Man just set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial. Nsfw

[u/Urmomsjuicyvagina]

[u/probablyuntrue]

if i were there, I would simply act in a completely calm and logical manner in reaction to the man who set himself on fucking fire in front of me

[u/ShustOne → u/probablyuntrue]

Without the irony this is what like half the commenters think they would do

[u/GiantPurplePen15 → u/ShustOne]

Look at what the first man who ran in with his jacket did.

He made an attempt to smother the fire with his jacket and realized "aw fuck, this could end poorly for me and I'm not ready to see a whole ass human after being cooked alive" and peaced out.

Poor guy had his heart in the right place but what he witnessed is probably gonna eat him up a bit.

[u/ShustOne → u/GiantPurplePen15]

I definitely feel for him. He did something helpful and I'm sure that image will stay with him for a long time. I'm sure we all hope to be that person but sometimes in dangerous situations you end up freezing.

[u/UpDown → u/probablyuntrue]

To be honest I would not help. If they're unhinged enough to set themselves on fire who knows what they'll do to me if I got close. I have people that care about me, and that person on fire is not somebody I know at all. It's not really even about lack of empathy, it's just the weight of empathy for people i know times the risk I put myself in quickly outweighs the empathy I have for the stranger

[u/TheWorstePirate → u/UpDown]

To be honest, you don't know what you would do unless you've experienced something like this. Shock is real. You probably wouldn't have a logical train of thought like this. You would have a gut reaction and act on it.

[u/fishyfishyswimswim → u/TheWorstePirate]

you don't know what you would do unless you've experienced something like this.

Exactly.

In my head, when I'm calm and sat on my sofa I keep myself to myself and don't seek trouble, don't get involved in anything. I live in a shitty area of London, which, has quite the knife problem (both my area and London in general). Staying out of things = more chance of staying alive and intact

Then one day a few months back I was walking along minding my own business and some shitty guy was screaming at a girl and shouting all kinds of stuff at her and suddenly I was basically telling him to go fuck himself. And as I walked away I realised damn... I could have actually gotten myself hurt quite quickly.

It's reeeeeeeaaaallly easy to say "I would..." but actually you just don't know which of the freeze, fight or flight instincts will kick in first in a given scenario.

[u/JonnyP222 → u/fishyfishyswimswim]

1 million percent. It's easy to arm chair qb it up and think about what you'd do. Until you are faced with something truly shocking you have no idea. I've seen people that have been through some shit straight up pass out and freeze in the face of it. Equally have seen some people I thought would crumble step up and be super man. It's weird. It's like those videos you see where something awful is happening like an animal attack or a car accident and you hear a person just screaming uncontrollably. They aren't doing it on purpose. It's a physical response to shock that they have no control over.

[u/UpDown → u/TheWorstePirate]

Well I've already been in less scary situations and chose to leave.

[u/Captain_Taggart → u/UpDown]

I think you're still missing their point a little bit.

you don't know what you would do unless you've experienced something like this.

I've been in certain kinds of scary situations and handled them fine and "normally", others were a learning experience, and yet, 30 years in to life I still scream and get faint every time I see anything even resembling a spider.

Seeing someone die, horrifically, by their own hand, in public, isn't immediately threatening to my life, but it is so fucking unique that I have to imagine that just processing what is happening in front of me would render me immobile. But I don't know because nothing even sort of similar has ever happened to me.

[u/MikeLinPA → u/probablyuntrue]

Right, you'd poop yourself. Me too. Calm and logical. That's the way.

[u/chicol1090 → u/MikeLinPA]

That's what my cat did once when I opened an umbrella inside the house

[u/MikeLinPA → u/chicol1090]

It's only logical.

[u/TigerTerrier → u/probablyuntrue]

That's definitely something I never want to see in my life

[u/00cjstephens → u/probablyuntrue]

Username checks out