So this last weekend I went camping with some friends, and they invited one of their friends I had never met and he brought his girlfriend. I had a brainfart while leaving and forgot my drinks in the fridge other than a few mini bottles. I'm not a very social person, I'd rather go for a walk or whittle a stick than play a card game. I don't like rubbing elbows with people at the best of times. Especially not with people I only just met. We were doing a river float for about two and a half hours, stuck on a raft together so I made an effort to be social. It seemed to be fine, we all got along.
Then after the float was over we cooked dinner and the others started to play some card games. While I was refilling my water bottle he noticed my belt knife and starts asking why I have it, and what I'm need it for and what I'm planning on doing with it, repeatedly asking me if I'm planning on shivving anyone. After about the ninth time of saying no over the course of eating I just say "Yup, sure." and he finally shuts up. I went for a walk because I was getting kind of peopled out.
When I came back we decided to head up to the other campsite to say hi. There were 4 of them going in the Jeep, and it's the smaller 2 door version, and I didn't want to sit on anyone's lap since I'm a pretty big guy, 6'0 218 pounds these days, and didn't want to ride the gearshifter. The girlfriend of the guy was going to stay behind at the camp. They were all taking forever deciding when to actually get in the Jeep, so I just said I was going to walk up and was already more than a hundred feet from camp by the time they start driving. As they drove past the guy asks me if I want to get in, so I tell him I'm just going to walk. He jumps out and the vehicle drives off, leaving the two of us behind. I just keep walking and he follows me and asks why I'm walking. Then he throws a shitfit. Yelling at me to stop and to not walk away from him. He wants to know why I'm not drinking with the others, and doesn't accept that I forgot my 12 pack in the fridge at home as an excuse. I try to just keep walking to get to the other camp and keep distance from him, and gets even madder every time I do. l
My attempt to make a good first impression backfired, because now this guy is having a paranoid tantrum about how I'm not very chatty anymore. He repeatedly keeps questioning me, and then outright accuses me of trying to intentionally wait for the vehicle to leave so I can turn around and go back to the camp to rape his girlfriend. At this point I didn't even remember her name and had barely interacted with her other than when she was asking for help to find her glasses. She is in no way my type, and I hadn't made even the slightest sexual comment towards her other than when she brought up the topic of vibrators while we were on the raft. I had focused most of my attention on a woman who had walked down to our camp until I found out she has a boyfriend and is high off her tits on shrooms.
He then asks me if I've ever killed anyone or been to jail(he has been to jail), and gets increasingly agitates and gradually approaching me and demanding to know why I'm weird. I keep maintaining distance, but the trail was too broken up to make much progress without looking at where I was going. It was about 10pm then, and getting pretty dark. He starts telling me that he's not going to sleep tonight, and that I'd better not come anywhere near him or his girlfriend. I tell him I'm willing to pack up my tent and move to the other campsite, and then he starts demanding to know why I'd do that, apparently taking it as some sort of admission of guilt. As he's saying this he keeps losing his shit every time I try to move away from him and the camp. I have done everything I can think of to de-escalate this situation. I'm even taking an educated risk by not standing in a defensive posture. Every time i try to de-escalate he starts insulting me in a different way, so my only guess is that he is trying to goad me into losing my temper and attacking him first.
At this point I had exhausted all reasonable options, the trail is too broken up and dark to run, everyone else is too far away to hear me if I yell, so it's clear that if he continues approaching and refusing to let me leave it will be an indicator that he plans to attack me. I tell him one last time that I'm not trying to cause trouble, and I have no intentions of doing anything with him or his girlfriend, and I would like to go rejoin the group and then I stop talking. He keeps ranting for a while, and then gradually realizes that I'm not playing his game anymore. We stare at eachother for a while, and then when he seems to calm down a bit I start moving diagonally away from him. He eventually tells me one last time that there's something wrong with me and turns away when I'm about 50 feet away. He goes back to our camp and I head up the hill to the other.
I have a history of social anxiety and panic attacks, so I have some practice in keeping my head and recognizing when I'm getting adrenalized. I've also done enough martial arts to know that fighting is stupid and painful.
When I talk to the others I find out that he has a pattern of this behavior, though apparently he has never gone this far before. Everyone tries to dismiss it as just being the alcohol, but it sure as hell wasn't a bottle threatening me. Apparently he has acted in similar ways to at least three other guys, and when I described the events everyone else agrees that they would have punched the guy halfway into the encounter. That just confirms my suspicion that he is trying to instigate a fight.
That was not the way I wanted to spend my camping trip, and I hope I never see that jackass again.
Stay aware of when people are trying to goad you, folks. Don't let your temper get the best of you.
Submitted June 07, 2016 at 11:58AM by MacintoshEddie http://ift.tt/1XAYAfd
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