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Chadd

The Venting Spot

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That's not quite what bystander apathy means; it's a sociological principle, not an ethical one. If it's you alone bearing witness to a threatening confrontation between two (or more) people, the decision to intervene is a private one. You calculate the risks, weigh the pros and cons, etc. Bystander apathy applies to larger groups which bear witness to the violence (in whatever form) done by one or more persons to another or others. Even when the group bearing witness is overwhelmingly superior in numbers, resources, etc., and would, as you say, in the aftermath, almost universally profess a strong, highly motivated desire to have intervened in the moment of confrontation, they do not. The theory is that they do not intervene because no single one of them is willing to be the first one to step forward. As soon as one person raises a hand - or even their voice - against the violence, nearly everyone else joins in almost instantly.

The really sad thing is that the principle is observable even in situations where the violence has already happened, and the injured party is simply in need of medical aid. People have bled to death in crowded streets. That's part of the reason why (until liability became a bigger issue than ethical conduct) governments used to love have people trained in first aid, basic military skills, etc. Trained reactions are the single best way to overcome bystander apathy; that's largely why, in good first aid training, one of the more important lessons is crowd control. As soon as you step in, you'll have ten or fifteen other wannabe heroes lunging foreward as well, and most of them don't know what the hell to do; best thing is to send them off to do things like call an ambulance, get water, get a cloth, etc.

This happened to me last Thursday, a kid had a seizure during our math exam and tons of advice was coming from every direction, most of it bad advice (i.e. Grab his tongue.) Luckily we had a med student in there who took control before anything stupid happened.

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Computer viruses and failing to update your antivirus is not a good combo, especially when it takes 6 hours to repair it, and by repair I mean reformat my entire drive, curse you computer viruses!

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You either have some Class-A Jokers, or Class-A Idiots in the Marketing Department.

There were multiples. Also, no one in that department would be smart enough to make a joke like this without hurting themselves...

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Reminds me an email I received with screwed up cake messages:

funny_cake.jpg

in all fairness, the instructions should have read:

line 1: "best wishes suzanne"

line 2: "we will miss you"

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Likely, the customer gave the verbal instructions.

Reminds me of "accidentally" coming across a girl's speech in HS, it was written on why she likes to wear "tenna shoes."

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Likely, the customer gave the verbal instructions.

Reminds me of "accidentally" coming across a girl's speech in HS, it was written on why she likes to wear "tenna shoes."

Knew a girl in college who for two years thought the Law and Security program was "Lawn Security".

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What amazes me about difficult retail customers is their lack of common sense. I work for a golf store chain and the other day a customer came in wanting a refund on a bag of golf tees. Returns/refunds are a normal event in most retail stores, yet this refund was a little different. Basically she wanted to return 1 tee (the original bag contained 25 tees) for a full refund. When I asked her if she had the receipt and/or the rest of the tees, she said that they threw them away; but was still expecting a refund.

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what was the outcome? did she make a scene after you told her that she needs all 25 tees to return them?

Even though most places would have told her no on the refund, the chain I work for would rather take the loss than have her leave the store angry. She basically got a store credit for the one tee, since the retail cost of the tees was $5.99 (obviously if it would have been something more costly, the outcome would have been different).

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Even though most places would have told her no on the refund, the chain I work for would rather take the loss than have her leave the store angry. She basically got a store credit for the one tee, since the retail cost of the tees was $5.99 (obviously if it would have been something more costly, the outcome would have been different).

Good news, you'll see that idiot again...some people are unbelievable.

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Good news, you'll see that idiot again...some people are unbelievable.

There is a 50/50 chance that she'll try something like that again in the near future; by giving her the initial refund for store credit kind of sets a precedent for future "returns".

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