I was hiking with my buddy and felt a bit uneasy. Like my skin felt fuzzy, it was hard to explain. I yelled "Run!" To a friend, we ran down the mountain and dodged getting hit by lightning a few seconds later.
People think lightning rods are meant to attract lightning, but that is incorrect. Buildings are often covered with a whole bunch of little 1 foot copper spikes. The idea is a multipoint spray of electrons from the ground up to a charged cloud to balance the charge and reduce the chance of a strike.
During a storm, you can sometimes hear them making a hissing sound as they work.
When lightning is about to strike, anything kind of tall and conductive will do the same. If you feel that static charge building up on you, get your ass as flat as you can. You cannot predict where the strike is going to hit, so running is silly--you might well run toward a strike. Just lay flat and stay away from tall stuff. Don't be the tallest thing either.
I believe youre supposed to crouch with your feet pressed together and your arms wrapped around your knees. This reduces contact with the ground and pressing the feet together reduces risk of the charge going up one leg and down the other.
When you lay down you are increasing the potential of the strike from one end of your body to the other.
Correct. What you're trying to do is make sure the strike doesn't go through your heart where you will almost certainly die. Your body can survive a lot, as long as your major organs don't get fried.
yeah, if i understand it right the majority of the damage from a lightning strike is that you get a burn where the bolt goes. if it goes through your heart, your heart gets one hell of a burn. then you have to heal a burn from the inside out, which your body is not used to doing
I did get down when I felt it. I heard stories online of how lightning felt before it hit. I just never thought it would happen to me. We were almost at the top of the cliff. I stopped to take some pictures. So, when we got away. We decreased in elevation quickly, probably 15 feet in under 20 seconds? Then we got to the tree line.
If I had to guess, about 50-75 feet from where we were standing. There was some kind of radio tower near us. We didn't turn around to figure it out. We ran.
Ironically, I don't remember it being too loud. I do remember running down a mountain as fast as I could. I think I was just hyper focused on that though.
Unless it hits a tree, and the tree explodes. That happened to me last week right outside my house. I've never heard anything quite as loud nor with such a large thump in my body. Felt a bit like my bell got rung for the rest of the day.
That would probably make sense. I genuinely remember it being loud, but not by hearing it, more of feeling it. You feel it in your lungs. My guess is due to the rapid pressure change. I was a bit too focused on getting off of the cliff/mountain we were at.
At the very start of COVID. When many of my online and IRL friend groups started internalizing what I now recognize as Russian/Chinese influence ops (which were being spread by unwitting Western Useful Idiots -- Conservatives and Libertarians)
They started not just opposing lockdowns, but actively spreading virus: no mask, it's just a flu, CDC is lying, Fauchi is an idiot, etc.
It felt like being in a burning building. I grabbed my family, ran for the exit by cutting ties with the Influenced, and left them to burn. Now many of them are utterly consumed by propaganda and no longer recognize reality. 😢
Dude, even when it's obviously idiotic, you should still tag your stuff with a sarcasm tag. Some people may believe that bullshit and, while it's fun to laugh at that sometimes, it's the wrong kind of laughter. Still, I like your deadpan humour; and I almost believed it was serious but the spelling was too good.
Once I was in a holiday crowd when the people per square meter got too high, and the beginning stages of crowd crush started happening. Waves of kinetic energy were being transmitted through the crowd without anyone even trying, it just wasn’t possible to stop yourself from getting shoved forward. I told my now-husband we need to get out NOW, and we did. Nothing happened to my knowledge, no fatal crush or anything like that. But it was scary as hell during what was supposed to be a good time.
Got to experience it in San Francisco one year for a Chinese new year parade. It really is scary, you are utterly helpless and nobody can do anything. Panic at scale is scary.
There was a medium sized tree that I braced my arms against and held myself away, wife between tree and I. Stood there holding myself out for a while but I was getting tired and wasn't going to last a lot longer. Thankfully crowd broke and it stopped.
I still hate San Francisco, always some stupid shit happen every time I went. Fuck that city.
Ooft, I got in a similar situation at a big street party - the friend I was with was lifted off her feet briefly by the crush. We managed to wriggle out to a clear area and away. No deaths, but hundreds of people were injured.
Oh my god. My friends and I were doing a road trip around the US when we got lost somewhere crossing the border into southern California. We took some weird back road into the woods looking for a campsite that was on Google (we were roughing it as much as possible to be cheap), but it became super apparent that we took the wrong turn somewhere and we went deeper and deeper into the woods. It started to get dark and at this point my ex and I were like, "Let's just go to a hotel, it's already too dark to camp." My friend, the driver, was convinced we were almost there and the campsites were just around the next corner and wanted to save the money.
At some point, we saw this tree across the road and the only way to keep going forward was into what looked like just a clearing where some rusted out cars were. Immediately my ex and I felt this overwhelming, hair-raising "it's time to go" vibe and we started telling him to turn around. My friend pulled into the clearing saying something like, "No, this might be it, there's cars parked here". We pull into the lot and kinda do a loop, just to put the headlights on the surroundings and see what's all there. Like I said, it's an island of gravel, short, dry grass, and some rusted out cars in the middle of dense, mountainous forest.
My friend is juuuuuuust about to park and gloat about 'finding the campsite' when some feral looking dude comes barreling out of the woods like a cryptid, sprinting at the back of the car. My ex and I start screaming like loons as this dude closes the gap and my friend punches it and starts driving back down the road we came in on. The dude just stood in the road behind us with something metal (I think a pipe) and watched us go in a cloud of dust and taillights.
Absolutely HORRIFYING experience and we still have no idea what the fuck the situation was there.
I ended up in a similar situation, except I was hiking the Appalachian trail alone. I decided to stop at a creek and get some crawfish for my dinner and to boil water. While I was turning over rocks I heard some distant rustling and got this feeling I was being watched. I unclipped the button on my knife holster because that made me a little more comfortable. I heard from another hiker that this area wasn't safe and that I should pass through and go past the shelter a few miles. He looked very tired and sounded nervous under his breath and didn't take time to explain and he speed walked on.
Back to me catching crawfish, I ended up eating like 5 or 6 of them and ate the rest of the wild berries and mushrooms I collected from the morning. I heard the rustling but it sounded much closer. Close enough that I could tell it was something that weighed a good bit. I took that as my warning and got out of there.
I was a good two or three miles from the creek when I remembered what the guy said and how nervous he was. That feeling I was being watched never went away. I decided to dart into the woods and form a fishhook maneuver to see if I was being followed. It was something my friends native American grandfather said to do when hunting in a area with lots of bears or mountain lions to avoid leading them back to your camp. And sure enough it worked because their wasn't an animal following me but a person was following me.
I slowly moved back to the trail and walked about 100 ft on the hard packed soil to not leave a footprint trail then I darted in the woods and ran for a good 20 or 30 minutes before hitting a road. At this point I decided to hike 5 miles to a motel and just sleep. No way I was sleeping in the woods with a maniac on the loose.
This is a rough photo of where this happened, and what the fishhook maneuver looked like.
everytime I tell people my experience I get that feeling of being watched again. It's scary thinking that could have ended very bad for me if I didn't get that warning from the distressed hiker. I have heard stories about there being being creeps on the trail, but never encountered one before my experience.
In the early 2000s, I had just joined the US military right out of high school and found myself stationed in Japan for my first assignment.
I loved Japanese culture and had started a college course on basic Japanese language so I could communicate with the locals and find my way around without getting lost in a foreign country.
One day, one of the civilians in my office was retiring and he chose a fancy hotel in the next city over to host his retirement ceremony. They had a bunch of meeting/party rooms we could host our ceremony in. It was fun, but I'm a bit introverted, so at some point, I stepped out into the grand lobby of the hotel to recover some energy by myself. There was a grand piano in one corner with some petite Japanese lady playing soft music on it. I learned against a large pillar and quietly listened for a bit.
All of a sudden, a meeting room door nearby banged open and some Japanese businessman stormed out on his phone. He was agitated and speaking angrily into his flip phone (smartphones didn't exist yet). He stopped on the other side of the pillar from me and continued his loud discussion.
I had gotten absorbed into some Japanese drama TV shows and had learned to identify the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) slang. This guy was using the same dialect. I got a chill down my spine; it was my first time running into a Yakuza member in real life.
The guy finished his call and turned to leave... and stopped when he saw me standing practically next to him. His anger flared up and he started speaking aggressively at me in Japanese. Probably pissed that I was listening in on his call.
I caught a few words here and there, but my Japanese wasn't good enough for full sentences yet, especially spoken rapidly at me in an angry tone.
When he paused, I said in English, "Um... I'm sorry, I don't understand." I knew how to say it in Japanese, but I didn't want to give him any inkling that I knew Japanese.
His entire demeanor changed. He grinned from ear to ear and said, "Ah! America-jin, ne? Good! Good guy!" He gave me a rough pat on the shoulder and then turned and went back to his meeting room.
I thought he was gonna drag me into the meeting room with his buddies and I'd never be found again, so I was relieved when he smiled and left me be. I went right back to my party and made sure not to go anywhere by myself for the rest of the evening.
Fortunately, a lot of Japanese folks were obsessed with Americans and American culture when I was living over there, so if you could convince them you were American, they would bend over backwards to help you with anything.
I flew back into Japan after a vacation and I had a 25-hr layover in Tokyo before flying back to my military base. I slept in a hotel that night, then went to the airport the next morning and asked if they could bump me to an earlier flight so I wouldn't be stuck in the airport all day.
The lady at the counter said they had a flight leaving in 15 minutes and she would ensure I got on it.
Then she took off her heels, grabbed me by the hand, and literally ran me through the airport! She pushed me to the front of the security line, then we sprinted all the way to the terminal. They even held the plane an extra 10 minutes to ensure I got on it. I felt bad for holding up a plane, but damn! What service!
No, but I have dark hair and have been described as having a Mediterranean look, so a lot of people around the world assumed I was from Europe at first glance. The Yakuza guy didn't immediately pin me for an American until I spoke English.
This was also way up in northern Japan, where very few foreigners can be found, so their exposure to us is limited. Lots of Japanese people stared at us in public if we went anywhere except the town our base was in.
Not OP but I take it that you're asking because you're trying to figure out why they weren't visually assumed to be a foreigner and why they were assumed to be able to speak Japanese?
I was working for a charity doing some reconstruction in an ex war zone. That weekend was a major festival. I’m not of the area nor the religion so I volunteered to keep an eye on our camp instead that weekend.
I finished my breakfast in the canteen and was about to walk the perimeter and do my checks when, inexplicably, I decided to stall and have a second coffee. Something I never did.
As I went to sit down a massive explosion happened outside, shattering the entire area me and my clipboard should have been in. I wouldn’t have stood a chance. The canteen we were in was made out of shipping containers and probably saved our lives.
2010 Loveparade.
First we got told that there would be a different entry, which there wasn't, which meant we needed to walk quite a while. On the way we had a few situations, where people pushed a lot and it's not a nice feeling, when you have a considerable mass and you get pushed easily.
We made it to the last big check and we where greeted with a clear view to the tunnel. At this point there weren't big queues visible and it was just a short walk. I said to the 2 friends I was with, that NOW I want to go home. It was not a gut feeling or something, I just knew I don't want to continue and I want to go home. One friend decided to stay, as we where this close and another agreed with me and left with me.
The friend who stayed, did cut his visit shorter, lucky for him. For people who don't know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade_disaster
It was one of the biggest crowd crushes disasters. 21 dead, 652 injured. It happend in that tunnel, which I looked into and decided to go home.
That criminal trial is considered one of the most complex ones of the post war period. In 2020 they dropped the trial. The issue was for these crimes, they only had 10 years and they said due to the limitations of covid, they said they will run out of time.
In this case, I was the one that caused the gut feeling. For context, I'm a middle aged disheveled-looking dude.
My kids made a play date with their friends at a local park. The park is big and has two entrances, but they didn't know where their friends were so I just went to the first entrance I came to. At this entrance there was a playground where only a woman and her two kids were playing - no one else in sight. I drove past them to see if it was my kids' friends (it wasn't), and the woman gave me a weird stare. In hindsight, she probably couldn't see my kids in the back seat - she just saw some rando slow-rolling past the playground. Anyway, I drove around to the other entrance, but no one was there either. So we called up the friends' parents and learned that they were running late and that we should meet at the first entrance with the playground. As soon as I pulled back in to the playground entrance, the woman saw me and gathered up her kids in a panic and ran for her car. I was trying to figure out WTF she was worked up about when it dawned on me. I parked, my kids got out, and when she saw them she calmed down. I'm sure I gave her a heart attack for a minute though.
One time in Hayward, CA my then-girlfriend and I were stalked through town by a tweaker in a big pickup truck, us in an old Mazda 3. All I did was accidentally make eye contact in the parking lot, sort of clocked the gearface and then minded my business but he took umbrage somehow. Probably chased us for a few miles through her old neighbourhood. I even tried a lame little fakeout with my turn signals, but neither that car nor my driving skills were up for a French Connection reenactment and I think he eventually gave up because chasing me was too pathetic. Bet he would have kicked my shit in, if I actually put up a fight.
If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, your best bet is to go to the police station, public library or major store chain. Go somewhere very public. At the very least never go home or anywhere in your usual rounds.
Based on the Mazda 3 I'm a hell of a lot older but I grew up in Hayward, went to Moreau High School on Mission Blvd. Nice to see a rare mention of my old town online! Glad the weird dude who followed you gave up.
My wife went to Moreau too! She switched to Logan as soon as she could though, still keeps in touch with a friend or two though. I loved my time in Haystack.
When I was around 11 I was at the McDonald's down the street from my house with a couple of friends. It was just three 11/12 year old girls chilling eating in the back of the restaurant. It was dark out but not late, probably 7 or 8 at night. After a bit my friend leaned over to me and said the guy at the table next to us "looks like (her abusive stepfather)". Realistically it could not have been her abusive stepfather and she was across the other side of the country.
However, he was creepy and sitting alone and watching us VERY closely. We started getting nervous and at some point I said loudly enough for him to hear "okay, my dad is coming to get us". He wasn't, but I was hoping that would make the man leave us alone. He immediately got up and went to go stand just outside of the back door into the parking lot.
We panicked even more and walked to the front entrance of the McDonald's, called my dad from a payphone. I remember how panicked we must have looked because a random person who was in line came over and asked if we were okay. Thankfully my dad was home and came to get us from the front entrance and we left together.
Another time I was on the last train home from work, I was around 18. A man had gotten on the train near my stop, first sat on a further seat and then moved closer as the trip went on. From my stop, I had to walk about 50 meters to a not-very-well lit taxi pickup area. This man got off at my stop, and as I approached the well-lit exit of the train station I could feel him following me. I almost went outside and then thought better of it. Turned back and thankfully found a transit worker on the platform. I asked him if he could walk me to the taxis and he did. As my taxi was driving away I saw the man who had been following me walk back further into the train station. As I mentioned, it was the last train of the night so he had no reason to have gotten off at the stop if it wasn't his stop. There were no businesses or anything else around. Anyway my favourite part of this story (not favourite) is that when the transit worker was walking me over to the taxis he said something along the lines of "oh you're just too cute thats why that man is following you". No thank you.
Nevertheless, I want to tell a quick story of where someones gut feeling was wrong.
More than 20 years so I used to go to an evening school (don't know the English name for, maybe college or something like that). One day I was done, it was very late and dark outside (around 10 in the evening) and I was tried and not in the best mood and I just wanted home. To get there, I had to catch the last train of the evening and the train station was a few minutes walking away.
Since I'm a pretty tall guy with long legs, I can walk pretty fast. I was walking down the narrow sidewalk towards the train station when another pedestrian appeared on front of me. This pedestrian, a young lady, was slower than me and since I was in a hurry I tried to overtake her (get in front in of her so she wouldn't slow me down and could walk at her own pace). However, when I started my maneuver she got a little faster, but I still wanted to finish my maneuver and walked a little faster myself and she got a bit faster again.... after a short while of this, it ended with her running away to a street on the other side of the road while screaming in fear.
This way quite confusing for me since I had no bad intentions at all. However, from her perspective it was probably super scary with a tall grumpy looking guy "following" her and then getting into snatching range. So I think she did the right thing and from that point I tried to avoid accidentally scaring other people.
Yeah I’ve had a similar experience, when I was in my early 20s, and have since chosen to accept missing the train or whatever is the reason I’d need to hurry, so as not to scare someone that bad. Jesus it’s awkward and it’s entirely understandable, but man does it get me questioning whether I look scary or weird or do I seem suspicious and has been a constant source of anxiety ever since. But I’ve realized it’s my job in that situation to clearly signal I’m not a threat, and I’ve chosen to do it just by slowing down myself so the distance grows and I become no threat to them (feels so bad to think of one’s self this way by the way, fuck me, but what can you do?) or alternatively if there’s a detour I could take to still catch the train as in your example, I’d rather go to another block and jog if nobody’s there and not miss the train. Either way, if I’m perceived a threat, there’s nothing in the moment that can be done about that other than no longer be perceived one, i.e stall or reroute away.
This only ever happens in dark, at night, and them likely drunk or tired, so it’s entirely understandable. I’d be fucking anxious too if someone bigger than me started speeding up on me. I have the privilege not to be scared this way due to my physique, so I also have to respect it the other way around too.
It’s so easy to go with the gut reaction of “this is disrespectful” without considering the scenario from a third person you know? I think this is where most end up in and start thinking “you can’t do or say anything anymore” and become either incels or too fucking loud magas or equivalents, because it is kind of hard on self confidence to be in that situation. But it’s always going to be worse for the other, they might fear for their life, and rightly so, so there’s no comparison there once you actually start thinking and exercising your empathy. So if you manage to get past the initial feeling of disrespect, frustration and self-doubt, then this is a real non-issue. And something very small to avoid and handle properly in the moment.
But if you don’t get past it, or lack the empathy to see it from others’ pov, well, you end up a shithead basically, coping unhealthily with that and it might even grow as large to be the whole identity ultimately.
Just rambling here I suppose, sorry to hog all the space, felt like I needed to let that out. I’ve had some friends go with the disrespect and self image and confidence shattering effect that I’ve helped get past it and see it objectively, and I just can’t help but think of everyone who doesnt have the help nor the inner capability, and stray from the sensible and humane path due to something so small as this.
I feel like if I were ever in that situation I'd just straight-up yell something to the effect of "hey lady, I'm not trying to chase you; I'm just in a hurry" and try to get her to cross the street or something so I could get by. I have no idea if it would actually help or not, but if it's awkward anyway I'm the kind of jerk to be willing to make it more so.
"On your left (right if you're in a right hand pass country)" is something that would personally make me feel safer as a woman. It's a clear, "hey I'm passing you not chasing you"
I use that as a cyclist, but it only feels appropriate when the closing speed is high and/or the person in front is unaware and there's a risk of a collision. If the situation is more like a semi-truck trying to pass another uphill, I think a little more verbosity is warranted.
I usually do my best to just take an extra wide berth to get by. It's usually only going to happen late at night or so when it's super quiet, so in that case I will just cross the street myself.
Kinda just signalling, don't worry I want nothing to do with you. It helps lull them into a sense of security.
When we're talking personal safety, you want to play it safe, surprisingly. I mean, maybe you'd rather be the one who says to themselves "ah, it's probably nothing" and then gets murderaped, but most of us wouldn't.
Wished him good luck on his journey, hauled ass out of there and picked up a really nice pointy skull crushing rock for companionship. The hike back was a lot less scenic and we nailed it in half the advised time. Made a police report when back in phone reception.
We later worked out he just wanted advice because he thought HE was being chased
There was a time when I was traveling with my mom we were at a thrift store since she loves to thrift. I was browsing around waiting for her to finish up and I walked into an aisle with one other person in there. If looks could kill, I would've collapsed right then and there from the look that this random person gave me. Ignoring the gaze, I walked by and I heard them mumble underneath their breath calling me a fucker or something. Since I was traveling, I've never seen this person in my life before, but I got a bad feeling that I might've looked like an enemy or something to them. That's when my flight response kicked in and I knew that we needed to leave. And, it might not have been related, but that night, I heard someone in that area took a bullet so I think I might have literally dodged a bullet there.
I was young and had just moved to a decent sized midwest city by myself. I didn't know anyone so spent a lot of my time exploring by myself. There was a large park in a quiet area of town where it wasn't unusual to be the only person around. I was sitting at the end of a very large rose garden when I noticed a tall skinny guy in a dirty wife beater and jeans standing on the outside of the garden with his dog. Something big like a Rottweiler or pitbull I don't remember exactly. I just remember being super freaked out because he was just standing there looking directly at me.
I got up and started walking back to my car but he started walking parallel to me matching my pace. When I walked faster he did too. I got my phone and keys out and just kept walking as confidently as I could. I was parked a couple minutes away and over time his pace did slow slightly as mine got faster but I knew he was still behind me. I had a habit of unlocking my car several times with the keyfob because the car beep was satisfying. After I did so the white cargo type van parked next to me unlocked and beeped the exact same amount of times mine did.
At this point I as terrified. I backed out and raced out of the park without even looking behind me. I needed to pick up something from one of the neighborhood Walmarts on the way home so I stopped there and headed inside to calm down. The sun was still out and I'm a guy. I was young, short and slender but I still felt like that somehow protected me. I convinced myself I was being crazy and that guy just happened to be leaving the park when I did. I left the store and started walking to my car when I saw him. The white van was parked directly next to my car and he stood there at the back watching me. No dog this time. All I remember thinking is I had to get into my car because it was the only place I had any leverage. I slow motion got in, backed out, and headed back into a neighborhood where I knew I could zig zag my way around different blocks to try to lose him. I spent 10 minutes looking over my shoulder making random turns before I headed back to my apartment.
Never saw him again and to this day I still feel like I'm in a bit of denial about the whole thing. There were plenty of other cars in the parking lot. It was early evening. If he was trying to kidnap me it was a stupid place to do so. Perhaps he saw how scared I was at the park and just wanted to mess with me. Whatever the case I've never been so scared for my own life.
I'm surprised you actually got in your care at Walmart with the van right next to it. I probably would have gone back inside and asked a security guard to come out with me.
If this ever happens again, or for anyone reading this, the best thing to do if you're being trailed in a car is to drive to a police station. (Despite the other dangers that can also cause unfortunately)
Your story reminded me of an incident I experienced a few years ago. I did grubhub in the evenings and would often hit a 7/11 on my way home for smokes. For context, this place was constantly busy with homeless people and bar-hoppers milling about outside, but they had never bothered me.
One night, a young man in mechanics coveralls approached as I was leaving and bummed a cigarette. As he was lighting it, he asked if I could give him a ride to the Walmart about a mile up the road because he was worn out from his long day. I declined, but he kept pushing. I finally told him I wouldn't give rides to strangers without my husband along, and he backed off.
As I got into my car to leave, I noticed that this dude walked over to a car parked at the next business over, immediately hopped into the passenger seat and turned to talk to someone in the back. I couldn't clearly see through their tinted windows to count heads, but I think there were at least 2 other people in the car. I high-tailed it out of there and took the long way home. I suspect it was a setup for a carjacking at best.
Always listen to your gut instincts. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.
I trust my spidey sense. When the hairs on the back of my neck go up and i get that feeling in my chest, i listen to it.
Its gotten me out of an armed store robbery, 2 ither street level robberies, 2 houses that just didnt feel right, multiple encounters with dangerous animals ( gators and 1 panther).
We get that feeling for a very good reason. It's our intuition telling us something our instincts already know. Many people don't get it and are conditioned into telling themselves "it's probably nothing" because they don't want to look silly in public. It can lead to paranoia, if you've been in enough hairy situations, but most of the time you'll want to listen to that intuition and do something about it as soon as you get that feeling.
was doing a building search of a flooding (from water leak) multi story building and as i was looking around the living room, i felt “time to move to next room” and yeah glad i did. ceiling fell in the living room as i rounded the corner.
these kinds of incidents are always so fascinating.
studies were done on people who had their brain hemispheres separated and it was found that the brains continued to communicate through alternative methods, often providing context to one half of the brain that was unaware of context the other was aware of.
it only proved that our brains are complex machines that are constantly working to ensure our survival. so when you get the nagging feeling you're in danger, take it seriously because your subconscious has noticed something your consciousness has not.
Driving out west in Canada from the prairies to see the ocean years ago. Went through Golden, BC and decided to go into the town proper for a dinner, rather than the roadside chains. It was about 6:10 PM. When we walked in there were about twenty locals who immediately all went quiet when we walked in. We grabbed a table and proceeded to get stared at by the whole room. I nodded at a few with no response. My wife looked terribly uncomfortable. We got up, apologized to the waitress and got the hell out of dodge. Even looking back years later I am still weirded out by that scene. I'm sure that, if we stayed, we would've wound up in some sort of Stephen King short story.
I've had something similar happen. Old school mom n pop diner type of restaurant in a "big suburb" level city, sorta "local famous" kind of place, had seen cars with their bumper stickers around town for years, figured we'd try it one day just for shits and grins. The feeling was not bad enough to leave, we went ahead and ate and paid and left. But definitely had the feeling that we were being, not necessarily watched overtly, but they were keeping an eye on us. Everyone. Wait staff, other customers. No idea why. The whole time just vaguely uncomfortable feeling that you can't really put your finger on. After we left, my wife and I both at pretty much the same time were like "ok that was creepy right?"
Stephen King was what I thought of too. Specifically the scene in (I think) one of the Dark Tower books where they go into the restaurant that is owned by vampires or whatever they were.
Driving through upstate new york with my family. Passed through a small town looking for some food and/or gas.
One house had nazi banners hanging openly on the front of the house. Not flags, they were like those big vertical banners behind hitler during speeches.
Nope. We can hold our pee and get gas later.... drive a little faster and get out.
As a canadian, i was shocked.... i thought stuff like that only existed in the deep south.... we were 3hrs from the canadian border or something.
In hindsight, it explains a lot about the current state of affairs in the US
The big one for me is when cops are around and people are doing minor crimes (smoking weed, littering, minor speeding) and the cops ignore it. That means the cops are there for major crimes and I don't want to be around that...
Same in bar/club areas of any big city I've been in. They're there to stop violence not nitpick petty crimes because if they did the latter, their whole night would be wasted on stuff that the prosecutor probably wouldn't even bother taking to trial.
I don't particularly hate those areas, I've been in some very dangerous areas for large portions of my life. That's just a sign I need to keep my senses up and be careful.
If there's one thing that'll get the Lizard Brain going... it's the only time I've ever felt like something deeper was telling my brain that we had to get the fuck out of here.
There's an odd greenish haze in the sky that I've never seen a camera properly capture and you don't just hear the sound of the tornado with your ears, you can feel it in your bones first. All of those tiny hairs all across your body, it's almost like they have an electric charge. When it gets close, the air gets odd and it starts to feel like there's suddenly not enough of it.
Rationally, it's a lot of contributing factors getting amped up by the biggest adrenaline rush you've ever had. It was my first season after moving a bit farther west than I'd ever been and I felt like I opened the front door to find myself within 100 feet of the thing, but it is hard to trust yourself to look back on something like that with a scientific mind. The feeling I got didn't even feel like fear, it was just a feeling of 'have to go' and I've never felt it again. For the actual situation, everything my body was telling me was worthless and nothing I could have done would have done any good if my luck had failed me, but the Tornado was just passing by on it's way to somewhere else.
This is exactly the feeling. Went through a tornado when I lived in the midwest. It hit two streets over, just missing us. The sirens were going off but we were teenagers and still hanging out on the couch, parents were out. There were a ton of storms growing up where the sirens went off so we were a little desensitized.
Suddenly just knew it was time to go, something was here. Don't know how else to describe it, the air changes, it's like the vibrations change in the wind, or a sound that's too deep to hear. Can't say exactly, but I still remember the feeling of move now. We all just bolted at the same time and ran to the basement.
Very much had this a couple years ago in KY. I was totally planning on driving through and hoping that the storm wasn't gonna roll through where I was working, but when I got back to the car and saw just how fucking green the sky was, something inside me said "hey how about we listen to the nice security guard who's offering shelter in the plant".
Tornado didn't even come close to me (about 20 miles south), but it was a wild as fuck storm.
Mine was a bit farther back... would be measured in decades ago, I may turn to dust shortly, but maybe same area. It's crazy how much the strength of tornadoes ramps up on the western half of the state.
I live close enough to Jarrell to have made some friends who grew up nearby and went to help clean up. Jarrell stories help sober the perspective whenever I'm weighing what chances are worth taking.
When I was young I watched a tornado dip down and rip the top off a cotton-wood tree just to lift it back into the sky like it was having a snack. Next day we found out it had come down half a mile away and crushed 3 cows.
I live in this city. We were watching the fireworks depot burning from what we thougt was a safe distance...After the first explosion we knew we were waayyyy to close and left right away. Just minutes later the whole neighbourhood was gone.
Discovered a fire in my garage. My sister had thrown a cigarette butt into an overfull ashtray which was also plastic, something combusted. I was none the wiser though and opened the door to the garage only to be greeted with an opaque, fuckin straight outta Dark Souls lookin, WALL OF GREY SMOKE. I slammed that door in a panic thinking that exact same "I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE NOW!", ran out of the house and clicked the garage door opener as I went. We saw rolls of black smoke pour out of there but thankfully it was just a small fire and didn't reach the walls. Scary shit considering zero smoke detectors went off!
I use a glass jar as my ashtray for this reason (well, also because my cat is a horrible goblin that won’t leave anything alone). Screw the lid on and it doesn’t matter how spicy things get, it’ll run out of oxygen and put itself out.
Was at school, classes were just about over, but suddenly it got dark. Like nightfall dark. So dark one after another just silently started looking outside the window. Then the sky tinted slightly green - a phenomenon that in hindsight they should tech about at school, because it usually means shit is about to go down. Teacher was like: 'Okay, that looks really bad, pack your things, class is almost over anyway'.
I went outside with some friends. It had already started raining. Initially we wanted to wait under some roof in front of the school, thinking it was just a heavy summer shower. There were no reports on anything - no storms, nothing. But it kept. Getting. Worse.
Worse than anyone of us had ever seen, yet no signs of imrpovement. We started getting nervous. I called my mom to pick me up. She told me whem she was there, but it had already gotten bad enough that I was reluctant to step into that shit. Like, I had an umbrella, but it seemed like it wouldn't do much at that point.
When we sensed an ever so small opening we took off. I went to the parking lot, my friends to the bus station, which was the other way. (They all lived in completely different directions, in case you're wondering why my mom didn't want to drive them.) Everyone covered with whatever they got. When I arrived at the car, I was wet to the bone waist downwards.
My mom drove home ultra carefully. Visibility was basically none. It was like driving through a carwash. I texted my friends, they made it to the bus. However, the bus driver was not prepared for fucking rivers and ponds forming on the streets, so eventually they go stuck and had to walk home through knees deep water.
Even those with 'waterproof' backpacks had their school stuff ruined - which they of course presented like war trophies the next day and probably saved them some homework they didn't do in the first place. So yeah, that's the story of how we witnessed, probably one of the heaviest rainfalls our city had ever seen. Monsoon-like in Germany, completely out of nowhere.
If we had waited at school, we would have been stuck there. There was some heavy damage too. Our school's basements were flooded for example. Our school is build on a hill.
They teach about green skys in the Midwest part of the US. Your story didn't end where I thought it would. When the sky turns green over here, there's a twister headed in your general direction, if not right for you.
I was driving through a rather desolate part of Australia 20 years ago with a friend. Suddenly there was this weird animal in the road. It was dog-like, but way bigger than a dingo. With wool-like fur hanging from its entire body. I slowed down because I was curious, but my mate panicked, and shoutet at me to drive, so I did. I have never seen anything like that animal since.
Interesting list! None of them seem to match, though.. as others have said, it might have been a llama or wild dog, but it did not have a long neck, and it was quite big, so not likely a dog either. But my memory might not be accurate. This was 20 years ago.
Another common explanation for those sorts of sightings is that it might have been an animal with mange or some other disease that made it look "wrong" compared to a typical representative of the species.
I like Eddie Murphy's attitude on haunted houses: "If I went in a house and a voice came out of the walls and said, GET OUT - I would Get. the Fuck. Out."
my little brother was really sick so i wanted to run some soup to him. he was staying with his girlfriends family out in an extremely rural area. it was after dark and i didnt know which house to go to, so i had to pull in to someones driveway to call him. the guy who lived there came out and stared us down until we pulled out, the vibe was incredibly hostile. i was afraid of getting shot or worse, being very queer and having my fiance with me. didnt do that again.
To be fair, you probably scared the crap out of them. I live in a pretty rural area and if someone pulled into my driveway at night that I wasn't expecting, I would do the same thing.
reminds me of that story from a few years back of people who were lost and turned around in a rural driveway and the owner came running out of the house shooting at them, i think hitting and killing at least one person in the car?
Weird, I haven't thought about this in years and now twice in one day.
Went to a party as a teenager, decided to leave early because the vibe felt bad. Told a friend of mine we should go, he decided not to listen to me.
Friend ended up getting a concussion because he got drunk and slammed his head into a garage door, the cops were called by a neighbor when the drinking spilled out into the driveway and music got too loud.
Nobody died, plenty of alcohol poisoning and mild injuries since people tried to scatter when the cops pulled up.
I was snoozing in a hammock in a nearby park until morning. Walked home.
In our local pub in Scotland, they had a DJ in the back room on a Friday / Saturday night. One night some guy bumped into me and I felt something hit the floor by my feet, I looked down and it was a 12 inch serrated kitchen knife with tape on the handle, i looked up and it was some wee wideo ned. So I went over to my mate old him to finish his drink quickly as possible because we're getting the fuck out of there tonight.
About 2 weeks ago, packing a few belongings and my cats into a car to evacuate from an impending flood. Didn't know when I would be back home or what condition it would be in when I did.
There was a pretty noticeable moment a few years ago when lemmy seemed to spring to life with activity. Mainly those screenshot posts from other social media or those newer image macro things. I'm 99% sure that's when somebody turned on bots to make lemmy look more lively.
okay if you're gonna play that card you have to tell us the moment you realized this was not just a replay of Trump I but literally -- not hyperbolically -- "destroy America in 4 years or less"
You can't say "the moment he was elected" -- at that point you can only claim a Trump I level of dread
Not the person you commented to, but I legit got that exact feeling on election night 2024 and immediately started looking into emigration. There are many, many options, especially if you're somewhat of a Spanish speaker. I think Bonespurs will have his final Big Mac Attack before it happens, but I give the USA until maybe 2035 to stay together in its present form. I'm only still here because my wife refuses to leave, and apparently I love her more than I fear MAGA.
You can't say "the moment he was elected" -- at that point you can only claim a Trump I level of dread
It was pretty fucking obvious that Trump 2 was going to be much worse than Trump 1 even before election day. I woke up feeling a sense of dread that morning and I'm not even American.
November 2020. I watch the Presidentz videos on Twitter. He had graphs of vote times. I would never trust a politician, but what he said was possible. I reserved judgement.
And then two months passed and no evidence emerged. No evidence had emerged by January 6th. Let me be clear that if there had been evidence of 'cheating', every loyal American would have been that day. But there was no evidence. It was a lie, and to spread it is to threaten The Republic.
But that wasnt the scariest moment. I had too much vindictive pleasure imagining those genocidal baby-bombers snivelling in the boiler rooms, listening to 'Masters of War'. However, several things became clear in the aftermath.
Donald Trump was somehow martyred for his narcissistic dementia. His popularity rose! Donald Trump is unable to accept a majority decision at odds with his power. This is acceptable to his cult of personality, 1/3 of Americans!
Silicon Valley is compromised. By removing his most incriminating videos, Twitter covered his ass and prevented him from being caught out. Again, his statements were not criminal. They are treason. But they need to be seen to be understood. Whether benign technocrats or conspirators, the elite decided to go by the lyrics of the song 'Severed'.
So that is bad, but there is still hope for the americans to wake up. January 2026 was the closest the U.S. has come to Civil War in my lifetime. But the Republican party backed off (a little). We will see. But dont vote by mail, you had better vote in person.
Not OC, but the first round of ICE round ups. Then again when he started taking about removing birthright citizenship. My spouse is exactly the right shade of brown to disappear into Alligator Auschwitz and never come out, her family doesn't give a shit about her so it's just me that would care enough to do anything.
Was BBQing in backyard at my old house and a strong wind knocked the grill over starting a fire. I tried putting it out, but it spread super fast and eventually got so hot, I had to escape it going through a window because the way back through the back door was totally engulfed. Shit started singing my hair and I was still a good 10 feet away from the fire when I finally said I need to get out of the backyard and hope the FD shows up before it set the house on fire.
This was years ago, in a place that wasn't hit by a draught. It got my fucking deck on fire because the wind blew the coals off the paved area the grill was on. But nice assuming there. 🙄
I had just finished smoking a joint, and was walking towards a garbage to throw away my butt when I heard 17 gunshots about a block away. I ran behind a building until it stopped and then bolted inside
country wise the last two years in the us. its fight or flight but if you fly you can expect to be just doing (edit from having) the fighting elsewhere.
im not sure I understand and I edite my reply to make my thought better (I hope). I meant we are such a threat that the person fleeing will be fighting on other shores if not stopped here.
oh again. I sorta meant the us has to be stopped on its shores because of its military and the way trump is using it. I am also worried though about the global growth of oligarchy and facism to though.
I was just moved to Italy. I knew no one and I had to do some history assignment for Uni. I went to the city archive looking for some documentation and I was incredibly lost.
Some middle age man approached me and starting helping me around. He talked with everybody there and they all respected them. He was really nice to me all the time. I got into the archive and got everything I wanted. But I was more creepied out each minute. The guy had starting talking about how spaniards(me) and italians needs to be friends because our shared history of friendship with Franco and Mussolini. At the end he asked for my number, he really looked like he was trying to recruit me. I gave him a fake one and moved away. Never got near that location again in all the the time I spent in the city.
during a rainy night at a campus, a dude was doing that 'muslim prayer' right in the sidewalk on campus. and started trying to get me to haggle me , i quickly walked away, as most of the campus was extremely dark at night, almost pitch black. towards one of the buildings the student center or bookstore it was an extremely dark area, noped out of there quickly away from that person. he was also fidgeting something in his pocket excessively too.
I had sushi on a date and i farted and 100% peed out my ass. Just soup ass. Guy gave me a ride back to his place so i could clean up and then we hooked up. What a champ.
More autistic/anti-social scary but went to a sort of extra class in uni. Normal lectures have ~150 people in the lecture hall and seemed like almost all of them were squeezed into this tiny lab meant for ~20. I was a step into the room when I seen how packed it was so I turned on my heel and left. I think I might have even said "Fuck that" out loud as did.
I can still sort of smell all the exhaled air dankly hanging around the room after it mingled with ~150 pairs of lungs and passed through unbrushed teeth.
Sometimes I find the level of bitterness on fediverse to be chilling... like holy shit some posters on here are legit wannabe murderers. And it seriously makes me question what I'm doing here.
I miss the internet being a more chill/nerdy space, but those days are long gone.
Interesting... the comment specifically says "fediverse" - but you're not the only person who seems to assume it's about this individual thread.
edit: Even more interesting - the overwhelming ratio of douchevotes on this comment. I seriously doubt people would insist "Boston" or "at work" means "in this thread" - but for some reason the vast majority are adamant that "fediverse" means just this thread. Anybody have an idea why that is?
That means people's stories about being followed were "clearly triggered" by thinking someone in this thread is following them, because the comments are in this thread - which makes no sense. The thread is about having scary gut feelings, not just having them offline.
Pause and think for a second. You're asking that person to spill tea for you in order to take notice of something in your surroundings. Kind of a weird ass thing for people to get upset at having pointed out.
I agree, there's a presence of bitterness and hostility in every online forum, and lemmy is no exception. That vibe makes me feel negative about the future sometimes, but you have to remember the fediverse and online forums in general are just subsets of the human race, not a good cross-section. People tend to gather around others who have similar attitudes.
209 Comments
SUDO@reddthat.com · 189 pts · 1d
I was hiking with my buddy and felt a bit uneasy. Like my skin felt fuzzy, it was hard to explain. I yelled "Run!" To a friend, we ran down the mountain and dodged getting hit by lightning a few seconds later.
BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml · 126 pts · 1d
That fuzzy uneasy feeling was the static before a strike 😅
SUDO@reddthat.com · 50 pts · 1d
Correct. Although it feels different than just static. It feels like you are touching pillow filling and static. It's hard to describe.
blargh513@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 18h
You just got to play lightning rod.
People think lightning rods are meant to attract lightning, but that is incorrect. Buildings are often covered with a whole bunch of little 1 foot copper spikes. The idea is a multipoint spray of electrons from the ground up to a charged cloud to balance the charge and reduce the chance of a strike.
During a storm, you can sometimes hear them making a hissing sound as they work.
When lightning is about to strike, anything kind of tall and conductive will do the same. If you feel that static charge building up on you, get your ass as flat as you can. You cannot predict where the strike is going to hit, so running is silly--you might well run toward a strike. Just lay flat and stay away from tall stuff. Don't be the tallest thing either.
treesapx@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 16h
I believe youre supposed to crouch with your feet pressed together and your arms wrapped around your knees. This reduces contact with the ground and pressing the feet together reduces risk of the charge going up one leg and down the other.
When you lay down you are increasing the potential of the strike from one end of your body to the other.
neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 12h
Correct. What you're trying to do is make sure the strike doesn't go through your heart where you will almost certainly die. Your body can survive a lot, as long as your major organs don't get fried.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 8h
yeah, if i understand it right the majority of the damage from a lightning strike is that you get a burn where the bolt goes. if it goes through your heart, your heart gets one hell of a burn. then you have to heal a burn from the inside out, which your body is not used to doing
SUDO@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 10h
I did get down when I felt it. I heard stories online of how lightning felt before it hit. I just never thought it would happen to me. We were almost at the top of the cliff. I stopped to take some pictures. So, when we got away. We decreased in elevation quickly, probably 15 feet in under 20 seconds? Then we got to the tree line.
ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world · 62 pts · 23h
To me it felt like walking through invisible spiderwebs, strike was 50 feet away seconds later.
SUDO@reddthat.com · 31 pts · 21h
That's a perfect description actually.
Chl0r0f0rm_Angel@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 1d
Where did it strike then?
SUDO@reddthat.com · 26 pts · 1d
If I had to guess, about 50-75 feet from where we were standing. There was some kind of radio tower near us. We didn't turn around to figure it out. We ran.
Chl0r0f0rm_Angel@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 1d
Whew. Sounds loud as hell
SUDO@reddthat.com · 18 pts · 1d
Ironically, I don't remember it being too loud. I do remember running down a mountain as fast as I could. I think I was just hyper focused on that though.
Chl0r0f0rm_Angel@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 1d
Sounds possible. Memory can be weird like that
Steve@startrek.website · 8 pts · 21h
When its very close it just sounds like a snap. I think because it overloads the eardrums.
kiwifoxtrot@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 14h
Unless it hits a tree, and the tree explodes. That happened to me last week right outside my house. I've never heard anything quite as loud nor with such a large thump in my body. Felt a bit like my bell got rung for the rest of the day.
SUDO@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 10h
That would probably make sense. I genuinely remember it being loud, but not by hearing it, more of feeling it. You feel it in your lungs. My guess is due to the rapid pressure change. I was a bit too focused on getting off of the cliff/mountain we were at.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca · -3 pts · 1d
the earth, somewhere ;-)
someguy3@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 21h
I was on a small hill when it started rumbling, we all felt the static in our hair. We quickly went down the hill.
AnarchistArtificer@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 21h
I had a similar experience once. Lightning is crazy, man
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 133 pts · 1d
At the very start of COVID. When many of my online and IRL friend groups started internalizing what I now recognize as Russian/Chinese influence ops (which were being spread by unwitting Western Useful Idiots -- Conservatives and Libertarians)
They started not just opposing lockdowns, but actively spreading virus: no mask, it's just a flu, CDC is lying, Fauchi is an idiot, etc.
It felt like being in a burning building. I grabbed my family, ran for the exit by cutting ties with the Influenced, and left them to burn. Now many of them are utterly consumed by propaganda and no longer recognize reality. 😢
yakko@feddit.uk · 37 pts · 1d
I lost one in much the same way. It still hurts.
Strider@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 15h
And as long as this and these aren't properly addressed it will just go on. Russia loves it!
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 7 pts · 6h
I legit wish there was real civic discussion about influence ops/propaganda.
I wish political parties were fighting about the best ways to identify and combat it.
I wish private organizations, news outlets, media companies, NGOs etc were talking about it and even pretending to acknowledge it.
"We are in a race between education and oblivion." -R B Fuller
honesthenery@thelemmy.club · -33 pts · 1d
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca · 19 pts · 1d
Dude, even when it's obviously idiotic, you should still tag your stuff with a sarcasm tag. Some people may believe that bullshit and, while it's fun to laugh at that sometimes, it's the wrong kind of laughter. Still, I like your deadpan humour; and I almost believed it was serious but the spelling was too good.
Archer@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 1d
I admire your unfettered optimism
honesthenery@thelemmy.club · -16 pts · 1d
Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 1d
I down voted you because your English skills show you're just an idiot.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 23h
Have some more, then. Act like a troll, be known as a troll
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 106 pts · 1d
Once I was in a holiday crowd when the people per square meter got too high, and the beginning stages of crowd crush started happening. Waves of kinetic energy were being transmitted through the crowd without anyone even trying, it just wasn’t possible to stop yourself from getting shoved forward. I told my now-husband we need to get out NOW, and we did. Nothing happened to my knowledge, no fatal crush or anything like that. But it was scary as hell during what was supposed to be a good time.
Drusas@fedia.io · 46 pts · 1d
I stopped attending standing-room-only concerts as a result of experiencing similar. Absolutely terrifying, powerless feeling.
418_im_a_teapot@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 23h
Almost by definition the stories in here should be pretty boring. Glad you had the awareness to keep yours boring.
blargh513@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 18h
Got to experience it in San Francisco one year for a Chinese new year parade. It really is scary, you are utterly helpless and nobody can do anything. Panic at scale is scary.
There was a medium sized tree that I braced my arms against and held myself away, wife between tree and I. Stood there holding myself out for a while but I was getting tired and wasn't going to last a lot longer. Thankfully crowd broke and it stopped.
I still hate San Francisco, always some stupid shit happen every time I went. Fuck that city.
terminatortwo@piefed.social · 9 pts · 15h
I experienced this feeling during new years in shibuya. It’s scary af, you can no longer move, you’re part of a human liquid. Never again
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 18h
Ooft, I got in a similar situation at a big street party - the friend I was with was lifted off her feet briefly by the crush. We managed to wriggle out to a clear area and away. No deaths, but hundreds of people were injured.
MissesAutumnRains@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 93 pts · 1d
Oh my god. My friends and I were doing a road trip around the US when we got lost somewhere crossing the border into southern California. We took some weird back road into the woods looking for a campsite that was on Google (we were roughing it as much as possible to be cheap), but it became super apparent that we took the wrong turn somewhere and we went deeper and deeper into the woods. It started to get dark and at this point my ex and I were like, "Let's just go to a hotel, it's already too dark to camp." My friend, the driver, was convinced we were almost there and the campsites were just around the next corner and wanted to save the money.
At some point, we saw this tree across the road and the only way to keep going forward was into what looked like just a clearing where some rusted out cars were. Immediately my ex and I felt this overwhelming, hair-raising "it's time to go" vibe and we started telling him to turn around. My friend pulled into the clearing saying something like, "No, this might be it, there's cars parked here". We pull into the lot and kinda do a loop, just to put the headlights on the surroundings and see what's all there. Like I said, it's an island of gravel, short, dry grass, and some rusted out cars in the middle of dense, mountainous forest.
My friend is juuuuuuust about to park and gloat about 'finding the campsite' when some feral looking dude comes barreling out of the woods like a cryptid, sprinting at the back of the car. My ex and I start screaming like loons as this dude closes the gap and my friend punches it and starts driving back down the road we came in on. The dude just stood in the road behind us with something metal (I think a pipe) and watched us go in a cloud of dust and taillights.
Absolutely HORRIFYING experience and we still have no idea what the fuck the situation was there.
TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works · 37 pts · 19h
I ended up in a similar situation, except I was hiking the Appalachian trail alone. I decided to stop at a creek and get some crawfish for my dinner and to boil water. While I was turning over rocks I heard some distant rustling and got this feeling I was being watched. I unclipped the button on my knife holster because that made me a little more comfortable. I heard from another hiker that this area wasn't safe and that I should pass through and go past the shelter a few miles. He looked very tired and sounded nervous under his breath and didn't take time to explain and he speed walked on.
Back to me catching crawfish, I ended up eating like 5 or 6 of them and ate the rest of the wild berries and mushrooms I collected from the morning. I heard the rustling but it sounded much closer. Close enough that I could tell it was something that weighed a good bit. I took that as my warning and got out of there.
I was a good two or three miles from the creek when I remembered what the guy said and how nervous he was. That feeling I was being watched never went away. I decided to dart into the woods and form a fishhook maneuver to see if I was being followed. It was something my friends native American grandfather said to do when hunting in a area with lots of bears or mountain lions to avoid leading them back to your camp. And sure enough it worked because their wasn't an animal following me but a person was following me.
I slowly moved back to the trail and walked about 100 ft on the hard packed soil to not leave a footprint trail then I darted in the woods and ran for a good 20 or 30 minutes before hitting a road. At this point I decided to hike 5 miles to a motel and just sleep. No way I was sleeping in the woods with a maniac on the loose.
BaraCoded@literature.cafe · 8 pts · 16h
Man, your story gave me goosebumps.
TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 7h
everytime I tell people my experience I get that feeling of being watched again. It's scary thinking that could have ended very bad for me if I didn't get that warning from the distressed hiker. I have heard stories about there being being creeps on the trail, but never encountered one before my experience.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 30 pts · 1d
opioids and/or amphetamines, at a first guess
socsa@piefed.social · 1 pts · 1h
Nah, he just thought OP had a real pretty mouth
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 23h
That was just Jesse. You probably didn't notice the Winnebago.
cobysev@lemmy.world · 71 pts · 1d
In the early 2000s, I had just joined the US military right out of high school and found myself stationed in Japan for my first assignment.
I loved Japanese culture and had started a college course on basic Japanese language so I could communicate with the locals and find my way around without getting lost in a foreign country.
One day, one of the civilians in my office was retiring and he chose a fancy hotel in the next city over to host his retirement ceremony. They had a bunch of meeting/party rooms we could host our ceremony in. It was fun, but I'm a bit introverted, so at some point, I stepped out into the grand lobby of the hotel to recover some energy by myself. There was a grand piano in one corner with some petite Japanese lady playing soft music on it. I learned against a large pillar and quietly listened for a bit.
All of a sudden, a meeting room door nearby banged open and some Japanese businessman stormed out on his phone. He was agitated and speaking angrily into his flip phone (smartphones didn't exist yet). He stopped on the other side of the pillar from me and continued his loud discussion.
I had gotten absorbed into some Japanese drama TV shows and had learned to identify the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) slang. This guy was using the same dialect. I got a chill down my spine; it was my first time running into a Yakuza member in real life.
The guy finished his call and turned to leave... and stopped when he saw me standing practically next to him. His anger flared up and he started speaking aggressively at me in Japanese. Probably pissed that I was listening in on his call.
I caught a few words here and there, but my Japanese wasn't good enough for full sentences yet, especially spoken rapidly at me in an angry tone.
When he paused, I said in English, "Um... I'm sorry, I don't understand." I knew how to say it in Japanese, but I didn't want to give him any inkling that I knew Japanese.
His entire demeanor changed. He grinned from ear to ear and said, "Ah! America-jin, ne? Good! Good guy!" He gave me a rough pat on the shoulder and then turned and went back to his meeting room.
I thought he was gonna drag me into the meeting room with his buddies and I'd never be found again, so I was relieved when he smiled and left me be. I went right back to my party and made sure not to go anywhere by myself for the rest of the evening.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 52 pts · 1d
"Don't shoot! I'm American! I'm stupid and didn't understand a word of what was said!"
cobysev@lemmy.world · 45 pts · 22h
Haha! Yup, basically.
Fortunately, a lot of Japanese folks were obsessed with Americans and American culture when I was living over there, so if you could convince them you were American, they would bend over backwards to help you with anything.
I flew back into Japan after a vacation and I had a 25-hr layover in Tokyo before flying back to my military base. I slept in a hotel that night, then went to the airport the next morning and asked if they could bump me to an earlier flight so I wouldn't be stuck in the airport all day.
The lady at the counter said they had a flight leaving in 15 minutes and she would ensure I got on it.
Then she took off her heels, grabbed me by the hand, and literally ran me through the airport! She pushed me to the front of the security line, then we sprinted all the way to the terminal. They even held the plane an extra 10 minutes to ensure I got on it. I felt bad for holding up a plane, but damn! What service!
khannie@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 14h
Wow. What a legend that lady was.
someguy3@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
So uh are you Japanese by heritage?
cobysev@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 22h
No, but I have dark hair and have been described as having a Mediterranean look, so a lot of people around the world assumed I was from Europe at first glance. The Yakuza guy didn't immediately pin me for an American until I spoke English.
This was also way up in northern Japan, where very few foreigners can be found, so their exposure to us is limited. Lots of Japanese people stared at us in public if we went anywhere except the town our base was in.
MufinMcFlufin@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1d
Not OP but I take it that you're asking because you're trying to figure out why they weren't visually assumed to be a foreigner and why they were assumed to be able to speak Japanese?
someguy3@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1d
Yes.
Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works · 69 pts · 16h
I kinda had the opposite happen.
I was working for a charity doing some reconstruction in an ex war zone. That weekend was a major festival. I’m not of the area nor the religion so I volunteered to keep an eye on our camp instead that weekend.
I finished my breakfast in the canteen and was about to walk the perimeter and do my checks when, inexplicably, I decided to stall and have a second coffee. Something I never did.
As I went to sit down a massive explosion happened outside, shattering the entire area me and my clipboard should have been in. I wouldn’t have stood a chance. The canteen we were in was made out of shipping containers and probably saved our lives.
ZeldaFreak@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 1d
2010 Loveparade. First we got told that there would be a different entry, which there wasn't, which meant we needed to walk quite a while. On the way we had a few situations, where people pushed a lot and it's not a nice feeling, when you have a considerable mass and you get pushed easily. We made it to the last big check and we where greeted with a clear view to the tunnel. At this point there weren't big queues visible and it was just a short walk. I said to the 2 friends I was with, that NOW I want to go home. It was not a gut feeling or something, I just knew I don't want to continue and I want to go home. One friend decided to stay, as we where this close and another agreed with me and left with me.
The friend who stayed, did cut his visit shorter, lucky for him. For people who don't know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade_disaster It was one of the biggest crowd crushes disasters. 21 dead, 652 injured. It happend in that tunnel, which I looked into and decided to go home. That criminal trial is considered one of the most complex ones of the post war period. In 2020 they dropped the trial. The issue was for these crimes, they only had 10 years and they said due to the limitations of covid, they said they will run out of time.
ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world · 26 pts · 23h
Okay, now I’ve read about crowd crushes and am living in fear of groups of 3 or more people
techt@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 22h
The fascinating part for me is that sufficiently dense crowds of people (> ~5/m^2) exhibit behaviors similar to fluids
DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works · 59 pts · 1d
In this case, I was the one that caused the gut feeling. For context, I'm a middle aged disheveled-looking dude.
My kids made a play date with their friends at a local park. The park is big and has two entrances, but they didn't know where their friends were so I just went to the first entrance I came to. At this entrance there was a playground where only a woman and her two kids were playing - no one else in sight. I drove past them to see if it was my kids' friends (it wasn't), and the woman gave me a weird stare. In hindsight, she probably couldn't see my kids in the back seat - she just saw some rando slow-rolling past the playground. Anyway, I drove around to the other entrance, but no one was there either. So we called up the friends' parents and learned that they were running late and that we should meet at the first entrance with the playground. As soon as I pulled back in to the playground entrance, the woman saw me and gathered up her kids in a panic and ran for her car. I was trying to figure out WTF she was worked up about when it dawned on me. I parked, my kids got out, and when she saw them she calmed down. I'm sure I gave her a heart attack for a minute though.
yakko@feddit.uk · 58 pts · 1d
One time in Hayward, CA my then-girlfriend and I were stalked through town by a tweaker in a big pickup truck, us in an old Mazda 3. All I did was accidentally make eye contact in the parking lot, sort of clocked the gearface and then minded my business but he took umbrage somehow. Probably chased us for a few miles through her old neighbourhood. I even tried a lame little fakeout with my turn signals, but neither that car nor my driving skills were up for a French Connection reenactment and I think he eventually gave up because chasing me was too pathetic. Bet he would have kicked my shit in, if I actually put up a fight.
otacon239@lemmy.world · 55 pts · 1d
If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, your best bet is to go to the police station, public library or major store chain. Go somewhere very public. At the very least never go home or anywhere in your usual rounds.
CannonFodder@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 22h
Dunno. It was probably an off duty cop.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 22h
Based on the Mazda 3 I'm a hell of a lot older but I grew up in Hayward, went to Moreau High School on Mission Blvd. Nice to see a rare mention of my old town online! Glad the weird dude who followed you gave up.
yakko@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 15h
My wife went to Moreau too! She switched to Logan as soon as she could though, still keeps in touch with a friend or two though. I loved my time in Haystack.
garbagebagel@lemmy.world · 54 pts · 20h
When I was around 11 I was at the McDonald's down the street from my house with a couple of friends. It was just three 11/12 year old girls chilling eating in the back of the restaurant. It was dark out but not late, probably 7 or 8 at night. After a bit my friend leaned over to me and said the guy at the table next to us "looks like (her abusive stepfather)". Realistically it could not have been her abusive stepfather and she was across the other side of the country.
However, he was creepy and sitting alone and watching us VERY closely. We started getting nervous and at some point I said loudly enough for him to hear "okay, my dad is coming to get us". He wasn't, but I was hoping that would make the man leave us alone. He immediately got up and went to go stand just outside of the back door into the parking lot.
We panicked even more and walked to the front entrance of the McDonald's, called my dad from a payphone. I remember how panicked we must have looked because a random person who was in line came over and asked if we were okay. Thankfully my dad was home and came to get us from the front entrance and we left together.
Another time I was on the last train home from work, I was around 18. A man had gotten on the train near my stop, first sat on a further seat and then moved closer as the trip went on. From my stop, I had to walk about 50 meters to a not-very-well lit taxi pickup area. This man got off at my stop, and as I approached the well-lit exit of the train station I could feel him following me. I almost went outside and then thought better of it. Turned back and thankfully found a transit worker on the platform. I asked him if he could walk me to the taxis and he did. As my taxi was driving away I saw the man who had been following me walk back further into the train station. As I mentioned, it was the last train of the night so he had no reason to have gotten off at the stop if it wasn't his stop. There were no businesses or anything else around. Anyway my favourite part of this story (not favourite) is that when the transit worker was walking me over to the taxis he said something along the lines of "oh you're just too cute thats why that man is following you". No thank you.
Always trust your gut, kids.
affenlehrer@feddit.org · 18 pts · 16h
I absolutely agree. Better safe than sorry.
Nevertheless, I want to tell a quick story of where someones gut feeling was wrong.
More than 20 years so I used to go to an evening school (don't know the English name for, maybe college or something like that). One day I was done, it was very late and dark outside (around 10 in the evening) and I was tried and not in the best mood and I just wanted home. To get there, I had to catch the last train of the evening and the train station was a few minutes walking away.
Since I'm a pretty tall guy with long legs, I can walk pretty fast. I was walking down the narrow sidewalk towards the train station when another pedestrian appeared on front of me. This pedestrian, a young lady, was slower than me and since I was in a hurry I tried to overtake her (get in front in of her so she wouldn't slow me down and could walk at her own pace). However, when I started my maneuver she got a little faster, but I still wanted to finish my maneuver and walked a little faster myself and she got a bit faster again.... after a short while of this, it ended with her running away to a street on the other side of the road while screaming in fear.
This way quite confusing for me since I had no bad intentions at all. However, from her perspective it was probably super scary with a tall grumpy looking guy "following" her and then getting into snatching range. So I think she did the right thing and from that point I tried to avoid accidentally scaring other people.
orgrinrt@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 14h
Yeah I’ve had a similar experience, when I was in my early 20s, and have since chosen to accept missing the train or whatever is the reason I’d need to hurry, so as not to scare someone that bad. Jesus it’s awkward and it’s entirely understandable, but man does it get me questioning whether I look scary or weird or do I seem suspicious and has been a constant source of anxiety ever since. But I’ve realized it’s my job in that situation to clearly signal I’m not a threat, and I’ve chosen to do it just by slowing down myself so the distance grows and I become no threat to them (feels so bad to think of one’s self this way by the way, fuck me, but what can you do?) or alternatively if there’s a detour I could take to still catch the train as in your example, I’d rather go to another block and jog if nobody’s there and not miss the train. Either way, if I’m perceived a threat, there’s nothing in the moment that can be done about that other than no longer be perceived one, i.e stall or reroute away.
This only ever happens in dark, at night, and them likely drunk or tired, so it’s entirely understandable. I’d be fucking anxious too if someone bigger than me started speeding up on me. I have the privilege not to be scared this way due to my physique, so I also have to respect it the other way around too.
It’s so easy to go with the gut reaction of “this is disrespectful” without considering the scenario from a third person you know? I think this is where most end up in and start thinking “you can’t do or say anything anymore” and become either incels or too fucking loud magas or equivalents, because it is kind of hard on self confidence to be in that situation. But it’s always going to be worse for the other, they might fear for their life, and rightly so, so there’s no comparison there once you actually start thinking and exercising your empathy. So if you manage to get past the initial feeling of disrespect, frustration and self-doubt, then this is a real non-issue. And something very small to avoid and handle properly in the moment.
But if you don’t get past it, or lack the empathy to see it from others’ pov, well, you end up a shithead basically, coping unhealthily with that and it might even grow as large to be the whole identity ultimately.
Just rambling here I suppose, sorry to hog all the space, felt like I needed to let that out. I’ve had some friends go with the disrespect and self image and confidence shattering effect that I’ve helped get past it and see it objectively, and I just can’t help but think of everyone who doesnt have the help nor the inner capability, and stray from the sensible and humane path due to something so small as this.
grue@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 12h
I feel like if I were ever in that situation I'd just straight-up yell something to the effect of "hey lady, I'm not trying to chase you; I'm just in a hurry" and try to get her to cross the street or something so I could get by. I have no idea if it would actually help or not, but if it's awkward anyway I'm the kind of jerk to be willing to make it more so.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2h
"On your left (right if you're in a right hand pass country)" is something that would personally make me feel safer as a woman. It's a clear, "hey I'm passing you not chasing you"
grue@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 11m
I use that as a cyclist, but it only feels appropriate when the closing speed is high and/or the person in front is unaware and there's a risk of a collision. If the situation is more like a semi-truck trying to pass another uphill, I think a little more verbosity is warranted.
AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 11h
I usually do my best to just take an extra wide berth to get by. It's usually only going to happen late at night or so when it's super quiet, so in that case I will just cross the street myself.
Kinda just signalling, don't worry I want nothing to do with you. It helps lull them into a sense of security.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2h
What on earth would possess a transit worker to say such a thing‽
Azzu@leminal.space · -20 pts · 17h
In none of your stories anything really happened, though. Of course, it might have, but it might also just been coincidence or whatever.
grue@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 15h
The people to whom something did happen aren't here to tell their stories.
crimson_iris@piefed.social · 11 pts · 14h
When we're talking personal safety, you want to play it safe, surprisingly. I mean, maybe you'd rather be the one who says to themselves "ah, it's probably nothing" and then gets murderaped, but most of us wouldn't.
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 53 pts · 18h
Three hours down a very remote hike with no phone service, a schizophrenic guy asks what we'd do if someone tried to kill us right now
anarchy79@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 18h
I'd laugh maniacally and kill them with my man eating machete.
hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 18h
And then?!
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 48 pts · 17h
Wished him good luck on his journey, hauled ass out of there and picked up a really nice pointy skull crushing rock for companionship. The hike back was a lot less scenic and we nailed it in half the advised time. Made a police report when back in phone reception.
We later worked out he just wanted advice because he thought HE was being chased
megane_kun@lemmy.zip · 31 pts · 17h
I feel bad for laughing at this. I can just imagine the guy being scared out of his wits and then the guy he asked for advice running away.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 16 pts · 15h
Like two sides of the story both going home to post it on LetsNotMeet 😂
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 28 pts · 15h
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 1h
Only correct answer: "What are the chances that there's two people here with that intention"
Monster96@lemmy.world · 49 pts · 1d
There was a time when I was traveling with my mom we were at a thrift store since she loves to thrift. I was browsing around waiting for her to finish up and I walked into an aisle with one other person in there. If looks could kill, I would've collapsed right then and there from the look that this random person gave me. Ignoring the gaze, I walked by and I heard them mumble underneath their breath calling me a fucker or something. Since I was traveling, I've never seen this person in my life before, but I got a bad feeling that I might've looked like an enemy or something to them. That's when my flight response kicked in and I knew that we needed to leave. And, it might not have been related, but that night, I heard someone in that area took a bullet so I think I might have literally dodged a bullet there.
otter@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 20h
I haven't heard this phrasing before, what does it mean?
Monster96@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 17h
As in I looked like someone that had a big problem with
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 47 pts · 1d
Trump 2.0 but I can't afford to move.
ski11erboi@lemmy.world · 44 pts · 1d
I was young and had just moved to a decent sized midwest city by myself. I didn't know anyone so spent a lot of my time exploring by myself. There was a large park in a quiet area of town where it wasn't unusual to be the only person around. I was sitting at the end of a very large rose garden when I noticed a tall skinny guy in a dirty wife beater and jeans standing on the outside of the garden with his dog. Something big like a Rottweiler or pitbull I don't remember exactly. I just remember being super freaked out because he was just standing there looking directly at me.
I got up and started walking back to my car but he started walking parallel to me matching my pace. When I walked faster he did too. I got my phone and keys out and just kept walking as confidently as I could. I was parked a couple minutes away and over time his pace did slow slightly as mine got faster but I knew he was still behind me. I had a habit of unlocking my car several times with the keyfob because the car beep was satisfying. After I did so the white cargo type van parked next to me unlocked and beeped the exact same amount of times mine did.
At this point I as terrified. I backed out and raced out of the park without even looking behind me. I needed to pick up something from one of the neighborhood Walmarts on the way home so I stopped there and headed inside to calm down. The sun was still out and I'm a guy. I was young, short and slender but I still felt like that somehow protected me. I convinced myself I was being crazy and that guy just happened to be leaving the park when I did. I left the store and started walking to my car when I saw him. The white van was parked directly next to my car and he stood there at the back watching me. No dog this time. All I remember thinking is I had to get into my car because it was the only place I had any leverage. I slow motion got in, backed out, and headed back into a neighborhood where I knew I could zig zag my way around different blocks to try to lose him. I spent 10 minutes looking over my shoulder making random turns before I headed back to my apartment.
Never saw him again and to this day I still feel like I'm in a bit of denial about the whole thing. There were plenty of other cars in the parking lot. It was early evening. If he was trying to kidnap me it was a stupid place to do so. Perhaps he saw how scared I was at the park and just wanted to mess with me. Whatever the case I've never been so scared for my own life.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 23h
I'm surprised you actually got in your care at Walmart with the van right next to it. I probably would have gone back inside and asked a security guard to come out with me.
ski11erboi@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 20h
I was young and dumb and had just finished gaslighting myself into thinking that I was being dramatic. It never crossed my mind.
garbagebagel@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 20h
If this ever happens again, or for anyone reading this, the best thing to do if you're being trailed in a car is to drive to a police station. (Despite the other dangers that can also cause unfortunately)
BrattiAtti@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 3h
Your story reminded me of an incident I experienced a few years ago. I did grubhub in the evenings and would often hit a 7/11 on my way home for smokes. For context, this place was constantly busy with homeless people and bar-hoppers milling about outside, but they had never bothered me.
One night, a young man in mechanics coveralls approached as I was leaving and bummed a cigarette. As he was lighting it, he asked if I could give him a ride to the Walmart about a mile up the road because he was worn out from his long day. I declined, but he kept pushing. I finally told him I wouldn't give rides to strangers without my husband along, and he backed off.
As I got into my car to leave, I noticed that this dude walked over to a car parked at the next business over, immediately hopped into the passenger seat and turned to talk to someone in the back. I couldn't clearly see through their tinted windows to count heads, but I think there were at least 2 other people in the car. I high-tailed it out of there and took the long way home. I suspect it was a setup for a carjacking at best.
Always listen to your gut instincts. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.
Edit: redundancy
LordCrom@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 17h
I trust my spidey sense. When the hairs on the back of my neck go up and i get that feeling in my chest, i listen to it.
Its gotten me out of an armed store robbery, 2 ither street level robberies, 2 houses that just didnt feel right, multiple encounters with dangerous animals ( gators and 1 panther).
My wife just thinks im paranoid.
crimson_iris@piefed.social · 13 pts · 14h
We get that feeling for a very good reason. It's our intuition telling us something our instincts already know. Many people don't get it and are conditioned into telling themselves "it's probably nothing" because they don't want to look silly in public. It can lead to paranoia, if you've been in enough hairy situations, but most of the time you'll want to listen to that intuition and do something about it as soon as you get that feeling.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 9h
How many false positives for your spidey sense?
LordCrom@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 4h
Dont know..... i dont hang around long enough to find out.
flandish@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 19h
was doing a building search of a flooding (from water leak) multi story building and as i was looking around the living room, i felt “time to move to next room” and yeah glad i did. ceiling fell in the living room as i rounded the corner.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 18h
these kinds of incidents are always so fascinating.
studies were done on people who had their brain hemispheres separated and it was found that the brains continued to communicate through alternative methods, often providing context to one half of the brain that was unaware of context the other was aware of.
it only proved that our brains are complex machines that are constantly working to ensure our survival. so when you get the nagging feeling you're in danger, take it seriously because your subconscious has noticed something your consciousness has not.
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 35 pts · 8h
Driving out west in Canada from the prairies to see the ocean years ago. Went through Golden, BC and decided to go into the town proper for a dinner, rather than the roadside chains. It was about 6:10 PM. When we walked in there were about twenty locals who immediately all went quiet when we walked in. We grabbed a table and proceeded to get stared at by the whole room. I nodded at a few with no response. My wife looked terribly uncomfortable. We got up, apologized to the waitress and got the hell out of dodge. Even looking back years later I am still weirded out by that scene. I'm sure that, if we stayed, we would've wound up in some sort of Stephen King short story.
ilovededyoupiggy@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 6h
I've had something similar happen. Old school mom n pop diner type of restaurant in a "big suburb" level city, sorta "local famous" kind of place, had seen cars with their bumper stickers around town for years, figured we'd try it one day just for shits and grins. The feeling was not bad enough to leave, we went ahead and ate and paid and left. But definitely had the feeling that we were being, not necessarily watched overtly, but they were keeping an eye on us. Everyone. Wait staff, other customers. No idea why. The whole time just vaguely uncomfortable feeling that you can't really put your finger on. After we left, my wife and I both at pretty much the same time were like "ok that was creepy right?"
Stephen King was what I thought of too. Specifically the scene in (I think) one of the Dark Tower books where they go into the restaurant that is owned by vampires or whatever they were.
forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 7h
Is that like the Canadian version of a Sundown town?
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 7h
any idea what the cause was?
9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works · 34 pts · 8h
20 yrs ago...
Driving through upstate new york with my family. Passed through a small town looking for some food and/or gas.
One house had nazi banners hanging openly on the front of the house. Not flags, they were like those big vertical banners behind hitler during speeches.
Nope. We can hold our pee and get gas later.... drive a little faster and get out.
As a canadian, i was shocked.... i thought stuff like that only existed in the deep south.... we were 3hrs from the canadian border or something.
In hindsight, it explains a lot about the current state of affairs in the US
zqps@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 2h
And remember, those are just the dumbest handful of them.
vrek@programming.dev · 31 pts · 1d
The big one for me is when cops are around and people are doing minor crimes (smoking weed, littering, minor speeding) and the cops ignore it. That means the cops are there for major crimes and I don't want to be around that...
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1d
I think you just described every night out I've ever had in Baltimore.
vrek@programming.dev · 9 pts · 1d
And how many times have you been stabbed or shot?
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
Zero.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 20h
Same in bar/club areas of any big city I've been in. They're there to stop violence not nitpick petty crimes because if they did the latter, their whole night would be wasted on stuff that the prosecutor probably wouldn't even bother taking to trial.
Awooooooga@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 20h
Man you would hate Vancouver
vrek@programming.dev · 3 pts · 19h
I don't particularly hate those areas, I've been in some very dangerous areas for large portions of my life. That's just a sign I need to keep my senses up and be careful.
graham1@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 14h
Vancouver has the lowest violent crime rate in the past 23 years. They're doing better than most places
Awooooooga@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1h
Doesn't mean its not full of cops ignoring mentally ill drug addicts doing their thang
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 31 pts · 21h
Ignored the Tornado warning, shouldn't have.
If there's one thing that'll get the Lizard Brain going... it's the only time I've ever felt like something deeper was telling my brain that we had to get the fuck out of here.
FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 20h
Dude... Tell the whole story. It sounds interesting.
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 25 pts · 19h
There's an odd greenish haze in the sky that I've never seen a camera properly capture and you don't just hear the sound of the tornado with your ears, you can feel it in your bones first. All of those tiny hairs all across your body, it's almost like they have an electric charge. When it gets close, the air gets odd and it starts to feel like there's suddenly not enough of it.
Rationally, it's a lot of contributing factors getting amped up by the biggest adrenaline rush you've ever had. It was my first season after moving a bit farther west than I'd ever been and I felt like I opened the front door to find myself within 100 feet of the thing, but it is hard to trust yourself to look back on something like that with a scientific mind. The feeling I got didn't even feel like fear, it was just a feeling of 'have to go' and I've never felt it again. For the actual situation, everything my body was telling me was worthless and nothing I could have done would have done any good if my luck had failed me, but the Tornado was just passing by on it's way to somewhere else.
katiecakes@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 8h
This is exactly the feeling. Went through a tornado when I lived in the midwest. It hit two streets over, just missing us. The sirens were going off but we were teenagers and still hanging out on the couch, parents were out. There were a ton of storms growing up where the sirens went off so we were a little desensitized.
Suddenly just knew it was time to go, something was here. Don't know how else to describe it, the air changes, it's like the vibrations change in the wind, or a sound that's too deep to hear. Can't say exactly, but I still remember the feeling of move now. We all just bolted at the same time and ran to the basement.
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 19h
Very much had this a couple years ago in KY. I was totally planning on driving through and hoping that the storm wasn't gonna roll through where I was working, but when I got back to the car and saw just how fucking green the sky was, something inside me said "hey how about we listen to the nice security guard who's offering shelter in the plant".
Tornado didn't even come close to me (about 20 miles south), but it was a wild as fuck storm.
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 19h
Mine was a bit farther back... would be measured in decades ago, I may turn to dust shortly, but maybe same area. It's crazy how much the strength of tornadoes ramps up on the western half of the state.
treesapx@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 16h
I live close enough to Jarrell to have made some friends who grew up nearby and went to help clean up. Jarrell stories help sober the perspective whenever I'm weighing what chances are worth taking.
Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 8h
When I was young I watched a tornado dip down and rip the top off a cotton-wood tree just to lift it back into the sky like it was having a snack. Next day we found out it had come down half a mile away and crushed 3 cows.
Tornadoes are something else.
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 16h
Being an american around 11 or so years ago. Hasn’t gone away.
DaanBanaan@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 9h
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuurwerkramp_in_Enschede
I live in this city. We were watching the fireworks depot burning from what we thougt was a safe distance...After the first explosion we knew we were waayyyy to close and left right away. Just minutes later the whole neighbourhood was gone.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 7h
There are vídeos on YouTube showing the disaster, it's scary to watch really
Pipea@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 1d
Discovered a fire in my garage. My sister had thrown a cigarette butt into an overfull ashtray which was also plastic, something combusted. I was none the wiser though and opened the door to the garage only to be greeted with an opaque, fuckin straight outta Dark Souls lookin, WALL OF GREY SMOKE. I slammed that door in a panic thinking that exact same "I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE NOW!", ran out of the house and clicked the garage door opener as I went. We saw rolls of black smoke pour out of there but thankfully it was just a small fire and didn't reach the walls. Scary shit considering zero smoke detectors went off!
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 20 pts · 1d
I use a glass jar as my ashtray for this reason (well, also because my cat is a horrible goblin that won’t leave anything alone). Screw the lid on and it doesn’t matter how spicy things get, it’ll run out of oxygen and put itself out.
mavu@discuss.tchncs.de · 28 pts · 21h
lets just say, wild boars are really quite a bit larger than you think.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 11h
And also quite a bit faster
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 9h
and come in packs of 30-50, so bring a hell of a lot of buns
UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1d
Was at school, classes were just about over, but suddenly it got dark. Like nightfall dark. So dark one after another just silently started looking outside the window. Then the sky tinted slightly green - a phenomenon that in hindsight they should tech about at school, because it usually means shit is about to go down. Teacher was like: 'Okay, that looks really bad, pack your things, class is almost over anyway'.
I went outside with some friends. It had already started raining. Initially we wanted to wait under some roof in front of the school, thinking it was just a heavy summer shower. There were no reports on anything - no storms, nothing. But it kept. Getting. Worse.
Worse than anyone of us had ever seen, yet no signs of imrpovement. We started getting nervous. I called my mom to pick me up. She told me whem she was there, but it had already gotten bad enough that I was reluctant to step into that shit. Like, I had an umbrella, but it seemed like it wouldn't do much at that point.
When we sensed an ever so small opening we took off. I went to the parking lot, my friends to the bus station, which was the other way. (They all lived in completely different directions, in case you're wondering why my mom didn't want to drive them.) Everyone covered with whatever they got. When I arrived at the car, I was wet to the bone waist downwards.
My mom drove home ultra carefully. Visibility was basically none. It was like driving through a carwash. I texted my friends, they made it to the bus. However, the bus driver was not prepared for fucking rivers and ponds forming on the streets, so eventually they go stuck and had to walk home through knees deep water.
Even those with 'waterproof' backpacks had their school stuff ruined - which they of course presented like war trophies the next day and probably saved them some homework they didn't do in the first place. So yeah, that's the story of how we witnessed, probably one of the heaviest rainfalls our city had ever seen. Monsoon-like in Germany, completely out of nowhere.
If we had waited at school, we would have been stuck there. There was some heavy damage too. Our school's basements were flooded for example. Our school is build on a hill.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 22h
Like they say, "Red sky at night - sailor's delight. Red sky at morning - sailor take warning. Green sky you're fucked, best of luck!"
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 20h
They teach about green skys in the Midwest part of the US. Your story didn't end where I thought it would. When the sky turns green over here, there's a twister headed in your general direction, if not right for you.
SneakyWombat@feddit.dk · 26 pts · 1d
I was driving through a rather desolate part of Australia 20 years ago with a friend. Suddenly there was this weird animal in the road. It was dog-like, but way bigger than a dingo. With wool-like fur hanging from its entire body. I slowed down because I was curious, but my mate panicked, and shoutet at me to drive, so I did. I have never seen anything like that animal since.
Steve@startrek.website · 7 pts · 20h
Llama I bet
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 18h
Dog or feral sheep
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 6h
Or maybe it was an emu. There never was a formal peace agreement to end that war.
Or worse, maybe it was an emu infested with huntsman spiders.
grue@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 12h
Ooh, a cryptid sighting, that's fun! Have you looked through a list to see if any of them resemble it?
SneakyWombat@feddit.dk · 2 pts · 10h
Interesting list! None of them seem to match, though.. as others have said, it might have been a llama or wild dog, but it did not have a long neck, and it was quite big, so not likely a dog either. But my memory might not be accurate. This was 20 years ago.
grue@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 10h
Another common explanation for those sorts of sightings is that it might have been an animal with mange or some other disease that made it look "wrong" compared to a typical representative of the species.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 23h
I like Eddie Murphy's attitude on haunted houses: "If I went in a house and a voice came out of the walls and said, GET OUT - I would Get. the Fuck. Out."
Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 8h
Fuck that noise. My house, my rules, if they want to stay they can pay rent and do the wash.
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 18h
my little brother was really sick so i wanted to run some soup to him. he was staying with his girlfriends family out in an extremely rural area. it was after dark and i didnt know which house to go to, so i had to pull in to someones driveway to call him. the guy who lived there came out and stared us down until we pulled out, the vibe was incredibly hostile. i was afraid of getting shot or worse, being very queer and having my fiance with me. didnt do that again.
kiwifoxtrot@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 14h
To be fair, you probably scared the crap out of them. I live in a pretty rural area and if someone pulled into my driveway at night that I wasn't expecting, I would do the same thing.
Kissaki@feddit.org · 3 pts · 8h
Maybe they made their own comment in here, lol
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 1h
fair i guess, but it was still pretty creepy, even the neighbors were watching. it was in a small town, not a dirt road like i grew up on, so idk
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 7h
reminds me of that story from a few years back of people who were lost and turned around in a rural driveway and the owner came running out of the house shooting at them, i think hitting and killing at least one person in the car?
EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 21 pts · 20h
Weird, I haven't thought about this in years and now twice in one day.
Went to a party as a teenager, decided to leave early because the vibe felt bad. Told a friend of mine we should go, he decided not to listen to me.
Friend ended up getting a concussion because he got drunk and slammed his head into a garage door, the cops were called by a neighbor when the drinking spilled out into the driveway and music got too loud.
Nobody died, plenty of alcohol poisoning and mild injuries since people tried to scatter when the cops pulled up.
I was snoozing in a hammock in a nearby park until morning. Walked home.
martin@lemmy.caliban.io · 21 pts · 12h
In our local pub in Scotland, they had a DJ in the back room on a Friday / Saturday night. One night some guy bumped into me and I felt something hit the floor by my feet, I looked down and it was a 12 inch serrated kitchen knife with tape on the handle, i looked up and it was some wee wideo ned. So I went over to my mate old him to finish his drink quickly as possible because we're getting the fuck out of there tonight.
MadBabs@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 17h
About 2 weeks ago, packing a few belongings and my cats into a car to evacuate from an impending flood. Didn't know when I would be back home or what condition it would be in when I did.
halfeatenpotato@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 15h
Did your place end up flooding? Glad you took your lil homies with you
LucidNightmare@anarchist.nexus · 19 pts · 6h
Does anyone else find it odd that a lot of day old accounts make their first post here specifically, or is that just a coincidence?
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 3h
We need to leave ... now.
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 6h
Could be a lot of lurkers finally found something worth posting too.
...or as history has taught me, BOTS
JessyKenning@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1h
Well just about every askreddit post I've made was removed and then reposted by a mod. I can see why people would want to try here.
OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1h
There was a pretty noticeable moment a few years ago when lemmy seemed to spring to life with activity. Mainly those screenshot posts from other social media or those newer image macro things. I'm 99% sure that's when somebody turned on bots to make lemmy look more lively.
Malica@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 23h
Rise of the Nazis part deux
tlekiteki@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 1d
The whole Donald Trump 2 saga
tlekiteki@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 19h
ok not literally
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 2 pts · 1d
okay if you're gonna play that card you have to tell us the moment you realized this was not just a replay of Trump I but literally -- not hyperbolically -- "destroy America in 4 years or less"
You can't say "the moment he was elected" -- at that point you can only claim a Trump I level of dread
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 22h
Not the person you commented to, but I legit got that exact feeling on election night 2024 and immediately started looking into emigration. There are many, many options, especially if you're somewhat of a Spanish speaker. I think Bonespurs will have his final Big Mac Attack before it happens, but I give the USA until maybe 2035 to stay together in its present form. I'm only still here because my wife refuses to leave, and apparently I love her more than I fear MAGA.
TrippaSnippa@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 18h
It was pretty fucking obvious that Trump 2 was going to be much worse than Trump 1 even before election day. I woke up feeling a sense of dread that morning and I'm not even American.
tlekiteki@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 19h
November 2020. I watch the Presidentz videos on Twitter. He had graphs of vote times. I would never trust a politician, but what he said was possible. I reserved judgement.
And then two months passed and no evidence emerged. No evidence had emerged by January 6th. Let me be clear that if there had been evidence of 'cheating', every loyal American would have been that day. But there was no evidence. It was a lie, and to spread it is to threaten The Republic.
But that wasnt the scariest moment. I had too much vindictive pleasure imagining those genocidal baby-bombers snivelling in the boiler rooms, listening to 'Masters of War'. However, several things became clear in the aftermath.
Donald Trump was somehow martyred for his narcissistic dementia. His popularity rose! Donald Trump is unable to accept a majority decision at odds with his power. This is acceptable to his cult of personality, 1/3 of Americans!
Silicon Valley is compromised. By removing his most incriminating videos, Twitter covered his ass and prevented him from being caught out. Again, his statements were not criminal. They are treason. But they need to be seen to be understood. Whether benign technocrats or conspirators, the elite decided to go by the lyrics of the song 'Severed'.
So that is bad, but there is still hope for the americans to wake up. January 2026 was the closest the U.S. has come to Civil War in my lifetime. But the Republican party backed off (a little). We will see. But dont vote by mail, you had better vote in person.
grue@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 15h
To be fair, I was expecting what's happening now in his first term.
Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 8h
Not OC, but the first round of ICE round ups. Then again when he started taking about removing birthright citizenship. My spouse is exactly the right shade of brown to disappear into Alligator Auschwitz and never come out, her family doesn't give a shit about her so it's just me that would care enough to do anything.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 1 pts · 6h
Germany was openly hostile to Einstein; they finally chased him out in March 1933.
I legit wonder if there is an Einstein or a Newton somewhere among the Hispanics and Africans that are now being chased out of the USA.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 15 pts · 15h
Was BBQing in backyard at my old house and a strong wind knocked the grill over starting a fire. I tried putting it out, but it spread super fast and eventually got so hot, I had to escape it going through a window because the way back through the back door was totally engulfed. Shit started singing my hair and I was still a good 10 feet away from the fire when I finally said I need to get out of the backyard and hope the FD shows up before it set the house on fire.
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 36m
So in other words you were being a moron lighting a grill in a drought with everything around you highly flammable. Got it.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 1 pts · 22m
This was years ago, in a place that wasn't hit by a draught. It got my fucking deck on fire because the wind blew the coals off the paved area the grill was on. But nice assuming there. 🙄
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 8h
I'm feeling that right now for this planet, really badly.
snoons@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 7h
"Get out, now!"
Fuck, well let me invent interstellar transport rq...
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 7h
Yeah...it's gonna take a while, but I have this idea with bloons-
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 12 pts · 1d
I had just finished smoking a joint, and was walking towards a garbage to throw away my butt when I heard 17 gunshots about a block away. I ran behind a building until it stopped and then bolted inside
magnetosphere@fedia.io · 4 pts · 19h
Seventeen?!?
rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 18h
There were probably about 6 or so and then an exchange
HubertManne@piefed.social · 11 pts · 23h
country wise the last two years in the us. its fight or flight but if you fly you can expect to be just doing (edit from having) the fighting elsewhere.
Goudewup@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 21h
Only American exeptionalism will teach you the rest of the world is supposedly as least as bad as the US is.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 6 pts · 20h
im not sure I understand and I edite my reply to make my thought better (I hope). I meant we are such a threat that the person fleeing will be fighting on other shores if not stopped here.
thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 15h
Pretty much. I live in France right now and Europe is taking a hard turn right too.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 8h
oh again. I sorta meant the us has to be stopped on its shores because of its military and the way trump is using it. I am also worried though about the global growth of oligarchy and facism to though.
AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk · 10 pts · 1d
When I was sitting in the car, parked, engine off. And some incoming pickup pissed off the elephant and he turned towards us...
noxypaws@pawb.social · 16 pts · 1d
elephant?
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 8 pts · 1d
is the elephant in the room with us ?
T00l_shed@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 23h
We dont talk about it, ok?
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 22h
First Rule of Elephant Club
AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 11h
I was living in South Africa at the time, and went to Kruger 😅
In spite of the elephant incident, honestly one of the best places on the planet. Highly recommend.
weps@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 9h
any social setting my gut weirdly screams I need to get out of there
Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 9h
too relatable 😔
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 1h
I was just moved to Italy. I knew no one and I had to do some history assignment for Uni. I went to the city archive looking for some documentation and I was incredibly lost.
Some middle age man approached me and starting helping me around. He talked with everybody there and they all respected them. He was really nice to me all the time. I got into the archive and got everything I wanted. But I was more creepied out each minute. The guy had starting talking about how spaniards(me) and italians needs to be friends because our shared history of friendship with Franco and Mussolini. At the end he asked for my number, he really looked like he was trying to recruit me. I gave him a fake one and moved away. Never got near that location again in all the the time I spent in the city.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 14h
during a rainy night at a campus, a dude was doing that 'muslim prayer' right in the sidewalk on campus. and started trying to get me to haggle me , i quickly walked away, as most of the campus was extremely dark at night, almost pitch black. towards one of the buildings the student center or bookstore it was an extremely dark area, noped out of there quickly away from that person. he was also fidgeting something in his pocket excessively too.
n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 18h
They all have to do with defecating or urinating in my pants
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 15h
I had sushi on a date and i farted and 100% peed out my ass. Just soup ass. Guy gave me a ride back to his place so i could clean up and then we hooked up. What a champ.
sveltecider@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 3h
I knew there was a mountain lion somewhere in the area once when I was hiking. Got tf out immediately.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 12h
The place is a tiny local town and art preserve. We all felt like we were going to get axe murdered. We left, no Ax# murder. 👉👉
snoons@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 7h
More autistic/anti-social scary but went to a sort of extra class in uni. Normal lectures have ~150 people in the lecture hall and seemed like almost all of them were squeezed into this tiny lab meant for ~20. I was a step into the room when I seen how packed it was so I turned on my heel and left. I think I might have even said "Fuck that" out loud as did.
I can still sort of smell all the exhaled air dankly hanging around the room after it mingled with ~150 pairs of lungs and passed through unbrushed teeth.
MrShankles@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 12h
Was about to get robbed
forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 5 pts · 7h
Go on, let's hear it
peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 14h
Bushfire
honesthenery@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 1d
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 1h
AskewLord@piefed.social · -31 pts · 1d
Sometimes I find the level of bitterness on fediverse to be chilling... like holy shit some posters on here are legit wannabe murderers. And it seriously makes me question what I'm doing here.
I miss the internet being a more chill/nerdy space, but those days are long gone.
AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk · 37 pts · 1d
What? I don't see that being the case her. There are lots of really interesting stories you get from this kind of question
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · -13 pts · 22h
Interesting... the comment specifically says "fediverse" - but you're not the only person who seems to assume it's about this individual thread.
edit: Even more interesting - the overwhelming ratio of douchevotes on this comment. I seriously doubt people would insist "Boston" or "at work" means "in this thread" - but for some reason the vast majority are adamant that "fediverse" means just this thread. Anybody have an idea why that is?
AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 11h
Because it's in this thread. So clearly this thread triggered that thought. This isn't a "what are your general issues with the fediverse".
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1h
That means people's stories about being followed were "clearly triggered" by thinking someone in this thread is following them, because the comments are in this thread - which makes no sense. The thread is about having scary gut feelings, not just having them offline.
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 28 pts · 1d
I read every comment ITT and I have no idea what you're talking about.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 23h
I think they mean Lemmy as a whole: not this thread specifically.
Sanguine@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 22h
Then go post that in a relevant thread; its just weird doing it out of the blue.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 22h
I completely agree. I'm not sure why I got downvoted for trying to clarify lol I don't even agree with their opinion.
Sanguine@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 22h
You got downvotes because you're message adds cover for their stupid comment lol
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 21h
Huh, I guess you could interpret my comment like that.
MrNobody@quokk.au · 25 pts · 1d
What are you on about?
magnetosphere@fedia.io · 4 pts · 18h
Think for a moment. Do you really want an answer to that question?
Chl0r0f0rm_Angel@sh.itjust.works · -17 pts · 1d
Pause and think for a second. You're asking that person to spill tea for you in order to take notice of something in your surroundings. Kind of a weird ass thing for people to get upset at having pointed out.
theherk@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d
Lost Lemming?
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 22h
I agree, there's a presence of bitterness and hostility in every online forum, and lemmy is no exception. That vibe makes me feel negative about the future sometimes, but you have to remember the fediverse and online forums in general are just subsets of the human race, not a good cross-section. People tend to gather around others who have similar attitudes.