Culture > Western Culture

There is a mob mentality that has been let loose in America, along with a coarsening of moral sensibilities.

Jeffrey Folks | May 31, 2026

Few of us who use swimming pools could imagine watching someone drown without rendering assistance. Yet that disregard for life is exactly what happened in June 2018 as a group of Florida teens, aged 14 to 18, mocked, jeered, and filmed a disabled man drowning, with one of the teens reportedly calling out, “You should’ve never gotten in there.” Again, in November 2023 a man nearly drowned in the River Ouse in England as a crowd stood by, with no one attempting to save him despite the presence of two flotation devices nearby. Again in May 2025, a man in Cork, Ireland, drowned as a crowd stood by filming the incident instead of rendering assistance and then posting the footage online. Again, there were life buoys nearby that might have saved the young man.

The same thing happened some forty years ago in a Chicago suburb when a group of teens watched, laughing and mocking, as one of their number drowned nearly within reach in a home swimming pool, and no one made any effort to save him or call for help.

There is no law in most jurisdictions and most situations that requires one to assist someone who is drowning—only the moral law, which I hope will haunt those involved for the rest of their lives. Just reading of these events has stuck with me for years and decades. There is something particularly heinous about watching as someone drowns. Maybe it’s because drowning is a slow process that could be averted by prompt action. But to watch, and cheer, as a fellow human being—even a “friend”—gasps for air and goes under is especially horrible.

One has to........

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