# Encountering weird sub-cultures **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905 "2014-08-19T16:18:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/21 "2014-08-20T00:22:05Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I live in Canada. By the end of ten years, salt has eaten the car, more or less. šŸ˜ƒ Speak for yourself, Onfario-boy! šŸ™‚ Here in Sask we donā€™t salt the roads - wouldnā€™t do any good. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/22 "2014-08-20T00:42:36Z")
When I was growing out my beard I found [Jeffā€™s Beard Board](http://jefffsbeardboard.yuku.com/). On the one hand, youā€™d be surprised how much there is to know about beards, on the other hand, it really just comes down to ā€˜donā€™t shave it in the places where you want it to growā€™. I have issues with some aspects of the board, but overall itā€™s a good places for help if you have any questions about facial hair. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/23 "2014-08-20T00:54:14Z")
Dragons. Cars. Rule 34. Iā€™ll say no more. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/24 "2014-08-20T01:16:09Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > A recent purchase has led me down the internet tubes to one of the strangest places Iā€™ve encountered - the subculture of men that are _really_ into shaving. > > I bought myself a safety razor a couple weeks ago, and have been on line looking for information on the different blades (thereā€™s literally dozens), soap/foam (Gillette Foamy isnā€™t ideal when using a safety razor, evidently) and technique (the head of the razor is shaped much differently than the Sensor Excel Iā€™ve been using for 20 years, and the angle is way different). Anyways, there are a ton of sites, message boards and online communities that are devoted to all things shaving. I read a post by a guy who shaves 3 times per day, with different razors and blades every time. The same guy also has a rotation system for blades so he wonā€™t use one for more than three shaves. Another guy had an elaborate rating system for double edged blades, with weighted points for closeness, flexibility, etc. Iā€™m surprised, but not surprised, if you know what I mean. I know it takes all kinds, but that amount of dedicated attention to shaving seems awfully strange to me. Anyways. > > What weird sub-cultures have you stumbled upon recently? My favourite would be the forums devoted to the love between a man and his ( _Sheffield Steel_ ) straight razor. Yup, the cut-throat types as used by our great-great-grandfathers. They do admit mistakes will be made at the start. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/25 "2014-08-20T01:47:39Z")
> [@tapu](#): > > Fetishist sites are the pinnacle of the phenomenon. People into, say, braces on teeth can get more specific than one might ever think possible. > > Also, high heels. Or rubber. Or Canadian surrealist porn. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/26 "2014-08-20T01:48:22Z")
Iā€™ll cop to being a member of a couple of the shaving forums. Not because Iā€™m some weirdo who shaves 3 times a day, but because I inherited about a dozen ancient safety razors from my father (not dead, has Parkinsons, and has a luxurious beard), grandfather and great-grandfathers, and didnā€™t know squat about them. A little googling, and I found the forums. Theyā€™re pretty good for finding out exactly how to use those old-style razors, and where to find stuff, and what stuff isnā€™t worth getting. But youā€™re absolutely right, some of those guys take it WAY too far. Like theyā€™d rather shave than eat a good meal, or make love to their wives, or something like that. To me, itā€™s a way to inject a little bit of enjoyment into an otherwise totally mundane daily chore, but not more than that. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/27 "2014-08-20T03:06:41Z")
I donā€™t recall where I heard of this one. [Ice Chewers Bulletin Board](http://www.icechewing.com/). ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/28 "2014-08-20T03:23:09Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > [Obligatory xkcd](http://xkcd.com/915/) [Calvin and Hobbes](http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/05/05#.U_QUWmPa3Qo) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/29 "2014-08-20T03:40:52Z")
The other day I was reading a short story that mentioned a dog getting sick after eating boot blacking. I wondered what boot blacking was made out of, so I popped the term into Google and got pages and pages of results about sexual submissiveness via diligent care for leather footware. ---
**Author:** ![Timetrvlr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Timetrvlr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timetrvlr)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/30 "2014-08-20T04:47:18Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I live in Canada. By the end of ten years, salt has eaten the car, more or less. šŸ˜ƒ Owww, that hurts! I just sold a 13 year old car and bought a 12 year old car. :eek: Neither have rust-throughs yet and I live in north-central BC where we have lots of salt/sand mix on the highways. Umm, not sure what brand of oil either one used, I have it changed spring and fall at the dealership. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/31 "2014-08-20T04:48:37Z")
> [@PorchePine](#): > > We donā€™t salt our roads in Oregon. We only use very small rocks. In Colorado Itā€™s scoria from blast furnaces and smelters. ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/32 "2014-08-20T05:37:07Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > In Colorado Itā€™s scoria from blast furnaces and smelters. Use what you have, eh? Lots of cinder cones around here, so we sprinkle them on our roads in the winter. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/33 "2014-08-20T06:36:22Z")
Star Wars and Star Trek fans who go way overboard on it. As Shatner put it ā€œGet a life people, it was only a TV showā€. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/34 "2014-08-20T08:08:29Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > My daughter has recently gotten into Minecraft, and apparently thereā€™s a whole thing where you go on YouTube and watch other people play the game. You donā€™t play along or anything, you just watch. I guess the point is their humorous commentary, and I suppose itā€™s not that much weirder than watching professional sports, but I had no idea. I thought video games were pretty much all about playing. Iā€™ve heard that video games are a major spectator sport in Korea. There are professional leagues and competitions, arena events, television broadcasts, endorsement deals, and all the stuff we here in America associate with baseball, basketball, or football. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/35 "2014-08-20T12:25:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Iā€™ve heard that video games are a major spectator sport in Korea. There are professional leagues and competitions, arena events, television broadcasts, endorsement deals, and all the stuff we here in America associate with baseball, basketball, or football. In fact, Robert Morris University just became the first (I think) university in the U.S. to [offer a scholarship](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-video-game-scholarship-20140623-story.html) to League of Legends players, akin to an athletic scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/36 "2014-08-20T13:40:00Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Iā€™ll cop to being a member of a couple of the shaving forums. Not because Iā€™m some weirdo who shaves 3 times a day, but because I inherited about a dozen ancient safety razors from my father (not dead, has Parkinsons, and has a luxurious beard), grandfather and great-grandfathers, and didnā€™t know squat about them. A little googling, and I found the forums. > > Theyā€™re pretty good for finding out exactly how to use those old-style razors, and where to find stuff, and what stuff isnā€™t worth getting. But youā€™re absolutely right, some of those guys take it WAY too far. Like theyā€™d rather shave than eat a good meal, or make love to their wives, or something like that. To me, itā€™s a way to inject a little bit of enjoyment into an otherwise totally mundane daily chore, but not more than that. Well said. On one hand, I am grateful there are folks out there willing to share their vast knowledge on a subject on which I was sorely ignorant. On the other hand, WTF?!? You _shave_ three time a _day_?!? I also agree on your comment about injecting a little enjoyment into a daily chore. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/37 "2014-08-20T13:42:39Z")
Iā€™m getting real tired of various fandoms. Was at a sci-fi event a few weeks ago and couldnā€™t tolerate the idiotic ā€œHow did the Doctor get those new regenerations when they said in episode whatever thatā€¦ā€ discussion that raged for about 1/2 hour. The answer is obvious: **Because itā€™s _fiction_, people!** Another subculture that most donā€™t know exists are traveling phone book distributors - people who go from city to city to deliver telephone books. They mostly live in their vans or stay in the cheapest hotels, they get their walkers from local homeless shelters/Home Depots, can make well over 6-figures a year, and they almost all eventually succumb to the temptation of dumping books in a mini storage/trash bin somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/38 "2014-08-20T14:48:37Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The answer is obvious: **Because itā€™s _fiction_, people!**. I hate that attitude. i know you are commenting on people that go overboard, but saying ā€œitā€™s fictionā€ is reverse-snobbery. It says ā€œIā€™m too cool to obsess over **that**.ā€ Stories have to have internal logic. Would you care if Scarlett defended Tara against the Yahnkees with phasers? If Huck and Injun Joe sailed the Mississippi in the 1800s in a hemi-powered jet boat? After all, itā€™s only fiction, people! ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/39 "2014-08-20T15:45:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Would you care if Scarlett defended Tara against the Yahnkees with phasers? If Huck and Injun Joe sailed the Mississippi in the 1800s in a hemi-powered jet boat? Wait, are these movies or books, and where can I get them? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905/40 "2014-08-20T15:48:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I hate that attitude. i know you are commenting on people that go overboard, but saying ā€œitā€™s fictionā€ is reverse-snobbery. It says ā€œIā€™m too cool to obsess over **that**.ā€ > > Stories have to have internal logic. Would you care if Scarlett defended Tara against the Yahnkees with phasers? If Huck and Injun Joe sailed the Mississippi in the 1800s in a hemi-powered jet boat? After all, itā€™s only fiction, people! I donā€™t think thatā€™s what heā€™s getting at exactly. To use a made up example, I think heā€™s getting down on the people who would bitch that the Klingon spoken in early episodes isnā€™t gramatically correct by the standards of the later episodes. Who the f\*\*k cares? Itā€™s entirely fair to point out glaring plot holes or retcons, but it seems like a defining characteristic of fandoms is the pointing out of minuscule differences that really donā€™t have any bearing on the plot or story, and/or elaborating huge worked up retcons of their own to explain these things away. For example, Chief Oā€™Brien on the various Star Trek shows never really had a firm and solid rank. You could infer that he was probably senior enlisted, but it really didnā€™t matter much. Yet thereā€™s all this backstory out there as to why the uniforms were different over the course of ST-TNG and ST-DS9 that fans made up to try to explain it. That kind of fandom borders on the crazy, IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/encountering-weird-sub-cultures/695905.md?page=3)