Oh my god, that's awful

What is lightly married?

H..How can someone come even close to think it is a smart move to stand behind someone, invading personal space (at minimum with their arm), grabbing and taking away ones belongings aka the headphones and then expecting that person will be happy to have a nice chat with you which results in a date?

One woman described how she had to wear ear protection after ear surgery and a guy removed that to talk to her from behind. She was in pain for 2 days afterwards.

Sounds like she suffered consequences while the man who harmed her suffered no consequences.

We should be able to easily call police and sue for damages in such situations.

Maybe a Generation and location thing, Gen Z here from Western Europe and i definitly would not dare/think about trying to pick up a person outside of a space thats specificly labled for dating.

For me its kind of a consent thing, outside of specific dating spaces i cant be sure that the other person wants to be botherd with dating.

I wish someone would do that to me in real life. I'd tell them about how a popular coffeeshop in our city is run by a straight up cult and the employees are all members whose wages go into a "shared purse" controlled by the cult.

Because unlike the guy in the OP, I recognize I'm not the main character. I'm the NPC in the tavern who sends the protagonist on a side quest to take down a cult.

This seems dependant on location to me. In a region I lived before it would be rare that someone would talk to me in public like at the store, now where I'm at it happens all the time, people seem much more social in general. I used to be sort of confused when it did happen, now I'm used to it and it feels like a nice human moment when it does usually.

I don't know what it is. I used to get approached semi-regularly, maybe once every few weeks when I was younger. But this dude, for whatever reason, was approached often. I think part of it is the places he was a lot of times. We'd be out at the bar (he would lend music/PA equipment to bands or small bars for a small fee and show up to basically drink for free) and there was one night I watched it happen half a dozen times. Not by the people who were borrowing equipment, but just random people who he didn't know.

He said it never happened at like the grocery store or whatever, but very often in bars when he'd sit alone, less often in restaurants when he'd sit alone, and occasionally at the park when he'd go sit to read (headphones in). He's good looking but not extraordinarily so and never looked especially friendly so that wasn't it. It was both men and women, men more often but women more persistently.

Some folks just have something that makes others want to talk to them I guess. I imagine it's worse for women for a few reasons (the way certain demographics of dudes are socialized, not knowing how a guy will react when you shut him down, etc). And some folks seem to believe that everyone is just waiting for them to strike up a conversation, even if the person they're trying to strike it up with is obviously actively avoiding people.

It stopped happening to me. I'm not sure if I aged poorly over the pandemic or if I just look meaner these days. He moved away so I don't get to watch that particular trainwreck anymore. I'll have to ask him.

Maybe not. Let them down easy and go on your way.

I think I have cracked their completely unnecessary code

s.o. Someone s.b. Somebody s.th. Something