Question You Despair for Humanity

I have lived in this town longer than some people have been alive. I have seen some strange things, including a man who looked like something out of a Zombie flick riding mass transit. I have seen stupid, inane, insane, self-absorbed, even down-right perverted. But I just saw something that made me weep for Humankind.

I was walking home after taking care of a few errands, along Upper Polk Gulch, a sort-of-trendy shopping/ bar stretch, when I hear a cry of dismay. There, lying in the middle of the street, is a middle-agish woman in a classic 'I've fallen and I can't get up!' position. She is bawling for someone to help her. A young woman came up to her, but sort of broke off for some reason. Having enough gallantry in my soul to not pull a 'Kitty Genovese' (google it if you're not familiar), I go up to the woman and ask if I can help in the best EMT manner. She looks at me and says 'I need FIFTEEN DOLLARS!'.

With great self-control, I withdrew without giving in to the impulse to kick her in the teeth. She was well-dressed and affluent looking; she probably had a great lawyer. Like I have anything worth suing for.

The thing is, I fear that this shameless tactic may catch on, and we'll have waves of mooches tying up the streets, begging for money by imitating an emergency.

NJM1564 recently made a post regarding r/entitledparents and I have a friend who's been following a lot of their posts... it's truly outrageous what people think is acceptable behaviour.

Considering that both borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder run to ~1% of the population (possibly even after accounting for comorbidity), I'm slowly learning not to be as surprised as I used to be.

In order to lose my faith in humanity, I would have had to have had some in the first place.

Welp not surprised at all sadly.

From time to time when I go to the store, There will be people driving around in there car and stopping and asking people in the parking lot for Gas Money. One lady had a way nicer car than me and was doing laps in her car. She stopped rolled down the window and asked if she could have $20 for gas money to get home. I just said "I do not cary cash" on me and walked into the store. I wanted to read her the riot act but that would have accomplished nothing I am afraid. If she had been walking and asking I may have helped but she burned more gas in that parking lot driving in laps, than it would have taken me to drive 20 miles.

I saw something similar to with my previous congregation (I moved, I wasn't dissatisfied). We had a food pantry that distributed bags of food on Wednesday, and I would swear that a lot of the people just wanted a free handout - they weren't struggling to make it.

Of course, remember the Five Pillars of Calvinism. The one that's relevant here is total depravity. A true Calvinist is never surprised at the depths to which some people can sink.

This is nothing new.

When i first arrived in Edinburgh, from the countryside, i met a chinese person who was claiming to be an international student that had lost their wallet, and could i help them?

I didn't have any money, so i said no.

After travelling, two years later, i met the same person who used the same sob story to ask me for cash.

Then eight years later, i was in the same area of Edinburgh, and had the same experience. Same person telling the same story.

15 years later, again, same person telling the same story. This time i said, "you told me this story 15 years ago, and 25 years ago as well."

They instantly put on a closed face, and hurried away.

In every large urban population centre, especially with a large number of tourists, you get people behaving like predators and parasites.

I saw this in Covent Garden market in London. The local police arrested a team of pickpockets that had been working the theatre crowds for a year, but within two days, there was another team of dips working the same area.

Add it to the urban colour of the city that you're in, and learn to avoid the traps.

Don;t let it get to you. Just learn to avoid being taken in by them, and tell the new arrivals of the scams that you have come across.

Damon Runyon was writing documentaries...

It's almost as if there were some sort of prominent figure that people hold up as a model of stupidity, and that gives them a sense of empowered stupidity.

Rose Bunny wrote: It's almost as if there were some sort of prominent figure that people hold up as a model of stupidity, and that gives them a sense of empowered stupidity.

Not to point at anyone specific, mind you... after all, you just described 99% of all of the people who have ever been on television for any reason whatsoever... and a similar percentage of those who haven't.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Rose Bunny wrote: It's almost as if there were some sort of prominent figure that people hold up as a model of stupidity, and that gives them a sense of empowered stupidity.

Not to point at anyone specific, mind you... after all, you just described 99% of all of the people who have ever been on television for any reason whatsoever... and a similar percentage of those who haven't.

The one I was thinking of lives in a big white house.

In a attempt to wrangle this thread back to normality, I have a few cents to toss in the ring:

So, a few weeks ago, I was walking back home from the CBD, when I came across this guy in this really expensive suit, and with hair that looked like it was loaded with twice its weight in hair gel. I assumed he was a lawyer or something, but hell if I know. Anyway, this guy was handing out pamphlets, and when I walk past, he sidles up to me, puts on this sly grin, and says 'hey man, would you take one of these?'

So, I take a pamphlet from this guy who's standing there in this expensive suit, with his hair practically dripping with gel, and with what I now notice to be a Taag Heuer wristwatch. I look at the pamphlet. It's a goddam charity pamphlet for the local homeless centre, which I didn't even know existed. This guy then pulls out this large metal box with a hole in the lid, and says 'Would you like to make a donation on the spot?'

So, I decline- not out of spite for the homeless, but because I left my wallet at home, since I didn't think I'd need it if I was just going for a walk around the streets- and go home. I take the pamphlet with me, and I begin to get very suspicious. I end up looking up the charity on the pamphlet. There's no such thing. Scam much?

Basic rule of thumb: I don't donate on the street. Even it it appears to be a well-known organization, you have no way to know if they aren't scammers just using the name of the org. I may go to the website and donate via PayPal or such when I get back home.

I also have as a rule of thumb to turn down any telephone solicitations. Partly because of similar reasons as above, partly because they tend to come from a couple particular religious organizations I have issues with, but mostly because their script is so annoying. They usually ask for my father without identifying themselves (that's a big red flag: this line USED to belong to my dad back when paper telephone books were still a thing, but he has moved a long, long time ago, and any legitimate personal or business relation of his would know his new number), which I consider very rude. I go into defensive mode playing "call screener" and refuse to admit that the sky is blue until they identify themselves. They try to weasel out by just giving a first name. I stonewall. They eventually fold and give the name of the organization. I tell them we do not accept solicitations by phone, no exceptions whatsoever.

I use a similar procedure with telemarketers in general, except I tell them to feel free to e-mail or, better, snail mail a written sales pitch. Oh, you don't have my e-mail and/or my street address? Sorry, so I guess I'm not a "select customer" of yours at all, since you don't seem to know anything about me. And no, I won't supply you with any more data about me other than "I won't fold, don't waste my time."

That's for the landline (Yeah, I still have one). Cold-calling me on my mobile will result in a MUCH shorter and ruder response. (You can't claim ignorance, because it's easy to tell if a Brazilian phone number is for a mobile: all mobiles, and only mobiles, start with a "9" and are nine digits long. Landlines are 7-8 digits long and never begin with a "9") I have a repertoire that includes "Did you interrupt my F* SESSION to sell me crap?" (or, if it's some sort of religious organization, "Sorry, I'm in the middle of a demon invocation.")

That's my response to door-to-door (we still get them), on-the-street, and telephone solicitations for charity. If I didn't initiate contact, I will not buy/donate. Period and stop. The auto-response robo-calls are the worst. It USED to be that you could randomly push touch-tone buttons, and the DTMF sounds would confuse the calling computer into thinking it was a fax or modem line. That doesn't work anymore. It turns out that there is a legitimate trick you can use in the US if they call you on your cell phone and your phone is on the do-not call list. Each such incident is legally a $1500 fine. News highlighted (and verified by testing) a guy who makes a couple of $K a week by getting info, then sending demand letters reminding the offending company of the law. They usually offer to settle right then and there - $500 to $750 a pop. Almost makes you want to stay home getting bad cell calls so you can make money from them. Almost.

ANd for door-to-door Jehovah's Witnesses or the like? Stand there looking like I don't understand them, and in German reply that I don't speak or understand English. Can they come back when my brother, whom I am visiting, is home? Do they speak German by chance? Lots of puzzled looks on my face. The first response is usually to speak .... slowly. As if that is some magic solution. Then they wander off.

When I've done that and my sons were home, they had to do their damndest to not bust out laughing.

elrodw wrote: That's my response to door-to-door (we still get them), on-the-street, and telephone solicitations for charity. If I didn't initiate contact, I will not buy/donate. Period and stop. The auto-response robo-calls are the worst. It USED to be that you could randomly push touch-tone buttons, and the DTMF sounds would confuse the calling computer into thinking it was a fax or modem line. That doesn't work anymore. It turns out that there is a legitimate trick you can use in the US if they call you on your cell phone and your phone is on the do-not call list. Each such incident is legally a $1500 fine. News highlighted (and verified by testing) a guy who makes a couple of $K a week by getting info, then sending demand letters reminding the offending company of the law. They usually offer to settle right then and there - $500 to $750 a pop. Almost makes you want to stay home getting bad cell calls so you can make money from them. Almost.

ANd for door-to-door Jehovah's Witnesses or the like? Stand there looking like I don't understand them, and in German reply that I don't speak or understand English. Can they come back when my brother, whom I am visiting, is home? Do they speak German by chance? Lots of puzzled looks on my face. The first response is usually to speak .... slowly. As if that is some magic solution. Then they wander off.

When I've done that and my sons were home, they had to do their damndest to not bust out laughing.

German? Huh. I'd have thought Apache.

One time, when Jehovah's Witnesses came around, I told them that my roommates where a Jew (true) and a Buddhist (kinda-sorta), and that I was a devout Druid

Door-to-door proselityzers are not much of a problem where I live. But it does happen once or twice a year. Apparently not Mormons, because instead of a couple early-twenties guys dressed like accountants from the Fifties, it's usually a couple of middle-aged women. They might be Jehovah's Witnesses or just the more garden-variety evangelical Christians. I have no idea, because they always show up on Saturday mornings when all I want is to sleep in, so instead of trying to be witty, I just shout "NOT INTERESTED" and slam closed my bedroom window before they can even finish saying the first line of their pitch. When I get up a few hours later I usually regret not taking the time to ask if they would be OK with me going to THEIR homes early in the morning of THEIR days of rest to peddle MY views on religion.

I COULD answer in Spanish, but the number of Spanish-speaking people down here is very, very large, and most businesses therefore have some Spanish-speaker on staff. German-speakers? Zero chance, and I remember enough German to plausibly respond without being rude, just confusing to them.