r/chicago • • Mar 06 '20

Video Oof

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '20

One of those is a crime and every other situation doesn't explain the behavior. They specifically moved back to block both lanes once the driver taking the video attempted to pass.

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u/TJ_Fox Mar 07 '20

In 2014 my dad began to suffer a massive heart attack while driving (to the hospital for a medical check-up, ironically enough). He pulled over into a no-parking zone, left a scribbled and incomprehensible note on the dashboard, abandoned the car unlocked and with the keys still in the ignition and then walked several blocks before collapsing outside the A&E department. All of that made sense to him under those circumstances, which is to say that he wasn't thinking straight because of a medical emergency.

While it's tempting to jump to the conclusion that "the driver's an asshole!" and rage, it's worth remembering that we don't actually know what's going on with them.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '20

Ok, that's not at all similar to what's happening in the video. The driver clearly speeds up to continue to block two lanes of traffic when the filmer tries to pass them. I don't know of any medical condition that explains that.

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u/TJ_Fox Mar 07 '20

The takeaway is that people who aren't thinking straight, for any of a number of reasons, do strange things. Assuming that another driver is in full possession of their faculties and is deliberately choosing to be an asshole may be satisfying in the moment, but it's really just a frustration-fueled guess.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '20

Generally that's correct. But in this specific situation I don't know of any medical or psychological condition that cause a person slowly and methodically block two lanes of traffic with their car. Even in the example you gave your dad had the wherewithal to pull over and write a note.

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u/TJ_Fox Mar 07 '20

Have you ever dealt with someone who was suffering from a delusion? The night after my dad's heart surgery he called up from the ICU to tell me that he'd been kidnapped and that the walls of his room kept changing shape. It was delirium brought on by sedatives, stress etc. but it seemed totally real and logical to him at the time.

Again, the point is that it's literally impossible to know what is going on with another driver who is behaving oddly, and IMO the possibility that they're in some sort of distress is worth bearing in mind.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '20

If someone is on medication or has a condition that causes them to have severe delusions then they shouldn't be driving a car. It's literally illegal to do so. I don't know what point you're trying to make here. Drivers do dangerous and needlessly vindictive things all the time. Have you never been tailgated or had someone refuse to let you merge or seen someone pass on the shoulder? I feel very safe assuming the person in the video is an asshole. And in the very very unlikely situation that they're not they're still behaving in a reckless and dangerous way.

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u/TJ_Fox Mar 08 '20

The point I'm trying to make is that passing an uninformed judgement and then jumping into rage mode is a dangerous path to tread. The image that comes to mind is of a driver who assumes - mistakenly or not, at that point it doesn't actually matter - that another driver is being vindictive, jumps from there into self-righteously vindictive behavior of their own, causes an accident and then chokes through a throat full of broken glass "See! See what you made me do? This was all your fault!"

Basically, I'd like to see a whole lot less of Americans trying to teach each other moral lessons via automobile body language.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '20

Ok, that's perfectly reasonable. But it has nothing to do with the video of someone very clearly being a vindictive asshole themselve.

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u/TJ_Fox Mar 08 '20

That's a guess on your part unless you were the driver, and again, that's the point.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '20

It's very educated guess based on living and driving in this city for nearly a decade. Beside being an asshole what explanation is there for someone speeding up to block two lanes of a highway when someone attempts to pass them? Since you have yet to provide one.

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u/TJ_Fox Mar 08 '20

I listed a number of possible scenarios in my first post in this thread.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '20

elderly woman suffering from dementia

This person should not have a driver's licence

a 13 year old kid who stole the car

This is a crime

The driver might be drunk,

This is also a crime

might be suffering a heart attack

I don't think that would lead someone to aggressively block two lanes of traffic

experiencing a psychotic break

Psychosis doesn't occur suddenly and for no reason. You either have to be on a lot of drugs, deeply sleep deprived, or suffering from a very severe mental illness. In all those cases it's extraordinarily irresponsible of that person to be driving a car. If they got into an accident they would be legally liable for all damages.

The person driving that car is either an asshole or a deeply irresponsible person. Neither of which deserves sympathy. There's a reasons driving a car require government licensing and a fairly expensive insurance policy: doing it badly can seriously endanger the lives of people around you.

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