EraserheadBaby

It doesn't have to be as extreme of an example. Just a reasonably civil ideological disagreement of any kind. I've got other ones, but I thought that one would be the most entertaining. As for it being a vehicle for social or individual change, idk. I sometimes think of society as a huge animal with people as cells. If all the individual cells are staying copacetic, then the whole is better and vice versa. I doubt what I did had a negative impact. The positive, if there was any, would not be huge. But I'm not huge either (lol). The point is that it's important to try to stay calm and talk to people. We seem to be more divided than any time in my life and we need to keep talking. Sorry I came off like a bad after school special.

That wasn't really the point. That was just the example for the idea of simply trying to reach out to people to bridge a gap in understanding. And things hit differently in person than they do on the internet. However, if you would like to share something more representative of this point, please do. That's the idea.

I don't think it's complex or organized enough to be an agenda. More like, "just try not to hate people". I don't remember morbid curiosity being part of the mix, but I wouldn't put it past me. I don't know that I'm proud of it. It's just a thing I did. I thought people might find it interesting and post their own stories. I was trying to get a point across to a mentally challenged nazi, so yeah, the communication was a little forced. Still, genuine though. I told no lies and I just wanted to reach out to this guy as effectively as possible in the short amount of time I had available. I never saw him again. So yeah, it was motivated, targeted speech to get a point across. I fail to see the problem. I don't have a lot of power. I'm a loser. But I still want to try and do things. Life is full of side quests. Was it the perfect way to get it done? Probably not, but I'm not Morgan Freeman. To everyone who's wishing I'd followed him out to his car and stomped him, I can understand that. But you don't fight at your dealers house. I don't want to have to deal with police. And it would likely deepen his resolve. Still, if you punched one, I'd smile.

Thanks for adding to the list. As for boasting a manipulation game, that seems harsh. I love how I can post something about trying to convert a nazi away from hate, and you have taken issue with it. This is what I mean by communication breakdown. People are so excited to assume the worst and try to tear someone else down that they miss the message. I didn't post this to be self stroking. It was just a story from my past that came to mind, and I thought people may find it interesting and have their own stories to tell.

you are better at video games than me. I wanted to like that game so much, but I couldn't get the swing of it.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent Obviously this game isn't relaxing the first time. But it's in my top ten and I speed ran it for a while. It's not scary anymore. It's familiar and comfortable. I like decaying buildings, so Castle Brenneburg is a joy to stroll around inside. I love listening to Alexander's smoky voice as he seduces Daniel with half truths and lies. I like fucking with the monsters and that screeching sound while they chase you. And I know people say the grunt is goofy, but I think it's perfect. It's got an uncanny valley quality to it. It's kind of a person. It used to be. I find that terrifying, like the stalkers in Half life.

I can understand that.

It's a possibility. Though people have a tendency to stick to bubbles. I doubt he'd heard something like that in a social setting before. Maybe at the shrinks office. I believe it made him a bit uncomfortable. He just glanced at me and didn't say anything as he left. I don't know his name either. I didn't really want to get to know him. That's about all I remember about it. Why would I feel bad? Hard to tell how hold the guy was. I'd guess mid twenties with some meth age on him. but he could have been in his mid thirties. I'd guess you're right about him being in jail from a young age. I don't remember much else about it. The whole interaction was less than 5 minutes from start to finish.

I'll start because I'm an egocentric prick who started a thread to tell this story. If this thread takes off, I sincerely doubt many of them will be as light-hearted as this one. Tonight, a couple of cops came into the head shop I work in. A 6'4" chubby muscles black guy and a 5'8" fit, freckled ginger. Both early 20's, wearing cop hats and little tactical vests. The tall guy asks me if we have any "non-nicotine" vapes. I know he means 0% nicotine, but we also sell a bunch of weed stuff. And that's non-nicotine. I escorted them to that side of the store. The officer looked at weed vapes and electric smoking apparatuses for about a solid minute before he realized he was in the dope section. He shuffled back from the counter mumblin' "Oh no, I can't do that". And his buddy chimes in sayin' "My sister says it helps her a lot with her arthritis." So anyway, he wanted a disposable nicotine free vape. A battery powered lollipop. Which we don't sell, because we are serious people. So the cop gets a vape with nicotine and we go up to the register. At this point, I start eyeballin' the big man pretty hard and I say "Officer, I need to see your ID". And he doesn't have it. He gave me a "C'mon man". Sorry. His little friend got this ear to ear, shit eatin' grin on his face and immediately produced his ID but would buy nothing for the man. Meanwhile, big boy is lookin' through his phone, tryin' to find a picture of his ID. So I ask him "Is that even legal? Forgive my ignorance. I'm asking because you're a police officer so I figured you'd know and need to tell me." He assured me is was, but the search continued. It went on like this for about 3 solid minutes. During which time, I performed Zelda's Lullaby on my ocarina and hit it off with the little guy. So I asked him, "Can you vouch for your friend? Is that legal?" The ginger shrugs. Then I looked the soon to be nicotine addict in the eyes and asked, "If he vouches for you, are you gonna fuck with me?" The tall guy got a bit flabbergasted. "What, uh, no no" and started moving through his phone faster, fumbling with it a bit. All the while his brother in arms was cheesin' out and shakin' his head at the floor. He found a picture of his ID. 1997. The officer bought his vape. I told them to be safe out there, and they said good night. Then they chilled in their cruiser out the in the parking lot for 5 minutes. Which is kind of creepy, but the guy was probably trying to figure out the battery powered piece of garbage he just purchased. To be fair, these are not hardened city police officers. It's a small town. A wide spot in the road. Still, I had fun. I really felt like myself today.

It is a sad story. Appalachia makes killer folk music for a reason. It was just the vibe I got from him. The look on his face. He was scowling at me a little bit at first but he eventually started scowling at the floor. When he looked at me again he had softened up, his eyes were a bit wider, he looked confused. Maybe he was just bored. Maybe he'd never heard someone say anything like that and his brain didn't know what to do with it. Like the first time I had good Indian food. Again, it was the vibe I got from him. Also, just because someone is slow doesn't mean they don't understand simple stories. He was smart enough to drive a car. He had money to purchase goods. He picked up what I put down, to some degree.

@RDETalusI knew that was gonna be the first quote someone pulled from it.

No. He mentioned he was on parole but not house arrest. Then he went in the back, got his bag and left.

TLDR at the bottom of the post. Life is full of difficult people. Maybe they have a hateful ideology. Maybe they have a class b personality disorder like narcissism or psychopathy. Perhaps they are dangerously stupid. Maybe they’re just a douche bag. It’s hard to tell sometimes. In all of reality, the slice that we can survive in is just a line on a pie chart, and the part of life that most find enjoyable is just 1% of that line. Life is rough and it can make you a monster. It’s important to learn to cope with people who suck because, and this is important, we are all the asshole to someone else. Hell, there are people who hate the Dali Lama. I’m talking about this because there’s been so much breakdown in communication in recent years. Many people have very firm stances on things (often things they don’t understand), and they refuse to listen to the opposing side. Without communication to solve problems, we are left with a few options. Violence, extortion, and siege (which is kind of extortion). There’s probably more, but none of them are good. About 2 years ago I was at my dealer’s house. We’re passing a blunt and another customer walks in. A nazi. And I don’t mean a “they don’t agree with every woke thing I say” kind of nazi. I mean fresh out of prison, swastika tattoo on the neck nazi. The guy obviously had some kind of learning disability and I don’t say that because of his tattoo. He had speech difficulties, one eye wasn’t quite looking straight, he glanced around the room like a little bird, and he didn’t understand why gravity didn’t make water fall off the “bottom” of the earth. Something was up with him beyond the tattoo. So, we start passing the blunt with this guy. I ignore the tattoo and make no mention of it. I just casually start talking about my ex-wife. She’s a Jew with dual US/Israeli citizenship whose sister is a Rabbi. I reflected on all the good times I’d had with her. How her family treated me with more respect and dignity than my own family ever had. I talked about how, in my experience, the Jews had solid values of family, hard work, education, charity, and equality. I talked about how they appreciated my handyman nature, since their educated asses couldn’t fix a sink if their life depended on it. Although I was different, and dropped out of college, they didn’t look down on me. Except my mother-in-law. But that’s mother-in-laws. I’m a tall, blue eyed, white guy, so he listened to me. He did not interrupt and he did not at any point show signs of aggression. He was tolerant of what I was saying. He listened to me. I’m not saying the guy dropped to his knees and begged for a belt sander for his tattoo, but I could tell by looking at him that he was internalizing the information he was receiving. It was giving him pause for thought. It planted a seed of doubt. That’s about all you can hope for, but hopefully the seed grows. tldr: I talked to a nazi about all the good times I had with my Jewish ex-wife and her family. It seemed to plant a seed of doubt in his mind