Ask Lemmy

At the very start of COVID. When many of my online and IRL friend groups started internalizing what I now recognize as Russian/Chinese influence ops (which were being spread by unwitting Western Useful Idiots -- Conservatives and Libertarians)

They started not just opposing lockdowns, but actively spreading virus: no mask, it's just a flu, CDC is lying, Fauchi is an idiot, etc.

It felt like being in a burning building. I grabbed my family, ran for the exit by cutting ties with the Influenced, and left them to burn. Now many of them are utterly consumed by propaganda and no longer recognize reality. 😢

Once I was in a holiday crowd when the people per square meter got too high, and the beginning stages of crowd crush started happening. Waves of kinetic energy were being transmitted through the crowd without anyone even trying, it just wasn’t possible to stop yourself from getting shoved forward. I told my now-husband we need to get out NOW, and we did. Nothing happened to my knowledge, no fatal crush or anything like that. But it was scary as hell during what was supposed to be a good time.

Oh my god. My friends and I were doing a road trip around the US when we got lost somewhere crossing the border into southern California. We took some weird back road into the woods looking for a campsite that was on Google (we were roughing it as much as possible to be cheap), but it became super apparent that we took the wrong turn somewhere and we went deeper and deeper into the woods. It started to get dark and at this point my ex and I were like, "Let's just go to a hotel, it's already too dark to camp." My friend, the driver, was convinced we were almost there and the campsites were just around the next corner and wanted to save the money.

At some point, we saw this tree across the road and the only way to keep going forward was into what looked like just a clearing where some rusted out cars were. Immediately my ex and I felt this overwhelming, hair-raising "it's time to go" vibe and we started telling him to turn around. My friend pulled into the clearing saying something like, "No, this might be it, there's cars parked here". We pull into the lot and kinda do a loop, just to put the headlights on the surroundings and see what's all there. Like I said, it's an island of gravel, short, dry grass, and some rusted out cars in the middle of dense, mountainous forest.

My friend is juuuuuuust about to park and gloat about 'finding the campsite' when some feral looking dude comes barreling out of the woods like a cryptid, sprinting at the back of the car. My ex and I start screaming like loons as this dude closes the gap and my friend punches it and starts driving back down the road we came in on. The dude just stood in the road behind us with something metal (I think a pipe) and watched us go in a cloud of dust and taillights.

Absolutely HORRIFYING experience and we still have no idea what the fuck the situation was there.

I kinda had the opposite happen.

I was working for a charity doing some reconstruction in an ex war zone. That weekend was a major festival. I’m not of the area nor the religion so I volunteered to keep an eye on our camp instead that weekend.

I finished my breakfast in the canteen and was about to walk the perimeter and do my checks when, inexplicably, I decided to stall and have a second coffee. Something I never did.

As I went to sit down a massive explosion happened outside, shattering the entire area me and my clipboard should have been in. I wouldn’t have stood a chance. The canteen we were in was made out of shipping containers and probably saved our lives.

In the early 2000s, I had just joined the US military right out of high school and found myself stationed in Japan for my first assignment.

I loved Japanese culture and had started a college course on basic Japanese language so I could communicate with the locals and find my way around without getting lost in a foreign country.

One day, one of the civilians in my office was retiring and he chose a fancy hotel in the next city over to host his retirement ceremony. They had a bunch of meeting/party rooms we could host our ceremony in. It was fun, but I'm a bit introverted, so at some point, I stepped out into the grand lobby of the hotel to recover some energy by myself. There was a grand piano in one corner with some petite Japanese lady playing soft music on it. I learned against a large pillar and quietly listened for a bit.

All of a sudden, a meeting room door nearby banged open and some Japanese businessman stormed out on his phone. He was agitated and speaking angrily into his flip phone (smartphones didn't exist yet). He stopped on the other side of the pillar from me and continued his loud discussion.

I had gotten absorbed into some Japanese drama TV shows and had learned to identify the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) slang. This guy was using the same dialect. I got a chill down my spine; it was my first time running into a Yakuza member in real life.

The guy finished his call and turned to leave... and stopped when he saw me standing practically next to him. His anger flared up and he started speaking aggressively at me in Japanese. Probably pissed that I was listening in on his call.

I caught a few words here and there, but my Japanese wasn't good enough for full sentences yet, especially spoken rapidly at me in an angry tone.

When he paused, I said in English, "Um... I'm sorry, I don't understand." I knew how to say it in Japanese, but I didn't want to give him any inkling that I knew Japanese.

His entire demeanor changed. He grinned from ear to ear and said, "Ah! America-jin, ne? Good! Good guy!" He gave me a rough pat on the shoulder and then turned and went back to his meeting room.

I thought he was gonna drag me into the meeting room with his buddies and I'd never be found again, so I was relieved when he smiled and left me be. I went right back to my party and made sure not to go anywhere by myself for the rest of the evening.

2010 Loveparade. First we got told that there would be a different entry, which there wasn't, which meant we needed to walk quite a while. On the way we had a few situations, where people pushed a lot and it's not a nice feeling, when you have a considerable mass and you get pushed easily. We made it to the last big check and we where greeted with a clear view to the tunnel. At this point there weren't big queues visible and it was just a short walk. I said to the 2 friends I was with, that NOW I want to go home. It was not a gut feeling or something, I just knew I don't want to continue and I want to go home. One friend decided to stay, as we where this close and another agreed with me and left with me.

The friend who stayed, did cut his visit shorter, lucky for him. For people who don't know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade_disaster It was one of the biggest crowd crushes disasters. 21 dead, 652 injured. It happend in that tunnel, which I looked into and decided to go home. That criminal trial is considered one of the most complex ones of the post war period. In 2020 they dropped the trial. The issue was for these crimes, they only had 10 years and they said due to the limitations of covid, they said they will run out of time.

In this case, I was the one that caused the gut feeling. For context, I'm a middle aged disheveled-looking dude.

My kids made a play date with their friends at a local park. The park is big and has two entrances, but they didn't know where their friends were so I just went to the first entrance I came to. At this entrance there was a playground where only a woman and her two kids were playing - no one else in sight. I drove past them to see if it was my kids' friends (it wasn't), and the woman gave me a weird stare. In hindsight, she probably couldn't see my kids in the back seat - she just saw some rando slow-rolling past the playground. Anyway, I drove around to the other entrance, but no one was there either. So we called up the friends' parents and learned that they were running late and that we should meet at the first entrance with the playground. As soon as I pulled back in to the playground entrance, the woman saw me and gathered up her kids in a panic and ran for her car. I was trying to figure out WTF she was worked up about when it dawned on me. I parked, my kids got out, and when she saw them she calmed down. I'm sure I gave her a heart attack for a minute though.

When I was around 11 I was at the McDonald's down the street from my house with a couple of friends. It was just three 11/12 year old girls chilling eating in the back of the restaurant. It was dark out but not late, probably 7 or 8 at night. After a bit my friend leaned over to me and said the guy at the table next to us "looks like (her abusive stepfather)". Realistically it could not have been her abusive stepfather and she was across the other side of the country.

However, he was creepy and sitting alone and watching us VERY closely. We started getting nervous and at some point I said loudly enough for him to hear "okay, my dad is coming to get us". He wasn't, but I was hoping that would make the man leave us alone. He immediately got up and went to go stand just outside of the back door into the parking lot.

We panicked even more and walked to the front entrance of the McDonald's, called my dad from a payphone. I remember how panicked we must have looked because a random person who was in line came over and asked if we were okay. Thankfully my dad was home and came to get us from the front entrance and we left together.

Another time I was on the last train home from work, I was around 18. A man had gotten on the train near my stop, first sat on a further seat and then moved closer as the trip went on. From my stop, I had to walk about 50 meters to a not-very-well lit taxi pickup area. This man got off at my stop, and as I approached the well-lit exit of the train station I could feel him following me. I almost went outside and then thought better of it. Turned back and thankfully found a transit worker on the platform. I asked him if he could walk me to the taxis and he did. As my taxi was driving away I saw the man who had been following me walk back further into the train station. As I mentioned, it was the last train of the night so he had no reason to have gotten off at the stop if it wasn't his stop. There were no businesses or anything else around. Anyway my favourite part of this story (not favourite) is that when the transit worker was walking me over to the taxis he said something along the lines of "oh you're just too cute thats why that man is following you". No thank you.

Always trust your gut, kids.

Three hours down a very remote hike with no phone service, a schizophrenic guy asks what we'd do if someone tried to kill us right now

One time in Hayward, CA my then-girlfriend and I were stalked through town by a tweaker in a big pickup truck, us in an old Mazda 3. All I did was accidentally make eye contact in the parking lot, sort of clocked the gearface and then minded my business but he took umbrage somehow. Probably chased us for a few miles through her old neighbourhood. I even tried a lame little fakeout with my turn signals, but neither that car nor my driving skills were up for a French Connection reenactment and I think he eventually gave up because chasing me was too pathetic. Bet he would have kicked my shit in, if I actually put up a fight.

20 yrs ago...

Driving through upstate new york with my family. Passed through a small town looking for some food and/or gas.

One house had nazi banners hanging openly on the front of the house. Not flags, they were like those big vertical banners behind hitler during speeches.

Nope. We can hold our pee and get gas later.... drive a little faster and get out.

As a canadian, i was shocked.... i thought stuff like that only existed in the deep south.... we were 3hrs from the canadian border or something.

In hindsight, it explains a lot about the current state of affairs in the US

There was a time when I was traveling with my mom we were at a thrift store since she loves to thrift. I was browsing around waiting for her to finish up and I walked into an aisle with one other person in there. If looks could kill, I would've collapsed right then and there from the look that this random person gave me. Ignoring the gaze, I walked by and I heard them mumble underneath their breath calling me a fucker or something. Since I was traveling, I've never seen this person in my life before, but I got a bad feeling that I might've looked like an enemy or something to them. That's when my flight response kicked in and I knew that we needed to leave. And, it might not have been related, but that night, I heard someone in that area took a bullet so I think I might have literally dodged a bullet there.

I trust my spidey sense. When the hairs on the back of my neck go up and i get that feeling in my chest, i listen to it.

Its gotten me out of an armed store robbery, 2 ither street level robberies, 2 houses that just didnt feel right, multiple encounters with dangerous animals ( gators and 1 panther).

My wife just thinks im paranoid.

I was young and had just moved to a decent sized midwest city by myself. I didn't know anyone so spent a lot of my time exploring by myself. There was a large park in a quiet area of town where it wasn't unusual to be the only person around. I was sitting at the end of a very large rose garden when I noticed a tall skinny guy in a dirty wife beater and jeans standing on the outside of the garden with his dog. Something big like a Rottweiler or pitbull I don't remember exactly. I just remember being super freaked out because he was just standing there looking directly at me.

I got up and started walking back to my car but he started walking parallel to me matching my pace. When I walked faster he did too. I got my phone and keys out and just kept walking as confidently as I could. I was parked a couple minutes away and over time his pace did slow slightly as mine got faster but I knew he was still behind me. I had a habit of unlocking my car several times with the keyfob because the car beep was satisfying. After I did so the white cargo type van parked next to me unlocked and beeped the exact same amount of times mine did.

At this point I as terrified. I backed out and raced out of the park without even looking behind me. I needed to pick up something from one of the neighborhood Walmarts on the way home so I stopped there and headed inside to calm down. The sun was still out and I'm a guy. I was young, short and slender but I still felt like that somehow protected me. I convinced myself I was being crazy and that guy just happened to be leaving the park when I did. I left the store and started walking to my car when I saw him. The white van was parked directly next to my car and he stood there at the back watching me. No dog this time. All I remember thinking is I had to get into my car because it was the only place I had any leverage. I slow motion got in, backed out, and headed back into a neighborhood where I knew I could zig zag my way around different blocks to try to lose him. I spent 10 minutes looking over my shoulder making random turns before I headed back to my apartment.

Never saw him again and to this day I still feel like I'm in a bit of denial about the whole thing. There were plenty of other cars in the parking lot. It was early evening. If he was trying to kidnap me it was a stupid place to do so. Perhaps he saw how scared I was at the park and just wanted to mess with me. Whatever the case I've never been so scared for my own life.

Driving out west in Canada from the prairies to see the ocean years ago. Went through Golden, BC and decided to go into the town proper for a dinner, rather than the roadside chains. It was about 6:10 PM. When we walked in there were about twenty locals who immediately all went quiet when we walked in. We grabbed a table and proceeded to get stared at by the whole room. I nodded at a few with no response. My wife looked terribly uncomfortable. We got up, apologized to the waitress and got the hell out of dodge. Even looking back years later I am still weirded out by that scene. I'm sure that, if we stayed, we would've wound up in some sort of Stephen King short story.

Trump 2.0 but I can't afford to move.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuurwerkramp_in_Enschede

I live in this city. We were watching the fireworks depot burning from what we thougt was a safe distance...After the first explosion we knew we were waayyyy to close and left right away. Just minutes later the whole neighbourhood was gone.

was doing a building search of a flooding (from water leak) multi story building and as i was looking around the living room, i felt “time to move to next room” and yeah glad i did. ceiling fell in the living room as i rounded the corner.

Ignored the Tornado warning, shouldn't have.

If there's one thing that'll get the Lizard Brain going... it's the only time I've ever felt like something deeper was telling my brain that we had to get the fuck out of here.

The big one for me is when cops are around and people are doing minor crimes (smoking weed, littering, minor speeding) and the cops ignore it. That means the cops are there for major crimes and I don't want to be around that...

lets just say, wild boars are really quite a bit larger than you think.

Being an american around 11 or so years ago. Hasn’t gone away.

Does anyone else find it odd that a lot of day old accounts make their first post here specifically, or is that just a coincidence?

Was at school, classes were just about over, but suddenly it got dark. Like nightfall dark. So dark one after another just silently started looking outside the window. Then the sky tinted slightly green - a phenomenon that in hindsight they should tech about at school, because it usually means shit is about to go down. Teacher was like: 'Okay, that looks really bad, pack your things, class is almost over anyway'.

I went outside with some friends. It had already started raining. Initially we wanted to wait under some roof in front of the school, thinking it was just a heavy summer shower. There were no reports on anything - no storms, nothing. But it kept. Getting. Worse.

Worse than anyone of us had ever seen, yet no signs of imrpovement. We started getting nervous. I called my mom to pick me up. She told me whem she was there, but it had already gotten bad enough that I was reluctant to step into that shit. Like, I had an umbrella, but it seemed like it wouldn't do much at that point.

When we sensed an ever so small opening we took off. I went to the parking lot, my friends to the bus station, which was the other way. (They all lived in completely different directions, in case you're wondering why my mom didn't want to drive them.) Everyone covered with whatever they got. When I arrived at the car, I was wet to the bone waist downwards.

My mom drove home ultra carefully. Visibility was basically none. It was like driving through a carwash. I texted my friends, they made it to the bus. However, the bus driver was not prepared for fucking rivers and ponds forming on the streets, so eventually they go stuck and had to walk home through knees deep water.

Even those with 'waterproof' backpacks had their school stuff ruined - which they of course presented like war trophies the next day and probably saved them some homework they didn't do in the first place. So yeah, that's the story of how we witnessed, probably one of the heaviest rainfalls our city had ever seen. Monsoon-like in Germany, completely out of nowhere.

If we had waited at school, we would have been stuck there. There was some heavy damage too. Our school's basements were flooded for example. Our school is build on a hill.

Discovered a fire in my garage. My sister had thrown a cigarette butt into an overfull ashtray which was also plastic, something combusted. I was none the wiser though and opened the door to the garage only to be greeted with an opaque, fuckin straight outta Dark Souls lookin, WALL OF GREY SMOKE. I slammed that door in a panic thinking that exact same "I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE NOW!", ran out of the house and clicked the garage door opener as I went. We saw rolls of black smoke pour out of there but thankfully it was just a small fire and didn't reach the walls. Scary shit considering zero smoke detectors went off!