Has anyone else here been the target of drive-by aggression? Over the years, I've had garbage thrown at me, and beer cans. More often, it's simple verbal assault - car screeches to a stop, profanities fly out the window, car screeches away trailing wild laughter. Of course, there were drive-by moonings - people showing me their true face. The perpetrators are always strangers. They might be men or women.

What interests me is the psychology of the people who do this. We all have aggressive feelings, but cars seem to make these easier to express. It's probably the ability to avoid consequences. Do something on foot, with someone you know, and your victim may strike back. Do it from a moving car, to a stranger, and your victim is denied any chance to respond. That makes it a low-risk low-cost outlet for aggression. I wonder what it means that women are as likely to do this as men.

I've always felt a special contempt for the drive-bys. It's a gutless thing to do. People so full of untethered hostility, but able to express it only when they have guaranteed impunity and anonymity.

Drive-bys can happen without cars. The electronic media offer so many opportunities for verbal aggression without consequences. People can defame, deride, and slander others, and do it anonymously. There have been some recent lawsuits in which the courts forced providers of internet services to reveal the identities of people who'd been especially malicious in what they published about others. The internet has become the ultimate rumor mill, in which people with hateful personal agendas can strike while concealing their identities, and deny their victims the chance to fight back.

So has anyone else been burned?

Never! What is it that could make people single you out, in paricular? Maybe because I live in Texas and there are guns everywhere, people are more polite?

Sadly, with the internet being what it is today, I'd bet that just about everyone here has experienced some form of attack by someone who thought they were safely anonymous. If you haven't, you probably will at some point in the future.

Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/) put it best. "Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad"

I got a drive-by beer can to my head once. That shit smarted! It wasn't a stranger however, just an acquaintance who disliked me (hanging aroudn with druggies and lowlifes, like I did when i was younger, the kind of person who does this kind of crap is common).

Happens in my Richy N'hood.

Apparently for the perps & Police & parents.

IOKIYC

which here means,

It's OK If You're Catholic

Ever since the Nuns retired and the boys took over, it has been like little Nazi-land. Ole Time Catholicism as taught in the early fifties, practiced.

And you know who they blame?

<hint> Mel Gibson style

Bet they would do a Latin Mass if they could get away with it.

"They" target an MOT house down the street too.

It ain't personal. It is The Church here in richy rich-land.

Oh, and the Police, They're Church members too. Don't bother.

Moi

From Richy Rich-land near the home of the Irvine 11.

Stacy, I love your solution. From now on, I won't go outside without a shotgun. The problem may have something to do with NY/NJ culture. For an explanation, see the South Park episode "It's a Jersey Thing." (Season 14, Episode 9).

IEunuch, just think of all the bulletin boards and forums on the net, where most people use code names. Here at EA, there's an excuse, since we're all a pack of deviants, but that's the rule even where "normal" people post. I've been posting at one board for years under my real name, one of the few to do so. Since my name happens to be the same as a political figure from the 90s, I've received scorching attacks for daring to use his name as my own! Three times, women sent me e-mails saying how much they admired me. When I replied that I wasn't the rich famous guy, I never heard from them again. And I thought they loved me for myself!

Postatracura, you hung out with a rough crowd. I got hit with beer once, but the cans were always thrown wide.

Moi, your neighbors have been gentle with you. They recognize your spiritual nature, and want to help you develop to your fullest potential. They'll do that by crucifying you one day. Your reward is that they'll light candles in your memory, and pray to your statue.

bobover3 (imported) wrote: Tue Feb 08, 2011 10:38 pm Stacy, I love your solution. From now on, I won't go outside without a shotgun. The problem may have something to do with NY/NJ culture. For an explanation, see the South Park episode "It's a Jersey Thing." (Season 14, Episode 9).

IEunuch, just think of all the bulletin boards and forums on the net, where most people use code names. Here at EA, there's an excuse, since we're all a pack of deviants, but that's the rule even where "normal" people post. I've been posting at one board for years under my real name, one of the few to do so. Since my name happens to be the same as a political figure from the 90s, I've received scorching attacks for daring to use his name as my own! Three times, women sent me e-mails saying how much they admired me. When I replied that I wasn't the rich famous guy, I never heard from them again. And I thought they loved me for myself!

Postatracura, you hung out with a rough crowd. I got hit with beer once, but the cans were always thrown wide.

Moi, your neighbors have been gentle with you. They recognize your spiritual nature, and want to help you develop to your fullest potential. They'll do that by crucifying you one day. Your reward is that they'll light candles in your memory, and pray to your statue.

Dan Quale....

Well, I'll be DARNED!

POINTS, A-1 gets POINTS

River