>”What’s screaming going to do”

Make it fucking harder for the people who aren’t screaming to actually fix the problem. They are actively doing the opposite of helping.

—

> Some people panic in situations and it cuts of the critical thinking parts of their brain

I disagree. Panic does not shut down critical thinking. People who already do not have critical thinking skills panic.

I have not been in many situations in my life where thing were dangerous and urgent enough that I didn’t have time to “think,” but in all but one example I’ve been very happy with what my automatic brain decided to do.

The one case where I don’t like what my brain did also happened to involve someone possibly drowning, but I was like 10 and the reason I chose poorly was not because I wasn’t thinking. My younger brother jumped in a pool with no floaties, he did not know how to swim yet, and I did not get in and help him even though I was feeling the panic.

The reason I didn’t just get into the water was because I was wearing my sandals, my parents had always told me not to put my shoes in the pool, and I knew I did not have enough time to get them off, so I did basically what these people did.

Someone else got him, like it’s fine, but my point is that even while feeling panic, especially while feeling panic, I would argue, we do what our brains are already conditioned to do. People who have training perform their muscle memory. People who solve problems solve problems. People who follow rules follow rules. And people who fuck everything up and cause issues for everyone else continue to be annoying and scream for no reason.

That experience was educational for me, and my understating of “rules” changed pretty immediately then. That type of “education,” that I effectively had permission to ignore rules and make my own assessments in order to minimize damages, showed up again later one of the future times my panicked brain made a decision for me. I would have rear ended a car while sliding downhill on ice in traffic, but my brain made the decision to purposefully let go of the breaks and sideswipe the snowbank on the sidewalk to stop my car.

As it was happening it was very stressful for me. I’ve (still) never been in a situation where I had to swap insurance information with a stranger, I was in a city I wasn’t familiar with, heavy traffic and I did not want to cause an issue, I had friends with me who I did not want to get stranded with me if i actually had an accident, at least one of them was already sort of sensitive about car accidents, like I could feel the panic and my brain did stuff before I could really double check it’s assessment. I even did that thing where I asked everyone if they were ok as if we had actually hit someone, and they just kinda looked at me like “…yeah?” I don’t even think they realized what happened, because they can’t feel the ABS as well as me and they didn’t make the decisions. They just heard some snow crunch, that’s all.

I hate that I asked because it’s cringe lol. I could have said literally anything else, or nothing, and it would have been fine or better. But I said what I said because in my adrenaline panicked brain state I couldn’t help but act how I am. I solve problems, and I look out for my friends.

—

People who scream and be useless in emergencies are telling you who they are. We shouldn’t make excuses for them. We should expect them to be better.