# What thread on the Dope most surprised you with its responses? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 3, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533 "2010-01-03T20:10:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/21 "2010-01-05T01:51:04Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > You could read it the way I did, with a comma between “drunk” and “asshole,” and I think it would be more appropriate. 🙂 I was being nice! Didn’t you see me being nice? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/22 "2010-01-05T02:22:34Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > [This one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=172) about women changing their sexual habits if abortion became illegal. About 1/3 of respondents said they would definately be more careful which surprised me. > I’ve always been pro-choice and when pro-lifers made the argument that women had abortions out of convenience I always gave them the ol’:rolleyes:. > To hear that 1/3 of women would change their habits said to me that there are acutually women out there whose current habits consist of “well, since abortion is legal I can be somewhat careless, cause if I do get pregnant I can just get an abortion.”:eek: > Just a real eye-opener. I was more shocked at the 2/3rds who wouldn’t give a damn and just keep on screwing like they did before. Okay okay (before someone jumps on me) the poll choice probably shouldn’t have been binary: more like If abortion were made illegal, would you be more careful about sex? A. No, I’d be just as indiscriminate with my body/gametes as before B. No, because I already am as careful about it as is practicable C. Yes, I’d definitely would be more careful D. You forgot about X/other/bailout/etc. B & C are reasonable; A is probably not, and I’m probably forgetting another believable reason for “yes”. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/23 "2010-01-05T03:49:45Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > The Newcomb’s Paradox thread, where the vast majority would take only one box. Is that really surprising? At least in the framing I recall (with a hypothetically perfect predictor), it’s the only choice that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/24 "2010-01-05T10:01:06Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Is that really surprising? At least in the framing I recall (with a hypothetically perfect predictor), it’s the only choice that makes sense. Not to derail Skald’s thread, but to my mind, when faced with a choice of $X or $X+1000, where X is an unknown but unchangeable amount, the only rational choice is $X+1000. I would expect most of the general public to think “$1M Oooh! Shiny!” but I thought Dopers would see the cause+effect part more. YMM (and obviously does) V, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/25 "2010-01-05T12:24:33Z")
There was a thread about whether you’d kill an _innocent_ person to save the life of your child. There were lots of people not just saying they’d kill but that they’d cheerfully kill hundreds of innocents, innocent children even. What was disturbing was that they actually tried to defend such views with lines like (paraphrasing) “Oh come on, you care more about your family than hearing about a plane crash on the news…I’m the same, I care more about my child than a plane full of people”. :eek: I just hope that such people are simply giving a knee-jerk response, and if such a real situation ever came about they would not act in that way. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/26 "2010-01-05T13:44:30Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > The one about the lady who ordered milk in a fancy restaurant. This. It was astounding to me that not everyone could see the social faux pas that occurred. Instead, it devolved into some weird quasi-libertarian screed about how nobody should judge anybody else or something. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/27 "2010-01-05T14:14:42Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > This. It was astounding to me that not everyone could see the social faux pas that occurred. Instead, it devolved into some weird quasi-libertarian screed about how nobody should judge anybody else or something. Does anyone have a link to this thread? I’ve heard it mentioned before, but I’ve never gotten to read it. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/28 "2010-01-05T15:01:57Z")
> [@JoseArcadio](#): > > [What’s the correct way to deal with this situation (food smells in common areas)?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=524066) started by Hippy Hollow. > > Majority opinion seemed to be that Hippy Hollow was the one in the wrong and should be more considerate about people finding the smell of his cooking unpleasant. I was taken aback enough by the views expressed (I had only been reading the board for a short time) I discussed it with my flatmate, who shared in my bemusement. > > Upon reading it again, now I’m more familiar with the SDMB and some of its members, the responses are not so surprising to me. Americans are fond of heavily spiced food, but they seem unusually sensitive to the smells of homes where heavily spiced food is prepared. When I lived in Britain nobody ever found the smell of Indian cooking odd - turmeric, saffron and so on - but Americans seem to find that not only do Indian homes smell “weird”, but Indian _people_ do too, as a consequence of their diets. Obviously, some allowance has to be made here for the climate - my people are not all as fastidious as they ought to be, vis-a-vis personal hygiene - but still. I know a few Hispanic and African-American people who grew up in homes where a lot of traditional food was prepared who said the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/29 "2010-01-05T15:26:05Z")
I’m going to have to go with [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=546298) thread. ---
**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:** [January 5, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/30 "2010-01-05T15:40:24Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > This. It was astounding to me that not everyone could see the social faux pas that occurred. Instead, it devolved into some weird quasi-libertarian screed about how nobody should judge anybody else or something. Okay, this I simply don’t understand. Why would ordering milk be a social faux pas? Maybe if I read the thread, I’lll understand. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/31 "2010-01-05T15:41:09Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > There was a thread about whether you’d kill an _innocent_ person to save the life of your child. > > There were lots of people not just saying they’d kill but that they’d cheerfully kill hundreds of innocents, innocent children even. > What was disturbing was that they actually tried to defend such views with lines like (paraphrasing) “Oh come on, you care more about your family than hearing about a plane crash on the news…I’m the same, I care more about my child than a plane full of people”. > :eek: > > I just hope that such people are simply giving a knee-jerk response, and if such a real situation ever came about they would not act in that way. Saying you would \*kill \*a bunch of innocent people to save your child is not the same thing as saying you care about your child more than a plane crash you see on the news. How many thousands of people die every single day? Are we supposed to mourn for every single one? Of course not, but I’m sure you’d care if someone close to you died. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/32 "2010-01-05T16:09:33Z")
I was shocked to see how many Dopers know/knew someone who had been murdered. I think that thread was up to 3 pages long the last time I looked. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/33 "2010-01-05T16:39:01Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Not to derail Skald’s thread, but to my mind, when faced with a choice of $X or $X+1000, where X is an unknown but unchangeable amount, the only rational choice is $X+1000. I would expect most of the general public to think “$1M Oooh! Shiny!” but I thought Dopers would see the cause+effect part more. YMM (and obviously does) V, though. If the predictor is perfect, in all possible universes where you choose both boxes, the box on the right contains zero dollars. So the choice is not between $X and $X+1000, but between $X and $1000 (where X is much larger than 1000), and therefore the rational choice for someone who wants a lot of money is to pick the single box containing $X. The cause and effect is there, but from the point of view of the chooser it seems to be retroactive. (Although it isn’t, really.) Maybe we should start a new thread? 😉 And I too am curious about the milk “faux pas.” Is this anything like the people blasting Obama for asking for orange juice? ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/34 "2010-01-05T17:11:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Okay, this I simply don’t understand. Why would ordering milk be a social faux pas? > > Maybe if I read the thread, I’lll understand. I was wondering myself, so I searched, and found [this, which I assume is the thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302800&highlight=milk+fancy+restaurant). Joe ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/35 "2010-01-05T19:18:06Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Saying you would \*kill \*a bunch of innocent people to save your child is not the same thing as saying you care about your child more than a plane crash you see on the news. How many thousands of people die every single day? Are we supposed to mourn for every single one? Of course not, but I’m sure you’d care if someone close to you died. Agreed. And just so it’s clear: I was one of the few people on the thread saying I _wouldn’t_ kill an innocent person for the life of my child. (although, you could probably concoct scenarios where, being completely honest, I’m not sure exactly how I’d behave: e.g. my young child’s life versus a very old man with a terminal illness. It would still be morally wrong to take the kill option, but perhaps that is what I’d do in that situation; I don’t know). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/36 "2010-01-05T19:20:14Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Agreed. And just so it’s clear: I was one of the few people on the thread saying I _wouldn’t_ kill an innocent person for the life of my child. > (although, you could probably concoct scenarios where, being completely honest, I’m not sure exactly how I’d behave: e.g. my young child’s life versus a very old man with a terminal illness). Yeah. That thread surprised me not because it was full of stuff like how it would be a tough decision, or how maybe in some situations like the terminal man vs. the young kid, they could do it. It was just so casual, “Yeah, six million people can die so my kid can live, who cares?” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/37 "2010-01-05T19:32:41Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > \ > > The first one about “shoes off or on?” in the house. That was one of my first eye-opening experiences in the world wide web - not only did people do things differently in a different part of the world, but they actually criticized us for having a different culture from them (i.e. their way of doing things was the only right way they could conceive of)! It was…fascinating. I was also very surprised about people’s willingness to kill a complete stranger if they broke into their house, with claims of no remorse whatsoever (this was a different thread, unrelated to the shoes off in house thread). ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/38 "2010-01-05T19:37:00Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > I was wondering myself, so I searched, and found [this, which I assume is the thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302800&highlight=milk+fancy+restaurant). Without doing a search, I sort of remember a different thread, about a Doper’s friend ordering milk at a bar. Were there two threads on this, or am I off in Fantasy Land again? ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/39 "2010-01-05T19:38:16Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Why? Ha ha, because that’s not what happened. At all. I believe msfoxfyre and Zsofia are on the money with this one. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533/40 "2010-01-05T19:48:17Z")
There was a thread years ago that I believe was lost when we were hacked before the Lost Winter. It was a story about an office with around fifteen employees. The OP brought in a box of a dozen Krispy Kremes and one obese worker took and ate five of them before everyone else had a chance to get any. When called on it, the worker said that he deserved almost half of what was brought for everyone to share because fat people are hungrier. A significant number of people actually defended the co-worker. It was crazy. I was called prejudiced and an asshole because I thought that one doughnut per person was an appropriate serving size when there were barely enough to go around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-thread-on-the-dope-most-surprised-you-with-its-responses/523533.md?page=3)