Even when they clearly need help and are calling out for someone?
Even when you see someone who clearly needs to sit walking towards a seat that you also want to sit in and are closer to?
I get your joke, but it's not really "being fair".
Even when you see someone who clearly needs to sit walking towards a seat that you also want to sit in and are closer to?
I get your joke, but it's not really "being fair".
Nobody is under any obligation to interact with people around them, and nobody deserves to be shamed for wanting to live their own lives and let other people live theirs.
This illustrates a pretty big cultural difference to me, as an Australian. The US is very big on individualism in what mostly seems to be an "every man for himself" kind of way. It's strong enough that I've seen people reject things that would be in their own interest solely because it removes a little of their autonomy (I talked to someone who rejected universal healthcare solely because they would no longer have the choice to have no healthcare at all).
At home in Australia, we're not all perfect, we don't all love each other but we seem to be more happy to accept things that benefit us as a country (like healthcare, support for the disabled, unemployment support, consumer rights, employment regulation). We live our lives and we let others live theirs but I think we tend to help each other out a little more, knowing that we'll need help ourselves sometime.
That's not great for the people that do need help, but it's how it is.
Clearly, a heuristic is needed. I've been asked for help (and offered help to) people who are obviously out to scam me, or get something for nothing, and for people who genuinely need help or are lost.
You're right, under most circumstances nobody is under any obligation to do anything, but it's still a nice and decent thing to do.
That's a real problem that many attempts to quantify discrimination overlook.