I hate that one too. I was depressed when I was broke, and I’m depressed now that I’m pretty wealthy. But being rich and depressed is roughly 1000 times better than being broke and depressed. Yeah, sure, money didn’t quite buy happiness, but it did buy relief from some major, major stressors. Not having to worry about whether I could pay the rent any given month is a big step in the direction of happiness.
My mom uses this one, and it makes my teeth hurt. I like the reply I saw somewhere: “Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.”
Well, things do happen for a reason; even if that reason is obscure (or even obscene) to us, there’s a reason for it.
What I hate is when people offer that up as a sort of platitude, a solace or comfort to someone who’s had something really shitty happen to them.
Fuckin’ A right.
"Thanks, Mom; I just learned a valuable life-lesson* while fighting four-to-one odds, nearly getting my septum severely deviated, and/or my retina(s) detached. But as long as you got to trot out ‘violence never solves anything’ and ‘everything happens for a reason’ yet again, I guess all is right with the world.”
FWIW, the particular life lesson I learned was: “God Made Man; Sam Colt Made 'Em Equal.”
British people have bad teeth - this really irritates me. We’re not as *obsessed *over teeth as some nations are, we don’t pay dentists that much (a friend is an experienced dentist and earns a little under six figures sterling) and there are still many people lucky enough to get free NHS oral healthcare.
All food in the UK is crap - maybe forty years ago it wasn’t as good as the cuisines of Europe, but now there are 177 Michelin star restaurants in the UK & Ireland.
The other day the local pool was a lifeguard short so the manager did a shift as a guard to fill in.
The manager has been around for some time, teaches the lifeguard training classes, etc.
But remember: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.
Would you rather have an 18 year old with 1 lifeguard cert under them or an experienced person who is also Red Cross certified to teach courses and teaches them several times a year?
Over and over and over I run into situations where a teacher is the best person for doing stuff.
The original is “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.” It’s one of the Maxims for Revolutionists in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. They’re the most wonderfully cynical set of sayings in the entire English language. (“If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven.”) They’re serious and outrageous and both true and false simultaneously. People who quote them unironically are idiots, and mostly prove his point about humanity.
If it’s natural it’s good, the more difficult an ingredient is to pronounce the more unhealthy it is, if it has chemicals in it it’s bad and on and on and on.
I absolutely hate that mindset and I do not understand it. Now I don’t know for sure but I’m pretty confident that there are people talking about the evils of technology via their computers.
I also agree with the “large monolithic corporations are evil” while the small “mom and pop” business is good. I too work for a big one in a job I love with people that are great.
I think that it’s been mentioned upthread but there’s the belief that there is that special job for each and every person on earth. Umm, no there isn’t. As a wild ass guess, I suspect that 90% of the world’s jobs are of the shoveling-shit variety. I also suspect that most of the shit shovellers out there are not passionate about their jobs and, sadly, can’t get something better. I have a job that I love because I’m very, very fortunate.
Another one that I hate is “legal logic.” (Not logic that lawyers actually use, but rather, what some people *think *they use.)
For instance, I once saw a question on Yahoo! Answers that read as thus: “If a victim is shot on the right side of his face, that means that the gunman must have been left-handed.” No, a right-handed gunman can also shoot someone on the right side of his face, the gunman is certainly not guaranteed to be standing directly perfectly in front of the victim, even a left-handed shot can hit the victim on the left-side of the victim’s face too, etc.
Or the apocryphal legal anecdote: A lawyer tells the jury that the dead murder victim will walk into the courtroom in 30 seconds. All the jurors watch eagerly. The murder victim, of course, doesn’t appear. The lawyer says, “Oh, but you jurors *looked *to see if the victim would walk in. If you *really *thought he was dead, you wouldn’t have looked to see if he would appear in the courtroom or not. Therefore, since you aren’t sure that the murder victim is really dead, you must acquit.” What???
Again, not the lawyer (it’s apocryphal,) but rather, that the people who share this urban legend seem to think that that logic would actually fly in court.
Maybe for 6 year-olds and under, but after that, it robs kids the chance of the important life skill of dealing with defeats and setbacks, which all of them will encounter later in life.
Useless coddling that’s ultimately a disservice.
Both these points, muchly. < (pardon for using a Trumpy-sounding word) Especially the second one, where some passive aggressive shmoe tries to project some weaselly insinuation onto you by weakly trying to mirror the issue.
Or this little gem: Your parents whined until you got participation trophies, therefore you’re an entitled brat for having gotten participation trophies.
Ditto grade inflation. It might (might!) be due to student influence in college, but in high school, the parents are to blame. The teachers have to listen to parents.
That children don’t like vegetables. As a child, I devoured everything except asparagus, cauliflower, and eggplant, and I would eat the cauliflower if it was mixed with something else. I ate tomatoes, cucumbers, and turnips like apples-- I loved raw carrots, and would get seconds on peas and broccoli withheld as punishment. I loved fruit too. I would pick a fresh nectarine over a lollipop.
I always resented the “Kids don’t eat vegetables” thing, and it still bugs me.
Related to this, a man who is capable of the simplest household or parental task should be praised like a Nobel laureate. Sounds like you resent this too.
Oh, and a father caring for his child is “babysitting.” Please.
I’m not sure if this is better or worse than the freeze-your-woes-in-ice-cream canard. I almost threw a shoe at an episode of Judging Amy when she initiated her preteen daughter in the ritual.
Agree 100%. I love my job, it plays to my skills and I often find it interesting. But I rarely think about my work outside of the office, beyond “how was your day?” conversations.
“Have a job that you love” is not the same as “make your job the love of your life.” :smack:
Wow…not to derail the thread, but what kind of slug?
USMC motto, “Pain is weakness leaving the body” - I guess you are strongest right after you’ve had burns over 100% of your body, or surgery without anesthetic…