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In America, a small number of people derive pleasure from being disruptive to everybody, and blasting music on public transit with captive audiences is a very "
by mikkupikku 7mo ago
In America, a small number of people derive pleasure from being disruptive to everybody, and blasting music on public transit with captive audiences is a very "traditional" way of fucking with people and expressing your broad contempt for their society. I'd estimate that maybe one in five times you get on a city bus in America, you'll encounter somebody like this.
Very rarely does anybody call them out or otherwise try to reign it in, because you're as likely as not to be physically attacked and in America, the odds of bystanders coming to your rescue are... Not zero, but not great.
- JumpCrisscross 7mo agoI’ve absolutely seen this nonsense in the UK.
- mikkupikku 7mo agoDoesn't surprise me, but I'm only speaking from my experience in America.
- gib444 7mo agoYup. Eg guys getting on Thameslink services in south London, walking right up to the area behind the driver's cab and and start creating a disturbance. Driver stops the train and has a go at them if he's feeling in the mood...
- LaurensBER 7mo ago20%? That's a bit insane. This does happen in Europe but is heavily looked down up on and usually quickly corrected. On the other hand I did get a chewing out from an older guy for having a conversation with friends on a train once, so some people take it perhaps a bit too serious.
- keiferski 7mo agoIt’s very much a thing on US public transit, with the added negative bonus that no one ever confronts the person doing it, because chances are they’re either crazy, armed, or both.
- slg 7mo ago>is a very "traditional" way of fucking with people and expressing your broad contempt for their society. Motivated in large part as a response to society saying fuck them. I'm not defending assholes being assholes, but I think what we have been seeing in the US over the last 5 or 10 years is classic collapse of the social contract stuff. The less a society cares about its people the less its people will care about the rest of society.
- mikkupikku 7mo agoI get what you're saying, but blasting music on buses has been a thing since boom-boxes were invented, it's nothing new. I am also not inclined to blame systems instead of individuals because most people with the same background of injustice will choose to respond to that injustice by being better than it. It's only a very small number of people being disruptive like this, while the number of people with fair and understandable grievances against society is massive.
- slg 7mo ago>I get what you're saying, but blasting music on buses has been a thing since boom-boxes were invented, it's nothing new. Yes, because people have always felt like outsiders in relation to society. My point was that this sort of public misbehaving is getting worse because social cohesion is getting even worse. Not everyone with grievances against society will respond this way, but as more people have grievances against society, more people will respond in a manner like this.
- 3eb7988a1663 7mo agoIt was referenced in the 1986 Star Trek movie -Spock incapacitates a guy after he refuses to turn down his stereo.
- shagie 7mo agoHe returned in Picard (notice his reaction with his neck). https://youtu.be/r6wDR6heQcU https://youtu.be/r6wDR6heQcU What I did not know is that he was one of the producers for Voyage Home. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0857130/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0857130/
- CalRobert 7mo agoHappens elsewhere too. Can be an issue in Dutch trains
- zulux 7mo ago[flagged]
- hallole 7mo agoI don't think I'd have the wherewithal to jump in and do something if I were a bystander. I'm not the sort to throw hands, I don't carry, and these disruptive types are already a bit feral. I'm not sure it's contempt they're expressing, or if they're expressing anything at all. There really are people who enjoy and defend it, too; "it's just a guy playing music, mind your own business." Truly alien.
- AnimalMuppet 7mo agoMy business includes my ears. If you don't want me in your business, keep your business to your ears.
- standardUser 7mo agoI've found that looking the person in the eye and giving a quick "hey, forget your headphones?" sometimes does the trick, and has yet to start a fight. Everyone has to act in ways they are comfortable with - but mass inaction is what creates space for this shitty behavior in the first place.
- dymk 7mo agoI did this on a bus and had a gun pulled on me, so your mileage may vary
- mothballed 7mo agoYes exactly. If they are blasting ethnic music while in an ethnic hood it is usually because they are repping their hood, and sometimes in a way to intentionally bait someone to say something. If you ask them to stop they will pretend it is a challenge on their hood/race (no matter that they will play it so loud everyone's ears are splitting and all they want is not to get hearing damage). I watched a guy pull out a knife and start slashing as soon as he was asked to stop. If you ask such person to stop it is implied they expect you to back that up with violence and you've already consented to a battle.
- 7mo ago
- andy99 7mo agoPretty sure on planes this is more ignorance than malice. It’s self absorbed people that are too selfish to consider someone else might not want to hear what they’re watching, rather than some deliberate anti society thing. Regardless, no punishment is too harsh, this should be considered the equivalent of lighting up a cigarette on a plane.
- e40 7mo agoThe idea someone doesn’t know they bothering everyone around them is absurd. It is 100% malice.
- Sharlin 7mo agoHanlon's razor applies. Yes, some people have a bad case of the main character syndrome simply because nobody has ever called them out on it.
- mothballed 7mo agoUsually they have been called out on it a time or two. They are often signaling that if you want to stop them, you'll have to use violence, and look -- no one or almost no one is willing to do that. There are a couple of us who have actually seen someone call them out that are warning folks here what commonly happens. I saw someone get attacked with a knife, another commenter here had a gun pulled on him when they asked them to stop. It isn't about the loud music itself, it's that they're openly saying they are king shit, that no one is willing to challenge them, and broadcasting their eagerness to deliver violence upon anyone that might. The other side of this is that they often do it on places you can't easily escape, like a train car with stops only every 5 minutes. This gives them a very long time to go to town on anyone that might challenges them. Something I've seen with my own eyes when they were asked to tone down the music.
- jghn 7mo ago> They are often signaling that if you want to stop them, you'll have to use violence I'm well aware of the types you're talking about, but in my experience this has largely changed. It used to be that these sorts were the most common offenders. But now it's just, well, everyone and anyone. For instance I don't think the little, old lady in front of me on the bus the other day was challenging people to violence.
- striking 7mo agoSure, but also you might be on a city bus for... half an hour? It's not pleasant to have someone blast noise but it's nothing like a multi-hour flight. Why bother?
- wanderingstan 7mo agoMy go-to technique has been to offer the offender a pair of headphones, saying something to insinuate that they must forgotten theirs or be too poor to afford them. Most of the time they say “oh I have headphones!” and then realize that they’ve outed themselves. (I stockpile the free headphones from gyms or airplanes, or get the $2 ones from AliExpress)
- oidar 7mo agoBluetooth headphones too? This is actually a really good response though. Because the act of having a device blaring demonstrates contempt for everyone one around them. It's hard to act in a hateful way to someone who just offered you something for free.
- wanderingstan 7mo agoExactly. To refuse the “gift” is an explicit statement of “I know I could do this silently but I want to bother everyone around me.”
- boxedemp 7mo agoBig "Kill them with kindness" energy.
- CamJN 7mo agoBut on a plane they'll have already been asked by a flight attendant either by the time the plane takes off, or as soon as it stops climbing. So clearly this isn't working on the people this rule targets. In fact I think this rule is actually the ideal response from the airline and should be adopted everywhere, as anyone who is so unconcerned with the wellbeing of others as to play audio on their device without headphones shouldn't be allowed to fly, as they're obviously happy to fuck up everyone's day, and won't follow instructions.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- johnfn 7mo agoI mean, you are painting it as some moralistic judgement, but if you’re asking me for on one hand listening to some annoying music, and on the other hand having some chance (however slight) of bodily injury, knife wound, or whatever… I know which one I am going to choose.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 7mo ago> and in America, the odds of bystanders coming to your rescue are... Not zero, but not great Yes, because there's been a recent push to more heavily punish good Samaritans than perpetrators. When good men get metaphorically crucified for helping, they stop helping. If that seems like a common sense outcome of such policies, you're right. But as we've seen time and again, common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden.
- boxedemp 7mo agoHappens in Canada too. Calling them out can be dangerous, people have been injured.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- baal80spam 7mo agoI can guarantee you that's not only America's problem.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]