Effects from the man who set himself on fire that nobody is talking about:

[Sympthsical]

21. First responders are trained to act

And sometimes there's quite a bit of training required to get a human to act against their self-preservation instincts. Look at the two reactions of the CNN reporters. You had Laura Coates going into full journalist on the scene, and the guy next to her was just staring slack-jawed.

It's important to keep in mind, that most people had no idea what they were looking at. A guy set himself on fire. Is there a gun? A bomb? A knife? What's happening there? And that isn't usually a circumstance that lends itself to snap decision making.

First responders, on the other hand, are trained for that snap decision making. They're significantly less inclined to fall into the human penchant for staring at slow motion disaster.

And we see this in other situations. Look at the school shootings in Uvalde and Memphis. In Uvalde, the lack of training became quickly evident. In Memphis, they drilled for that sort of thing. They were in there downing the gunman in moments.

We all like to think, "Yes. I would be the hero. I would leap in immediately." Which is a nice thought, but we'd never know until the situation arrived. Hell, I see my cat on the counter, know he's about to knock a glass of water to the floor, and sometimes I still just kind of watch it happen. However, if I'd had a few sessions of Asshole Cat Prevention Training, I'd probably be better about it.