Of course not. How about millions of people went to war and came back and were able to cope with fireworks for the rest of their lives. Now less than quarter of that population has gone to war and has lost the ability to go on with their lives and the other 98% of us are supposed to change to deal with it.
I am okay with fireworks on the 4th of July. It is part of the holiday, it is just one day a year, and everyone should be prepared for it. It’s not that big of a deal. And in my neighborhood it really wasn’t a big deal for some reason this year; by the time I went to bed there were very few of them going off. Even my dog seemed cool with it.
It is different for the assholes lighting them off at night starting in late May. Those are the dickheads that should be prosecuted (they are breaking the law; exploding fireworks are illegal here). There were some days in June where we had more firework noise than we ended up having on Independence Day. That’s some goddamn nonsense.
I kind of do. It is like a testosterone thing, a sort of visceral rush, and a personal statement, “Hey, I am HERE!” An expression of insecurity, really. And who makes more useless noise than Americans? It is at the heart of our culture.
Obligatory Simpsons quote…
“Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it.”
Have you ever felt your chest compress and your heart stop bearing as the pressure wave from a quarter stick of dynamite goes off 100 feet away? The noise is only a small bit of it. It is a full body experience. The best fireworks shows I’ve ever been to used over 100 quarter sticks of dynamite and the prime viewing seats were all 100-200 feet away. Getting to see, hear, and feel the explosion is a rush that is hard to duplicate. That’s why when we were kids we use to toss M-80s in the sewer so the echo would magnify the sound or built hydrogen bombs with Draino so we could feel the pressure wave. Having an audience ruins the experience because once it gets any where near large someone will start complaining, so at least for me:
has nothing to do with it.
Or just blowing stuff up is kind of fun, without it being any sort of existential statement. Insecurity? Pshaw.
Fuck, my 5- and 7-year-old daughters are intrigued with it; doesn’t have anything to do with testosterone or some psycho mumble jumble, I understand it’s not everyone’s cuppa. But it doesn’t mean that just cause you don’t like it or you don’t understand it that the people who do enjoy it are somehow compensating or making statements.
So does the whole issue comes down to this: there are people who are caring, considerate human beings and people who want to explode stuff and don’t give a rip who or what might be disturbed by it?
If that’s the way you want to look at it, yes.
Note: I do not blow shit up. I think that’s a stupid way to think about this.
To a certain extent, yes. People who like to blow stuff have a limited window to go crazy in. If it were allowed to do this year round you would see less middle of the war zone and more occassional booms. On the one night a year where people are allowed to go crazy there is very little caring about people who might be disturbed for 0.1% of the year.
I have a fire pit in my backyard. I sometimes burn paper/cardboard/wood stuff. I check the wind first, though, because my neighbors might have their windows open. For all I know, they or their kids might have asthma. I’m not an outright inconsiderate douchebag, so I burn a fire when I think it might not be a bother to my neighbors.
If I believed that I should blow up insanely loud fireworks without a thought about who else might be affected, I’d be an outright inconsiderate douchebag. I’m glad not to be.
Isn’t this also the reason we will never be over the pandemic. Some people are caring, considerate human beings and some people don’t want to be inconvenienced and don’t give a rip who might die because of it.
See, and I think that’s very nice you would do that – and I would do similarly. However, if you didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be mad or pissed at you. I can, you know, close my window. Just because you burn some wood and the wind blows it over to my house doesn’t make you a horrible, terrible beast of a human being.
I mean, growing up, you know who the people who loved blowing shit up most were in my family circle? The Vietnam vets. My dad would fill a paint can with God-knows-what and he and his Vietnam buddies would blow it up in the alley to the most god-awful boom you’ve ever heard. And we loved it, and we drew some attention. These were not awful assholes, terrible examples of human beings who just didn’t give a shit about anybody else. Sometimes, they just wanted to have some fun and blow off some steam by blowing stuff up.
How do we feel about burning other people’s houses down?
- Against.
- Meh, that’s just the price other people have to pay so assholes can blow shit up.
0 voters
Rather, being a caring, considerate human being, and liking explosions and pyrotechnics and loud noises, are independent (orthogonal) characteristics. And your main problem is with people who are low in the former and high in the latter.
Disagree. The fireworks noise exists because a real human being made a CHOICE to call it into existence. Such is not the case with thunder (unless the Underdog Show was actually a poorly-filmed documentary, in which case I’m happy to join the OP in raising a massive FUCK YOU! to Simon bar Sinister).
See, here’s where “considerate” enters the picture. Innocent nice guy, good human one decides to blow something up. A thought enters (or does not) his mind… How close is my neighbor’s house to me? Might someone be sleeping in there?
I get that the thought process ain’t for everyone. See the above mentioned lack of covid vaccinations in this country.
Sure, and I similarly have no strong feelings about the covidiots. I don’t think they’re terrible, awful people. I get where they’re coming from, though I disagree. They can still be my friends. I guess I’m just not made for the Pit, so I’ll gracefully (or perhaps gracelessly) exit.
It does to me. With all the windows and doors closed, the smoke comes in the vents, so now I have a room of smoke with no place to vent it.
Aren’t there ways to do this without creating dangers to other people’s property and lives? Having fun is one thing. Having fun at someone else’s expense is another.
Edit: this was simulposted with the post above that announces his exit from the thread. I’m going to leave it here.
The resopnse that I gave to you would fly outside the pit. Stick around.
Are you sure it isn’t the moldy newspaper? Sure, kanicbird’s arrogance has never done him any favors, but mold spores Kan be pretti nasti, or so the saying goes.