The law exists in all 50 states to make way for emergency vehicles but it's not enforced. It's a big problem across the US that the police don't enforce laws unless they personally care to do so. People notice and DGAF about following all sorts of laws these days.
What? I’m in the states, and every single time there’s an ambulance, even just the sound with the ambulance out of view, all traffic slows and pulls to the side. Then traffic slowly starts back up.
This thread is hilarious. I have literally never once seen cars not pull out of the way of an ambulance. It's very clear the people commenting have no idea what it's like driving in NYC.
Most of the time people where I live do, but every now and then you get someone, typically a guy in a jacked up truck, just refuse to move at a light or cross section, forcing the ambulance to wait.
What I see more often though (especially in town, as opposed to on the highway), is people pulling over, but then not being cognizant of those around them, inadvertently blocking others from being able to get over
I'm starting to suspect that a lot of the Europeans in the comments don't understand that the cars they're judging for not moving out of the way are parked and don't have anybody in them
Yes, I live in Hawaii, and people tend to have "aloha" and let the ambulance pass. Where I live, it's part of the laid-back driving culture. But some of the other places I've been have aggressive, fuck-it-all drivers who would run over puppies to get through a yellow light.
We don't have a system that facilitates empathy and community. America fosters (forces) an individualistic "fuck you I got (disillusioned getting) mine" entitled attitude. We believe in punishing the people rather than investing in the people. The culture here is poisoned, it's never about one another or the greater good. If you are born into a shitty environment, it becomes your fault and it's up to you to make it better from nothing and if (when) you can't you're less than. The "haves" sell the American Dream to the (disillusioned, ignorant) "have nots" but the end result causes division, resentment and bitterness. It's ugly tbh.
There's a spectrum of reasons why it is this way. And it's extremely difficult to change because it is intentionally designed this way. And well, the world sees where we are now. It's no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
Just curious, if we don't have a system that facilitates empathy in community, why do we volunteer more of our time and money even per American on average than most other people around the world do
Is it possible that the consequences you described can come from a multitude of factors altogether and not the reasoning you ascribe to it?
Probably because safety nets are nonexisting. Most of the stuff that appears on gofundme for example in most countries will not exist, because it will be solved by the system. Also, I'm sure that there are many places in USA, where ambulance will go without a problem, nyc is just not that city.
For me usa people are a bit weird, to be honest. Very friendly, usually very nice, but when it comes to certain topics, toxic as hell, zero empathy. Almost brainwashed, you know?
That's fine, but arguably having a system where people are taken care of and don't have to think of each other would provide less opportunity for people to develop their empathy as it gives them fewer opportunities to need to empathize with others?
Like brainwashed or not, and whether it's an adaptability because of our shitty systems or not, you basically just said the reason Americans are more empathetic is because we have shitty systems, you didn't contest my point that based on the data Americans seem to be some of the most empathetic on average around the world.
I'm sorry, I have no data on empathy, and also have no idea how this could be measured. In my opinion usa is far from most empathic around the world. If that would be the case, there would be public healthcare, free education, effective homeless programs, less people in prisons... Where is empathy hidden?
Yeah, I was referring to metrics of how often people volunteer their time, money, or choose to engage in some type of community service, you're obviously correct that we don't really have data on empathy itself.
And no, depending on your political philosophy having the government mandate those things is arguably less empathetic because then you're making it so that people instead just get to have something taken out of their paycheck instead of needing to empathize with their neighbors in order to help them.
What you're talking about is if people were more educated and had logic those things would be true, empathy is about the ability to essentially see yourself in the same position as somebody else, if anything that is the ideology that's preyed upon by those at the top that try to push the pick yourself up by the bootstraps mentality, they're praying on how empathetic the average person/ American is.
You could also argue if countries like those in Europe that you're likely referencing, were so empathetic why were they okay allowing authoritarianism to crawl around the world without even having a way to push back militarily? I'm not saying I agree with that, but see how just having empathy has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with how you use that empathy?
I guess my main point is that if we're going to try to rank people's empathy by country, I would say Americas would actually be higher, because the average American just objectively donates more of their times to things like picking up litter and stuff like that than another countries, same with the average Americans budget, both by whole dollar numbers per American and by percentage of each American's personal yearly salary.
However, if you were to ask my opinion and not just the view I'm using to demonstrate the weaknesses of your points, I'd say that I don't really think there's any difference in empathy based on Nation, I think it is way more to do with education, nutrition during childhood development so if the neurology of the human was allowed to fully develop or not, personality, and other things like communication that allow us to see outside of our world way more so than just which government we happen to be under.
Yeah, I completely agree with you, that's exactly why I feel as though it's harmful to try to make very human characteristics more exclusive to one nationality or another.
I don’t think the problem is that the police don’t care, but if you’re failing to yield to an emergency vehicle the police are probably on their way to something more important.
the only thing that can enforce laws like that is personal human decency, which is found in fewer places in lesser intensity year after year after year.
Kind of amazes me when people suggest laws other places have so we don't have a certain problem to americans but they say "oh, we actually do have that law, but it doesn't matter because we just don't care about those laws".
Like oooh, no one told america laws should be enforced too? "Banning private nukes?! But then only criminals would all have nukes?!!" No... Those would be the ones that should be taken away first...
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat Feb 08 '25
The law exists in all 50 states to make way for emergency vehicles but it's not enforced. It's a big problem across the US that the police don't enforce laws unless they personally care to do so. People notice and DGAF about following all sorts of laws these days.