• the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    When i was younger (sure i’d be dead by 40 younger) i had thoughts about dying saving a bus full of kids. I recall my male friends growing up had similar delusions of grandeur. Is this actually a male thing only? Can’t be, right? Ladies? Anyone? Who did you imagine jumpin in front of a bullet for?

    • Flummoxed@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Yes, women also think these things. I’d jump in front of a bullet for almost anyone. And it’s a larger possibility than most people that I’d have a chance to do so since I’m a teacher in Texas. 😬

    • MudSkipperKisser@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Girl here and I have these delusions of grandeur all the time, just silly day dreams of saving the day and rescuing whoever is near by at present moment. I don’t know why, I’d not do well with the attention of it afterwards, maybe something about feeling strong and capable. I hate feeling weak

    • Shou@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Woman here. Had many fantasies of saving lives. Both in daydreams and nightmares. Sometimes with superpowers, other times with nothing working in my favor.

      I wouldn’t be suprised if it was a feature of tribalism. Imagining scenario’s in an attempt to prepare for them.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        I wouldn’t be suprised if it was a feature of tribalism[:] Imagining [scenarios] in an attempt to prepare for them.

        Tribalism or just humanity: we are almost set apart by our ability to imagine scenarios and “pre-game” our response. If this was a mechanism to cope with fear of new things or wariness around a risky situation, it’d totally make sense.

      • indepndnt@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Imagining scenario’s in an attempt to prepare for them.

        Successfully! I remember reading about research into how folks survive scenarios, and having thought about it ahead of time was one of the big ones.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s just a power fantasy, it’s so common it’s why Shazam and Superman were made, and why they got so popular. It’s not bad to have power fantasies, it’s imagination, and there’s nothing bad about thinking you’d like to respond with bravery, or save other people if you saw them in harms way. It’s not wrong thinking to go ‘‘you know if someone came in here to hurt people, I think I’d get in the front and tell other people to run for the back exit, maybe I could stop them’’

      The only way it’s a problem is when you can’t recognize that it’s you imagining how you might behave, rather than a real thing you did, or a real power set you have, which would be a delusion, or if it’s a repeating thought that’s disturbing you and you can’t stop having it, then it can be a symptom of OCD, but generally, it’s perfectly fine to imagine you’d be Superman in a real world situation, that’s how you end up with good superhero stories!

      As for the gender aspect, I have no idea if it has anything to do with social conditioning or physiological make up, I imagine plenty of women also have imaginative ideas about how they’d help or save people in a real problem situation, after all there are famous examples of women lifting very heavy objects off of children, and saving people in war times, opportating in resistance movements and revolutions, being decorated soldiers, sacrificing their life to save others, There’s no lack of heroics from women, I’d assume they also imagine these situations from time to time.

    • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I remember being a teen thinking about beating up an armed robber in a convenience store and saving everyone.