Would you risk offending someone for your safety?
For instance, if you were in a parking lot at night and alone, and a man walked past your car, would you lock the doors even though he’d hear it lock and risk offending a possibly good person, or would you threaten your safety to avoid that risk?
Or if you came out of a grocery store at night, and a group of men were near your car, would you go back inside and risk offending them (assuming they’ve seen you) or would you go to your car anyway?
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16 Answers
Safety is paramount, surely this question is a no brainer? you’d have to be pretty stupid to be worried about hurting someones feelings if your safety was at risk.
walshy
If i really don’t feel comfortable I don’t care about them, I’ll lock my doors, or completely avoid them. The risk of offending them is worth not getting hurt.
Must admit I think this question has one answer only really be safe above all else. Which would you rather be, thought of as irrational or in a ditch somewhere??
If they are a decent person then they should understand, if they are not a decent person then you have done the right thing and protected yourself.
if you’re worried about offending someone by doing whats right for yourself, its a sign of low confidence. Any good man will understand another’s concern for his own good. Who gives a crap what they think?? if they can’t relate too bad.
tonight on the way home at a red light i put my car in park, got out, walked over to a sleek black lincoln continental with dark tinted windows that stopped behind me at the light and asked him to turn his brights off. he did, i was happy.
do what you have to do for your own well being.
Hey. I bet you’d walk up the ramp into the alien spaceship too lest you offend the tiny green bug-eyed space invaders.
Read The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. He addresses this exact scenario. Your safety is paramount.
Without question.
I’m a proponent of “think the best of people while locking your doors at night.”
Always err on the side of safety.
My safety comes first. Why would it even offend someone when you lock your doors..I never even thought of that.
I tell people straight up, not to smoke anywhere near me. My health trumps their addiction.
Let’s imagine I am a good man. I am heading out to, say, a strip mall late at night because I need a fresh quart of milk from 7-Eleven to put on my breakfast Cocoa Puffs. As I am walking toward the store across the darkish parking lot, a woman comes out of the store and gets into her car. As I pass by her car, I hear the locks click. I think:
(a) Smart woman. She has the habit of locking her car doors every time she gets in.
(b) Oh, shit. Now I can’t rape and rob her.
(c) Oh, no!! She thinks I am a bad man and I am really a good man! My feelings are so hurt! That bitch, she hurt my feelings. She must be a horrible person. Also a stupid dope because she couldn’t tell my good-guy outfit from a bad-guy outfit. I am either going to turn around and go back to my car and leave now without my quart of milk because I am so traumatized or else give her the finger as I walk by because she offended me or else smile and nod to show her that I am really a good and trustworthy person. And I’d better decide quick because she is backing out.
(d) Nothing.
Just to let you guys know, I asked this question because a friend told me that she wouldn’t lock her doors when someone was nearby because she was afraid of offending them. I thought it was ridiculous, but I was wondering if anybody else felt the same… maybe I’ll have her read this thread…
@electricsky Where I live, that is a bad idea all around.
On the other side of the bay from me, there was a foreign exchange college student from Germany who went into a convenience store and outside there was a homeless man. She felt sorry for him and bought him a sandwich. Very nice.
The homeless man got irritated because he couldn’t understand her english through the heavy German accent. He then proceeded to stab her 15 times. She died on the spot.
Politeness isn’t worth dying for.
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