r/interesting • u/Maleficent-Town5273 • Aug 20 '26

Additional Context Pinned Hit and run gone wrong

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u/shaihuludinthehood Aug 20 '26

Because we really shouldn't be empathizing with people like this.

This is an adullt who is operating a machine that requires a license, and after striking a vehicle she almost struck a person. And we're... meant to feel sorry for her? We all have to conform to the same laws and responsibilities. Her grandma could be the meanest cur in the world, and she may be going through some shit, but that still doesn't excuse this behavior in any way.

It doesn't happen online much because it shouldn't. There are some situations where accountability take precedence over situational speculation.

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u/thalastor Aug 20 '26

You can empathize with someone and not give them a free pass. They don't stop being people just because they did something bad and its ok to feel sorry for them, even if punishing them is still correct.

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u/shaihuludinthehood Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

I don't feel sorry for anyone operating a vehicle putting others at risk with bad decisions. I don't have a perfect driving record, and have rightfully felt the consequences. Empathy didn't help me improve, but living + learning with consequence did.

Plenty of people with their own sets of physical or mental disabilities go their entire lives without the behavior seen here. This is fear of individual consequences weighed against the safety of others, and that type of selfishness should be admonished, not empathized-with.

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u/stupidfloatything Aug 20 '26

two things can be true at once. i feel very, very strongly about it being unjustifiably selfish, reckless and harmful to drive dangerously. whether that's from drugs, alcohol, extreme emotions, or "fun." at least where i live, the "penalties" for driving like an asshole are basically nothing, and it really bothers me.

i walk everywhere. drivers are a risk to me. i've known two people struck by drunk drivers while on a bike.

but this girl looks terrified. i believe she is experiencing real terror here. i think the most likely cause of her reaction is fear of abuse from her grandmother.

I think it's important to empathize with people even when they make mistakes. sometimes I think "what would have to happen to me for me to act like that?" and then I think about how bad the abuse must have been for her to weigh her options and decide to leave. 

i am always going to condemn unsafe drivers and i am always going to empathize with people in abusive homes. two things can be true at once.

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u/Outside_Test_1400 Aug 21 '26

She was 22 and under the influence. Shut up.