Do You "Call People Out"?

[Hashime]

The question is simple, if you see someone doing something or behaving in a way that they should not be, do you say something?
Some back story:

Spoiler

This stems from earlier today when walking into the bookstore 2 men were smoking just outside the entrance. In Ontario in public one must be 10 metres (30ft) from the nearest entrance / exit of a building before they can light up. This fact was also clearly marked on the door and on signs near by. So as I walked by I "called them out". No one around seemed to have the guts to support me on this though./rant

 

[Hashime]

Note: this can also be correcting teachers in class

 

[AvsJoe]

I don't unless they are waaaay out of line. I respect the right to make a fool of yourself so long as it doesn't harm anyone physically.

 

[manaman]

I am thinking it's less a matter of nobody else having the guts to back you up as it is nobody else giving a damn.

I tell people knock of whatever the hell they are doing wrong all the time. I also have a bad habit of correcting people, I have gotten much better on the last in face to face conversations.

 

[Hashime]

I don't unless they are waaaay out of line. I respect the right to make a fool of yourself so long as it doesn't harm anyone physically.

I mean, (if you read the back story) there is out of line, and then there is just damn disrespect. As a sufferer of asthma, second hand smoke severely affects me, which is a problem considering I travel by bike. (I know I am ranting a bit, but I am pissed)

 

[zorrandur]

not quite the same but i work at a gas station and if someone even INSIDE the car is smoking i flat out REFUSE to turn the pump on for them. I may get yelled at from time to time but i'll be DAMNED if i blow up due to their stupidity!

 

[MercurySteam]

I call people out all the time on The Escapist. Stupid trolls.........

 

[Hashime]

I am thinking it's less a matter of nobody else having the guts to back you up as it is nobody else giving a damn.

I tell people knock of whatever the hell they are doing wrong all the time. I also have a bad habit of correcting people, I have gotten much better on the last in face to face conversations.

I know, it is tough sometimes when someone uses the wrong word, or mistakes something for something else.
And I think the "no one else giving a damn" comment is probably true, though scary. I understand for something minor, but I have seen people walk past women clearly struggling to carry a heavy object (with the help me please look on their face). Apathy to that level paints a grim picture for society.

 

[Hashime]

not quite the same but i work at a gas station and if someone even INSIDE the car is smoking i flat out REFUSE to turn the pump on for them. I may get yelled at from time to time but i'll be DAMNED if i blow up due to their stupidity!

On a similar note, while working at a golf course a man walked through an environmentally protected area down a steep hill. The area was cordoned off by ropes. His path took him directly in front of a sign marking the area and labelled "keep out please"

 

[Bon_Clay]

I do actually call people out on stuff a lot depending on the circumstances. From time to time I have done stuff to call attention to and piss off smokers. I have all the right in the world to try and make them feel bad for their personal decisions, just as they have the right to smoke in places its legal. If they get pissed its their fault for taking stranger's opinions so seriously. But as for what I consider to be petty laws like jay walking or something, I don't really gives a shit if people break them, the risk of fine or other consequences is their problem. Most of them seem to be in place so that at any point in time you are always technically breaking some law that police can use as backup when they can't prove what they believe you were doing wrong.

Correcting teachers in class? Absolutely any chance I ever got. Also do it with people but I've learned to cut down on it sometimes when it wouldn't be appropriate. Sometimes I can't help but step in when I see someone spreading blatantly incorrect information though.

 

[Griphphin]

I wouldn't call correcting the teacher "calling them out," it's more "hey, is that what you meant or did you make a mistake there?" Now if it's the whole teacher getting preachy with total falsities thing, then yeah, I'll do it in a way that at will keep said teacher from gettin all up in my business.
As for other times like the situation you described, nah, unless it's something I really take seriously, in which case, usually still nah.

 

[Mimssy]

I've yelled at people who are screaming at folks just trying to do their job. In most service industries, not only is the customer not always right, they are frequently idiotic douchebags.

 

[thedeathscythe]

Only if it's really bad do I call them out. For instance, if they litter, I'll shrug it off, but if they're breaking bottles, I'll tell them to pick their shit off so I won't pop my tires on their garbage.

I do love calling out peoples lies though, any lie. For instance this guy was trying to act chummy with me so he could get my discount at my work. I could see he was just kissing my ass but I went along with it. He asked me my favorite band and I listed a few and he said "you like cannibal corpse? nice, did you see them a couple months ago when they came?" which was a lie...they weren't here since about a year ago, though they were going to come in a couple months. So I called him out on it. I told him straight up "no man, they weren't here, I wouldn't went." and he kept insisting that he saw them, and tried to convince me and my friends I was wrong. Needless to say, he made a fool of himself. I was kind of a dick for calling out his lie, but he shouldn't have lied in the first place.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Takes something totally serious for me to even be bothered calling someone out on anything they do wrong, even if i'm being wronged. Ultimately it comes down to, is it a waste of my breath? and more often than not it is. My snide comment isn't going to do anything but piss off this stranger, I don't know who they are or what weapon they might posses or if they are having a really bad day and my comment is going to be the thing that sets them off and they go beat their wife and kids or worse attack me.

Also it's not worth it because it's not going to make me feel better, thus it's not worth increasing the chance (albeit low one) that I get stabbed today.

EDIT: Helping people is another story. I'll help a stranger no problem, even in my worst of moods.

 

[manaman]

I am thinking it's less a matter of nobody else having the guts to back you up as it is nobody else giving a damn.

I tell people knock of whatever the hell they are doing wrong all the time. I also have a bad habit of correcting people, I have gotten much better on the last in face to face conversations.

I know, it is tough sometimes when someone uses the wrong word, or mistakes something for something else.
And I think the "no one else giving a damn" comment is probably true, though scary. I understand for something minor, but I have seen people walk past women clearly struggling to carry a heavy object (with the help me please look on their face). Apathy to that level paints a grim picture for society.

I maybe be an ass to people who wrong me in some way, but I would never walk past someone struggling with something and not at least offer some help.

I was saying they probably didn't give a damn about that specific rule, not trying to imply general apathy. Which I noticed is something that becomes more comment as a community grows. You wouldn't find that in most rural areas, less so in small towns, but in a large city... Well some people would step right over someone that tripped rather then slow their stride for a second.

 

[Angryman101]

I do actually call people out on stuff a lot depending on the circumstances. From time to time I have done stuff to call attention to and piss off smokers. I have all the right in the world to try and make them feel bad for their personal decisions, just as they have the right to smoke in places its legal. If they get pissed its their fault for taking stranger's opinions so seriously. But as for what I consider to be petty laws like jay walking or something, I don't really gives a shit if people break them, the risk of fine or other consequences is their problem. Most of them seem to be in place so that at any point in time you are always technically breaking some law that police can use as backup when they can't prove what they believe you were doing wrong.

Correcting teachers in class? Absolutely any chance I ever got. Also do it with people but I've learned to cut down on it sometimes when it wouldn't be appropriate. Sometimes I can't help but step in when I see someone spreading blatantly incorrect information though.

You sound like an enormous douche.

The question is simple, if you see someone doing something or behaving in a way that they should not be, do you say something?
Some back story:

Spoiler

This stems from earlier today when walking into the bookstore 2 men were smoking just outside the entrance. In Ontario in public one must be 10 metres (30ft) from the nearest entrance / exit of a building before they can light up. This fact was also clearly marked on the door and on signs near by. So as I walked by I "called them out". No one around seemed to have the guts to support me on this though./rant

1. What is your avatar from? It seems so familiar...
2. I typically don't call people out on trivial things like this as it doesn't really affect me and I have no idea if there's any asthmatic people around. If some middle-aged woman, say, yells at me and my friends for wrestling in the pool because her son is swimming when there's literally about 10 other pools within walking distance of the pool and we're not bothering him, then yes, I call her out on her bullshit. We had just as much right to use that pool to have fun as her and her son did, and we were there first. Or if one of my friends is being a douche to other people, then yes, I do call them out on it, and I would expect them to do the same for me.

 

[Bon_Clay]

You sound like an enormous douche.

For the smoking thing? Hey if you want to go around breathing out toxic smoke near me, why shouldn't I be allowed to subject you to some second hand assholishness? If someone was spinning around with their arms out, chances are there is enough room outdoors you could avoid a fist to the face but that doesn't mean you can't tell the person off.

If its a person's own property or a place people go specifically for a smoke break I'm not going to say shit, but if you're walking around other people you're being just as rude to me as I would be for some exaggerated coughing or smart ass remarks.

I don't think smoking or any drug at all should be completely illegal, but the second your choices inconvenience me you're starting a problem.

 

[Angryman101]

You sound like an enormous douche.

For the smoking thing? Hey if you want to go around breathing out toxic smoke near me, why shouldn't I be allowed to subject you to some second hand assholishness? If someone was spinning around with their arms out, chances are there is enough room outdoors you could avoid a fist to the face but that doesn't mean you can't tell the person off.

If its a person's own property or a place people go specifically for a smoke break I'm not going to say shit, but if you're walking around other people you're being just as rude to me as I would be for some exaggerated coughing or smart ass remarks.

I don't think smoking or any drug at all should be completely illegal, but the second your choices inconvenience me you're starting a problem.

Two seconds of second hand smoke is not going to do anything to you. Honestly, if you did that near me while outdoors and there was plenty of room for you to walk around, then I would walk up to you and blow a lungful of carcinogens into your face.

 

[Danzaivar]

Only when someone gets on their soapbox about politics or religion, really.

Biggest thing that comes to mind was this guy going on for 2 or 3 minutes about how none of the debt in the UK actually comes from anywhere, and that we should just wipe the slate and start over. As he started to convince this other guy I pipped in "It's China, China has trillions in savings invested in the west. If we refused to pay them it would probably start WW3". He shut right up.

Smoking doesn't really become annoying unless they're blowing the stuff in your face on purpose. After that it's rage-time though.

 

[Bon_Clay]

You sound like an enormous douche.

For the smoking thing? Hey if you want to go around breathing out toxic smoke near me, why shouldn't I be allowed to subject you to some second hand assholishness? If someone was spinning around with their arms out, chances are there is enough room outdoors you could avoid a fist to the face but that doesn't mean you can't tell the person off.

If its a person's own property or a place people go specifically for a smoke break I'm not going to say shit, but if you're walking around other people you're being just as rude to me as I would be for some exaggerated coughing or smart ass remarks.

I don't think smoking or any drug at all should be completely illegal, but the second your choices inconvenience me you're starting a problem.

Two seconds of second hand smoke is not going to do anything to you. Honestly, if you did that near me while outdoors and there was plenty of room for you to walk around, then I would walk up to you and blow a lungful of carcinogens into your face.

And that would most certainly result in me striking you in the face very forcefully.

If you just said fuck off and went about your day I would laugh and be done with it. Whether or not it gives me cancer doesn't mean you get to decide if I can complain about it. Maybe I don't want to choke on smoke or smell like like tar. I'm not going to go out of my way to be in a place where I have the right to *****, but I shouldn't have to make accommodations for you just because you think its easy to. If someone went around spraying a watergun in the air and it was getting water in your face would you just ignore it?