A viral video of a man going ballistic on a New York City subway has sparked debate on how best to be a man in an increasingly lawless country.
The video, which was widely shared on Tuesday, shows a man with headphones in, screaming belligerently into either his phone or thin air — turns out to be thin air — as a young couple sit nearby with their young child. As the video goes on, the couple clearly become the targets of the man’s rage and sit there unresponsive as this man goes off on a hate-filled, racist rant.
The content sparked a heated debate online about what a “real man” would do in this situation. The debate comes down to two different options, according to Twitter. Option 1: Beat this guy up, because that’s what he was clearly asking for. Option 2: Do nothing to make things worse, and get the heck out of there. I don’t actually think there is a wrong option here, because at this point, we live in an almost totally lawless society, so survival is on our shoulders as individuals.
One Twitter user wrote, “Civilized people are at a huge disadvantage in these situations. The [yelling man] is an unbalanced anti-social, waking up in jail with a black eye is just another Monday. The seated man has a job, people who depend on him, and should simply avoid places where animal attacks are common.”
His comment came in response to another user who had a very different opinion. “I’ll never understand how ‘men’ sit through this abusive verbal assault on a woman sitting with her child on a subway. There is [sic] lies the problem. Where’s all the real men at?!” the user wrote. “If that’s her husband next to her, she needs a divorce.”
Of course, being a real man also means not intimidating a woman and her young child — that is for damn sure. So why anyone is focusing on the man being attacked instead of the one hurling verbal abuse is beyond me.
For me, the main problem with NYC subways is being trapped for an undetermined amount of time in an enclosed space with someone who wishes you harm. pic.twitter.com/hfxMNxM36b
— Jason Curtis Anderson (@JCAndersonNYC) March 21, 2023
You might ask why we aren’t intervening legally and medically with people like this man? The answer is that groups like Black Lives Matter and Soros-backed district attorneys lobbied hard to cut down on enforcement and have helped normalize violence in our cities.
Having been physically attacked multiple times by the mentally ill and career criminals in our totally unsafe U.S. cities, I would assume the couple were terrified they’d be killed if they were to stand up and confront this clearly unhinged man. If this guy, or anyone, is capable of talking to himself, even screaming to himself and at others without any shame in his behavior, what else is he capable of?
More than that, the couple had a child with them. If this man is the child’s father, he did an incredible job of showing his son what real men do when faced with unstable, immoral people: protect his family, and get out of the situation as fast as possible. I’d rather have my husband alive and safe than see him get stabbed trying to “protect me” from one guy’s mean words.
That’s what I personally saw in this video. I saw the mother grab the child so she could run if she needed to. I saw a father place a comforting hand, and move into a position where he could have easily stepped in should the situation have escalated from words to actual violence. (RELATED: Dear Kay: What Happened To Real Men? Are There Any Left?)
But more than all of that, the video shows a symptom of increased lawlessness in the U.S. It proves how pathetic and disgusting people are when they’re more likely to get out their phones and film an assault than to help the victim. Being a real man means not filming this crap, at the very least.
And if this doesn’t define social decline, I don’t know what does. I hope the family is safe, and I hope that man gets the healthcare he needs.