“Poor impulse control on display.”
Long story, but the short version. My neighbor’s boys were on the basketball team with three blacks. The blacks all had their own very expensive cars; the neighbor’s kids had no cars. All five spent a lot time together and I’d talked to the blacks. Nice seeming guys, very put together with nice clothing and well spoken. One day when the two whites were not along, the Captain stopped to collect on a drug debt with a much older black man. The man laughed at him and told him to pound sand. The team captain took out his gun and shot the guy dead. All three, per Florida law, got long sentences even though the other two didn’t shoot anyone. All five them carried guns because it was a status thing. The father had confiscated his kids guns.
The captain’s defense was, “He dissed me. I had to kill him.” When I spoke to the neighbor’s white kids they nodded and said, “Yep. He dissed him and therefore he had to kill them.”
Drovers often see their cars as a projection of who they are. When they’re in the car...they are the car. When someone cuts them off, they feel “dissed.”
This is why angrily honking at folks is ill-advised, and if honked at inappropriately, giving the finger in return is a bad idea. The most I’ll do these days is wave excitedly, as if I’d seen a long-lost friend, if I get honked at inappropriately.
See my post #79