I, like most people, try to be as environmentally responsible as possible. I go out of my way to do a normal amount of things to help the environment such as cycling instead of taking a car or motorbike, I recycle, I take a reusable bag with me to the local grocery, and I conserve water and energy usage not because I am afraid of a high bill but because I am not a wasteful person. Just generally speaking I am in fact, doing my part.
Some people out there seem to think that it is their duty to find fault in everyone else though. I don't know what it is like in the western world, but I would imagine that it is much worse there. We don't often have these sorts of things happen here because if these people do exist that are Vietnamese, the chances of them being like this and also being able to speak English in a meaningful capacity is very very low.
This isn't just true of militant vegans (and vegans, I have no issue with you... just the extreme version of you) and eco-warriors, but there are a load of other Karens that have been put on this earth seemingly to annoy the rest of the world.
Just this morning I was taking my dog on a walk doing our usual rounds when she stopped to drop some poo in one of her usual spots. Nadi, through years of training and just good manners that came naturally to me, tends to drop bombs on the side of a footpath or in some plants. I have only seen her drop dooks in a place where someone is likely to walk a couple of times in her life and I don't think she has done that at all since I have lived in Vietnam. She just prefers to poop in the dirt.
Well today when she was dropping bombs in her cute little "leave me alone way" a random woman approached me and said "you're going to pick that up aren't you?" even though Nadi was only about halfway through the process. My initial response was something along the lines of the fact that it was in the dirt area that people don't walk so there is no reason for me to pick it up. The poo helps the soil.
Karen was not placated with this and then started to record me with her phone while she got increasingly loud. I have seen this sort of horrible social-justice tactic in videos on YouTube but I have honestly never experienced it in real life. Karen started to get angry and accuse me of making the world a dirtier place by not cleaning up after my dog. I attempted to explain to her that if I pick that up and put it in a plastic bag, it's going to sit in a landfill in that bag for 100 years whereas if I just leave it in this spot that people are almost certainly not going to walk in anyway, the sun, bugs, and rain will take care of it in a day and it will simply not be there.
I'm clearly correct about this situation, but this only enraged her.
I don't think that Karen was interested in the logic of the situation, she just wanted to be right, she just wanted to talk down to someone, perhaps for a TikTok that she has going on. I don't care if I end up on her social media because unless it is filled by other blinded idiots anyone that saw this exchange would likely agree with me.
Karen kept filming and saying things about me and my dog and I kept my cool and just spoke to Nadi and said "Come on baby, lets get away from the crazy poop police lady." That made her even more mad and she followed me for a bit.
I want you to keep in mind that I am a 6 foot tall, near 200 lb guy in reasonably good shape. While Karen likely was close to my weight, I would have dropped her in an instant if I attacked her. Unlike the United States, there would almost certainly be zero repercussions towards me if I were to do this. Vietnamese police, even if shown the video, would agree with me that she was harassing me and following me and deserved to get a black eye.
I didn't do this though because much like my dealings with Nadi's toilet habits, I think it is better for the world to just leave the human shit where it is as well
This is not the lady in question. I don't know what that is. The girl that was shouting at me at 730 AM was just as fat, but much younger.
Here is the question I have for anyone out there that does stuff like this: What exactly are you hoping to accomplish? I really don't feel like this was a gag, I think that this woman genuinely goes around town, and apparently the world, attempting to impose her will on others. If she were to approach Vietnamese locals like this the outcome would be very different - she would not be understood and while they might have initially just laughed at her, if it was a man she would have at least gotten smacked with a sandal.
I would LOVE to see her try to convince the police to arrest a local for assault in this situation. As much as they would have sided with me in that exchange, they definitely would have sided with one of their own.
If you see something genuinely wrong going on I think people should speak up, but if someone goes out of their way to find fault in the world, they are going to find it, even when they are completely wrong about the situation.
This has me a bit rattled now and amped up. I am a rather calm person who hates violence, but I am very capable of it if the time comes. I will continue to take Nadi on her 2x daily walks to the same places and Karen, if you are out there, I sincerely hope that you do not approach me again, because I showed a tremendous amount of restraint the first time we unfortunately met, and you will not be blessed with such patience if we meet again.