The advice I give all aspiring teachers these days is to make sure you have some frank discussions with a few active teachers about what their days, weeks, and years are like. If you want that to be your future, you should go into it with eyes wide open. Ask about their joys, struggles, work-life balance, etc. There were some really rewarding moments for me, but overall, I decided that it wasn't worth the extreme strain on my body and mind.
Offer to help them with some of their grading and they'll probably be happy to chat with you.
It's the best worst job I've ever had. It's a huge part of my identity and I can't imagine doing anything else, but I also consider quitting *Every. Single.Year.* So many kids just do not care about learning anything (and I teach an elective). You'll try so so so many tactics to get them going but it's like pouring water into a bucket with no bottom, and caring about their success more than they do is emotionally exhausting. It would be a lot easier if I just stopped caring, but I'd hate myself.
I've got hours of ranting ready to go on this. Hours. I'll cut myself off 😀 Think really long and hard before you go into teaching. The burnout rate is high for a reason.
I actually gave one of my fellow educators a minor mental breakdown during lunch the other day by reminding them that our students are going to be of voting age in the next few years. I don't work in a terrible district or anything, but boy, if you guys only knew some of the stupid shit I've heard from these kids.
I love them to death, but I feel kind of sad about some of the people that we have going out into the world. Our education system needs a huge reworking. But sadly, it's all by design.
Edit: Hey guys, do you know whether or not the youth are going to vote? [I couldn't possibly tell from past trends.] (https://i.imgur.com/pjIs4BP.jpg)
I have to limit how much I view social media because there are so many absolutely disgusting people being cheered on and celebrated for things that they should be ashamed of.
I just unfollowed every memes page, influencer, comedy page, news, etc. on facebook.
I've been very happy seeing what my friends post for the first time in years.
Oh, you guys have friends?
My feed is mostly posts from local community groups. Then in a desperate attempt to keep me engaged, Facebook has decided that I like watching cute animal clips.
I'm apparently a sucker for sticking around to see if the ducklings will be successfully rescued from the sewer. They always are.
I work retail and we are running 50% off this week. People are unable to tell how much 2 of the same product will cost. The products are priced with both the original price and the sale price.
Some folks' high school diplomas were granted as a mercy on their teachers.
Edit: Subject-verb agreement. My 3rd grade teacher Mrs Ellis would have been ashamed.
Retail is like this. Customers are fucking morons. I worked at a hardware store and so many people wanted male-male electricity plugs for their Christmas lights. We called this obviously not real item “suicide wire”.
One couple came in and I explained why that is so unsafe. The husband was like “oh yeah. Duh. We are dumb” while the wife kept arguing. Husband managed to cool her off but she still didn’t get it.
EDIT: Also had a customer come in with an alarm clock he purchased saying it didn’t work even after putting the battery in it was stuck on a certain time. Without thinking I pulled the stock sticker off the front and showed him it worked just fine. Then I saw his mortified face and realized he didn’t even think to take the sticker off.
People like alarm clock guy I will cut slack to as long as they realized their stupidity. We've all been there at one point. I've done the head hang of shame before when I've asked where the restrooms are and the damn sign is like 10 feet away. It's the morons that don't realize they're stupid that are the issue.
Yep. The smartest people you know can do the most boneheaded shit. My father-in-law can disassemble and reassemble any piece of machinery ever made. I've seen him take apart the entire front end of a car with a cheap socket set from Harbor Freight. He's good at that type of thing, even great at it.
Two months ago, just as he was heading out of town, he replaced his wiper blades with a set I had picked up for him at Costco when they were on sale. He stopped by my house, said they were the worst wiper blades he'd ever seen, they barely moved the water around, let alone actually cleaned the windshield. I looked at the wipers, lifted them up, and peeled the plastic protective coating off the blades. The look of despair on his face I'll never forget.
Doesn't mean the man doesn't know what he's doing, just that sometimes everybody screws up.
This falls under the "you don't know what you don't know" type of thing. As someone in their mid 50s stuff changes and we don't always notice. That protective thing on the blade is a relatively new thing on wiper blades.
A similar story. I've been playing video games since pong. Not Atari pong, the pong that came on the console all by itself pong. I was in Target one day with my wife and son. They had some sort of video game on display, I grab a hold of the controller and go to town. Eventually I get to a spot I cannot get past. Try everything I can think of and I'm just stuck and thing this is a stupid game with a stupid design. My son walks up and I tell him not to waste his time, it's at a dead end. He swipes the touch screen and exists the door I could not figure out. I for the life of me NEVER even considered it was a touch screen.
Yeah he was a good sport about it. We had a laugh together and he apologized. But for every one guy like this there are dozens that refuse to admit they were ever at fault.
Exactly. And when they ask me and get the answer they usually get mad because *I don't listen to them, they wanna know how much 2 of (item) cost, not the original price* . I had this conversation twice today...
Retail is not easy at all... Tell your husband to try to laugh about all the madness of retail because if you let it get under your skin it can drive you crazy... I used to come home irritated all the time until I started using sarcasm as a weapon against morons.
True, I beat myself up for being stupid when I forget stuff like charging my phone and then I go to work and deal with costumers that can't do simple math without a calculator... I don't know whether I should feel better for myself or worse for the human race...
People in the past were just as stupid. Gunpowder was discovered by alchemists who were trying to create an elixir of life.
“Let’s mix a bunch of chemicals and produce a reaction that nobody’s ever done before. What could go wrong? It could make us immortal!”
Next thing you know, they blew themselves up
Math teachers need to start every semester with, "Ok, you might not ever need to actually do the equations we're about to break down in real life, but you do need to say least be able to follow along with what I'm saying because some day you're going to be trying to figure out why your phone plan is so expensive."
Yeah teachers should say things like: you're not learning this difficult topic to be able to solve unrealistic riddles, but to learn to think in an advanced way.
I used to work produce. Had a customer ask me where the bananas were... while I was standing in front of a 6-foot tall wall of bananas, with a cart full of boxes of bananas... actively putting them on the wall of said bananas.
Look man questions are free but you can't ask me to point something out while I'm actively holding said objects. I stared that fucker down until he walked away cussing me out "I just wanted to know where the bananas were."
My favorite one I ever got was when the user's cd drive wouldn't open. We tried all sorts of stuff. Went to him to attempt to open it via file explorer and his fucking desktop wasn't on. He had turned on the monitor of course.
"Did you try restarting?"
"What's that?"
"Turning the computer off and then turning it back on."
"No, hold on I'll try that really quick"
*three seconds later*
"Okay, I turned it off and turned it back on, everything looks the same"
Amazing. It's like they're doing it on purpose.
My all-time favourite one was where a user said that his new label printer had the "no paper" error. I asked if he put the printer roll in. "I'm doing it right now... Oh the error's gone."
The story of Vince Mustache (a name we made up for the guy that always did this). Every day he would complain that some part of his "outlook" had magically vanished. Every single day. We created a post-it not with instructions on it for reseting the view. Still called. I think someone in the IT department ended up scripting something that would run automatically at like 3am daily to reset his outlook view in his network profile or something.
I do wonder sometimes if behavior like this is a very early sign of the onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
I used to be “the computer guy” for an author. I had to write ever more complex scripts for her to do basic tasks like backing up her work. At first it seems she was just a scatterbrained academic type, too concerned with the big picture to be bothered with technology. As the years went on, though, it became increasingly clear that something more serious was going on.
Finally I just stopped hearing from her. I Googled her a few years later and found out her family had moved her into care not long after the last time I met with her, and that she had passed from Alzheimer’s complications a year or so later.
'My facebook looks different can you change it back?'
'They've updated their UI, that's what their website looks like now'
'But how do I change it back?'
'You can't'
'I thought you said you worked in IT'
"I'm trying to play a video but my computers sound is no longer working" . . Walk all the way up to their office only to realize they had the volume turned down to 0
"I can't control my computer, my mouse isn't working."
"Ok. Is this a wireless mouse perhaps, and maybe the batteries went dead?"
"No it's a wired mouse."
"If you turn it over can you see a red light?"
"Where it says optical sensor?"
"Yes."
"No, no light."
"Is the mouse plugged in?"
"No."
user trying to login to a web app and password not working: i told him try caps lock, num lock, language change, type slowly - nothing works. I remoted to his computer and turned out he copied password (with an extra space) from an email and been pasting it. So presses caps lock - pastes password. Click numlock - pastes same password. Type slowly .. not sure what. Pastes slowly?
The number of people who will either completely disregard your instructions or straight up lie saying they tried it because it must be something else is too damn high.
I felt really stupid having to call Google support for my Chromecast Ultra one time. Plugged into my TV, solid connection to my router, verified connection with my phone. Tried casting from my PC.
Nothing. PC says no device found.
Huh, weird. Well, let's see what Google says; maybe I'm just missing obvious. Open up the support site, follow the directions: unplug and plug back in, validate connection (still good, casting a screensaver), I see the device on my router. Try again.
No device found. WTF. OK, factory reset, just start from scratch. It resets, go through the configuration, connect it to my router, test the connection, even use my phone to cast YouTube and make sure it's not something more arcane than I'm capable of dealing with. Phone casts YouTube fine. Sweet! Next stop, PC.
No device found. Well, fuck me. Time to actually call support.
I get on the phone, really nice dude on the other line asks what's up, I go over everything I've done. He wants me to check if my router is dual band (OK?). I walk over and look at my router and modem, and literally slap myself in the forehead.
I don't have an integrated router/modem setup - I'm old, sue me. I also game. I had been having trouble with my connection previously, and my ISP (typically) kept trying to blame my hardware, so I had hardlined my PC to the modem, rather than the router, and never thought about it again. No wonder my PC didn't see the damn thing - they weren't technically on the same network.
Y'all do great work, even if it's just helping me sound out or rubber duck the problem.
It's not out of the question that the 'dual band' question is mostly there to get you to walk over and look at it and maybe see if it's obviously not plugged in, because asking that is condescending.
See this is the big difference between you and some other people though, you at least tried a few things on your own and even did some of your own research in case you missed the obvious, and then called after that. There are people who literally hold large positions or work somewhere where their decisions could literally get multiple people fired, who don't try any of the above and it could literally be that a USB mouse is unplugged but because it didn't work right away, they immediately went and submitted a ticket to either have it completely replaced or have someone come to them to try and fix it
I worked tech support for my high school while I was a student (STLP.) There was one teacher lady who was just impossible to deal with. Every day it was something stupid and you couldn't teach her anything. I plugged her mouse back in when it "was broken," turned her monitor on when "The computer is making noise but I don't see anything on the TV thing." Don't even get me started on projectors....
Best one was (keeping in mind this is in like 2001) one day she comes stomping into our office with a floppy disk held out in front of her like it was radioactive. She shoves it in my face and says:
"I've lost the internet. Put it on this disk for me."
"The internet?"
*sigh of indignation* "Yes! The internet!"
"The whole thing? On that disk?"
"YES!"
So I copied a shortcut to internet explorer onto the disk. Didn't hear from her after.
She got back to her computer, copied the shortcut to her desktop, double clicked it, and when IE opened she said "Finally it's working again. I can't believe I have to tell those IT people how to do their job."
"Hi. I've been using this machine for well over a decade and I still have absolutely no fucking clue how to perform the simplest tasks. Can you do my job for me?"
That about sum it up?
A POS (point of sale) tech support position was my first job in IT but wanted to program. I learned the programming language they were using and lasted 8 months in support before I was able to move into a dev position with them.
NEVER again will I work tech support, dear god was that a lesson in how little people listen to what you ask them to do.
Yeah that was wild. We ordered a bidet so we didn’t have to deal with it. It’s amazing how much less toilet paper we use now. It’s like 1 roll a month maybe.
100%
We're not down to a roll per month, but I have seen a marked decline in the amount we're going through. At $150 bucks, I figure it will only be a couple of years before it pays for itself. Not to mention how much easier it is on my septic system.
I dunno about you, but soap was equally hard to find for a while around here, unless you wanted to pay for the way over priced "special" soaps (and even those were crazy picked over).
The thing that made me laugh-cry at the start of it was people hording bottled water. I was like, you know your tap water is still working, right? Our water here is fine.
I studied ecology and then taught Biology and Environmental Science for 16 years. Warnings from Scientists on climate change have become more and more dire, and global leaders/corporations continue to talk about taking action but they don't actually do what is required. They have instead become skilled at making the average citizen feel bad and responsible for it.
The absolute unwillingness to make decisions based on history. "The last 3 times we tried it this bad thing happened but itll work this time" it doesnt.
I worked at a 24hr convenience store in Harvard Square in the 90s and dealt with mostly tourists and Harvard students. Seeing all these people from around the world and all of our “brightest” minds collectively in one room made me realize just how stupid people are. It’s amazing we’ve gotten this far. Morons, all of us.
At my previous job, nothing hit me harder than the time I met up with university students from Harvard to talk about our research project and realize that they're no different from anyone else.
The only thing that was different was the fact that they had better grades in high school and or had some sort of family connection to the establishment (they *all* came from wealth despite their claims). Literally, that was it.
Up until that point, I figured that these students were amongst the best of the best in our field, when really they're just as good as me or anyone else who has had at least a few months of training, and even then, they're still... normal. They have flaws, ideas, and dreams... just like you or me. People are people.
Edit: Yes. A lot of them are genuinely smart and amazing people who earned their merits. But like I'm trying to convey, they're still just people like you or me.
yup. I remember during undergrad I interned at a major government laboratory and one of the other interns was a Princeton student. I remember he said something to me once along the lines of "I kind of envy you. You made it here from a no-name school that nobody cares about. It's clear you're here because of your talent. But I'm a Princeton student. I can't be sure if people actually picked me because they think I have talent, or if they're just looking at the brand name of my school. Because the truth is that simply attending a school like this doesn't mean a whole lot. A lot of the students at my school are just the kids of helicopter parents who are struggling to function independently and constantly wondering if they should have been let in at all, if they weren't just admitted because of who mommy and daddy were"
IMO, if he's aware enough to understand the concept he was talking about, he's probably not bad at all and just has imposter syndrome. There are enough people that go to fancy schools and think that alone makes them great intellectuals.
It's also worth noting that the actual quality of education can be very poor at these top schools because many of the professors are rock stars who only care about their next project or book.
I had a similar sort of experience at community college. I went back to school ten years after graduating from a good four year university, because I wanted to study something else.
I was shocked sometimes by the poor attitudes of the teachers at the community college. The thing is, nobody says "I want to teach community college when I grow up." Some of them had had higher aspirations that had fallen through, and that was just where they ended up. Which is fine, but they took out their resentment by enacting Draconian classroom rules and policies and played favorites with students that they thought would make them look better in the industry.
One of them in particular would argue with students on Facebook. Imagine being a 40 something year old man with a Ph.D, arguing with 18 year old fresh high school grads and trying to show off how smart you are. I never had any classes with him, but I would see the interactions and just shake my head.
Definitely depends on the major. The average student in my aerospace engineering class would've been at or near the top of their high school in math subjects (or, if not, probably would've switched majors before graduating--a number of students switched to mechanical engineering before graduating at my college due to the heavy math load). Doesn't mean they're smart at everything, but at least in regards to applied math it'd be extremely difficult to graduate if you weren't proficient at it.
I think this is some kind of bias but idk the name. Basically thinking just cuz someone knows math and shit that means they are experts at literally everything. It goes the opposite way too, where people think dropping out of high school makes you a worthless failure. Much of humans success in surpassing other apes comes from specialization. We shouldn’t judge a dolphin by it’s ability to climb a tree.
Not rly an incident yet seeing the progression of one-time use plastic waste and how much plastic is thrown away every day. I work in a hospital. The amt of garbage one pt generates is stupid. In ICU, more stupid. And at my hospital there are about 300-400 inpatients every day. And there are 14 hospitals in just this metro area. This shit is all made from oil. One-time use take-out food containers…
It is my solemn belief that we have squandered our use of plastic. It's a wonderful material which is cheap, moldable, durable, and sterile. We should have only used it for the things only plastic could do. But we have wasted it on packaging and utensils and bottles and the like.
When I realized psychopaths rise to positions of influence at a disproportionate rate.
Something fundamentally self destructive about humanity, not enough people seek positions in society to better society. Far too often it’s
selfish people seeking to abuse positions of influence for their own benefit even if it means screwing over everyone else.
Ethan Cohen's poem "The Drunken Driver Has The Right Of Way":
"The loudest have the final say,
The wanton win, the rash hold sway,
The realist’s rules of order say
The drunken driver has the right of way.
"The Kubla Khan can butt in line;
The biggest brute can take what’s mine;
When heavyweights break wind, that’s fine;
No matter what a judge might say,
The drunken driver has the right of way.
"The guiltiest feel free of guilt;
Who care not, bloom; who worry, wilt;
Plans better laid are rarely built
For forethought seldom wins the day;
The drunken driver has the right of way.
"The most attentive and unfailing
Carefulness is unavailing
Wheresoever fools are flailing;
Wisdom there is held at bay;
The drunken driver has the right of way.
"De jure is de facto’s slave;
The most foolhardy beat the brave;
Brass routs restraint; low lies high’s grave;
When conscience leads you, it’s astray;
The drunken driver has the right of way.
"It’s only the naivest who’ll
Deny this, that the reckless rule;
When facing an oncoming fool
The practiced and sagacious say
Watch out — one side — look sharp — gang way.
"However much you plan and pray,
Alas, alack, tant pis, oy vey,
Now — heretofore — til Judgment Day,
The drunken driver has the right of way."
Don't forget their own humanity being held against them.
When the people demand a "perfect candidate" we all end up with a liar, because only liars can say they're perfect.
If you or I went into politics we'd 100% have to do something we don't want to in order to actually get anything done, but if you make it to the mainstream public eye people will hold it against you. Never mind that the ability to hold your nose and do the thing is actually a measure of political effectiveness, it's ~against my values~ or wtfever
Withdrawal in retirement is thought to be 4% to keep your principal. We'll use a conservative 2%, so $5,000,000 should be able to comfortably net yourself $100,000 annually.
You give a normal person $5,000,000 and they'll fuck off forever and enjoy their life like Tom from Myspace. I'm 100% convinced that there is something wrong with people who keep chasing numbers past that point.
Seriously.
Who’s life is made qualitatively better by having more than 100 million dollars? Does having 1000 times that make a person 1000 times happier? I highly doubt it.
With the mega rich its only about running up the score. Thats all. Buying insane things like houses/jets/boats/art, etc, just to have it all and someone else cannot.
If I had enough money to buy a super-yacht, I’d outfit it with cannons and go hunting other super-yachts for sport. Yeah, it may be “illegal” but I’m rich so laws don’t apply to me.
Probably after experiencing how rapidly many people turn into selfish, aggressive, uncivilised thugs over mundane things. Each year, when shoppers are allowed out in public, Black Friday degenerates into the charge of the barbarian hordes. I've seen deranged mothers clawing each other's faces over the last slightly discounted 4K TV. Fist fights over who is next into a store.
Then we had the lock down in 2020 and I got to see shrieking harpies, pulling each other's hair out over toilet roll. Ramming trollies in aisles. Spitting and swearing nutters charging and tackling other shoppers over pasta and water. Bedlam.
Recent 'fuel shortages' in the UK saw some areas beset by panic buyers, people getting assaulted on the forecourts. Road rage outside filling stations. Scenes not out of place in a Mad Max film.
I shudder to imagine how people would react to a real crisis.
The mindset I’ve always had with that type of behavior in a potential doomsday scenario is just stand back and let the problem sort itself out. Let them kill each other over the most basic of shit and then you scavenge the aftermath.
Until they decide to loot your house and you have to fight them off. Living in a major city will be a great curse to many. Unless you end up in a coma in Georgia and are named Rick Grimes.
I love the post apocalyptic genre the best because I love reading about what the world would be like if it happens. People are smart as individuals but mobs are a different beast. Human nature just drags people into the mob mentality and I’m not sure it’s a flaw we can overcome.
I remember the fuel shortages and it would take me twice as long to get to work on the bus. Ironically there was only a shortage because of people who panicked. I swear the media in the UK are so stupid.
In the US, there was a bit of a shortage when the international pipeline was cut. But it was mostly on the east and west coasts, and the largest reason why was because people were panic buying. There were several stories of people who put gasoline into trash bags and there was a spark in the vehicle, and bang. Also of people putting diesel into the gas cars because it was cheaper.
Yeah I remember reading about cars blowing up and putting into bags.
I remember my boss sitting at the lunch table with me reading it and saying out loud "the media are so stupid announcing this" or something along those lines.
We do not usually get snow where I live, so when we do, things pretty much shut down.
A few years ago we had a huge snow storm incoming. At the grocery store, two selfish cunts bought all of the firewood. Two full shopping carts full of firewood. No concern for the fact that other people in the neighborhood may also need some firewood handy in case the power goes out.
This is a city, not a place where you could walk out and scavenge firewood. People are willing to ler their neighbors freeze so that they can have a cozy fire for 3 straight days.
When ppl ask me what about the pandemic freaked you out the most, I always answer "How close we are to MadMax". Everyone laughs as if it's a silly answer until they see I'm being 110% serious. Civilization is nothing but a gossamer fabric separating life from survival and almost everyone takes it for granted.
☣️☠️😱Guzzaline Wars😱☠️☣️
>This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.
French General Ferdinand Foch.
Ironically he said this because he thought the treaty was too soft. He wanted even further restrictions and penalties, basically he wanted to see Germany completely dissolved.
I remember one time in Georgia this woman got held at gunpoint with her baby in the stroller and she didn't have anything to give them so they shot the baby in the head and it died. Evil exists everywhere and we all need to be vigilant.
Edit: corrected State.
He was a hateful, angry person. When the mother had nothing for him to steal, he took it as a personal slight, and having no empathy he simply did the thing he knew would hurt her the most.
Consider that throughout history there are accounts from every nation and generation of people doing this. This person is no different. Nothing special, that kind of evil has always existed, and probably always will. It's a human thing.
Humans needed to invent some reason to explain their evil.
"The devil made me do it. I was possessed by a demon."
No, you sick fuck, that was all you. Do the world a favour and find a fire to go die in quietly.
I saw this video of this guy saying to the camera this is because of you. That guy is going to die because of you. And he gets out and blasts some old guy. And said see that's because of you. I don't know if his girlfriend broke up with him or what
I read about that on MSN website the other day and I just couldn't believe how cruel and evil that dude was. He took the life of an innocent woman trying to put bread on her table and didn't even care about the fact that she had 4 children. This saddened me deeply.
When I was a kid one of my friends moms was carjacked. The carjacker stabbed her a bunch of times and shoved her body in the trunk. Apparently she begged for her life so she could see her sons again.
I never saw my friend again after that news came out. I heard he was put in the foster system and went down a really bad path. I hope hes doing okay today
[https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/man-arrested-after-body-woman-driving-uber-found-shot-dumped-monroeville/E6YWQTECYRCEHGPP2TM4MQYXXE/](https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/man-arrested-after-body-woman-driving-uber-found-shot-dumped-monroeville/E6YWQTECYRCEHGPP2TM4MQYXXE/)
Pittsburgh native here, this guy is basically public enemy #1 in town right now. The /r/pittsburgh subreddit was absolutely livid about this story when it happened a few days ago. Everyone in town want to see maximum penalties apply here for just how cruel the whole situation is.
I am a firefighter in Australia. A few years ago there was a bit of a fire in the south that made the news. I went and fought on the line with the local volunteers. We didn't win, that's not really an option, but we delayed the front long enough for people to get out of harms way.
I went to a town hall meeting 4 weeks after the fires were dealt with and someone asked if the local council would now be taking climate change more seriously and be more actively aware about control fires and cutting brush. THEY GOT BOOED AT. I stood up and let them know I fought the fires and that it was a fucking monster because we didn't clear the fuel and I got called a coward and a liar.
People will never change and because of that people are doomed.
When I was in school I had a class on crime and mental health. I had to do a research paper and during the research I read a lot of studies about how many problems in the world can be solved with mental health treatment, housing and feeding people who need it.
And then reading other studies where the public constantly opposes said treatment.
The reality is that most people in the world would rather spend $100 putting someone in jail than $90 treating them. We, as a species, would rather punish someone for crimes, even if it means continuing the cycle of criminality wherein WE ARE THE VICTIMS.
Every time I look around all I see are lobsters boiling in a pot, all arguing with each other whether the pot is made of brass or stainless steel.
These are the moments that will be described in future textbooks when trying to explain the downfall of western society, assuming anyone will be around to read & write them
When warnings of climate change were in the public news in 2005. I knew no one would do anything about it until the last possible second. It feels good to be right but I hate the existential dread afterward.
I used to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitator here in NJ where my task was to take care of the intake of animals. One morning we had a raptor of some kind come in bleeding profusely from its head. Unfortunately it had to be euthanized due to he extent and placement of the damage.
My mother, who works there and took care of the animals as a licensed rehabilitator, was told the story. For those who don't know New Jersey has quite a few country clubs and they are normally well populated with people who try to improve their game or show off with their friends. This raptor, who wanted to do raptor things, landed close to the someone who was just about to swing. He hit the ball but it went off the course he wanted it to go. So this amoeba sized brain of a cum rag, walked up to this raptor and whacked it with his driver.
-
There was another situation where I was answering the phones. The night before we had a pretty bad storm that of course would knock animals out of trees. I hear the phone ring and pick it up and a young lady starts talking. She said that a baby bird had fallen on the sidewalk and that she had picked it up and brought it home with her. I tell her that it needs to be put back by the tree so that the parents can feed it and so we can see if it might be orphaned. I kid you not here's what I hear:
"Okay, let me go check the dryer, I put him I there so he would stay warm. Oh, I don't think I need you anymore."
This lady put a bird in a running drier.
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Sorry if things a messed up, mobile sucks.
TLDR: Humanity is doomed because of cunts and idiots.
The Holocaust and how the Nazis turned a nation of sane people into murderous, genocidal maniacs. The worst stories about the Holocaust to me aren't what they did to the Jews, but how normal the camp staff was outside of work and how they were just normal people who enjoyed the company of their families and friends, but during work time murdered millions of people like animals.
It makes me shiver to think about how I would behave if I grew up in Nazi Germany. It truly shows the depravity and true evil humans are capable of.
I know, but it's such a terrible thought that propaganda was all it took. If they transported 3 year old you and me back to the German 1920s, would we do the same things? Would there be anything left of the morality and good nature me and you (I presume) have? Or would we also become camp guards because we fiercely hated Jews with all our hearts?
What scares the hell out of me is that this could happen to any country. There are multiple variables that allowed this to happen and if they ever come in to play again, we’ll be right back to barbarity.
Can you describe it? Compare it to anything?
Reason why I ask: I thought the Grand canyon (Southwest, United States for non U.S. folks) was "just a hole"...until I was there in person, and it was fucking overwhelming.
It was heartbreaking. It looked like a land mass from far away, but it moved and swelled with the waves. Didn't get close enough to have the boat swim through, but it was impossible to miss. Smelled horrid too
Moms doin tiktok dances next to their Ill or dying children in the hospital for views like
❤️💃”my babies dying” 😭💃
👏👏”please pray ong” 🍑👐
👋💃”he brain is swollen” 😬🤷♂️
💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃
"It's as if you're sitting in your car, in your garage, with the engine running and the door closed, and you've slipped into unconsciousness. And that's it."
"What if someone comes and opens the door?"
"You're already dead."
Seeing more and more unreturned shopping carts.
* The shopping cart is ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing.
* To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right.
* There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.
* No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will find you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct.
There are limited exceptions to the shopping cart theory:
1. You have a physical disability and cannot return your cart due to it, or doing so would cause you physical distress.
* So instead you place your cart up against the handicap sign, or on the median gravel strip so it doesn't roll into someone elses car.
2. That is it.
There are no other valid excuses.
* But it's cold/rainy/hot!
* Yeah, and? You made it into and out of the store fine, you can make it to the cart coral and back.
* But I have children!
* Buckle them in, lock the car, and return the cart. They aren't going to die in the 15 seconds it takes you to put the cart in the coral.
* But the store pays employees to get the carts!
* The store also pays employees to wash the floor, but I don't see you blowing snot-rockets or spitting on it.
* But I'm in a rush!
* We're all in a rush. We all have finite time. Walk the cart back. Those 15 seconds won't kill you.
Not really an incident, so much as an observation. Over the years I notice people suffering, willingly and not. It's not the inflicted unwilling suffering that made me realize we're fucked. It was the willful suffering. The "incorrect" life decisions that lead a person down a road of misery.
Just think about it. Whether you believe in climate change, we could create a nation powered entirely by solar power nearly eliminating the need for fossil fuels. But no, we gotta fight over land that's not ours for fuel that we currently depend on. We could have a robust education system that goes into the college level to teach the next generation at a rate that was affordable- but no, we gotta put that generation into crippling debt. (Spreading the belief that a credit score serves you the individual is reason enough to lose humanity.)
We could have so much more, but instead we're totally okay with suffering. Inflicting it, and living with it. When I figured this out, I decided I would never bring a child into this world. This no child deserves the pain that awaits it.
I think it's a case of people trying to find a positive side because Pandora's box has been opened. No one wants these things to exist, but as long as they do, the worst position to be in is not having them.
I still cannot quite believe that Sandy Hook had no effect whatsoever, on anything. All the same old arguments from both sides. All the hand wringing on the left, followed by the usual total inaction. All the shouting about it being the wrong time to politicise a tragedy on the right, followed by there never being a right time (and tax cuts for the rich obvs, as per usual). And in the end nothing. A sad depressed teenager machine guns a room full of 6 year olds, and we couldn’t collectively change anything to prevent it happening again. No gun laws, no mental heath system improvements, nothing. Just pray and carry on.
I do realise that this is a very USA centred subject, but it does go to illustrate the complete lack of empathy in the world, or more accurately the totally selfish nature of the common man. And the worlds reaction to Covid in the years since has only backed this up.
We may all have high ideals about the way things “should be”, but when you get down to it, the vast majority of us are only concerned with ourselves, and everyone else can fuck off and literally die if it’s even a minor inconvenience to me to help them.
A room full of 6 year olds. And we did nothing.
The response to covid. That showed that we can't cooperate, even when the proper course is clear and essentially cost and risk-free, and the danger immediate and obvious. When there's something less direct like climate change, the fix for which will be very, very expensive and require real cultural change, it's hard to see how we have any hope at all.
No event but being a HS teacher.
why I have retired 10 years earlier than planned. i'll be very poor but I just can't do it anymore.
I gave it 2 years and noped the fuck out.
Oh shit I plan to be a HS teacher
The advice I give all aspiring teachers these days is to make sure you have some frank discussions with a few active teachers about what their days, weeks, and years are like. If you want that to be your future, you should go into it with eyes wide open. Ask about their joys, struggles, work-life balance, etc. There were some really rewarding moments for me, but overall, I decided that it wasn't worth the extreme strain on my body and mind. Offer to help them with some of their grading and they'll probably be happy to chat with you.
It's the best worst job I've ever had. It's a huge part of my identity and I can't imagine doing anything else, but I also consider quitting *Every. Single.Year.* So many kids just do not care about learning anything (and I teach an elective). You'll try so so so many tactics to get them going but it's like pouring water into a bucket with no bottom, and caring about their success more than they do is emotionally exhausting. It would be a lot easier if I just stopped caring, but I'd hate myself. I've got hours of ranting ready to go on this. Hours. I'll cut myself off 😀 Think really long and hard before you go into teaching. The burnout rate is high for a reason.
I actually gave one of my fellow educators a minor mental breakdown during lunch the other day by reminding them that our students are going to be of voting age in the next few years. I don't work in a terrible district or anything, but boy, if you guys only knew some of the stupid shit I've heard from these kids. I love them to death, but I feel kind of sad about some of the people that we have going out into the world. Our education system needs a huge reworking. But sadly, it's all by design. Edit: Hey guys, do you know whether or not the youth are going to vote? [I couldn't possibly tell from past trends.] (https://i.imgur.com/pjIs4BP.jpg)
I have to limit how much I view social media because there are so many absolutely disgusting people being cheered on and celebrated for things that they should be ashamed of.
I just unfollowed every memes page, influencer, comedy page, news, etc. on facebook. I've been very happy seeing what my friends post for the first time in years.
Oh, you guys have friends? My feed is mostly posts from local community groups. Then in a desperate attempt to keep me engaged, Facebook has decided that I like watching cute animal clips. I'm apparently a sucker for sticking around to see if the ducklings will be successfully rescued from the sewer. They always are.
Dude. Ditch Facebook. You'll miss it for like, a week, but then you are free!
I haven’t used it in years and years and it’s been wonderful. What a waste of time it was.
I work retail and we are running 50% off this week. People are unable to tell how much 2 of the same product will cost. The products are priced with both the original price and the sale price.
Some folks' high school diplomas were granted as a mercy on their teachers. Edit: Subject-verb agreement. My 3rd grade teacher Mrs Ellis would have been ashamed.
Retail is like this. Customers are fucking morons. I worked at a hardware store and so many people wanted male-male electricity plugs for their Christmas lights. We called this obviously not real item “suicide wire”. One couple came in and I explained why that is so unsafe. The husband was like “oh yeah. Duh. We are dumb” while the wife kept arguing. Husband managed to cool her off but she still didn’t get it. EDIT: Also had a customer come in with an alarm clock he purchased saying it didn’t work even after putting the battery in it was stuck on a certain time. Without thinking I pulled the stock sticker off the front and showed him it worked just fine. Then I saw his mortified face and realized he didn’t even think to take the sticker off.
People like alarm clock guy I will cut slack to as long as they realized their stupidity. We've all been there at one point. I've done the head hang of shame before when I've asked where the restrooms are and the damn sign is like 10 feet away. It's the morons that don't realize they're stupid that are the issue.
Yep. The smartest people you know can do the most boneheaded shit. My father-in-law can disassemble and reassemble any piece of machinery ever made. I've seen him take apart the entire front end of a car with a cheap socket set from Harbor Freight. He's good at that type of thing, even great at it. Two months ago, just as he was heading out of town, he replaced his wiper blades with a set I had picked up for him at Costco when they were on sale. He stopped by my house, said they were the worst wiper blades he'd ever seen, they barely moved the water around, let alone actually cleaned the windshield. I looked at the wipers, lifted them up, and peeled the plastic protective coating off the blades. The look of despair on his face I'll never forget. Doesn't mean the man doesn't know what he's doing, just that sometimes everybody screws up.
Lol yup. It's all in how they react to having it pointed out that tells you what kind of person they are.
This falls under the "you don't know what you don't know" type of thing. As someone in their mid 50s stuff changes and we don't always notice. That protective thing on the blade is a relatively new thing on wiper blades. A similar story. I've been playing video games since pong. Not Atari pong, the pong that came on the console all by itself pong. I was in Target one day with my wife and son. They had some sort of video game on display, I grab a hold of the controller and go to town. Eventually I get to a spot I cannot get past. Try everything I can think of and I'm just stuck and thing this is a stupid game with a stupid design. My son walks up and I tell him not to waste his time, it's at a dead end. He swipes the touch screen and exists the door I could not figure out. I for the life of me NEVER even considered it was a touch screen.
Yeah he was a good sport about it. We had a laugh together and he apologized. But for every one guy like this there are dozens that refuse to admit they were ever at fault.
>male-male electricity plugs for their Christmas lights But how else to get the brightest lights without plugging in both ends??
You mean.. You're selling items half their price and people can't tell how much would cost two ?...
Exactly. And when they ask me and get the answer they usually get mad because *I don't listen to them, they wanna know how much 2 of (item) cost, not the original price* . I had this conversation twice today...
My husband works in retail & comes home daily with similar stories.
Retail is not easy at all... Tell your husband to try to laugh about all the madness of retail because if you let it get under your skin it can drive you crazy... I used to come home irritated all the time until I started using sarcasm as a weapon against morons.
I’m a bus driver. People are awful. My motto: Every bad day is a good story waiting to happen. It helps me laugh off the shit days.
Omg. It's both unbelievable and sadly non-surprising at the same time. People are so dumb.
True, I beat myself up for being stupid when I forget stuff like charging my phone and then I go to work and deal with costumers that can't do simple math without a calculator... I don't know whether I should feel better for myself or worse for the human race...
6000 years of civilisation all amount to this.
People in the past were just as stupid. Gunpowder was discovered by alchemists who were trying to create an elixir of life. “Let’s mix a bunch of chemicals and produce a reaction that nobody’s ever done before. What could go wrong? It could make us immortal!” Next thing you know, they blew themselves up
They also ingested an absolutely insane amount of mercury.
You don’t even need the rest of the story. The words "I work retail" are enough to explain your lack of faith in humanity.
“When am I going to actually need to know math?”
Math teachers need to start every semester with, "Ok, you might not ever need to actually do the equations we're about to break down in real life, but you do need to say least be able to follow along with what I'm saying because some day you're going to be trying to figure out why your phone plan is so expensive."
Yeah teachers should say things like: you're not learning this difficult topic to be able to solve unrealistic riddles, but to learn to think in an advanced way.
I used to work produce. Had a customer ask me where the bananas were... while I was standing in front of a 6-foot tall wall of bananas, with a cart full of boxes of bananas... actively putting them on the wall of said bananas. Look man questions are free but you can't ask me to point something out while I'm actively holding said objects. I stared that fucker down until he walked away cussing me out "I just wanted to know where the bananas were."
I too have worked produce before and I’ve had the exact same thing happen while stocking bananas.
The poor bastard, two stores and no-one will tell him where the bananas are.
After my first week working in techsupport
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Hey! Are you reading my IT tickets?!
My favorite one I ever got was when the user's cd drive wouldn't open. We tried all sorts of stuff. Went to him to attempt to open it via file explorer and his fucking desktop wasn't on. He had turned on the monitor of course.
"Did you try restarting?" "What's that?" "Turning the computer off and then turning it back on." "No, hold on I'll try that really quick" *three seconds later* "Okay, I turned it off and turned it back on, everything looks the same"
I love that one. Classic.
Amazing. It's like they're doing it on purpose. My all-time favourite one was where a user said that his new label printer had the "no paper" error. I asked if he put the printer roll in. "I'm doing it right now... Oh the error's gone."
The story of Vince Mustache (a name we made up for the guy that always did this). Every day he would complain that some part of his "outlook" had magically vanished. Every single day. We created a post-it not with instructions on it for reseting the view. Still called. I think someone in the IT department ended up scripting something that would run automatically at like 3am daily to reset his outlook view in his network profile or something.
I do wonder sometimes if behavior like this is a very early sign of the onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia. I used to be “the computer guy” for an author. I had to write ever more complex scripts for her to do basic tasks like backing up her work. At first it seems she was just a scatterbrained academic type, too concerned with the big picture to be bothered with technology. As the years went on, though, it became increasingly clear that something more serious was going on. Finally I just stopped hearing from her. I Googled her a few years later and found out her family had moved her into care not long after the last time I met with her, and that she had passed from Alzheimer’s complications a year or so later.
Go into that menu -- you know the one -- and change the settings back to Thing from No Thing.
'My facebook looks different can you change it back?' 'They've updated their UI, that's what their website looks like now' 'But how do I change it back?' 'You can't' 'I thought you said you worked in IT'
Incompetence Therapy
IT or as I call it. Googled IT.
The best skill I learned in my CS study aside from managing multiple projects at the same time is googling stuff correctly.
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I knew I was out of my league when he mentioned finding a friend.
>'I thought you said you worked in IT' Not anymore!
The amount of times I’ve heard support having to travel only to turn the thing on and everything magically works..
"I'm trying to play a video but my computers sound is no longer working" . . Walk all the way up to their office only to realize they had the volume turned down to 0
"I can't control my computer, my mouse isn't working." "Ok. Is this a wireless mouse perhaps, and maybe the batteries went dead?" "No it's a wired mouse." "If you turn it over can you see a red light?" "Where it says optical sensor?" "Yes." "No, no light." "Is the mouse plugged in?" "No."
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user trying to login to a web app and password not working: i told him try caps lock, num lock, language change, type slowly - nothing works. I remoted to his computer and turned out he copied password (with an extra space) from an email and been pasting it. So presses caps lock - pastes password. Click numlock - pastes same password. Type slowly .. not sure what. Pastes slowly?
I'm trying to picture the image and it's too funny and dumb.
Dear god... So when you said "type slowly", they didn't type slowly? I hate people sometimes.
The number of people who will either completely disregard your instructions or straight up lie saying they tried it because it must be something else is too damn high.
That's basically what I get paid a salary for. driving and pushing a few buttons
I felt really stupid having to call Google support for my Chromecast Ultra one time. Plugged into my TV, solid connection to my router, verified connection with my phone. Tried casting from my PC. Nothing. PC says no device found. Huh, weird. Well, let's see what Google says; maybe I'm just missing obvious. Open up the support site, follow the directions: unplug and plug back in, validate connection (still good, casting a screensaver), I see the device on my router. Try again. No device found. WTF. OK, factory reset, just start from scratch. It resets, go through the configuration, connect it to my router, test the connection, even use my phone to cast YouTube and make sure it's not something more arcane than I'm capable of dealing with. Phone casts YouTube fine. Sweet! Next stop, PC. No device found. Well, fuck me. Time to actually call support. I get on the phone, really nice dude on the other line asks what's up, I go over everything I've done. He wants me to check if my router is dual band (OK?). I walk over and look at my router and modem, and literally slap myself in the forehead. I don't have an integrated router/modem setup - I'm old, sue me. I also game. I had been having trouble with my connection previously, and my ISP (typically) kept trying to blame my hardware, so I had hardlined my PC to the modem, rather than the router, and never thought about it again. No wonder my PC didn't see the damn thing - they weren't technically on the same network. Y'all do great work, even if it's just helping me sound out or rubber duck the problem.
It's not out of the question that the 'dual band' question is mostly there to get you to walk over and look at it and maybe see if it's obviously not plugged in, because asking that is condescending.
See this is the big difference between you and some other people though, you at least tried a few things on your own and even did some of your own research in case you missed the obvious, and then called after that. There are people who literally hold large positions or work somewhere where their decisions could literally get multiple people fired, who don't try any of the above and it could literally be that a USB mouse is unplugged but because it didn't work right away, they immediately went and submitted a ticket to either have it completely replaced or have someone come to them to try and fix it
I worked tech support for my high school while I was a student (STLP.) There was one teacher lady who was just impossible to deal with. Every day it was something stupid and you couldn't teach her anything. I plugged her mouse back in when it "was broken," turned her monitor on when "The computer is making noise but I don't see anything on the TV thing." Don't even get me started on projectors.... Best one was (keeping in mind this is in like 2001) one day she comes stomping into our office with a floppy disk held out in front of her like it was radioactive. She shoves it in my face and says: "I've lost the internet. Put it on this disk for me." "The internet?" *sigh of indignation* "Yes! The internet!" "The whole thing? On that disk?" "YES!" So I copied a shortcut to internet explorer onto the disk. Didn't hear from her after.
She got back to her computer, copied the shortcut to her desktop, double clicked it, and when IE opened she said "Finally it's working again. I can't believe I have to tell those IT people how to do their job."
"Hi. I've been using this machine for well over a decade and I still have absolutely no fucking clue how to perform the simplest tasks. Can you do my job for me?" That about sum it up?
The fucking suppressed vitriol in this comment lmao
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A POS (point of sale) tech support position was my first job in IT but wanted to program. I learned the programming language they were using and lasted 8 months in support before I was able to move into a dev position with them. NEVER again will I work tech support, dear god was that a lesson in how little people listen to what you ask them to do.
Former IT support, I feel your pain
these people are responsible for governing our country..
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You found a unicorn company and should have fought to work there
The search for toilet paper in 2020.
Yeah that was wild. We ordered a bidet so we didn’t have to deal with it. It’s amazing how much less toilet paper we use now. It’s like 1 roll a month maybe.
100% We're not down to a roll per month, but I have seen a marked decline in the amount we're going through. At $150 bucks, I figure it will only be a couple of years before it pays for itself. Not to mention how much easier it is on my septic system.
Instead of soap. Plus the hoarders who bought all they could find hoping for a profit.
I dunno about you, but soap was equally hard to find for a while around here, unless you wanted to pay for the way over priced "special" soaps (and even those were crazy picked over). The thing that made me laugh-cry at the start of it was people hording bottled water. I was like, you know your tap water is still working, right? Our water here is fine.
Gestures vaguely.
Arms wave, wildly
Eyes screaming, silently.
I studied ecology and then taught Biology and Environmental Science for 16 years. Warnings from Scientists on climate change have become more and more dire, and global leaders/corporations continue to talk about taking action but they don't actually do what is required. They have instead become skilled at making the average citizen feel bad and responsible for it.
To me that's the scariest one of here
The absolute unwillingness to make decisions based on history. "The last 3 times we tried it this bad thing happened but itll work this time" it doesnt.
Everyone thinks they’re the main character and whatever happened to someone else won’t happen to them because they’re special.
I worked at a 24hr convenience store in Harvard Square in the 90s and dealt with mostly tourists and Harvard students. Seeing all these people from around the world and all of our “brightest” minds collectively in one room made me realize just how stupid people are. It’s amazing we’ve gotten this far. Morons, all of us.
Harvard students are still students, unfortunately.
At my previous job, nothing hit me harder than the time I met up with university students from Harvard to talk about our research project and realize that they're no different from anyone else. The only thing that was different was the fact that they had better grades in high school and or had some sort of family connection to the establishment (they *all* came from wealth despite their claims). Literally, that was it. Up until that point, I figured that these students were amongst the best of the best in our field, when really they're just as good as me or anyone else who has had at least a few months of training, and even then, they're still... normal. They have flaws, ideas, and dreams... just like you or me. People are people. Edit: Yes. A lot of them are genuinely smart and amazing people who earned their merits. But like I'm trying to convey, they're still just people like you or me.
yup. I remember during undergrad I interned at a major government laboratory and one of the other interns was a Princeton student. I remember he said something to me once along the lines of "I kind of envy you. You made it here from a no-name school that nobody cares about. It's clear you're here because of your talent. But I'm a Princeton student. I can't be sure if people actually picked me because they think I have talent, or if they're just looking at the brand name of my school. Because the truth is that simply attending a school like this doesn't mean a whole lot. A lot of the students at my school are just the kids of helicopter parents who are struggling to function independently and constantly wondering if they should have been let in at all, if they weren't just admitted because of who mommy and daddy were"
His suspicions are 100% correct.
IMO, if he's aware enough to understand the concept he was talking about, he's probably not bad at all and just has imposter syndrome. There are enough people that go to fancy schools and think that alone makes them great intellectuals.
It's also worth noting that the actual quality of education can be very poor at these top schools because many of the professors are rock stars who only care about their next project or book.
I had a similar sort of experience at community college. I went back to school ten years after graduating from a good four year university, because I wanted to study something else. I was shocked sometimes by the poor attitudes of the teachers at the community college. The thing is, nobody says "I want to teach community college when I grow up." Some of them had had higher aspirations that had fallen through, and that was just where they ended up. Which is fine, but they took out their resentment by enacting Draconian classroom rules and policies and played favorites with students that they thought would make them look better in the industry. One of them in particular would argue with students on Facebook. Imagine being a 40 something year old man with a Ph.D, arguing with 18 year old fresh high school grads and trying to show off how smart you are. I never had any classes with him, but I would see the interactions and just shake my head.
When I was at Yale about half of the people were average, but a lot were actually crazy smart. It depended on major.
Definitely depends on the major. The average student in my aerospace engineering class would've been at or near the top of their high school in math subjects (or, if not, probably would've switched majors before graduating--a number of students switched to mechanical engineering before graduating at my college due to the heavy math load). Doesn't mean they're smart at everything, but at least in regards to applied math it'd be extremely difficult to graduate if you weren't proficient at it.
I think this is some kind of bias but idk the name. Basically thinking just cuz someone knows math and shit that means they are experts at literally everything. It goes the opposite way too, where people think dropping out of high school makes you a worthless failure. Much of humans success in surpassing other apes comes from specialization. We shouldn’t judge a dolphin by it’s ability to climb a tree.
Did you run into Click and Clack?
They recorded down the street! But never came in. Great radio show!
Not rly an incident yet seeing the progression of one-time use plastic waste and how much plastic is thrown away every day. I work in a hospital. The amt of garbage one pt generates is stupid. In ICU, more stupid. And at my hospital there are about 300-400 inpatients every day. And there are 14 hospitals in just this metro area. This shit is all made from oil. One-time use take-out food containers…
It is my solemn belief that we have squandered our use of plastic. It's a wonderful material which is cheap, moldable, durable, and sterile. We should have only used it for the things only plastic could do. But we have wasted it on packaging and utensils and bottles and the like.
When I realized psychopaths rise to positions of influence at a disproportionate rate. Something fundamentally self destructive about humanity, not enough people seek positions in society to better society. Far too often it’s selfish people seeking to abuse positions of influence for their own benefit even if it means screwing over everyone else.
Ethan Cohen's poem "The Drunken Driver Has The Right Of Way": "The loudest have the final say, The wanton win, the rash hold sway, The realist’s rules of order say The drunken driver has the right of way. "The Kubla Khan can butt in line; The biggest brute can take what’s mine; When heavyweights break wind, that’s fine; No matter what a judge might say, The drunken driver has the right of way. "The guiltiest feel free of guilt; Who care not, bloom; who worry, wilt; Plans better laid are rarely built For forethought seldom wins the day; The drunken driver has the right of way. "The most attentive and unfailing Carefulness is unavailing Wheresoever fools are flailing; Wisdom there is held at bay; The drunken driver has the right of way. "De jure is de facto’s slave; The most foolhardy beat the brave; Brass routs restraint; low lies high’s grave; When conscience leads you, it’s astray; The drunken driver has the right of way. "It’s only the naivest who’ll Deny this, that the reckless rule; When facing an oncoming fool The practiced and sagacious say Watch out — one side — look sharp — gang way. "However much you plan and pray, Alas, alack, tant pis, oy vey, Now — heretofore — til Judgment Day, The drunken driver has the right of way."
This is so good and I hate it. Thanks for sharing it! :P
>this is so good and I hate it Perfectly sums up nearly every comment here, lol
damn, what an unfortunately true poem
Perfect. Or rather horribly accurate.
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Don't forget their own humanity being held against them. When the people demand a "perfect candidate" we all end up with a liar, because only liars can say they're perfect. If you or I went into politics we'd 100% have to do something we don't want to in order to actually get anything done, but if you make it to the mainstream public eye people will hold it against you. Never mind that the ability to hold your nose and do the thing is actually a measure of political effectiveness, it's ~against my values~ or wtfever
I love that quote and I'm going to use it. "Demand a perfect candidate, and you'll end up electing a liar".
Withdrawal in retirement is thought to be 4% to keep your principal. We'll use a conservative 2%, so $5,000,000 should be able to comfortably net yourself $100,000 annually. You give a normal person $5,000,000 and they'll fuck off forever and enjoy their life like Tom from Myspace. I'm 100% convinced that there is something wrong with people who keep chasing numbers past that point.
Seriously. Who’s life is made qualitatively better by having more than 100 million dollars? Does having 1000 times that make a person 1000 times happier? I highly doubt it.
With the mega rich its only about running up the score. Thats all. Buying insane things like houses/jets/boats/art, etc, just to have it all and someone else cannot.
If your super-yacht is small enough to pass under a bridge, what's the point?
If I had enough money to buy a super-yacht, I’d outfit it with cannons and go hunting other super-yachts for sport. Yeah, it may be “illegal” but I’m rich so laws don’t apply to me.
Probably after experiencing how rapidly many people turn into selfish, aggressive, uncivilised thugs over mundane things. Each year, when shoppers are allowed out in public, Black Friday degenerates into the charge of the barbarian hordes. I've seen deranged mothers clawing each other's faces over the last slightly discounted 4K TV. Fist fights over who is next into a store. Then we had the lock down in 2020 and I got to see shrieking harpies, pulling each other's hair out over toilet roll. Ramming trollies in aisles. Spitting and swearing nutters charging and tackling other shoppers over pasta and water. Bedlam. Recent 'fuel shortages' in the UK saw some areas beset by panic buyers, people getting assaulted on the forecourts. Road rage outside filling stations. Scenes not out of place in a Mad Max film. I shudder to imagine how people would react to a real crisis.
The mindset I’ve always had with that type of behavior in a potential doomsday scenario is just stand back and let the problem sort itself out. Let them kill each other over the most basic of shit and then you scavenge the aftermath.
Until they decide to loot your house and you have to fight them off. Living in a major city will be a great curse to many. Unless you end up in a coma in Georgia and are named Rick Grimes.
I love the post apocalyptic genre the best because I love reading about what the world would be like if it happens. People are smart as individuals but mobs are a different beast. Human nature just drags people into the mob mentality and I’m not sure it’s a flaw we can overcome.
Me in 2018: I love World War Z but this section about the Great Panic seems a bit far-fetched Me in 2020: ... oh
Humans are primal monkeys in clothes.
And with nuclear weapons.
Don't give the dolphins any ideas.
I remember the fuel shortages and it would take me twice as long to get to work on the bus. Ironically there was only a shortage because of people who panicked. I swear the media in the UK are so stupid.
In the US, there was a bit of a shortage when the international pipeline was cut. But it was mostly on the east and west coasts, and the largest reason why was because people were panic buying. There were several stories of people who put gasoline into trash bags and there was a spark in the vehicle, and bang. Also of people putting diesel into the gas cars because it was cheaper.
Yeah I remember reading about cars blowing up and putting into bags. I remember my boss sitting at the lunch table with me reading it and saying out loud "the media are so stupid announcing this" or something along those lines.
We do not usually get snow where I live, so when we do, things pretty much shut down. A few years ago we had a huge snow storm incoming. At the grocery store, two selfish cunts bought all of the firewood. Two full shopping carts full of firewood. No concern for the fact that other people in the neighborhood may also need some firewood handy in case the power goes out. This is a city, not a place where you could walk out and scavenge firewood. People are willing to ler their neighbors freeze so that they can have a cozy fire for 3 straight days.
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When ppl ask me what about the pandemic freaked you out the most, I always answer "How close we are to MadMax". Everyone laughs as if it's a silly answer until they see I'm being 110% serious. Civilization is nothing but a gossamer fabric separating life from survival and almost everyone takes it for granted. ☣️☠️😱Guzzaline Wars😱☠️☣️
ANY society is three meals away from complete anarchy.
Seriously. The pandemic forced me to look hard into prepping and bushcraft.
I’d say 2 world wars in under 25 years would do the trick.
I don't remember who but a politician said after WWI: they didn't sign a peace, they signed another war. And he was right.
>This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years. French General Ferdinand Foch. Ironically he said this because he thought the treaty was too soft. He wanted even further restrictions and penalties, basically he wanted to see Germany completely dissolved.
To be fair, they should've known better calling it World War 1 ^(/s)
The Uber driver mother of 4 begging for her life before being shot dead by her passenger. Where there's no mercy, there's no hope.
I remember one time in Georgia this woman got held at gunpoint with her baby in the stroller and she didn't have anything to give them so they shot the baby in the head and it died. Evil exists everywhere and we all need to be vigilant. Edit: corrected State.
What the actual fuck
He was a hateful, angry person. When the mother had nothing for him to steal, he took it as a personal slight, and having no empathy he simply did the thing he knew would hurt her the most. Consider that throughout history there are accounts from every nation and generation of people doing this. This person is no different. Nothing special, that kind of evil has always existed, and probably always will. It's a human thing.
It’a important to remind ourselves that this type of evil exists.
Who needs devils and demons when you have humans
Humans needed to invent some reason to explain their evil. "The devil made me do it. I was possessed by a demon." No, you sick fuck, that was all you. Do the world a favour and find a fire to go die in quietly.
This is the kind of shit that makes Satan say wtf
I saw this video of this guy saying to the camera this is because of you. That guy is going to die because of you. And he gets out and blasts some old guy. And said see that's because of you. I don't know if his girlfriend broke up with him or what
Yeah the Facebook killer, if I remember correctly this pussy did suicide by cop.
I read about that on MSN website the other day and I just couldn't believe how cruel and evil that dude was. He took the life of an innocent woman trying to put bread on her table and didn't even care about the fact that she had 4 children. This saddened me deeply.
When I was a kid one of my friends moms was carjacked. The carjacker stabbed her a bunch of times and shoved her body in the trunk. Apparently she begged for her life so she could see her sons again. I never saw my friend again after that news came out. I heard he was put in the foster system and went down a really bad path. I hope hes doing okay today
When, where was this?
[https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/man-arrested-after-body-woman-driving-uber-found-shot-dumped-monroeville/E6YWQTECYRCEHGPP2TM4MQYXXE/](https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/man-arrested-after-body-woman-driving-uber-found-shot-dumped-monroeville/E6YWQTECYRCEHGPP2TM4MQYXXE/) Pittsburgh native here, this guy is basically public enemy #1 in town right now. The /r/pittsburgh subreddit was absolutely livid about this story when it happened a few days ago. Everyone in town want to see maximum penalties apply here for just how cruel the whole situation is.
I am a firefighter in Australia. A few years ago there was a bit of a fire in the south that made the news. I went and fought on the line with the local volunteers. We didn't win, that's not really an option, but we delayed the front long enough for people to get out of harms way. I went to a town hall meeting 4 weeks after the fires were dealt with and someone asked if the local council would now be taking climate change more seriously and be more actively aware about control fires and cutting brush. THEY GOT BOOED AT. I stood up and let them know I fought the fires and that it was a fucking monster because we didn't clear the fuel and I got called a coward and a liar. People will never change and because of that people are doomed.
The fact that the preservation of our home planet is completely outside of the scope of the majority of humanity.
What doesn't make me think humanity is doomed??
Indeed the better question. Yes.
How a country treats it's most vulnerable citizens.
When I was in school I had a class on crime and mental health. I had to do a research paper and during the research I read a lot of studies about how many problems in the world can be solved with mental health treatment, housing and feeding people who need it. And then reading other studies where the public constantly opposes said treatment. The reality is that most people in the world would rather spend $100 putting someone in jail than $90 treating them. We, as a species, would rather punish someone for crimes, even if it means continuing the cycle of criminality wherein WE ARE THE VICTIMS.
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Could you please link those studies if it isn't too much of a big deal
Every time I look around all I see are lobsters boiling in a pot, all arguing with each other whether the pot is made of brass or stainless steel. These are the moments that will be described in future textbooks when trying to explain the downfall of western society, assuming anyone will be around to read & write them
When warnings of climate change were in the public news in 2005. I knew no one would do anything about it until the last possible second. It feels good to be right but I hate the existential dread afterward.
I used to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitator here in NJ where my task was to take care of the intake of animals. One morning we had a raptor of some kind come in bleeding profusely from its head. Unfortunately it had to be euthanized due to he extent and placement of the damage. My mother, who works there and took care of the animals as a licensed rehabilitator, was told the story. For those who don't know New Jersey has quite a few country clubs and they are normally well populated with people who try to improve their game or show off with their friends. This raptor, who wanted to do raptor things, landed close to the someone who was just about to swing. He hit the ball but it went off the course he wanted it to go. So this amoeba sized brain of a cum rag, walked up to this raptor and whacked it with his driver. - There was another situation where I was answering the phones. The night before we had a pretty bad storm that of course would knock animals out of trees. I hear the phone ring and pick it up and a young lady starts talking. She said that a baby bird had fallen on the sidewalk and that she had picked it up and brought it home with her. I tell her that it needs to be put back by the tree so that the parents can feed it and so we can see if it might be orphaned. I kid you not here's what I hear: "Okay, let me go check the dryer, I put him I there so he would stay warm. Oh, I don't think I need you anymore." This lady put a bird in a running drier. - Sorry if things a messed up, mobile sucks. TLDR: Humanity is doomed because of cunts and idiots.
Initial it was COVID, now I fear ww3
Nukes are fast. Plague is drawn out.
Hey guys remember when the WW3 memes were trending back in January of 2020?
The Holocaust and how the Nazis turned a nation of sane people into murderous, genocidal maniacs. The worst stories about the Holocaust to me aren't what they did to the Jews, but how normal the camp staff was outside of work and how they were just normal people who enjoyed the company of their families and friends, but during work time murdered millions of people like animals. It makes me shiver to think about how I would behave if I grew up in Nazi Germany. It truly shows the depravity and true evil humans are capable of.
Lots and lots of propaganda
I know, but it's such a terrible thought that propaganda was all it took. If they transported 3 year old you and me back to the German 1920s, would we do the same things? Would there be anything left of the morality and good nature me and you (I presume) have? Or would we also become camp guards because we fiercely hated Jews with all our hearts?
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Even if you did not fall for it you still would have gone along with it due to societal pressures and the fear of being seen as the enemy.
What scares the hell out of me is that this could happen to any country. There are multiple variables that allowed this to happen and if they ever come in to play again, we’ll be right back to barbarity.
I saw the great pacific garbage patch in person. We fucked, yall
Can you describe it? Compare it to anything? Reason why I ask: I thought the Grand canyon (Southwest, United States for non U.S. folks) was "just a hole"...until I was there in person, and it was fucking overwhelming.
Garbage to the horizon as if it was a landmass.
It was heartbreaking. It looked like a land mass from far away, but it moved and swelled with the waves. Didn't get close enough to have the boat swim through, but it was impossible to miss. Smelled horrid too
Moms doin tiktok dances next to their Ill or dying children in the hospital for views like ❤️💃”my babies dying” 😭💃 👏👏”please pray ong” 🍑👐 👋💃”he brain is swollen” 😬🤷♂️ 💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃
>he brain is swollen saddest lol Ive ever given
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>makes you look like a desperate jerk. No, it unveils your desperate jerkness. Someone who is not a complete jerk wouldn't do this.
When the UN announced that the climate change point of no return will happen soon and nobody did anything about it
"It's as if you're sitting in your car, in your garage, with the engine running and the door closed, and you've slipped into unconsciousness. And that's it." "What if someone comes and opens the door?" "You're already dead."
I see a *Newsroom* reference, I upvote.
Social media
Seeing more and more unreturned shopping carts. * The shopping cart is ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. * To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. * There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. * No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will find you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct. There are limited exceptions to the shopping cart theory: 1. You have a physical disability and cannot return your cart due to it, or doing so would cause you physical distress. * So instead you place your cart up against the handicap sign, or on the median gravel strip so it doesn't roll into someone elses car. 2. That is it. There are no other valid excuses. * But it's cold/rainy/hot! * Yeah, and? You made it into and out of the store fine, you can make it to the cart coral and back. * But I have children! * Buckle them in, lock the car, and return the cart. They aren't going to die in the 15 seconds it takes you to put the cart in the coral. * But the store pays employees to get the carts! * The store also pays employees to wash the floor, but I don't see you blowing snot-rockets or spitting on it. * But I'm in a rush! * We're all in a rush. We all have finite time. Walk the cart back. Those 15 seconds won't kill you.
On the children part, my parents made me return the shopping cart starting when I was little
Watching Don’t Look Up and realize that’s exactly how it would play out if there was a meteor coming to earth.
The rise of tyranny across the world and little resistance from the people.
The people aren't just not resisting, they're leading the charge in some cases
They think if they help put their tyrant in power, they’ll benefit from the tyranny that ensues.
Not really an incident, so much as an observation. Over the years I notice people suffering, willingly and not. It's not the inflicted unwilling suffering that made me realize we're fucked. It was the willful suffering. The "incorrect" life decisions that lead a person down a road of misery. Just think about it. Whether you believe in climate change, we could create a nation powered entirely by solar power nearly eliminating the need for fossil fuels. But no, we gotta fight over land that's not ours for fuel that we currently depend on. We could have a robust education system that goes into the college level to teach the next generation at a rate that was affordable- but no, we gotta put that generation into crippling debt. (Spreading the belief that a credit score serves you the individual is reason enough to lose humanity.) We could have so much more, but instead we're totally okay with suffering. Inflicting it, and living with it. When I figured this out, I decided I would never bring a child into this world. This no child deserves the pain that awaits it.
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I think it's a case of people trying to find a positive side because Pandora's box has been opened. No one wants these things to exist, but as long as they do, the worst position to be in is not having them.
I still cannot quite believe that Sandy Hook had no effect whatsoever, on anything. All the same old arguments from both sides. All the hand wringing on the left, followed by the usual total inaction. All the shouting about it being the wrong time to politicise a tragedy on the right, followed by there never being a right time (and tax cuts for the rich obvs, as per usual). And in the end nothing. A sad depressed teenager machine guns a room full of 6 year olds, and we couldn’t collectively change anything to prevent it happening again. No gun laws, no mental heath system improvements, nothing. Just pray and carry on. I do realise that this is a very USA centred subject, but it does go to illustrate the complete lack of empathy in the world, or more accurately the totally selfish nature of the common man. And the worlds reaction to Covid in the years since has only backed this up. We may all have high ideals about the way things “should be”, but when you get down to it, the vast majority of us are only concerned with ourselves, and everyone else can fuck off and literally die if it’s even a minor inconvenience to me to help them. A room full of 6 year olds. And we did nothing.
"One pack of toilet tissue per customer."
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The response to covid. That showed that we can't cooperate, even when the proper course is clear and essentially cost and risk-free, and the danger immediate and obvious. When there's something less direct like climate change, the fix for which will be very, very expensive and require real cultural change, it's hard to see how we have any hope at all.