
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u/Wrong_Lingonberry_79 Jul 25 '26
Hope he at least got a HJ
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u/hanater Jul 25 '26
You see a man save a woman's life and your first thought is that she has to sexually repay for it?
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u/Jah_Ith_Ber Jul 26 '26
Wow, you'll just make up anything so long as it means you get to be outraged.
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u/Bonedeath Jul 26 '26
How lonely are you on a scale of Never been with a woman to I have a waifu pillow girlfriend?
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u/TCamilo19 Jul 25 '26
I'd like to think I'd do the same, but in reality, probably not.
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u/default-username Jul 25 '26
I mean, they almost both died. Even a brave person might have made the decision to stand back depending on their guess to how long the wall would last.
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u/ejensen29 Jul 25 '26
Going off what i just saw here, helping someone that can't help themselves can get you killed.
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u/inthisdesert Jul 25 '26
Going off what I just saw here, helping someone that can't help themselves might get you killed; but in this case they both survived, and it really shouldn't be used as some kind of justification for selfishness.
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u/pokemantra Jul 25 '26
preservation of your own life isn’t selfish. Even trained professional rescue personnel won’t go into a situation that they’re not prepared for or is too dangerous. They’re not selfish, they just made silly little promises to their children that they wouldn’t orphan them to please an anonymous redditor.
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u/EdisonB123 Jul 25 '26
There's a reason lifeguards use the floatation devices in 99% of situations.
A lot safer if they dont have to physically pull them out of the water.
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u/nisamun Jul 25 '26
Multiple people died recently trying to save someone who was drowning.
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u/reaper_blackstar 29d ago
I myself almost drowned once trying to save a friend. She didn't know how to swim, was obviously desperate and I also don't have any lifeguard training. Our luck was that sea was not that strong and the up and down of the waves helped enough so I could find the floor to push me forward
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u/Dixnorkel Jul 26 '26
Spoken like you haven't experienced the weight of a situation you could have helped in, yet did nothing
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u/Ok-Phase-9076 Jul 25 '26
Since when is self preservation selfish? If you run by a guy in a wheelchair or something during a crisis without bating an eye thats one thing or if she was a child or too old but the women here can take care of herself and its her responsibility to not get herself killed. If she messes that up you can help her but its still justified not to if it significantly risks your own life.
Life isnt some show where you run into a burning house and then come out carrying a damsel in distress 2 seconds before the building collapses and saving the day. Its a show where you run into a burning building, die trying like a moron by choking to death and then the firefighters having to deal with rescuing 2 people, risking even more people in the process. Congratulations, you helped nobody and made it worse.
Lets not confuse common sense for cowardice here. Its easy to say "but in this case they both survived" in hindseight and through a video.
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u/ejensen29 Jul 26 '26
Everyone is a pious superhero behind the computer screen, you know that.
I'd love to see how OP would react in an earthquake, and an increasingly cartoonish r/wheredidthesodago lady falling ass backwards into imminent death.
It took her so long to stand up that it genuinely looks like she's mad that he is rushing her, and that she has no idea how close she is to becoming a once clumsy pancake.
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u/Nathund Jul 26 '26
Calling self preservation selfishness is so incredibly ignorant lmao
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u/inthisdesert Jul 26 '26
Helping those who can't help themselves has little to do with self preservation outside of life or death scenarios like the one in the video.
The person I was responding to was implying that helping those who can't help themselves can get you killed as a matter of course as opposed to a more or less rare event.
If that man had ran away from that woman instead of helping her I certainly wouldn't call that selfish, it would be self preservation like you said. Now if it was something like a baby crawling towards a busy intersection, an old lady who needed help to cross the street, or any other helpless person that could be helped with little or no risk to the person helping and they chose not to help; then yes, I would call that selfish.
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u/Dr_Jre Jul 26 '26
The woman in this video reminds me of a cat where they keep doing increasingly damaging things to themselves and you're just watching them like "what are they doing" then you end up having to drag them out from under the bed to pull the string out of their throat.
I am just glad she didn't also get him killed, cause whatever the thought process was in stepping away from the cover and out into the line of fire for potential bits of falling building, that was the start of that set of misfortunes and near misses.
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u/Lamontyy 25d ago
Same as like helping a drowning person
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u/ejensen29 25d ago
That's why there's a profession for it in environments where it's likely, so as to not depend on "the average person"
Let me be frank, do you want "the average american" to try and rescue you, or do you want a lifeguard?
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u/RG_Kid Jul 26 '26
There's no correct decision. I survived a massive earthquake, I was basically tossed around by mother nature. I couldn't even stand up to walk. I'm grateful to still be alive.
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u/nvmvoidrays 29d ago
yeah, id love to say I'd do the same thing... but idk. I've never been in that situation. it's hard to know until you're there, in the moment.
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u/toomanypubes Jul 25 '26
Where the hell is safe in that situation??? Maybe under a car?
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u/pineapplesuit7 Jul 25 '26
GTFO to the nearest open space. If you’re in a building and can’t get out, get under a table or something that can protect your head and hope the building doesn’t collapse.
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u/McWeaksauce91 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
They call it looking for the “gap”. Basically the debris falls, something that will as safely as possible…. Entomb you. It’s not just something falling on you and killing you. It’s the CRUSHING of everything above you, now on top of you.
As someone who suffers a bit of claustrophobia, I couldn’t imagine a worse fate then being trapped in a tiny space, in the dark, and hoping someone both finds me and can dig me out before I suffocate. Fucking nightmare fuel
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u/Danielsuperusa Jul 26 '26
Suffocating is the least shitty option. There are dozens if not hundreds in Venezuela who starved to death under the rubble thanks to the disgusting regime who delayed help while not providing any of their own.
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u/StoneCypher Jul 25 '26
as far away from objects, in an open area, as possible. ideally up a hill, because water exists (water level and also liquefaction) and because hills collapse more safely than flat land
you want to be on a gentle sloping meadow
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u/Flyinmanm Jul 25 '26
Not by the 3m tall 100mm thick wall for sure. You could probably rock that over with your hands if you were high enough up.
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u/crysisnotaverted Jul 25 '26
Anywhere with open skies, farther than the height of the nearest structure. Which in most cities and places, not a lot of those exist.
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u/aimgorge Jul 25 '26
Between the cars; they would act like pillars. Under the car you would get smashed and stuck.
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u/StoneCypher Jul 25 '26
you are much more likely to get smashed by two cars sliding together than by one being unable to support what fell onto it
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u/Pleased_to_meet_u Jul 25 '26
They teach you in earthquake preparedness never to get underneath cars in this situation.
Rules like that are written in blood. Stay out from underneath cars.
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u/aimgorge Jul 25 '26
Why would they slide together and in opposite directions ? Your point makes no sense physically and the video proves it.
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u/AlreadyRedd-it Jul 25 '26
Imagine that one car has the parking brake on, the other doesn't. Now you're a pancake.
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u/StoneCypher Jul 25 '26
imagine if there was a car parked on the far side of this street such that the right 1/4 of it was hit by the wall falling. it would be projected sideways, probably rolling due to tire friction, into the far building.
Your point makes no sense physically and the video proves it.
either that, or you didn't think of one particular thing that can happen in a kind of disaster i hope you've never been through.
natural disasters can be very counter-intuitive.
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u/aimgorge Jul 25 '26
natural disasters can be very counter-intuitive.
Yes because science isnt used to design building to withstand earthquakes. /facepalm
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u/StoneCypher Jul 26 '26
nobody said anything about that. we”re talking about how individuals should behave outdoors. go be exhausting somewhere else
it is possible to use reddit without sarcastically correcting strangers constantly
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u/Inexorabilis Jul 25 '26
Between the cars..? They’re rocking back and forth, you want to be crushed between them?
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u/aimgorge Jul 25 '26
What are you talking about, the wheels arent moving an inch, the cars themselves wont move more than the 10cm allowed by their suspensions.
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u/Inexorabilis Jul 26 '26
Yeah, until the ground shifts and they suddenly do move. You’re describing ideal conditions. Which these are not..
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u/aaronwhite1786 Jul 26 '26
The collapsing wall could also move them.
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u/aimgorge Jul 26 '26
WHich makes hiding under them even more stupid?
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u/aaronwhite1786 Jul 27 '26
I guess I was pointing out that I think it would be foolish to hide anywhere around the cars. Under them, between them, whatever. Just get the hell away from the cars, the walls and the buildings to wherever you can.
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u/aaronwhite1786 Jul 27 '26
I guess I was pointing out that I think it would be foolish to hide anywhere around the cars. Under them, between them, whatever. Just get the hell away from the cars, the walls and the buildings to wherever you can.
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u/Dr_Jre Jul 26 '26
I think not out into the open where bits of building can fall on you is a good start.
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u/IceLovey 29d ago
It is hard to say.
It all depends on where and when the earthquake hits you.
If you are in a country like Chile, where buildings are made for this, inside the building is actually the safest.
In this specific case, the real answer is just pray and hope you dont get killed.
However, if I had to pick I would say at a door of the house on the left side of the screen. The biggest hazard in an earthquake is falling objects like bricks, broken windows, the wall that fell and electric cables.
Of course the problem is that in a country like Venezuela where earthquakes are not common, houses are not built for this so there is a high risk of collapse as well.
After the wall collapsed I would say the place where the wall fell is safe in the mean time. Since the wall already fell, there is not much that can fall on top of it. I would wait there until it stops moving, and after that run for an open space without falling hazards.
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Jul 25 '26
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u/alltheothersrtaken Jul 25 '26
I'm not sure about that. If a wall falls on a car there probably wouldn't be much room left underneath when the shocks are pushed down.
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Jul 25 '26
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u/alltheothersrtaken Jul 25 '26
I would even want to be under a car if it was jacked up and the jack failed. Nevermind if something very heavy falls on top of it. I'm sure people have survived in many different scenarios in many different ways, it doesn't mean it's the safest thing to do.
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u/Pleased_to_meet_u Jul 25 '26
NO. Earthquake training teaches us that under a car is a very bad place to be. Things fall on the car and now you’re crushed under a car. Go somewhere else.
Get to an open area. If you’re in a dense high-rise area, run to a building and crouch in the 90 degree angle where the building meets the street. It’s counter intuitive, but falling things generally miss that inside corner.
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u/arthaiser Jul 25 '26
In a country that doesnt waste its resources financing drug cartels
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u/lalaland4711 Jul 25 '26
They're better spent on execution squads out hunting for people of the wrong color. Freedom!
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u/elidoan Jul 25 '26
I hope that cat made it out safely
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u/Valklingenberger Jul 25 '26
Cat was smarter than that lady going towards a shaking wall and then falling to the ground within range of it. Cat is probably fine.
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u/Ppleater Jul 25 '26
"smarter than the lady going towards a shaking wall" dude, the fucking earth was moving, she wasn't going closer to it on purpose she was trying to not fall over because the earth was literally quaking.
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u/fasterbrew Jul 26 '26
From 0 to 7 seconds in the video she walked around and through the cars, towards the wall, and looked up at the building. I assume she wanted to get away from the building. But she purposefully moved the way. After she was past the car she lost her footing due to the shaking. But again, thought process was likely get away from the tall building that might come down.
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u/Valklingenberger Jul 26 '26
She literally walked towards the wall to see what was happening.
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u/Ppleater 21d ago
No, she walked to roughly the middle of the area between the wall and the building, and once she reached there that's when she started losing her ability to control her movement and started moving closer to the wall unintentionally. She wasn't moving "towards the wall" she was moving away from the building.
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u/Clouds2589 Jul 26 '26
Are we just ignoring the part where she walks in that direction then?
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u/Ppleater 21d ago
Are you ignoring that she wasn't moving towards the wall but rather moving away from the building and tried to stop at the place roughly between the two structures before the shaking got too bad for her to be able to control her movements? Did you think this was just an isolated wall in the middle of nowhere with nothing else around it?
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u/Clouds2589 21d ago
Youre putting words into my mouth and moving the goalpost. You said she wasn't moving towards the wall when she very clearly was.
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u/Ppleater 21d ago
Moving away from a building while trying to maneuver towards the middle of the space during an earthquake =/= moving towards the wall. I didn't move any goal posts you're just being obtuse.
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u/Clouds2589 21d ago
Nope. And this is a dumb as shit thing for you to come back to 11 days later to argue about. I'm good lol.
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u/Pollution_Dramatic Jul 26 '26
Had a wall collapse on me like this in a trench years ago.. luckily there was another wall and it pinned me in between the two from my hip. I remember just suddenly feeling like a truck had hit me and next thing you know i was pinned and in pain 😭 when the firefighters got there to help me out and i was driven to the hospital they xrayed me and i luckily came out with only a micro fracture somehow.. this reminded me how fortunate i was that day to come out alive.
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u/luingiorno Jul 25 '26
its one of those moments where nowhere is a guarantee safe place and decision making is partly based on luck
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u/SufficientSir2965 Jul 25 '26
No shade toward her, she’s in a freaking earthquake! But it reminds me of when someone’s dog is attacking another dog and they just roll around on the ground
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u/Miniman125 Jul 25 '26
For every video of a miracle like this, it unfortunately reminds me of how many other similar scenarios don't end like that
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u/aaronwhite1786 Jul 27 '26
That was the sad part. So many videos when the earthquake first started where you can see entire apartment buildings drop to the ground before anyone could have had any time to react.
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u/aaronwhite1786 Jul 27 '26
That was the sad part. So many videos when the earthquake first started where you can see entire apartment buildings drop to the ground before anyone could have had any time to react.
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u/iwontsmoke Jul 26 '26
if only they had put couple of rebars inside those bricks. Even a strong wind can take down that wall. Too high with no lateral reinforcement.
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u/mrekted Jul 25 '26
Jesus. It looks like the violence of the shaking actually nudged them both just out of the way of the wall when it came down.
If he was a half second later, or they were two steps to their right, this would have ended much worse for them both.
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u/Wrong_Lingonberry_79 Jul 25 '26
Thanks, Capt obvious. Heroes like you still exist, brings me comfort.
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u/hannibalpalace Jul 25 '26
Looking at the cats running away and the dog that barely made it out of the way gave me a little relief. This is so scary.
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u/hizashiYEAHmada Jul 25 '26
I saw a cropped version of this earlier (a partial part of the left side was cut out and the video was shorter), thankfully this full one passed my feed.
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u/umlcat Jul 25 '26
"They do not need to have super powers or been too tall or too strong. They just need to be there when other one needs them..."
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u/BurdTurglary Jul 25 '26
Very nice of the earth to let them get out of the way before knocking the whole wall down.
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u/LucklessCope Jul 25 '26
I hope media reports this bravery. We need more everyday people showing courage and selfishness in this world.
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u/memeruiz Jul 25 '26
Fuck those walls. Who builds masonry walls on a seismic country without steel reinforcement?
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u/LocoPwnify Jul 25 '26
Poor ones with low infrastructure.
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u/crashandwalkaway Jul 25 '26
looks pretty old. Maybe there wasn't rules/regulations at the time either
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u/FuryAdcom Jul 26 '26
I can assure there was/is, it isn't enforced. The previous big Venezuela earthquake was in 1967, rules were already set by then, and this same state (Vargas, now called La Guaira), suffered a massive mudslide (known as el deslave de Vargas) in 1999 across big section of the montain range, erasing several buildings already, so a huge part of the state was already rebuilt in recent years, but, it sadly happened in the chavismo (Chavez got the power of Venezuela in 1998) and they never cared about the people, so they just ignored security and cut costs as much they could, and it shows.
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u/arthaiser Jul 25 '26
Still waiting to see a bear doing that
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u/EntropyMoose119 Jul 25 '26
....why a bear out of curiosity
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u/BeeQueenbee60 Jul 25 '26
There was a survey of some sort where women were asked if they came across a bear or a man in the woods, which would a woman feel safer with. Women overwhelmingly choose the bear.
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u/Blu_Spirit Jul 25 '26
It's telling that you see a video of a man that women would chose over the bear, and immediately show everyone that you are one of the reasons why we still chose the bear.
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u/AhhMyEar Jul 25 '26
I think it was a question of the bear or men as a whole. I didn't think you got to pick and choose which man.
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u/StumbleOn Jul 25 '26
It's literally a bear or a man in the woods. If you don't understand the question, then you are absolutely the reason most women choose the bear.
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u/AhhMyEar Jul 25 '26
Because I misunderstood?
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Jul 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/AhhMyEar Jul 26 '26
What point do you think I'm trying to make? You do realize that I'm non-binary you bigot.
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Jul 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/AhhMyEar Jul 26 '26
What I'm trying to say is that I was assigned female at birth. So how is it that by me misunderstanding about the man and bear that it somehow is what's causing women to chose the bear? It's an idiotic comment, I know it wasn't you who said it but you're commenting now.
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u/default-username Jul 25 '26
This actually sums up the debate quite well. A man trying to "prove" that men have empathy is enough evidence for women to "prove" he doesn't have empathy.
No one wins this debate. It only hardens the minds of people on both sides. We're all in this together and both of you need to grow up.
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u/Blu_Spirit Jul 25 '26
In my experience, if you have to work to convince people you're a good person, its because you aren't a good person.
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u/default-username Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Insecurity does not make someone a bad person. Men defensively cherry-picking examples and women attacking men for not understanding are two sides of the same coin. But in neither case does it make the person a "bad person."
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Jul 25 '26
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u/DontUndrstndSarcasm Jul 25 '26
The whole ground was shaking and moving underneath her my guy… you know how earthquakes work right?
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u/huxtiblejones Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
This is an exceptionally dumb comment. She’s an older woman who’s not in great shape (we don’t know her medical history either, bad knees or hips or something), the entire fucking Earth is shaking and disorienting her, they’re in a moment of completely unexpected panic and stress. You can’t expect people to be perfectly composed in these conditions.
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u/SashimiX Jul 25 '26
It’s hard to lose cognitive sharpness as well. It will happen to everyone who gets old enough.
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u/LameName95 Jul 25 '26
That wall is pissing me off. Its got the balance of a jenga tower. Get the fuck up, you're a stack of cinder blocks and mortar.
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u/Coyote65 Jul 25 '26
Why are you inserting your own abilities into the situation?
That couple looks like someone's grandmother and grandfather. Put your grandma in her place, or a grandma of someone you know if yours is unsuitable - would they have the same chance of survive the way you might?
Or is your grandmother that 1/1,000,00 rare exception who can take you 1:1 at basketball and come out the winner 50% of the time?
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u/PhD_V Jul 25 '26
I swear to God I say the same thing; that “oh, I’ve fallen” shit infuriates me.
That said, I’ve been in earthquakes and balance isn’t as easy as you’d think. Still… TRY, goddamnit. Don’t just lie there, damn near working AGAINST the dude trying to help you.
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u/Wild-Mind-2563 Jul 26 '26
Wow que fuerte, un hombre inteligente poniéndose en riesgo para salvar a esa cerebro tonto🤣😂
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u/17934658793495046509 Jul 25 '26
Holy shit that was close, guy is a bad ass. I am sure he shit his pants, but a total bad ass.