Universal healthcare. So scary only 33 of the world’s 34 most modernized countries have managed to make it work.
I should mention that only South Korea and Canada have TRUE Single Payer (which is, IMO, what the US should be working toward).
Any other type of “universal healthcare” has the effect of creating a premium lane alongside the regular one. However, if all of society has to use the same healthcare system, they will have no choice but to collectively fight tooth and nail to improve healthcare for everyone. This is the only way, IMO.
In a truly just society, the homeless man sleeping on the bench would have the same healthcare as Jeffrey motherfucking Bezos.
In a truly just society they’d be sleeping on the same bench. 😣
Ending capitalism to embrace a system where we end poverty, consumerism and discriminations.
Have a day off.
I’ve always suspected people conflate communism with dictators, which is the main cause of distrust for anything anti-capitalism.
Are there any examples of a nation successfully transitioning out of capitalism without ending up in a dictatorship? I want to believe it can be done, but I have no idea what it would look like.
The only people who are truly afraid of this are the few wealthy who stand to lose 80% of their enormous wealth that they will never use in their lifetime.
If only. You forgot how people are afraid to help others who came from an other country. Most of people want equality but only with their superiors. And people are afraid to change their lifestyle to a more ecological one.
Dying. If it’s so scary, then why does everybody do it?
I plan on skipping, so you might want to change it to almost everybody.
I’ve died zero times thus far and don’t see why it should change.
!remindme 10 years
Thanks to denial, I’m immortal
Live forever or die trying
Thanks to denial I’m so many other things, you wouldn’t even believe!
Hey, more than 6% of people haven’t died. Not everybody does it.
Give em time. They’ll come around.
Jokes aside, it’s the pain of dying that’s scary, not the idea of being dead.
“Death gotta be easy, cause life is hard” - Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent
There is a strong tradition of feeling against it :)
Australian animals.
Americans are the absolute worst at it and it’s just so stupid. Yes we have poisonous snakes and spiders, so does America.
We have more of them than America, yes.
You know what we don’t have? Large predators. You can go walking in the bush in Australia and you might see one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. You know what you do? You don’t fuck with it and continue on with your business.
You’re walking in America and oh, you’ve just stumbled across one of the multiple species of bears, coyotes, wolves, cougars etc. Animals that may chase you down and maul you. It’s not even a competition.
And you, as an American, might say ‘oh but you pretty much never see them’. Yeah same with dangerous snakes etc in Australia.
America doesn’t have Gympie Gympie trees.
That is true, again, very specific area, I’ve never seen one in near 4 decades.
100%, I’m much more afraid of aggressive roos or feral animals than snakes or spiders.
You know what we don’t have? Large predators
Crocodiles are pretty large, and so are great white sharks.
You know what’s funny though? I just finished writing about how bears aren’t scary, and then I came across your post saying American predators are more scary than Australian ones. Haha. I suppose it’s all a matter of familiarity.
Crocodiles are very large, but again, they are mostly in a pretty unpopulated region and again, they do not chase and attack, you just don’t go swimming.
Sharks are not Australian. For many years I’ve also had Americans and Japanese alike saying ‘oh Australia has so many sharks!’. It’s the ocean, there are sharks everywhere.
It is all about familiarity, but with a snake it’s literally ‘don’t touch it’. With a bear, you have to know which bear it is, best defence, carry a weapon etc. Not comparable.
Yeah, crocodiles and alligators seem pretty easy to avoid, as long as you don’t have to get into the water.
Most bears just run away long before people see them. I’ve spent half my life in the backcountry and high country, and I’ve only seen a bear 3 times in the wild, each time it was running away. Okay, 4 times if you count Yosemite, which I don’t since those are basically domesticated bears. To be clear, I’m not arguing with you, just giving you more details on the predators we have here. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them. I do carry bear spray in bear country though these days, just in case.
I’ve never seen a cougar. They won’t be seen if they don’t want to be seen.
Snakes are pretty much the same thing like you said, just leave it alone, but they’re a lot less likely to run away. The real danger with snakes is startling one when scrambling over rocks. They’ll just bite you out of self defense and then you’re in for a real bad time. I’ve only ever happened across rattlesnakes 3 times though. They’re very reclusive creatures. We killed the snake two out of the three times though, because both of those times the snake had set up shop on a path we frequently walked, and we couldn’t risk startling it one day without seeing it, and ending up dead, or losing a limb, or whatever.
Spiders are the worst, because they’ll crawl inside your shoes, gloves, sleeping bags, pants, or whatever, and bite you when you don’t even know they’re there. Thankfully we only have a few very dangerous spiders, and one of them is a web spider, so very easy to avoid.
For sure, I understand and agree with you. It’s the same everywhere, most animals, even those that can easily kill you, want nothing to do with you.
I was just saying, the notion that Australia is some crazy dangerous land infested with animals trying to kill you is just nonsense.
Random story, I went to the US about 10 years ago and was in LA, driving around the mountains, just enjoying the area. I came up around a bend and saw a baby mountain lion running across the road and up a hill. I was so fucking excited, I hit the brakes, pulled over, got out of the car, took about 4-5 steps towards where it ran off and suddenly had the thought ‘fuck… Mum will be very close’. Got back in my car and left.
Anyway, I drove through about 2000 miles of the US, that was the only ‘dangerous’ animal encounter.
Wow! What a special treat! I’ve seen a bobcat in the wild, but never a cougar. I’m pretty okay with not seeing them though, since they’re usually planning on killing you if they let themselves be seen. Still, it would be neat to actually see one and walk away unscathed.
I saw a wolf once. It was just sitting in the middle of the road. We got a good look at it as we drove past and it’s so very obvious that they are not dogs. The eyes held so much danger and wildness in them. It was very cool.
Cities
Chicago especially
However, entering or exiting cities is a legit nightmare.
Scary Gary has entered the chat.
Properly raised “aggressive breed” dogs. Pitbulls are the goofiest, most loving and loyal dogs I’ve ever met when they’re raised properly. Doberman Pinschers aren’t very goofy, but they’re pretty needy, loving, and loyal, preferring to lean against their family at all times.
Bears in the wild, or the wild in general. Yes bears and other predators can easily kill you if they want, but they almost always don’t want to. They’ll run from you well before you know they’re there. I’ve been going backpacking in the high country wilderness my entire life and have never had an altercation with a bear, cougar, coyote, or wolf. Follow proper procedures when you’re in their home (the wilderness), and they’ll leave you alone.
"The dog bred to point is pointing at a leaf, haha.
The dog bred to fight fought another dog, it must not have been raised right."
Just get a dog that has been bred for companionship if it’s going to be a house dog and save the heartache.
No
I understand, most pitbull owners don’t change their mind until blood has been spilled. I’ve seen it firsthand several times and these dogs were not being mistreated.
For other people, please look into dog breeds natural ability. Nurture will get you a well behaved dog but some have nature hardwired into them and it takes mountains of training to get it out of them. There are different breeds for a reason and it’s not just for looks. Just get the dog breed that fits your lifestyle.
I don’t own a pitbull, but I have friends that own them, and they’re the silliest, goofiest, most loving dogs. I have a Doberman though, and he’s incredibly well behaved and polite. He will only get rowdy with me, and no one else. He obeys on command, and is very gentle and sweet. He’s definitely higher energy than most people can handle, and strong as fuck, so training is important, as is being strong yourself. I did a year’s worth of research on breeds before deciding a Doberman is the right breed for us. He’s the perfect amount of independent, watchful, intelligent, inquisitive, energetic, and adventurous for my lifestyle. We go for a 3 mile hike in the mountains every day where he gets the exercise he needs, and we work on mental stimulation like nose work and obedience training often. He goes everywhere with me and is the perfect gentleman. But he’s a powerful, high-energy, intelligent dog, so definitely not the right choice for most people.
Edit: pitbulls are prone towards dog aggression though, which is in their nature. That’s why it’s critical to socialize them extensively when they’re young. It’s very easy to cure them of that if you are intentional about introducing them to lots of other dogs, cats, kids, and people when they’re still puppies. They’re a lot harder to train into trustworthy dogs if they don’t get early socialization, and most dog owners are not very good about ensuring their dog gets proper socialization at the proper age.
The AVMA documented 66 human fatalities caused by pit bull type dogs, 39 by Rottweilers, 17 by German shepherds, 15 by husky type dogs, 12 by Malamutes, 9 by Dobermann Pinschers, 8 by Chow Chows, 7 by Great Danes, and 7 by St. Bernard dogs.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/dog-attack-statistics-breed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breed-specific_legislation
And if you think the numbers are skewed due to popularity…
Top 10 Dog Breeds of 2023
It’s no surprise to dog lovers that the Frenchie remains in the No. 1 spot, and the rest of the top five breeds follow a similar pattern. Same as 2022, the Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd Dog, and Poodle are ranked No. 2-5 respectively.
There’s some shuffling in the top 10 from 2022 to 2023. The Dachshund is making moves, jumping from the No. 9 spot in 2022 to the No. 6 spot in 2023. Rottweilers took their spot at No. 9 in 2023, moving down from No. 7 in 2022. Bulldogs went from No. 6 in 2022 to No. 7 in 2023. The Beagle remains at No. 8, and the German Shorthaired Pointer remains at No. 10 with no change in rank.
“Properly raised”. Of course a strong animal with sharp teeth who is abused, neglected, or forced to fight for its life in illegal dog fighting rings is going to be aggressive.
What about the pitbulls that were raised properly and then attacked anyway?
There are always exceptions, there are also Labradors or whatever race you want to name that were raised properly and attacked anyways. But as a general rule the life that a dog led is the deciding factor, a Labrador mistreated and made to fight others will have a lot more chance of attacking someone than a pitbull who’s been raised in an apartment chilling on the sofa with kids.
I’ve had almost every races considered dangerous, and never ever have one of my dogs attacked anyone. I have home movies of me as a kid using a great dane as a horse, wrestling a German shepherd, and sleeping in the same bed as a doberman, and the only time in my life I was bit by a dog it was a miniature pinscher.
Dogs are rational beings, they can be taught, claiming a race is more aggressive than others because it’s responsible for more bites to humans, without considering that it’s also more popular by the people who are assholes to their dogs and mistreat them until they become aggressive is akin to claiming that black humans are more aggressive than white humans because statistically more violent crime is committed by blacks without taking into consideration the social and historical differences that created a scenario in which a disproportionate amount of the marginalized society is black. Just like how it’s not a race problem with humans it’s the same for dogs, you’re completely ignoring the environment in which each individual being was brought up, which has a lot more influence in the aggressiveness outcome, and trying to cast judgement on the race as a whole, in short you’re being racist. Put on any other individual of any other race through the same ordeal and you’re likely to get the same outcome in average.
That’s not a “general rule” based on the statistics. Which you try to excuse by saying “all pitbulls have shitty owners therefore they all bite more and kill a shitload of people despite being less populous than other breeds”. Except statistics doesn’t work that way, not with a large sample, such as “the entire breed of dogs”. So according to statistics with a huge sample size, pitbulls are more deadly than any other breed.
Your argument about human race and trying to somehow equate some sort of “dog racism” is ridiculous and I won’t even dignify that with a response.
Here’s your argument summarized:
When considering the whole sample size of all dogs in a given area, pitbulls are statistically abnormally dangerous because despite being less populous that other races they are responsible for a large amount of the killings caused by dogs.
Is that your argument? Or am I misinterpreting?
Assuming that is your argument, you’re correct in saying that, but what you don’t understand is that “statistically abnormally dangerous” is not the same as dangerous or aggressive. You’re forgetting one of the most important rules in statistics: Correlation does not imply causation. You have a correlation between dog races and violence, and your conclusion is that the race causes the violence, ignoring all other possible explanations for why it could be that there’s a correlation there, for example my example of “some people who mistreat dogs prefer pitbulls, therefore pitbulls are statistically abnormally mistreated”.
Following a couple links from the Wikipedia page on list of fatalities by dogs you will find this quote:
Breed is not an accurate predictor of whether or not a dog will bite.
Which links to this, in which you can find this quote about pitbulls:
controlled studies have not identified this breed group as disproportionately dangerous (…) owners of stigmatized breeds are more likely to have involvement in criminal and/or violent acts—breed correlations may have the owner’s behavior as the underlying causal factor.
Which is very similar to the point I’m trying to make, remember correlation does not imply causation, that is a very slippery slope that anyone with a basic understanding of statistics knows.
Linux. It’s more the same than different and everyone learns fast :)
Most mainstream distros are no harder to learn than Windows or macOS. People (especially as they get older) are just averse to relearning how to do things.
I replaced my father in laws win XP with ubuntu and more recently ubuntu with mint and he barely noticed.
Here is your browser, adjust volume here, no problem.
It seems scary at first, but if you just let go of the things you learned with Windows, you’ll see it’s a lot better. It just takes some getting used to, and it can be frustrating at first if you don’t fully understand. You may be tempted to find an alternative, but this is not always the way. Just accepting that it’s different is a good first step
Do the commands CTRL+C, CTRL+X, CTRL+Z, and CTRL+V work the same?
If so, I’m in.
Absolutely they do!
Yeah, in most places. Welcome aboard :)
Children in horror movies, like when they say creepy things or sometimes smile when something horrible is happening.
Dude, just kick that kid like a football.
Kids are scary because it looks bad to a jury when you kick them.
B-but you see, the kid was CURSED!
Oh, never mind then!
I used to be so scared of Chucky. Now I wonder what the max distance I could punt his ass is
Public speaking. I’ve seen surveys where more people are afraid of speaking in front of an audience than they are of dying, which is utterly insane. For the vast, vast majority of scenarios where you might find yourself speaking to a group of people, the risk level is very low. Likewise, in the vast majority of cases, few people are likely to remember much about your performance. It’s just talking.
Well I mean dying is a one time thing. However if you do badly at public speaking you will never hear the end of it. And if you do good they might ask you to do it again.
Can you imagine waking up at 3am and remembering how you said “Salvia” instead of “saliva” in your dissertation?! And it’s been 10 years since, but you KNEW you just outed your habits to the whole audience and your professors?!
Edit: Death is a sweet release you never have to remember, not like the above.
I think most people just think of Sage in general when they hear salvia.
I’ve a dozen perfectly innocent salvia species and many varietals of each growing in my water-wise garden. When people ask what I’ve got growing and I say “mainly salvias” no one has ever assumed I was farming psychedelics.
I disagree, but this may say more about me than other people. Unless you’re a gardener or botonist, sage = sage and salvia = salvia divinorum.
Spiders (USA).
Most spiders are harmless to humans and even beneficial to have around.
Giggles in Aussie
I rationally understand that spiders are mostly beneficial but they’re just so alien. Too many legs, too many eyes, move too fast. Also there are a few that will kill you. Here in SoCal black widows are in every dark spot in my garage.
Minorities.
99.9% of every horror movie, which should be renamed jump annoyances, tada
Or the other category of horror, “that’s gross”
Asking someone out on a date.
I had social anxiety for years, so I probably struggled with this more than most. But it’s surprisingly easy. And more often than not, if your instincts are that that person likes you, you’re usually right.
if your instincts are that that person likes you, you’re usually right.
They’re not talking about you and i, dear reader.
Skydiving
Yes, the first few times are intimidating. Hence why most students do their first few jumps tandem and then with a Jump Master after that.
After that though, you’ll be looking out the window of the plane and seeing just how much air there is to play in. As you gain experience, you will internalize the fact you’re safer in free fall, than you are on the airplane.
It’s not the free fall that I’m worried about. It’s what comes after.
Main deployment isn’t that bad. I have been whacked a time or two by my main parachute, but it was my fault for having bad body position at deployment time.
Traveling to a foreign country.
I haven’t done as much as a millionaire traveler but I have touched 30 countries and directly explored about 20 of them. I got to see wealthy first world Europe, as well as Morocco, Egypt, South America in Peru and a whole bunch of southeast Asia and India and Sri Lanka. Not to mention road trips in Canada and parts of the US west coast and east coast.
I got to see a lot of dirt poor slums and really rough places.
I don’t drink nor do I do drugs because I’m in recovery myself (30 years sober) … and what I discovered is that once you remove any and all illegal behavior, drugs and alcohol, the majority of people everywhere in the world are decent people like you and me who are just trying to get by. Sure they want your money and some people are desperate but touristic places usually attract seedy people anyway. Regular common people away from tourist places are just getting by and they really don’t care who you are.
This is all within the realm of being realistic too … you don’t go wandering down a lonely alleyway on your own or go into a dark sleazy noisy bar. I’m just saying that as long as you are safe and others are safe, people the world over are no different than you and me.
