A 5-Year-Old Chinese Boy Has A 15-Page Resume And The Internet Has A Lot Of Thoughts
November 04 | 2018
Keystone/Getty Images
A young Chinese boy's 15 page resume is taking the internet by storm. To some, the resume is but a reflection of China's education system, often needing such extreme measures to compete. To others, it's an indictment of the child's parents.
The CV was leaked from a school application. Screenshots were posted to Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site. From there it spread getting thousands of comments and shares.
His résumé, at 15 pages, is glittering, complete with performance reviews (“full of energy”), a map of his travels… https://t.co/zIh9kN6WVP— New York Times World (@New York Times World)1541104564.0
The document contains an extensive list of genuinely impressive accomplishments for a five year old. From a map of cities he has visited, to the hundreds of books he's read in the last year, the resume speaks volumes of a child trying to get into a good school.
It sparked debate online with many seeing the resume as an overboard reaction on behalf of the parents.
@nytimesworld I wish they were interested in a child's happiness and what his passions are. This is scary, but more… https://t.co/DwtueaT4Ng— Patty B. Lamprinakos (@Patty B. Lamprinakos)1541113761.0
@nytimesworld Some years ago while hosting a Chinese college student the group of students were asked to draw as a… https://t.co/awPT0UJfoV— Chris Edward (@Chris Edward)1541231905.0
@BBCNewsAsia He will never have memories of a carefree childhood. Sad.— Denise Hoidal (@Denise Hoidal)1541220562.0
@nytimesworld Unsettling. The parents need a drink.— Persephone (@Persephone)1541218958.0
@nytimesworld Incredible. Let him be a 5-year-child first.— hrl (@hrl)1541217656.0
@BBCNewsAsia That kid will never know the wonders of the young— FAT-FREE (@FAT-FREE)1541228503.0
The Chinese education system is a highly competitive market, where tests and exams determine nearly every aspect of a child's future. This can lead to some parents being extra aggressive in their child's pursuit of academic excellence.
Others felt that the parents were doing their best for their child in an unfair and overly competitive system.
@nytimesworld If only Americans were as eager for schooling as this.— stravinsky (@stravinsky)1541105234.0
@BBCNewsAsia I’m already impressed: Referencing his youth, the boy seems comfortable being five years old, saying:… https://t.co/Ziu2ub9pZI— MetamorphosisCoach (@MetamorphosisCoach)1541218524.0
@nytimesworld What these parents did is not normal behavior in China and is not a new trend, thankfully. They are j… https://t.co/NXLR1PtFIc— EXIDislife (@EXIDislife)1541218455.0
@nytimesworld It is said that a voracious reader will always find good friend ship and brilliant scholar ship.— June Bride (@June Bride)1541216564.0
@BBCNewsAsia A little much but sounds like he’s loved. Next.— ________ (@________)1541218696.0
@nytimesworld I lived in Taiwan and taught and this does not surprise me. I used to teach 5 yr olds that would be i… https://t.co/VbOa0cK8H2— K P Johnson (@K P Johnson)1541254728.0
@nytimesworld If this was an American child they would be praised as a prodigy and I guarantee it would not be pain… https://t.co/ffHeeBcgii— hi honey, it's me, your husband, ralph (@hi honey, it's me, your husband, ralph)1541249970.0
The controversy surrounding the strict standards of the Chinese education system have been coming under scrutiny as of late. Calls have been put out to remove or reduce the stigma from failing some of their most dreaded tests.
H/T: New York Times, BBC News
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
The naming process of new life is an enormous responsibility and can be an emotionally exhausting decision. This person is going to be glued to this "title" forever, or until they're tired of being saddled to it so they change it; when they're free of their parent's constant gaze. Thankfully I will never have children but I do have to name pets. And that is taxing as well. Thankfully there are people around who can set us all straight when we're not thinking straight.
Redditor u/Kubanochoerus wanted to hear about some of the bad ideas they were able to help avert by asking... Nurses and midwives of Reddit, have you ever tried to talk new parents out of a baby name? What was it?
<h1></h1>
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<p>The people on this chain had some bad ideas about naming humans. Like, for real not good ideas. And medical staff already has a tough enough job by delivering babies. Clearly they also have to be sound voices of reason. Especially when people are in their most emotional state... post birth. </p>
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TINA!!!
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMDMwMi9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzMzMDQ1MH0.tsr7EGvZjNsIJ22F7t7GruJyrRcQfxzwlXNwkCjXfio/img.gif?width=980" id="3f7f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9c6a780b51b9cd3888e7e641b0e723ca" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="480" data-height="360" />the best tina GIF by London Theatre DirectGiphy<p>My boyfriend's grandmother wanted to name her daughter Sunshine. The midwife said that wasn't allowed because "it wasn't a real name" and his grandmother had no other backup baby names. So, a few minutes later when she heard someone down the hall screaming "Tina", she named her daughter Tina because she couldn't think of anything else on the spot.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/goqh9nc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">goddesswithgatos</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_2" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Poor Mo...
<p>Boss's friend named their kid Monster Galileo [last name]. Nurse tried to talk them out of it. Called in child services to talk them out of it. They insisted. Kid goes by Galileo. Honestly, I kind of like the sound of it for an adult or a performer's name but guy, being a kid named 'monster' has to be rough in school. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/goqh9jz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">WeaselBit</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_3" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Be Normal...
<p>My classmates mother was a maternity nurse and she has a couple who wanted to name their son "Collin" but wanted to give him a "unique" spelling for it. (I do not understand why parents do this. It doesn't make a boring name more interesting all it does is set your child up for lifelong inconvenience.) They spelled it out for her to put on the birth certificate C-O-L-O-N. <span></span></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_4" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p>They tried to name their son colon. As in, the organ attached to your anus. When my classmates mother explained this to them they were painfully embarrassed and asked her to write it down with the normal spelling instead. I don't think they'll ever live it down. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/goq57hd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">skippyist</a></p>
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Listed
<p>In France there used to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/11/style/IHT-the-ins-and-outs-of-french-first-names.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a list of names you had to choose from</a> (mostly based on that day's name saint and 3-4 others). Which is why there were so many Jean / Marc / Louis /Phillipe / Marie / Anne / Valerie, etc in France.</p><p>Now it's a free choice.... but <em>anyone</em> can ask a judge to cancel a name-choice and force the parent(s) to suggest one <em>the judge</em> finds acceptable. So no names like Coca-Cola, Xerox, Nutella, Sex Fruit, Devil, Blue Murder... PLUS the rejected name gets added to a "banned" list to streamline the rejection in the future. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/goqavqf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">LozNewman</a></p>Dirty...
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMDY5Mi9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODkzNzM2N30.tqMPtERdRpTBQfo738SJ2xd8mWMY8hqx5Z6jQg8aFmQ/img.gif?width=980" id="51b84" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b854372f0e30251184c776d4de3c6366" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="480" data-height="270" />Mud Caterpillar GIF by Mitteldeutscher RundfunkGiphy<p>Not a nurse, but as a med student a patient wanted to name her child Mudpiles. The nurses silently protested and waited a few days. Mom changed her mind. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/gopcqib?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">bigpsych5150</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_6" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p>You would think people were drunk when the baby arrives. You really should wait until after you sign a birth certificate. For example, it feels this next group of people may have imbibed on a few shots and thought... <em>"hey that name sounds like fun." </em></p>
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Midwife Down
<p>I once had a student named Linoleum. Some midwife dropped the ball on that one. My brother wanted to name our soon to be younger brother Corn Peas and our parents almost went with it because they felt bad about asking for his input and then rejecting it. Fortunately, they got over that and passed on the name. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/gops5kf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BigOrangeBall</a></p><div data-conversation-spotlight style="min-height:90px"></div>
Hey Vi...
<p>And here my mom was talked out of naming me Violet. "Sounds like an old lady" they said. I got one of the most common names of the 80's. When I went to college I lived in a hallway where there were literally 6 of us. My roommate had the same first name too.</p><p>I do like my name because it sounds good with my last name but I have only once met a Violet in 37 years and she's my friend's niece. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/gopey2v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Maleficent_Mink</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_8" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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All the Dylans...
<p>Not in the medical field, but a teacher. There are certain names that each teacher avoids because we've had a student (or seven) with that name who were difficult in one way or another.</p><p>One year, there were four Dylans in the same cohort and they were all hell on wheels. One of the teachers at that grade level had a baby with his wife that spring, and she named the kid Dylan. The rest of us were like, "didn't you vehemently veto that?" </p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_9" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p>He just shrugged and said it was important to her and he wasn't the superstitious type. Flash forward a few years, I saw a toddler tearing through the salad bar at the grocery store, spilling things, moving spoons from one container to another, reaching in with his hands... it was Dylan. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/gopvl9f?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BobosBigSister</a></p>
Oh Katrina
<p>I had a coworker named Trina. When she was pregnant, she told me that she and her husband had decided to name the baby Latrine. I had to explain to her that she was naming her poor baby after the hole in the ground that soldiers defecate into. She was horrified and changed it to Katrina. Two days after the kid was born, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/goqkn8n?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">SpecificMost19</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_10" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Pegged
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMDY5MS9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTY1NTE0M30.SQZ_yuSv01Fa-4XVp2LM5aF76d34BtyCX3b-We4t3FU/img.gif?width=980" id="7e2ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="43dd38cdba5c93d0a4e47b395da64b21" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="320" data-height="270" />Oh No You Didnt GIF by happydogGiphy<p>I have a false leg. My parents had to be talked out of calling me 'Peggy' by the midwife. I was born missing a leg. I was given my first physical false leg in a year, but it was always obvious the leg wasn't there! </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/gopsck4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">orangemessy</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_11" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p>I know Hollywood has made it seem glamorous to choose off the wall names (I'm talking to you Gwyneth Paltrow) but Hollywood is crazy. So think long and hard before you saddle a new human with some ridiculous moniker. Remember... they have to go through life with it. You don't. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/" target="_blank">REDDIT</a></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ls5oeh/nurses_and_midwives_of_reddit_have_you_ever_tried/" target="_blank"></a>Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter <a href="https://mailchi.mp/knowable/knowable-newsletter-in-content" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
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People Describe The Most Basic Things That Humanity Just Figured Out Relatively Recently
March 01 | 2021
| Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay |
I sometimes marvel at how much society has advanced. Smartphones have only been a part of everyday life for the last decade, but you'd think it was always this way. My mother was a child at the time of the moon landing, which really wasn''t all that long ago, and she recalls watching it take place and thinking she would never see anything grander than that in her lifetime.
After Redditor notokidoki_ks asked the online community, "What is something that seems basic, but that humanity figured out only recently?" people shared their observations.
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"That doctors washing their hands..."
<p>That doctors washing their hands after going to the toilet increases survival rates significantly during surgical procedures.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp3pfd5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3"></a><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp3pfd5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">nbfox3137</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_36" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"We are going back..."
<p>Glass. Some cultures have had glassware for a long time while others developed without it. Japan and China are great examples of not having it and it impacts their architecture design as they did not have glass pane windows. China also has had arguably some of the best ceramics artisans because of the need for stone wear where glass cups would have worked.</p><p>We are going back a couple hundred years here but that's still fairly recent in terms of mankind's history.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp4b1zo?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">666pool</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_2" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"Two years ago..."
<p>Two years ago scientists learned that tongues can smell. They can detect some odors as part of the tasting process.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp40g3b?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Cattlenfell</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_3" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"Scientists knew that nutrition deficiencies..."
<p>All vitamins were discovered between 1913 and 1948.</p><p>Scientists knew that nutrition deficiencies were causing diseases, but couldn't figure out what was deficient. They fed mice highly purified food, but the mice failed to thrive until milk was added, leading to the theory that there was some life-sustaining, but unidentified, component in milk that was not present in the other food. That led to decades of speculation and research until the first vitamin (A) was discovered in 1913.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp4chtt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Enreni37001</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_4" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"There's a reason..."
<p>How to tell if someone is dead.</p><p>There's a reason people used to keep family members who they thought had passed in their home for weeks before burying them.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp3t7tk?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Ms_khal2</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_5" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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But the smell!
<p>What about the smell?</p><p>This is how you know my modern sensibilities would doom me if I happened to be a time traveler and got stuck in the past.</p>"The earliest cutlery..."
<p>Cutlery that doesn't make the food taste awful, and isn't ridiculously expensive.</p><p>Gold and silver cutlery were useful to the rich (besides being a display of wealth) because they could eat without affecting the taste of the food. Copper, brass, tin etc. all really strongly affect the flavour of the food.</p><p>The earliest cutlery is some 4,000 years old, but for most of that time, very few people used it; instead they'd eat with their hands.</p><p>Stainless steel was only invented in the 1800s, and its high resistance to acid and no discernible taste made it suitable for cutlery.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp4u2e0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Ishmael128</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_6" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"That hitting kids..."
<p>That hitting kids is bad, and does not enforce positive behavior. Some knew this instinctively, but mostly, nope.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp3utd2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">pearlescence</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_7" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"There simply isn't..."
<p>A scientific understanding of what culture is and how it works.</p><p>Before the 1800s or so, people just assumed their culture was the one, single, objectively real and correct way to live, therefore all other cultures were objectively wrong and the people weren't really human.</p><p>It was common for anthropologists to encounter remote societies that insisted "The people in the next valley are monsters, they are not human" - and if you went into that valley, they'd <em>say the same thing</em> about the people you were just talking to.</p><p>That made it pretty easy for actual social scientists to grasp how cultures define reality, but even now the average person has very little social science education and people tend to still believe their cultural norms are 100% real, natural, and objectively correct - i.e., look at how angry people get when you explain that gender isn't biological, it's cultural.</p><div data-conversation-spotlight style="min-height:90px"></div>
<p>Or ask a white midwestern American if rap is "real music." The idea that cultures other than your own aren't "real" is an incredibly ignorant, unscientific understanding of the world, but it was really only recently that we came to understand it, so there are still a lot of people out there who will say "Oh, [those people] don't have culture," or "[Those people's music] isn't real music," or art or slang or whatever. </p><p>There simply isn't such a thing as humans that lack culture - all humans have culture, all culture is real.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp54xrd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">AdSquare3953</a></p>
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"People commonly think..."
<p>How dogs drink water. People commonly think dogs make their tongue into a spoon to lap it up but the tongue curls backward.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp4emag?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">inkseep1</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_9" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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I took care of a friend's dog very recently...
<p>...and now I'm poring over the image in my head of her lapping at the water in her bowl. <em>It's so cool</em>.<span></span></p>"Pretty much everything used in statistics..."
<p>Loads of math that gets used all the time. Pretty much everything used in statistics wasn't known until the 20th century. We had a good grasp of probability theory and a few distributions, but not many statistical tests as we know them today. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_tasting_tea" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The idea of a null hypothesis as it is used today wasn't codified until 1935</a>.</p><p>Same goes for a lot of linear algebra, computers kinda made linear algebra really important, so people are still discovering heaps of useful things about it today.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ltz79s/what_is_something_that_seems_basic_but_that/gp5ku4h?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Cytokine_storm</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_10" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Now that we've gone through all of these examples,
<p>I can't help but think of others, such as the fact that the chocolate chip cookie wasn't invented until the 1930s, and that pockets in clothing didn't become a thing until roughly 500 years ago. I know, right?</p><p>Got some of your own observations to share? Feel free to sound off in the comments below!</p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_11" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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If there's one thing I think most of humanity can agree on, it's that people are annoying. People are the worst. You'd think they'd get the simplest concepts into their heads but they don't... and then they have the audacity to fight you on it. Take this pandemic, for example. Why are we still arguing over whether people should wear masks? The fact that so many people refuse to wear a piece of cloth is ridiculous when there's a deadly virus going around. What's up with that?
After Redditor moneybot13 asked the online community, "What are you sick of explaining to other people?" people shared their stories.
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"There is no law..."
<p>Legal does not equal moral. Moral does not equal legal.</p><p>Example: Yes, I agree that the executor of the estate should notify you of what's going on with gram gram's estate. Yes, I understand being left in the cold sucks. No, I cannot do anything about it, because while s****, it is NOT illegal. There is no law against being an a-hole.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/govqs2s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Reaper0329</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_36" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"As long as it's not hurting anyone..."
<p>You don't have to understand someone's hobby to just accept that they enjoy it. As long as it's not hurting anyone, let them have fun.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/goupbv9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">fennecfur</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_2" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Believe it or not...
<p>...it's really as simple as that. Why bother other people? Why "yuck their yum," so to speak? It's pointless, isn't it?</p><p>Exactly.</p><p>This next one is super relatable.</p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_3" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"That being depressed..."
<p>That being depressed isn't (necessarily) about lying in bed all day.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/goufu1g?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">smellslikereason</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_4" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"Wanting others to have a better life..."
<p>Wanting others to have a better life than we had should be the GOAL, and forcing hardships on others simply because you had to endure it is a really crappy way to live your life.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/goubdbs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">ntrusivethots</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_5" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"That's it's okay..."
<p>That's it's okay to let people live their lives even if you don't agree with them.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/goudnhn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">tommytster</a></p>"That I'm not an introvert..."
<p>That I'm not an introvert for not wanting to go to a family gathering. No, Mom, it's because they're constantly being annoying.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/gouqve5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">ChonkyRaccoon3</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_6" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Yes!
<p>I have memories of all the annoying family members whose BS I had to suffer through because I was being forced to attend some ridiculous gathering.</p><p>Thankfully I'm an adult and spared that nonsense now.</p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_7" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"I just don't like..."
<p>That me being a quiet person doesn't mean I'm angry all the time.</p><p><span>I just don't like talking as much as most people. Unfortunately, I don't even get the chance to explain before they judge me anyway.</span></p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/govg5j4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">HansOTP</a></p><div data-conversation-spotlight style="min-height:90px"></div>
"I'm just sick of them..."
<p>How to sell things online or in an antique mall.</p><p>I'm relatively successful selling on Etsy and in person and it's a hell of a lot of work. People ask me how I do it and I could talk till I'm blue in the face and they'll list 10 crappy things which will never sell like Norman Rockwell Collector Plates and complain they never sell anything like it's my fault. Or they'll get a booth and put those damn plates in and never ever make their rent and ask me how to make it better and then not do anything I told them to.</p><p>Funny how these people are always victims. "I tried but it didn't work." No, you didn't try. Not even close.</p><p>I'm just sick of them asking me for advice and then not doing anything I told them. Like, why ask?</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/gouhhvt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">Maleficent_Mink</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_8" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"People either think..."
<p>That I, a woman, don't want children. People either think you're lying or you'll grow out of it.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/gov9m3j?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">PirateClayton92</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_9" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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"That there is still so much stigma..."
<p>That there is still so much stigma towards mental illness. Especially mood disorders and those that are deemed "f**** up enough" to sensationalize through film and television. It really affects those of us who are just trying to be okay, not harm others, and not harm ourselves.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lt0qob/what_are_you_sick_of_trying_to_explain_to_people/govagya?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3" target="_blank">kemkem97</a></p>If only people weren't so insufferable.
<p>Life would be a lot easier, don't you agree?</p><p>Good thing I'm indoors and not looking outside at all the people passing by who aren't wearing their masks, otherwise I'd be going a bit crazy.</p><p>Have some of your own complaints to share? Feel free to talk about them in the comments below!</p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_10" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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There is a world full of mysteries to explore right at our very feet.
Do we engage with it on a level that might make us more uncomfortable? Well, if we really want to learn everything there is to know about our planet earth, we have to engage in the unsettling facts. They appear across every discipline.
<p>Human history is rife with unsettling facts. Things about the planet itself, about our weather, about animals in the wild; things about language--it's rife with unsettling facts. The world is a big scary place.</p><p>u/YolandaJenkins5454 asked:</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lqviv1/whats_a_deeply_unsettling_fact/" target="_blank">What's a deeply unsettling fact?</a><br></p><p>Here were some of those answers.</p><p><br></p>
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The Easier Way Out
<p>During the French Revolution, where the guillotine was introduced, the people to be executed fought to be first, as the blade would dull after multiple uses and wouldn't cut a head clean off at the first attempt.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Back2Bach/" target="_blank">Back2Bach</a></p><p>And the last execution by guillotine in France was the same year Star Wars came out.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CaptainPrower/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CaptainPrower</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_36" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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At LEAST One?!
<p>You have probably unknowingly encountered, or walked past at least one murderer in your lifetime.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/theprettyunicorn/" target="_blank">theprettyunicorn</a></p><p>For sure encountered. Worked night shift at a convenience store, guy pulled in to put gas came in the store used the atm and left. 3 min later swarm of cops surrounded the store. He had just murdered his family a couple states over and cops got a hit when he used the atm machine.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Cool1Mach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cool1Mach</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_2" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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WELP
<p>For a long time it was believed that babies were too underdeveloped to be able to feel pain, and as such, did not need anesthetic for any kind of surgeries.</p><p>Up into the 1980's.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/FartKilometre/" target="_blank">FartKilometre</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_3" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p><strong>Venture into the valley of dark secrets and facts. It's scary here.</strong></p>
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Internet History
<p>Eventually, most of the content on the internet will have been created by dead people.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Phaesporic/" target="_blank">Phaesporic</a></p><p>Now I'm imagining a class like English literature but for internet culture and picturing a bored class with some kids sleeping while the teacher is saying some shit like "Okay class this meme is 100 years old and it says Me and the Boys going out to get some B E A N S what do the B E A N S symbolize and how does it reflect what was going on in society ? " lmao.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Cheshire_Cat8888/" target="_blank">Cheshire_Cat8888</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_5" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Awful, Awful
<p>There are estimated to be at least 25 active serial killers in the United States alone at any given time. Very few will be detected, much less apprehended.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/brideofchuckydoll/" target="_blank">brideofchuckydoll</a></p><p>Derrick Todd Lee and Sean Vincent Gillis were both active serial killer in the same city from the late 90s to early 2000s. For most of this time, law enforcement did not realize they were trying to catch multiple individuals, much less that they were acting completely independently of each other. On top of that, there are additional unsolved murders that neither was ever linked to whose evidence raises the possibility of a third active serial killer in the area during the same time period.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/see-bees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">see-bees</a></p>Viewer, Beware....
<p>National parks are not all swings and roundabouts. Over 1600 people have gone inside Yellowstone National Park and never come out.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/I_Am_A_Master-Baiter/" target="_blank">I_Am_A_Master-Baiter</a></p><p>Yellowstone is known for boiling water and pools of acid. People on this earth put gorrilla glue in their hair. I don't have any questions about what happened.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MCqStep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MCqStep</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_6" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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Statistically....
<p>If you end up being the victim of a violent crime, you probably know the perpetrators. You probably trust them, most likely, you love them.</p><p><span data-verified="redactor" data-redactor-tag="span"></span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Double-Kicks/" target="_blank">Double-Kicks</a></p><p>People find it weird when the police declare most family members and close friends of murder victims to be suspects, but this is precisely why. You are FAR more likely to be (deliberately) killed by someone you know than a stranger. Also, in most countries and demographics, the most likely person to deliberately kill you is you.</p><p><span data-verified="redactor" data-redactor-tag="span"></span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kutuup1989/" target="_blank">kutuup1989</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_7" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p><strong>These facts will surely keep you awake at night.</strong></p>
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Our Brains Are Unsettling, Too
<p>There is a rare genetic degenerative brain disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia. FFI starts as a mild inability to sleep followed by short bouts of intense nightmares/dreams and progressively deteriorates until the sufferer is completely unable to sleep, at all. Eventually impacting the human ability to microsleep as a last ditch effort of self preservation. There is no cure for FFI and eventually sufferers lose their minds and die of sleep deprivation. But it gets so much worse.</p><p>Due to the degenerative nature of the condition as it progresses you begin deteriorating mentally and physically. You lose the ability to regulate body temperature and may swing between freezing and sweating, you develop severe memory problems, confusion, agitation, weight loss, paranoia, hallucinations, speech problems, double vision, loss of motor controls (similar to parkinsons), inability to swallow, increased blood pressure and production of tears as well as many other unpleasant symptoms. The combination of your mind going and your body shutting down eventually kills you.</p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_8" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p>Now, its called a <em>genetic</em> disorder because that's the <em>most</em> common way to contract it. But that isn't the <em>only</em> way. FFI is a prion disease, meaning if you accidently come into contact with an infected prion you can still end up with FFI. The most common way to come into contact with an infected prion is by consuming tainted meat, contact with improperly cleaned surgical equipment, and contact with infected dead bodies.</p><p>But thats not all! FFI can also spontaneously appear in sufferers with no family history of it and no known contact with an infected (mutated) prion. How does this happen? What are prions?</p><p>We all have prions. They are proteins in our brains that are needed for our brains to properly function. A prion is when a protein in the brain folds over abnormally due to a mutation. The bad protein triggers other proteins in the brain to also fold abnormally. The way these folds occur and where they occur determines which type of prion disease the now infected brain contracts. And it is highly contagious. Almost all prion diseases can be genetic, induced when exposed to mutated prions, or occur spontaneously. So far we don't know why they occur spontaneously or how to prevent them from doing so.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RealAbstractSquidII/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RealAbstractSquidII</a></p>
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Rise Of The Machines
<p>There so far at least two fatalities as a result of robots, both of industrial type.</p><p>The first was in Flat Rock, Michigan in 1979 when an engineer was killed when he was hit in the back and crushed while retrieving parts at an automobile factory. It was due to a malfunctioning industrial robot he was fixing. The second was in Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan where a maintenance worker was fixing a broken-down robot when it came to life by mistake. Both locations happened in factories that are well-known for manufacturing vehicles.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MissSara101/" target="_blank">MissSara101</a></p>So Can We Fix The Justice System Now
<p>One to five percent of the US prison population is estimated to be innocent.</p><p>Combine that with the fact that one percent of the US population is incarcerated and your chance of being wrongly imprisoned in the 21st century is around 1 in 1000 in America.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Crocoshark/" target="_blank">Crocoshark</a></p><div class="ad-tag" data-ad-name="In_Content_Responsive_10" style="min-height:280px"></div>
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<p class=""><strong>We live alongside these scary facts each and every day of our lives. We have already accepted them as risks we take just for being human.</strong></p><p><strong>What are some of the most unsettling facts you know?</strong></p>
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