OT: Why do people just suck?

[FormerOwner]

Yep; sounds like a soccer mom from Temecula all right! Nice!

[flyer]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=FormerOwner]I think MOST people are decent but there is definitely a certain percentage of self-centered jerks in our midst. In addition, a lot of the newer cars and SUV’s have HORRIBLE visibility and are driven by distracted drivers. [/quote]

I remember heading into the intersection at Winchester and Ynez (in Temecula) on a just-turned green light, when a big red Suburban blew a red and just about T-boned me. Well-coiffed blonde in the driver’s seat, yapping away on a cell phone, with a whole brood of squalling chilluns in the back.

I lay on the horn and she flips me off, while mouthing “Eff you” through her window. As she blows past, I notice the Jesus fish and a Linfield Christian School bumper sticker.

Nice.[/quote]

Allan, if this wasn’t so sad, it would be hilarious.

In jest of course, my solution to the “attitude problem” that is so prevalent in our society, would be to require everyone to post their validated net worth on their vehicle for all to see.

Based on the stats, that should temper about 95% of the population.

[Parabolica]

In October I was hit by a van that had tried to pass me on the right. The main problem was that the road was one lane in each direction, and I was in the lane. He had driven through a turn-only lane, then pulled into me, impacting my right rear fender.

The guy was not about to own up to it, but kept asking me why I had pulled out in front of him. The fact that he was speeding, that I hadn’t pulled out in front of him, and that he was driving in a non-existent lane was immaterial to him. Despite causing the accident, he was totally convinced of his innocence. I knew that his life was filled with failures, all of which were caused by other people.

As we talked, another car pulled up and stopped ahead of us. I walked up to speak to the driver, and found a lady who was quite agitated. She told me that she had seen the whole thing, and that he had just tried to run her off the road before he came to me. She couldn’t stay around, but let me get a video of her testimony on my phone, including her contact info. My insurance company talked to her, and found that I was not responsible for the accident.

The guy was a person who sucked- totally incapable of seeing himself as anything but a victim. The lady was a champ!

I was unhappy that, lacking injury or major damage, the police wouldn’t come to the accident. Instead, the other driver is contesting his responsibility and the case is in arbitration between our two insurance companies.

[Ren]

[quote=zk]It seems to me that the philosophy that I frequently see being followed is more like, “be good to people who have pleasant personalities.”

When you first meet someone, that’s usually all you have to go on. But later on, when you get to know someone, it still seems to hold. I know people who are funny and sociable but who are mean or dishonest or conniving. I know people who are awkward and not smooth or sociable but who have great integrity, are very nice, honorable and unselfish. The former are, almost without exception, treated better than the latter.

The former’s transgressions are quickly forgotten about or glossed over. While the latter’s gaffes are talked about, exaggerated, or blown out of proportion.[/quote]

This may be the case with total strangers, but people you work with are a different story. You’re around them enough to know if they’re conniving jerks or not. And even if someone IS secretly a conniving jerk, it doesn’t matter – I’m not rewarding them for their personality, I’m rewarding them for being nice in the few minutes I have to deal with them. That may help change them for the better and it may not.

It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than always giving equal treatment, IMO.

[Diego Mamani]

[quote=mike92104]One other funny thing was his client was an unusually tall woman as well.[/quote]I bet client and attorney looked like this:

[Doofrat]

I was a witness once and it really helped the guy out. Guy was in front of me and the light changed. It took him another second or so to go and bam, guy running the light from the right takes off his bumper.
They pulled into a gas station and I had to go around the block to get back.
I pull in and the guy in front of me is all happy to see me because the light runner is saying the guy in front of me ran the light.
Gave him my contact info, but never got a call. I’m assuming that once the light runner was confronted with a witness, he had to take responsibility.

I’ve thought about this a lot lately and have been thinking about getting a cheap dash cam that mounts on the rear view mirror or something to act as a witness in a case like this.

[CA renter]

[quote=doofrat]I was a witness once and it really helped the guy out. Guy was in front of me and the light changed. It took him another second or so to go and bam, guy running the light from the right takes off his bumper.
They pulled into a gas station and I had to go around the block to get back.
I pull in and the guy in front of me is all happy to see me because the light runner is saying the guy in front of me ran the light.
Gave him my contact info, but never got a call. I’m assuming that once the light runner was confronted with a witness, he had to take responsibility.

I’ve thought about this a lot lately and have been thinking about getting a cheap dash cam that mounts on the rear view mirror or something to act as a witness in a case like this.[/quote]

This is exactly what happened to me once. A guy ran the red light, and I hit him in the middle of the intersection. Luckily, two different witnesses pulled over and gave me their info. The idiot red-light-runner’s attorney called me a couple of days later saying that the guy had “severe injuries” (he didn’t; we all helped push his car out of the intersection). The witnesses corroborated my story, and I never heard from that attorney again. I am so grateful that these people took the time to pull over and give me their info. Without them, it could have been a very different outcome.

We always pull over if we see any kind of accident. It’s a really big deal to these people.

[Coronita]

[quote=doofrat]I was a witness once and it really helped the guy out. Guy was in front of me and the light changed. It took him another second or so to go and bam, guy running the light from the right takes off his bumper.
They pulled into a gas station and I had to go around the block to get back.
I pull in and the guy in front of me is all happy to see me because the light runner is saying the guy in front of me ran the light.
Gave him my contact info, but never got a call. I’m assuming that once the light runner was confronted with a witness, he had to take responsibility.

I’ve thought about this a lot lately and have been thinking about getting a cheap dash cam that mounts on the rear view mirror or something to act as a witness in a case like this.[/quote]

You mean like this?

(Yes, I got one, and no, that’s not me in the video :))

[Doofrat]

Hey Flu,
What kind of system do you have/recommend?

[Author]

Posts