So I just got back from uni. I got beeped when I was crossing a street near the uni, I don’t want to get into details but it’s safe to say it wasn’t my fault. It’s not a busy street, no traffic light, basically leading to a dead end, very low traffic.
I’m wondering how insulting it is to get beeped in the Western world. I kinda want to go back in time and at least give that driver a middle finger or something. It was totally uncalled for. If I got a knife I might even stab him, because I think it was totally rude and insulting.
Since you give no details, it’s impossible to know. However, the most likely reason is that, from the driver’s viewpoint, you did something wrong – which might not be something illegal, but just something that makes it more likely that you would be hit by the car. So it’s not an insult, but just a warning.
When you said West, I wondered if you meant, like, Arizona. But I guess not.
Meh, beeped works.
People so rarely take this kind of good advice. So I’ll just say, be careful not to let your old self see your new self. Bad things happen. Just position yourself a little furthe down the road and flip them off there. Try to wear the same clothes, so that they’ll be more likely to recognize you.
As to whether it was an insult, unless you were in their head, you’ll never really know. My son used to have a poster that said: Live Like All The Boats Are Empty. The idea being that if you’re rowing along and an empty boat bumps into you, you don’t get upset and start wondering what the boat’s motives were. It’s an empty boat. It probably floated there without thinking of you at all.
If there’s a person in the boat, it’s probably still an accident or at least an inadvertance. If you don’t get angry just in case someone was being malicious, you’re better off. Just wave, push off, and keep floating. It’s a nice day out.
Nobody likes getting honked or beeped at (here in San Diego, I hear both, about interchangeably.) If I’m in the wrong, it promotes a defensive reaction – “Yes, yes, I know I screwed up; now shut up about it already!” – and if I’m not in the wrong, it comes across as stupid, offensive, and aggressive – “Idiot! You’re the one who ran that stop sign, not me!”
At best, it’s like shouting, “Hey, you!” At worst, it’s like shouting, “Hey, A*******!”
I have a fantasy of seeker missiles mounted on my car, and one of my targets would be people who honk the second a light turns green. As in before you could even move foot from brake to gas. That I find insulting. Then there are the drivers whose idea of a “courtesy” honk is to lay on the horn for 5-10 seconds. That I find insulting.
However, a driver can’t always tell if a pedestrian is paying attention, and a true courtesy honk could be a life-saver.
Where is the OP from? If I didn’t know, I’d say they were American based on the above reaction.
Car horns are inherently loud and obnoxious, so it’s hard for a driver not to come off sounding like a jerk whenever they use it. I almost never used my horn in the USA, instead I would just slow down a bit (if there was somebody I suspected hadn’t seen me coming) and wait for them to finish crossing the street or whatever else they were doing in the road.
Anyone who is offended by horn honking must never go to Vietnam, where you will get beeped-at when you are on the sidewalk and a motorbike needs to get by.
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Is getting beeped at in the West a huge insult?
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I suppose in the East drivers deliver hand-written notes? Or beeping is a form of courtship?
I guess it’s up to me to take up the white man’s burden and educate this poor foreign wretch. Most modern knives aren’t designed for stabbing, and therefore don’t usually possess any sort of cross guard. Without a guard your hand is going to slide up the blade when it meets the resistance of your victim’s flesh and you’re going to cut your own fingers. Stab him with a phillip’s head screw driver instead. This also works better because there are more legit reasons to have a screw driver than a dagger.
IMPORTANT: When stabbing someone in the past, always double check to ensure that he’s not actually an ancestor of yours. I know it seems unlikely, but I can’t tell you how many times something like that has happened. Also, be sure you bring enough plutonium to power the flux capacitor for the journey home. Otherwise you’re going to end up stuck there, probably getting your ass kicked by an irate motorist while your past self watches with bemusement.
A friend of mine actually did something like that. He affixed a model-rocket launching rod into the vacant cavity where one of his headlights used to be. The firing switch was on the dashboard.
If he was driving even as fast as 20mph, the rocket would simply tumble back behind the car, but if he was stationary, it shot out right smartly. One of the most useless damn felonies ever, but fun to demo in a parking lot!
Q: Do you go 'troo da Loop?
A: Nah, I go “BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP” all the whole goddam day.