Sociopaths and Incompetence

[ellyssian]

Ah! The first storm of the season! And here we see exactly how poorly evolved a large segment of the population is.

First off, we'll start with some of the drivers. On the ride home tonight, that would be 187 individuals. Sociopaths. Terrorists. Attempted Murderers. Lazy-ass motherfuckers.

They can take time to talk on their cellphone instead of doing better things, like coordinating the left blinker with the right turn, but they can't take time to clear the inch to two inches of ice - sometimes in chunks - off their car. Oh, some think roof rack-van-pickup-SUV grants them a special pass, and it does. It makes them even more dangerous than the lazy-ass sociopaths in the smaller cars. Newsflash, PSA, and so forth: if you can't clear the snow off your vehicle, put the key on a hook in the cupboard and don't touch it until everything melts on its own. Sit on the couch, click channels. If you're going to be lazy, might as well go all-out couch potato. And that's why I say sociopath.

Let's review - and not all of these apply, but many do (care of http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Bin/sb.html):
-- Glibness and Superficial Charm
-- Manipulative and Conning : What, you think you could do a better job?
-- Grandiose Sense of Self : Hey, I'm more important than you!
-- Pathological Lying : I cleared it as best as I could.
-- Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt : So, the ice smashed your windshield. So your family member(s) were hurt. Or died. I'm still not going to clear my damn car.
-- Shallow Emotions : How dare you tell me how I should take care of my car!
-- Incapacity for Love : Hey, you're nothing to me. So you swerve, crash, and burn. Big fucking deal.
-- Need for Stimulation : Heh. That piece made both lanes scatter behind me when it flew off.
-- Callousness/Lack of Empathy : Oh I am so sorry the ice smashed your windshield. That's why I didn't stop. Hell, I didn't even look back.
-- Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature : But I *must* leave now. I don't have time to clear the car.
-- Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
-- Irresponsibility/Unreliability : Like I said, I didn't even look back.
-- Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity
-- Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle : You want my car clean? You going to clean it for me?
-- Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility : This is the best. See, in January the PA legislature made driving without clearing snow of your car illegal. So. Don't clear the car, you're a criminal. Now they just need to enforce it. 187 cars in 30 something miles, only ones I could clearly see without taking my eyes off the road, and only counting ones on the road and in use - parked cars buried under dozens of snowflakes not counted; ones with tiny little bits not counted even if I noticed them.

Not really a surprise at the lack of enforcement. The state authorities seem to have some difficulty with roads in general, leaving hundreds stranded on one stretch of road for hours and hours, and failing to properly handle snow removal on many/most of the others. They're just interstate highways, it's not like they get a lot of traffic, or are major roadways or anything. And still the state folks say: "We did an excellent job." Quite the FEMA school of disaster management, nice to see them taking their cues from a federal authority. Also quite the Gov school of disaster manufacture, as a little freaking plowing might actually have kept the roads clear in the first place. Or closing the roads in the first place. "The thing that made this stand out was the ice." As if the northeast has never seen ice. Sleet in or around snow hasn't happened since the woolly mammoths were the ones maintaining the right of way, right? Or are they so stupid that they forget that this kind of thing happens. Every. Year. And they just have better things to spend their money on. Like raising their salaries.

Pure incompetence.

Reporting on it has been great too. Hundreds stuck for, what, 20 hours or more? And it took nearly that long before they made a decision to close the road. And other folks stuck a half hour north by northwest from me, with restaurants running out of food, and stranded travellers sleeping on mats in hotel conference rooms. I didn't hear about the former until it was nearly over, I didn't hear about the latter until yuki_onna reported being unable to reach NYC/Boston appointments because she was stuck. One. Frickin'. Exit. Away.

And, although yuki_onna had a legitimate business reason to be on the road - as did all the truckers stuck on I78 - the pissed off people interviewed about the I78 incident were: bringing a carload of kids to visit family; trying to get from here to there while the airports were closed due to weather; and going to visit their girlfriend in NJ - and that guy works for the Dept of Homeland Security, so you can feel safe and secure that they, at least, have their heads screwed. Oh, I meant to say "on right" with that. Maybe.

Comments

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I swear, damn near everyone who has an SUV is a sociopath.

It's kind of amusing, in a sick way, to encounter them at the grocery store- where their cart is no more of a huge hazard than mine. And yet, they insist on driving down the middle of the aisles, expecting everyone to scatter at their approach, and are most indignant when this does not happen.

I really try to shop before they drag themselves out of the house- but frustrating their expectations is a small benefit when I can't arrange that.

SERIOUS entitlement issues.

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

14.5 years or so ago: I and ellyssian's Deb, pregnant with Justin, set of on Rte 2 in MA for a trek to the mall. The snow on the ground was several days old, the road was clear; it was cold, but sunny. A station wagon passed us and as he did, a block of icy snow slid off the car's roof and hurtled-whooshed right at us. There was no place to move out of its path, all I could do was go off the gas, pump the brake and prepare to hold steady when the block hit. Which it did, shattering the windshield. When it hit, the offending driver was miles away never knowing the damage he caused.

We were lucky the glass was safety glass and held together -- in a blinding lacey pattern. Deb and I were able to pull off to a local road and, by each of us navigating out our side window, we got home safely. It happened so fast -- had the distance between us been just a hair or 2 closer, there wouldn't have been time to slow down or warn those behind us (pumping the brake slows also lets those behind notice the slow down)

>>>>>>>>>>>ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS CLEAR OFF THE CAR ROOF!<<<<<<<<<<

Keep a broom handy to reach easily across the roof. If I can do it, so can you.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, in just this county, there were four accidents serious enough to call the police involving ice hitting vehicles, five days after the snowstorm ended. There's just no excuse for that.