# Sometimes you just \*HAVE TO\* flip people off **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 9, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643 "2008-05-09T01:38:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/21 "2008-05-09T14:26:27Z")
Just for fun, I mapped this location. Check out this [link](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=action+dodge,+jackson,+ms&ie=UTF8&ll=32.359233,-90.150563&spn=0.002125,0.003911&t=k&z=18). See the building with the red roof? I was on the other side of the highway, headed up the page (so to speak). Notice that the highway goes from 3 to 4 lanes there; the on-ramp is two lanes but one peters out at the next exit. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/22 "2008-05-09T14:28:23Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] It’s a good idea not to drive in the same lane that people entering the freeway have to merge into. That really bothers me, and more than once I’ve considered ignoring the person in the lane who obviously doesn’t “get it” and just merging anyway. [/QUOTE] Um…WHAT??? Good luck with that at your trial. People are supposed to drive in the right lane. There’s a reason the left lane is called such things as “the fast lane” and “the passing lane”. In some states, you can be ticketed for parking your ass in the left lane. Hell, in some states, semi-trucks can be ticketted for being in the left lane for any reason other than that they are actively passing someone at the time. Suggestion: Learn how to merge properly. That was the major lesson of my behind the wheel driving training when we got on the freeway. He made us stay in the right lane and learn how to deal with merging traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Stringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Stringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/23 "2008-05-09T15:27:02Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] Are you just playing Devil’s advocate here, or are you actually a jackass? [/QUOTE] He flipped off some jerk on public transit, ran away and then came to an internet message board to brag about it. Not enough rolleyes in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/24 "2008-05-09T15:36:13Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] People are supposed to drive in the right lane. There’s a reason the left lane is called such things as “the fast lane” and “the passing lane”. In some states, you can be ticketed for parking your ass in the left lane. Hell, in some states, semi-trucks can be ticketted for being in the left lane for any reason other than that they are actively passing someone at the time. Suggestion: Learn how to merge properly. That was the major lesson of my behind the wheel driving training when we got on the freeway. He made us stay in the right lane and learn how to deal with merging traffic. [/QUOTE] Agreed. For the record, on the highway there is exactly one “driving lane”, and it’s the right-most (unless it’s an exit-only lane, obviously). The rest are passing lanes. There’s no such thing as a slow lane or a fast lane. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/25 "2008-05-09T16:43:48Z")
[QUOTE=Stringer] He flipped off some jerk on public transit, ran away and then came to an internet message board to brag about it. Not enough rolleyes in the world. [/QUOTE] So he flipped him off? Jail is full of people who were too drunk to make rational decisions, like this asshole was. Should **blondebear** have flipped him off earlier and gotten in a fight instead? I didn’t see it as bragging at all. Given this and your ‘merging’ ideas, I’d say asshole fits quite nicely. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/26 "2008-05-09T16:44:14Z")
**blondebear** , you experienced what is known in the vibro-household as a Spontaneous Birding Event (SBE). These can occur anywhere at any time, but I have noticed a positive correlation between SBEs and the onscreen appearances of George W. Bush and Tom Brady. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/27 "2008-05-09T16:46:17Z")
Anybody see this? > [@RhythmTV](#): > > News Flash: Somewhere on the 280[sup]th[/sup] Meridian. > > A little old lady, late of Pasadena, is in critical condition tonight after a drunken ex-con exploded in rage on the Mt. View Winchester line. After spewing an autolobotomy-inducing stream of invectives on the woman, he proceeded to strip off bandages from various body parts, hurling them in the faces of the scared, trapped, and otherwise innocent bystanders. By the time the train made it to the next station, he had stabbed several people in the eye with his bong, and forced two of them to drink from his plastic bag-encrusted malt liquor bottle. With no escape in the closed car and no hope of respite until the next station, the carnage was complete. Several transit cops who, luckily, had just come from a self-actualization seminar finally apprehended the man. > > Police say the attacker, intoxicated and belligerent, was set off after being incited by an unknown passenger who intensified the already tense situation before slipping out at his stop. “It was like kicking a bees nest without any regard for us!” said Mrs. Kerfufflinker, one of the many victims in the car. The mayor has called for a city-wide manhunt for the passenger, to whom the passengers of the car wish to extend their gratitude. With their fingers. ---
**Author:** ![drpepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@drpepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drpepper)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/28 "2008-05-09T16:51:10Z")
[QUOTE=dbuzman] And when the cops respond to the accident you caused who would get in trouble? You. Because you’re fucking wrong! YOU are the one who “doesn’t get it”. YOU are merging into traffic, YOU have to yield to the traffic that is already there. It doesn’t matter if they can change lanes or not, they don’t have to. I change lanes when I can to be nice not because I have to and it pisses me off when the left lane is occupied and I can’t move over and some self important self absorbed asshole coming up the on ramp wants to try to occupy the space I’m already in. You don’t like it if people don’t change lanes? Then turn in your divers license because you shouldn’t be behind the wheel. [/QUOTE] Agreed on all counts. It is the duty of the person entering the freeway to merge. It’s not always possible for people to avoid driving in the merge-lane. When I do (I try to move over when I see someone on the on-ramp headed to my general direction but, as I say, it’s not always possible), it’s certainly not to intentionally piss off the person merging; if you think it’s some conspiracy to get you mad, then grow the hell up and deal. But whatever you do, YOU have to be the one to fucking yield and merge. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/29 "2008-05-09T16:51:52Z")
So you flipped off this drunk, aggressive ex-con once there was no way he could touch you, but you left the other people on the train to deal with the consequences of your act, i.e. a now-really-pissed-off drunk ex-con. Seems pretty chicken shit to me. ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/30 "2008-05-09T19:18:25Z")
Oh, come on now. If he’d ignored the guy somebody would call him a pussy, and if he’d done anything prior to getting off he’d get in a fight and somebody would be calling him a violent jerk. What do you propose he should have done? ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/31 "2008-05-09T21:47:05Z")
[QUOTE=dbuzman] And when the cops respond to the accident you caused who would get in trouble? You. [/QUOTE] That’s why I don’t do it. 🙂 I’ve considered it though, just like I’ve considered punching my boss in the nose and most people consider moving to Canada when their candidate doesn’t get elected. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/32 "2008-05-09T22:22:16Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] Just for fun, I mapped this location. Check out this [link](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=action+dodge,+jackson,+ms&ie=UTF8&ll=32.359233,-90.150563&spn=0.002125,0.003911&t=k&z=18). See the building with the red roof? I was on the other side of the highway, headed up the page (so to speak). Notice that the highway goes from 3 to 4 lanes there; the on-ramp is two lanes but one peters out at the next exit. [/QUOTE] Well O.K., but to be sure, could you go back to the scene, take closeups from various angles and put together a Power Point presentation online? Then we could take a vote on whether or not your actions were justified. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/33 "2008-05-09T22:32:22Z")
I had a similar incident two summers ago. It was on a public street near a busy bus stop and the man was shouting at people as they went by. I don’t remember what he said as I rolled by on my roller blades with my dog, but I responded with a flourish of facetiae on the topic of his mother. He jumped up and yelled for me to come back. I had to let go of the leash to stop and turn around and go back. I remember clearly that he began to wrap a long sleeve shirt around his fist. I’m sure it was meant to scare me, but I was sorely tempted to explain that the padding would make his blows hurt less and do less damage. In the clarity of the fight-or-flight response I noticed that he was wearing crappy canvas shoes and that even in street shoes I would have had a couple of inches on him. With the roller blades I towered over him. He was babbling some crap about fixing me up as he wrapped the cloth around his fist. I was rolling backwards, with my skates in a ‘V’ and I was waiting for him to get just a little closer before I stomped somewhere between his tarsals and his metatarsals. He made some comment about my dog and I realized she had come back toward me and was looking at me sheepishly. I don’t know why, but I snapped out of it and left, picking up the dog’s leash and looking back at the man. He must have been in his late fifties and, under different circumstances, I probably would have given him change if he had asked. It took a lot to walk away from him. (Roll away…) He started to strut and he was calling after me that I was whatever-I-was and how he would have whupped me or somesuch. I started shaking and I felt sick to my stomach, then I got really tired. When I told some friends about it, they said I was a chicken-shit and they said they would have kicked the old man’s ass. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/34 "2008-05-09T22:41:21Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Well O.K., but to be sure, could you go back to the scene, take closeups from various angles and put together a Power Point presentation online? [/QUOTE] How about twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is? 😉 [QUOTE=Mosier] most people consider moving to Canada when their candidate doesn’t get elected. [/QUOTE] What about Canucks? Where do _they_ consider moving to ?? ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/35 "2008-05-09T23:51:30Z")
I’ve finally gotten flipping off people out of my system. I used to do it much more often than was healthy, and not while walking away. I’ve discovered I get into fewer physical confrontations now… Somehow, it seems healthier. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/36 "2008-05-10T00:52:59Z")
[QUOTE=Stringer] He flipped off some jerk on public transit, ran away and then came to an internet message board to brag about it. Not enough rolleyes in the world. [/QUOTE] I resent that. What, in your opinion, is the proper response to grossly inappropriate public behavior? I admitted my feeble protest was “cowardly”, and was likely stupid as well…the guy might have had a knife handy for all I know. But at that particular day, at that particular moment, I chose to sink to his level and use my own gesture. Perhaps I should have engaged the fellow in some sort of reasonable discourse regarding his lack of civility. Nah, I didn’t have the time. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/37 "2008-05-10T03:32:01Z")
Back when I was a more foolish, younger version of myself, I got the bright idea to throw shit out my window (like coins) at a guy that was relentlessly tailgating me over a bridge across the Ohio river. I had already tried the tapping brake light thingie, I even waved my hand in a “back, back” gesture to try to get him off my ass. Seriously, he was RIGHT on my bumper at highway speeds. So, I grabbed a handful of coins and flung them out my window and had the strong satisfaction of seeing and hearing them plink off the hood of his fancy sportscar. Needless to say, the guy was plenty pissed and managed to roar up next to me, whereby he proceeded to show me a handgun and give me dirty looks. I gave him the “ooh, I’m soooo scared” mime and he immediately ducked into the far rigth lane to exit. Turns out he didn’t need to be in my lane at all (far left), he was just one of those a-holes that thinks that cutting a few cars off saves a significant amount of time. All for naught, I thought, but I still remember that guy. He could have taken a potshot at me and we were both in the wrong. Road rage is bad…and it literally kills. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/38 "2008-05-10T03:32:17Z")
[QUOTE=blondebear] **Sometimes you just _HAVE TO_ flip people off** [/QUOTE] Paging **lobstermobster**. **lobstermobster** , if you are in the building, would you please come to the service desk? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Stringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/39 "2008-05-10T05:00:30Z")
[QUOTE=blondebear] I resent that. What, in your opinion, is the proper response to grossly inappropriate public behavior? I admitted my feeble protest was “cowardly”, and was likely stupid as well…the guy might have had a knife handy for all I know. But at that particular day, at that particular moment, I chose to sink to his level and use my own gesture. Perhaps I should have engaged the fellow in some sort of reasonable discourse regarding his lack of civility. Nah, I didn’t have the time. [/QUOTE] So you admit you were a coward, I’m ok with that. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643/40 "2008-05-10T05:09:09Z")
People wonder why Americans are so averse to giving up their cars and using public transportation. The OP is one good reason. In a car you maintain your personal space wherever you go. I’d pay 10 dollars a gallon to avoid trains and buses. I know it’s wrong, environmentally speaking. If only I could afford a Tesla roadster… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-you-just-have-to-flip-people-off/448643.md?page=3)