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city dwellers (or visitors) WITH POAL

C

cherrytwist

Diamond Member
I stopped by a gas station on a shady corner to fill up my wife's car (cuz that's how I roll when I use it). It was a well lit station, I parked in the middle and went to do my thing.

A large panhandler who obviously hadn't missed many meals yells "Hey" at me. He's sitting at the front door about 50 ft away. Nobody else is in sight.

At first I ignore him but he persists. I tell him I don't talk to strangers.

him: "I'm not a stranger."

me: "Are you my friend?"

him "Yeah, I'm your friend, man."

me: "What's my name?"

at this point he stands up and approaches me, obviously wanting to attempt to con me

I grab my cell and flip it open.

me: "You have two choices. I dial 911 or you go sit back down."

Needless to say he sat back down.

He caught me in a bad mood.
 
meh not bad, but could have been handled a bit further with out whipping out the cell phone

How close was he ?
 
What's wrong with a mumbled, "Sorry, man," and an awkward shrug before you turn away? "I don't talk to strangers" comes off like a smartmouth invitation to hassle you.
 
You could have handled it worse, like the case where the guy pushed the hobo who tried to wash his car and the hobo fell and banged his head or something and died.
 
Interesting ultimatum: Sit back down or I'm going to cry for help. Should have just avoided all confrontation. It's not worth it and you have no idea how that guy would have reacted. He's homeless, odds are he has some kind of mental illness
 
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Interesting ultimatum: Sit back down or I'm going to cry for help. Should have just avoided all confrontation. It's not worth it and you have no idea how that guy would have reacted. He's homeless, odds are he has some kind of mental illness
Click to expand...

/winnar

Like I said, I was in a bad mood. In most cases I would have said something to the effect of "sorry, don't carry any cash."
 
Your poll needs another option. You're allowed to be a dick to a pushy salesman, especially one with no product.

However, I would never handle it the way you did. Just keep walking, and say "no" firmly. That whole conversation was a waste of everyone's time.
 
Originally posted by: yowolabi
Your poll needs another option. You're allowed to be a dick to a pushy salesman, especially one with no product.

However, I would never handle it the way you did. Just keep walking, and say "no" firmly. That whole conversation was a waste of everyone's time.
Click to expand...

Great idea Einstein, but when you're pumping gas for 5 min it's difficult to avoid confrontation.
 
Originally posted by: yowolabi
Your poll needs another option. You're allowed to be a dick to a pushy salesman, especially one with no product.

However, I would never handle it the way you did. Just keep walking, and say "no" firmly. That whole conversation was a waste of everyone's time.
Click to expand...

Was it really a waste of time? Because I don't think you even fucking read it considering your advice was to just keep walking. Keep walking? He wasn't walking, he was filling up his gas tank at a gas station. Keep walking where?

There is a product, its called generosity. You simply have an option to be generous whenever you want. I'm normally not generous when it comes to people on the street asking me for money, but I live downtown and get it a lot. Nightly actually.

Its not that hard to be polite though. If you were scared that this person might hurt you or cause you some sort of harm that's one thing, but going straight to threats when he walks towards you (after he actually calls you his friend, which is neither here nor there I guess) isn't the nicest thing you could have done.

I think you were wrong only because you could have been a little nicer. You could have been just as firm and confident that you weren't going to give him anything he asks for but you could have been nicer.

There's nothing wrong with a quick conversation with someone that confronts you every now and then. Someone asking for something shouldn't be as awkward as most make it out to be. A simple no normally takes care of it. A persistent person asking for money or food more than once is still considered harmless in my opinion.

You can leave out the "who obviously hasn't missed any meals" and "shady" and "attempt to con" parts. Its cool man. No need to pump your story up. 🙂


 
You can always one-up them.

Do something completely insane, like scream "OF MY GOD! THE PENGUINS ARE EATING ICE CREAM!!!!!1"

They usually leave you alone.
 
Originally posted by: cherrytwist
Great idea Einstein, but when you're pumping gas for 5 min it's difficult to avoid confrontation.
Click to expand...

Say "no", then ignore him. It was the conversation you had that made him think you were approachable. If you had said nothing else, he would have likely never got up from his stump.

Originally posted by: Mr Pickles
Originally posted by: yowolabi
Your poll needs another option. You're allowed to be a dick to a pushy salesman, especially one with no product.

However, I would never handle it the way you did. Just keep walking, and say "no" firmly. That whole conversation was a waste of everyone's time.
Click to expand...

Was it really a waste of time? Because I don't think you even fucking read it considering your advice was to just keep walking. Keep walking? He wasn't walking, he was filling up his gas tank at a gas station. Keep walking where?

There is a product, its called generosity. You simply have an option to be generous whenever you want. I'm normally not generous when it comes to people on the street asking me for money, but I live downtown and get it a lot. Nightly actually.

Its not that hard to be polite though. If you were scared that this person might hurt you or cause you some sort of harm that's one thing, but going straight to threats when he walks towards you (after he actually calls you his friend, which is neither here nor there I guess) isn't the nicest thing you could have done.

I think you were wrong only because you could have been a little nicer. You could have been just as firm and confident that you weren't going to give him anything he asks for but you could have been nicer.

There's nothing wrong with a quick conversation with someone that confronts you every now and then. Someone asking for something shouldn't be as awkward as most make it out to be. A simple no normally takes care of it. A persistent person asking for money or food more than once is still considered harmless in my opinion.

You can leave out the "who obviously hasn't missed any meals" and "shady" and "attempt to con" parts. Its cool man. No need to pump your story up. 🙂
Click to expand...

I was generalizing all interactions with beggars and used "keep walking" to mean "going on about your business". Try to keep up. I also live in the city and if I want to be left alone, saying "no" and then ignoring the person has almost always worked. When it didn't work and the person kept trying to convince me, a second firm "no" or "i'm not interested" has always worked.

Going off-script and saying something like "i don't talk to strangers" and "are you my friend" is an invitation to follow up conversation. When you're in a bad mood and don't want to talk to him, that's the worst time to get into it.

Since we're being pedantic. He's not fucking selling "generosity" (you see how adding a random curse word adds nothing to a sentence?). Generosity is not his to provide or withhold. If you give, it is to make yourself feel good by helping, but you can achieve that feeling whether you give to this particular beggar, mail a check to save the children, or volunteer your time. This particular beggar is irrelevant to if you feel good about yourself, and as such he has no product.
 
You should move to NJ. We don't have that problem here.

Edit: "Needless to say he sat back down..."

Um, he could have just as easily punched you in the face and took your phone.
 
Seems reasonable to me. :thumbsup:

Some of those people can be real aggressive. Fuck him.

Personally, I would have just ignored him completely.
 
Originally posted by: yowolabi
Originally posted by: cherrytwist
Great idea Einstein, but when you're pumping gas for 5 min it's difficult to avoid confrontation.
Click to expand...

Say "no", then ignore him. It was the conversation you had that made him think you were approachable. If you had said nothing else, he would have likely never got up from his stump.

Originally posted by: Mr Pickles
Originally posted by: yowolabi
Your poll needs another option. You're allowed to be a dick to a pushy salesman, especially one with no product.

However, I would never handle it the way you did. Just keep walking, and say "no" firmly. That whole conversation was a waste of everyone's time.
Click to expand...

Was it really a waste of time? Because I don't think you even fucking read it considering your advice was to just keep walking. Keep walking? He wasn't walking, he was filling up his gas tank at a gas station. Keep walking where?

There is a product, its called generosity. You simply have an option to be generous whenever you want. I'm normally not generous when it comes to people on the street asking me for money, but I live downtown and get it a lot. Nightly actually.

Its not that hard to be polite though. If you were scared that this person might hurt you or cause you some sort of harm that's one thing, but going straight to threats when he walks towards you (after he actually calls you his friend, which is neither here nor there I guess) isn't the nicest thing you could have done.

I think you were wrong only because you could have been a little nicer. You could have been just as firm and confident that you weren't going to give him anything he asks for but you could have been nicer.

There's nothing wrong with a quick conversation with someone that confronts you every now and then. Someone asking for something shouldn't be as awkward as most make it out to be. A simple no normally takes care of it. A persistent person asking for money or food more than once is still considered harmless in my opinion.

You can leave out the "who obviously hasn't missed any meals" and "shady" and "attempt to con" parts. Its cool man. No need to pump your story up. 🙂
Click to expand...

I was generalizing all interactions with beggars and used "keep walking" to mean "going on about your business". Try to keep up. I also live in the city and if I want to be left alone, saying "no" and then ignoring the person has almost always worked. When it didn't work and the person kept trying to convince me, a second firm "no" or "i'm not interested" has always worked.

Going off-script and saying something like "i don't talk to strangers" and "are you my friend" is an invitation to follow up conversation. When you're in a bad mood and don't want to talk to him, that's the worst time to get into it.

Since we're being pedantic. He's not fucking selling "generosity" (you see how adding a random curse word adds nothing to a sentence?). Generosity is not his to provide or withhold. If you give, it is to make yourself feel good by helping, but you can achieve that feeling whether you give to this particular beggar, mail a check to save the children, or volunteer your time. This particular beggar is irrelevant to if you feel good about yourself, and as such he has no product.
Click to expand...

Try to keep up with what? You walking away from your car that's being filled with gas?

I didn't say he was selling generosity. Your comprehension of thread posts, rather the lack there of, is developing a pattern. I was shit-balls (yeah, here it doesn't, but do you see how the last "fucking" that I used prompted you to respond. So by "nothing" do you mean "a response in parenthesis"? Because most would consider that something.) referring not to what he was selling, but instead of his selling point. His selling point is that you'll (maybe not you or me, others) feel generous if you give to him. So in a sense, the thing he has to offer, his product, is the generosity that you could achieve by the outcome of the transaction.

Regarding the main topic on hand, we agree. An affirmative "no" is all it takes.
 
Originally posted by: edro
You can always one-up them.

Do something completely insane, like scream "OH MY GOD! THE PENGUINS ARE EATING ICE CREAM!!!!!!"

They usually leave you alone.
Click to expand...
That would also be an excellent thing to yell out while having an orgasm during sex.

 
The proper response was "Fuck off! I don't have room for another body in the trunk."
 
That story sounds retarded.. that guy could have fucked you up 100 times over before any 911 service showed up to assist you.

If that's even true you got really lucky that he wasn't aggressive, you were a dick to him for no reason. He could have easily treated you a lot worse for your attitude.

Just be kind next time... kindness goes a long way, even when you get caught in a 'bad mood' and idly threaten a huge bum with the guarantee of a 10-15 minute window of assbeating time.
 
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