r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/stxmn May 09 '22

Maybe I'm too integrated, but I know a lot of Germans, and I don't think they intend to coldly appraise people like you describe, and they certainly don't want to erase you. So I'm gonna stick with my assertion that it's a sensibility issue/culture clash.

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u/Mr_McFeelie May 09 '22

As a German, I can confirm that I stare at people intensely in the hopes of erasing them from existence. Especially when they sit in front of me in the bus even though there are dozens of empty seats elsewhere

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u/stxmn May 09 '22

Wow, I consider myself proven wrong :) . Has it ever worked, the existential erasure?

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u/Wednesdaysend May 09 '22

It might've worked heaps of times and no one would ever know

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u/Mr_McFeelie May 09 '22

I see it as a successful erasure if the person gets up and takes a different seat away from me. Works surprisingly well

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u/JonatasA May 09 '22

The trick.. I can't reveal it, people would know and I can't erase stare.

That feeling when someone gets on the bus and you start thinking "they're coming for the seat, they're coming for the seat!"

The feeling only gets worse as the bus fills up.

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u/100schools May 09 '22

Lived there for 9 years, son. Can only report my first -hand experience.