The Closest People Have Ever Come To Killing Someone
"Reddit user BBQPancake asked: 'What was the closest you've gotten to killing someone?'"
We all... could be a Dateline NBC villain.
Life pushes us.
Of course, there are also times when accidents happen and we prove life is fragile.
One never knows what actions they will one day be responsible for.
More deep breaths should be taken.
Redditor BBQPancake wanted to hear about the times people almost let the devil win, so they asked:
"What was the closest you've gotten to killing someone?"
Everytime someone CHOOSES not to use a turn signal, I roll the dice if this is the moment.
No Hazards
lauren conrad car GIF by The HillsGiphy"Dude was changing his tire on the side of the freeway about half past midnight, dressed in dark clothes, no hazards on, and sitting halfway into the right lane. Almost splattered that dude."
Flooded_Strand
Totally Weird Experience
"11:30 pm Remote country road with no streetlights. There’s a tiny traffic island in the middle of the road and I see what looks like a slightly different-colored silhouette standing there. By all rights, I should not have seen him there but something in my brain clicked and swore there was a figure standing there so I slammed on my brakes as the figure jumped out in front of me, car stopped about 2m away."
"He smiled really sinisterly and started walking towards the car, I reversed and made to move around him slowly and he jumped in front again, I managed to drive on the wrong side of the road to escape him."
"A minute down the road I stop to flash my lights at every passing car to warn them and I sh*t you not the second car that passed was a cop and I explained what happened. I circled back a minute later and saw the dude on the side of the road in cuffs. Totally weird experience."
HeyMrCow
SLAM!
"When I passed my driving test many years ago, I asked the instructor if he had any advice for a new driver. He warned me that if I ever saw a ball roll into the street to immediately hit the brakes because there was a good chance a kid will follow. I never forgot that and have religiously followed it ever since."
"A couple of years ago I was driving down a residential street and it happened again and something in my mind told me to SLAM on my brakes and so I did. I came to a stop just feet from a really little kid who was completely frozen in terror."
"That driving instructor is probably dead of old age by now, but wherever he is, I hope he understands that he saved that little kid's life and saved me a lifetime of guilt and heartache."
MaybeADumbass
The potatoes were stuck
"Pneumatic potato cannon. My friends and I were shooting it in my backyard. Must have launched off dozens of potatoes at this point. We decided to stuff 3 potatoes in the barrel. When we open the valve to shoot it nothing happened. We were sitting around 60 psi and had no launch."
"The potatoes were stuck. My friend went to look down the barrel. I saw what was going to happen and lifted the back forcing the barrel into the ground. At that time the potatoes shot out and left a small crater in the ground."
ELONGATEDSNAIL
I Shudder
shooting breaking glass GIF by PhazedGiphy"I was fermenting homemade kombucha in a tightly closed bottle. Which I forgot to burp. One day a bottle exploded, while my mother-in-law was in the kitchen. Luckily, she was far from the bottle at the moment and got only a scratch on her hand, but we had to dislodge glass shards from the walls. I still shudder from a thought of what would happen if she were closer."
nazanar
Closed bottles and pressure, that is a toxic mess.
Take shelter.
Avengers Unite
the avengers GIFGiphy"Every time I drive in Sydney on a weekend 4000 people either wanna walk out into traffic without looking or cycle onto main roads without pausing or merge into my lane without indicating/checking. By staying in defensive driving mode I've saved more lives than the Avengers."
RGH81
6 Inches
"Was on a film set working when a mentally unstable person with a knife approached me and another crew member."
"Was forced to take a swing at him with a gobo arm (it's essentially a metal rod with a metal knuckle on the end of it). Swung hard enough that if it connected, would have caved in this dude's temple."
"Just missed, and it coming so close must have jolted the guy back to reality and he took off. So closest I came to killing someone was about 6 inches."
Ringlovo
A Few feet from the Girl
"Used to work a delivery job. One afternoon, I'm driving back to work in the old POS delivery van and some girl bolts across the road (presumably to catch a bus that had pulled over up ahead)."
"Slammed on the brakes and came to a sliding stop completely sideways in the middle of the road no more than 2 or 3 feet from the girl. I still think about it sometimes, it was a heavy old Ford van, with no ABS. If I'd been speeding even slightly I think I would've hit her."
ZatyDaddy
Madre de Dios
"Driving a loaded truck, probably about 10,000 lb or so, at the speed limit. Traffic in the oncoming lane is at a standstill. Some [censored] decided he was too important to wait with everyone else and pulls out, face to face with me, at very short range. I swerved hard right, didn't really expect to miss him but somehow did."
"Then swerved hard left to avoid the people on the sidewalk, somehow missed them too. Didn't think you could make a truck do that. Apparently, my passenger (the owner of the truck I was driving for) didn't think it was possible either. I learned some new swear words in Spanish and what sounded like the prayer of thanks to Madre de Dios."
philzar
Fired
New Girl Facepalm GIF by HULUGiphy"High school friend's dad wanted to teach us how to shoot. Went to the range and when he wasn't looking I grabbed the pistol and tried the John Woo sideways grip shot. It flew out of my hand and the bullet ricocheted off the side wall. That was my last time to ever fire a gun."
eguez780
We really need to be vigilant.
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
Unpaid internships during summer's off from college are largely viewed as a right of passage.
But in most cases, they weren't exactly legal.
For-profit companies can, in fact, only hire unpaid interns if they are the "primary beneficiary" of the experience, i.e. not making coffee runs or spending the whole day at the copy machine, as most interns do.
Shockingly, many companies still continue to hire unpaid interns, knowing full well they are breaking the law by doing so.
But then, some people have no problem knowingly breaking the law, and worse still, they often get away with it.
Redditor Diligent-Log6805 was curious to learn about other illegal activities continue to happen without anyone seeming to notice, leading them to ask:
"What is illegal, but people continue to do openly without consequences?
Making the long haul even longer.
"Hauling more than the legal weight limit in dump trucks."
"I did a project a few years ago for my former employer because they noticed ALL the contractors that they hired were carrying more than the legal weight limit."
"This is a big issue because these trucks have increased stopping distances and are more likely to injure/kill people in the cars they hit."
"My company was pissed because they didn't want to be legally responsible if there were an accident."
"They had me analyze how much it would cost to buy a fleet of dump trucks, but it turns out you can't make much money hauling at the legal limit, so all dump trucks carry like twice the limit and just take the fines when weigh stations are open because it is WAY cheaper."
"Pretty messed up."
"Honestly, I felt like I did humanity a disservice telling them it wouldn't be worth it."
"If you ever get hit by a dump truck you can almost certainly sue them for being above the weight limit, but nobody really knows this."
"This depends on the legal weight limits in your region, but I know this to be true for most of the Northeast US."- tehipite_tom
Not everyone is deserving of a raise...
"Tell their employees they can’t talk about their wages with coworkers."- bowlofjello
Season 6 Reaction GIFGiphyMaking the market even more volatile...
"Insider trading."- CremeDeLaNut
Don't people care about the environment?
"Littering."- MyWorkAccountMSA
Seriously, what can be so urgent?
"I see at least 3 red lights run on a daily basis."- Podoboo322
Driving Fast GIF by The Grand TourGiphyPeople are distracted even when they're walking
"People driving while on their phone."- Elettra_of
Sadly, seems like it's the American way...
"Politicians accepting bribes."- Patron_of_Wrath
More expensive than I thought...
"Use Tax."
"Where I live, if you buy something in another state without sales tax, but bring it back to your home state, you have to send your home state the tax you 'should have' paid if bought locally."
"Even if it's pants."
"Let me get right on that..."- prof_dorkmeister
Some people seem to like to live dangerously, without fear of any consequences or repercussions.
And most likely, these same people are thinking only of themselves, and not how it might affect others.
We all have our gripes about inconsequential things that become so increasingly annoying, that they drive us over the edge.
Unfortunately, these inconveniences in life–whatever they may be–will continue pestering us because they have every right to be there.
Ah, but what if there are legal consequences for the things that irk us the most?
Seeking to make our world a better place, Redditor mystic-savant asked:
"If you could make something illegal, what would it be?"
These continued interruptions are enough to make us erupt into fits of rage.
Our Common Hang-Up
"Spam calls."
– mettedraq
Ixnay To The Exnay
"Small 'X' buttons on mobile ads. I hate the kind where unless you have dainty fingers you get redirected to a website."
– Bridgtecmilen
Too Many Trees Die For This
"Junk mail. Think of all the 'You're pre qualified for a credit card!' mail people get and how much of that goes straight in the trash."
– TheSchoeMaker
Staring At The Void
"Reporting an ad to google for covering content and them removing the ad, only to leave a large empty gray box over the content where the ad used to be."
– spade13F
People could do without these sonic assaults.
So Alarming
"Police sirens in radio commercials."
– ilumewey
No Honking!
"And car horns. I’d like to get to work without having a heart attack on the way."
– perkiezombie
A Close Call
"This almost caused me to crash because it was timed as I went through an intersection that was at an angle so oncoming traffic aims at you for a time before they turn. I swore to the Nine Hells that I was about to be slammed into and nearly jerked by steering wheel to the right and into another car. Only reason it didn't happen was triage; I decided that if I'm being hit steering away wasn't changing that. Then nothing happened."
– NoobSabatical
Disturbing The Peace
"Listening loud music from phone without using earphone in public places, especially in public transport."
– SuvenPan
Corruption gets casually overlooked. It's time for some changes.
Shady Transactions
"Politicians buying/selling/trading stock while in office."
– Sudden-Cat5805
No More Advantageous Incentives
"Honestly, politicians receiving any kind of additional income or donations, monetary or otherwise, while in office."
"No stock trading, no second job, no donations to their campaign fund, no gifts from supporters, nothing. If you work in government, and have financial ties to other entities, then your loyalty is being bought, whether consciously or not as you will use your power to support your other forms of income in the name of self interest as to ensure to still receive those forms of additional income."
"A politician’s only form of income or compensation should be via taxpayers from the people they represent."
– Conchobhar23
There Ought To Be Consequences
"Politicians getting any pension , insurance , security , or anything after getting convicted of anything connected with their office ."
– crowman006
Thing About Per Diem
"Representatives/senators started out making a $6 per diem and were only paid for the days they actually showed up."
– Haunting-Ad-8619
Driven By Greed
"Price gouging on life-saving medicines."
– gaomeigeng
People just found these incredibly annoying.
Bad Template
"I would make it illegal for recruiters to not give some kind of response after applying for a job. At least say “yes” or “no” instead of _____."
– I-Care-for-all
Closed For Business
"Leaving your 'OPEN' sign on when you're not. I used to work midnights and I can't tell you the number of restaurant doors I've pulled on at 1am because their sign said they were open. If I were King of the world restaurants would be fined $1000 an hour for allowing this to happen. I'M LOOKIN' RIGHT AT YOU Steak-n-Shake!"
– Oph5pr1n6
Now, Scoot!
"Leaving e-scooters in the middle of the sidewalk."
– mossadspydolphin
I personally think there ought to be clear a distinction between factual news reporting and opinion.
The lines are so blurred these days, people will forgo doing the research to educate themselves on the facts and wind up disseminating propaganda and unsubstantiated information, which can mobilize a harmful movement.
The question is, which party should bear the consequences of their indiscretion? The reporting agency or the audience?
Ah college. What a time to be alive.
The people who love to keep that party going are great.
But many have a bad Pater Pan complex and never learn to grow up.
Yet some end up on top of the world.
It's all a coin toss.
Redditor ihaveaclip4urclique wanted to share the tales about what happened to the life of the party after everyone grew up. They asked:
"College graduates of Reddit: What happened to that friend that never stopped partying?"
My life of the party people are dead and depressed. Cheers...
Yin & Yang
We Did It Win GIF by HBO MaxGiphy"One’s a doctor, one lives in a towable caravan."
Low_Corner_9061
"There doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground in this thread."
space_monster
Tabs Up
"Worked at a bar in college, and friends worked at other bars. So I knew a lot of people who drank a lot. Most went on to be in sales or some other job where interpersonal communication skills are more valued than raw academic skills. Some do very well."
AmigoDelDiabla
"Bartended full or part time for 15 years now. It's funny those same people keep coming in to drink, but now it's with coworkers and clients and rack up huge tabs and tip the best."
Minimum_Attitude6707
Drink to the Top
"He drank with the right executives at a conference and got offered a job. He now makes three times what I do."
Moctor_Drignall
"I know someone this happened to as well! Our senior year I think she drunk-tweeted something and a company loved what she tweeted that they offered her a job. We graduated 11 years ago and she still works for them! (Although this kind of goes against the thread because she doesn't drink anywhere near as much anymore since she got married and started a family)."
PAKMan1988
Genius
"Ran into an old friend who was like that. We were in our late 30s when that happened and chatted; turned out he partied hard until late 30s and during that time, flitted around job to job to simply fund his partying. One day he looked around and noticed that he was the old guy at the bars hanging with early 20-somethings."
"He realized that all of the folks our age were ahead in their careers, with family/kids etc. Said that was a pretty sobering revelation and enrolled himself back into school and was in his 2nd year of engineering as he wanted to be an aerospace engineer."
rudebish
The Right Way
golden globes GIFGiphy"He partied with the right guys and now makes very good money in sales where he parties with clients but the company pays for it."
MySonHas2BrokenArms
Sometimes vodka works you all the way to the corner office. I'm on my way...
Never took off...
Drunk Vince Vaughn GIF by HBO MaxGiphy"He decided to do a commercial pilot license. Spent so much money on the training and the partying that his debts overtook him. Here, most airlines don't accept pilot candidates with outstanding debts or criminal records. He never got to fly a plane. He still owes a lot of people small to medium amounts of money. Accepted a menial job writing technical manuals."
Ruggiard
The Mess
"I lived in a house with a bunch of guys. One of them was in electrical engineering. He got a job at Applebees for some extra cash and started having parties with work people after work (so 3-5am). That made it hard to make class so he dropped a semester."
"We all graduated and he said he would refocus on school soon, but he was having too much fun partying. I went back to college 20 years later for a football game. He is still working as a waiter at Applebees. He is the creepy guy who acts like he is best friends a with a bunch of 20 year old kids. He’s a mess."
alpacasarebadsingers
Tragic
"He never stopped. He continued drinking at a crazy pace, and lost his job, his driving license, and his wife. He had to move near to a liquor store to keep drinking. He was found dead on the floor of his apartment from a hemorrhage in his stomach caused by years of alcohol abuse. He bled to death from within. He left behind two sons."
SpaceLaserPilot
'dedicated party house'
"A friend of mine in college pulled a Van wilder, and spent 7 total years in college (just getting his undergrad) because he liked the partying so much. He lived in the college 'dedicated party house' that had just two modes, actively throwing a wild party, or recovering from the latest party."
"What was wild about him was that even though he lived a party lifestyle, he got excellent grades and took phenomenal care of himself (when he wasn't getting black out wasted and having weird sexcapades), and was the person who got me into running/marathoning."
"Eventually, he finally graduated with a degree in Mechanical engineering, moved to the east coast, got married and became a born again Christian. He seems happy and successful and just had his first kid recently, but its absolutely weird seeing him post pictures of him getting adult baptized and doing mission work."
GlastonBerry48
Unrecognizable
Sad Lonely GIF by PokémonGiphy"He overdosed, blacked out and fell off a balcony at a hotel and hit the pavement so hard his mother couldn’t recognize him."
Impressive-Orchid748
The party has to end sometime. When the lights come on... go home. That's clearly a general life lesson as well.
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America is in a terrible situation.
We are addicted to guns and nobody seems to care.
And nothing seems to get done.
Redditor Specktakles88 wanted to take a serious moment to ask:
"What, in your opinion, is a realistic solution to gun violence in the United States?"
I don't know what more there is to say on this topic. But let's try...
American society failing...
"A school shooting is the ugly culmination of multiple facets of established American society failing. A single 'solution' would mean a complete overhaul of countless modern systems."
Lupia_
"Indeed, the whole idea that there’s no, one solution, is what people who don’t really want this to be sorted out rely upon."
"Every time this sort of thing happens and people talk about solutions they demand you give them A solution, pretending to care and be engaged. Then they can easily point out the one you’ve suggested won’t fix the problem, make out that you’re eating everyone’s time and are stupid, and nothing changes."
Aloonatron
Swiss Cheese
"There's a model used in risk analysis called the swiss cheese model - in short, every tactic that you throw at a problem will be like a slice of swiss cheese. Each hole in the slice of cheese is an opportunity for the problem to still slip through. Some slices will have more holes in than others, but if you have enough slices stacked, you won't have any holes."
"So it's not just one solution that's needed - it's lots of solutions, all working together. Some may be less directly effective (such as restricting lobbying), some may be more directly effective (such as making background checks 100% required in all cases)."
Blythyvxr
Too Much Effort
"Well for starters, make sure your local police force isn't made up of a gang of cowards."
CannaPanda69
"How dare you expect police to waste their time stopping mass murder?!?! They have speeding tickets to write and drug kingpins to arrest for having a dimebag in their car!!!"
TheMadTitan2016
"Don't forget about stopping parents from going in to save the kids."
therealbeeblevrox
Complex Issues
"I get that this is the internet, and hence 5000 people have expressed a mostly non-expert opinion, but there are actual public health experts in gun violence, mental health, and injury prevention science that politicians should take policy direction from. Wicked problems require complex, systemic, and science-based solutions."
jamafam
Culture Shifts
"Everyone is arguing that it's a mental health issue, but there are people with mental health issues and crap healthcare all over the world and this STILL doesn't happen. I think the states needs a huge culture shift."
LuigiLoly
"And the vast majority of people who have mental health issues in the US are... not violent. I agree it's mainly a cultural problem. The government can't fix radicalization or the glorification of violence. Better gun laws can help too, but it's a cultural issue."
The_GREAT_Gremlin
Well those all sound good. And not at all new. Gimme more...
No Safety
"People realizing two very important facts that have become painfully clear in the last 4 years:"
"The Government does not care about you. They will not protect you or your children."
"Law Enforcement does not care about you. They will not protect you or your children."
"No one is coming to save you. Act accordingly."
SaltyPilgrim
From Afar...
"In NZ we have a massive mental health problem, yet mass shootings are extremely rare. We also have good gun control laws, with most people with guns using them for farming, hunting, animal population control or hobby shooting."
"Looking at the US from afar, there seems to be a very paranoid culture centred around a need to protect oneself at all times, and personally I think that’s a core issue. Why are people so scared? Addressing that issue would probably have a substantial effect."
grizznuggets
Media Issues
"Change the media culture, stop publishing names and pictures of shooters, increase mental health awareness and risk assessment when someone wants to own a firearm. Do actual background checks."
ThePantsMcFist
"There has been a major shift in reporting on mass shootings (at least on the local level) where the name of the shooter is reported in the immediate following of the event, and then not mentioned again. Everything afterwards is focused on the names of the victims and community reaction to the shootings. Both local stations I have worked for have implemented this method of reporting."
Hybrid_Johnny
Broken
"As someone on the outside looking in. I feel you have a broken nation and I have no idea how you can fix it. I don't know how well received this will be and I maybe wrong, but I feel like the corrupt elite in your nation are playing with our patriotic values for their own greed under the guise of national security. I mean. A few thousand Americans die in one day and you spend trillions of dollars and 2 decades to bomb impoverished nations, destabilise regions and directly and indirectly kill thousands across the 3rd world in the name of national security and the war on terror."
"Yet tens of thousands of Americans die each year to gun violence and nothing can be done. Is this not a national security issue. How much talent are you losing every year that could benefit both your country and the world if you would just give them a chance to live."
bushmanbob_82
Something to Cling to...
"We also need to give our children hope. They currently do not see a life ahead of them that is equal to or better than the one their parents lead. They see nothing but pain, strife and hopelessness. We need to show that we can give them a world that is as clean when they are adults as it is now. We need to show there will be a career waiting for them, that they will be able to afford housing and be a member of a healthy society. Hope is one critical part of the solution."
GamemasterJeff
We're in some troubled waters friends. We can fix this. We just have to want to.
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