With life flying forward, through chaos, at an impossible pace, it's easy for us to lull ourselves into acceptance of scathing abuses to humans, animals, or general ethics. It takes deliberate efforts to really notice and internalize the questionable things occurring all the time.
To do that noticing, some help is often required.
A recent Reddit thread offered just that kind of help. The forum offered readers a chance to stop, learn about things happening under the radar, really reflect on those, and, perhaps, vigilantly oppose them in the future.
adventuresmith asked, "What common practice do you find barbaric?"
Grosser than the Sum of its Parts
"Embalming a body by pumping it full of incredibly toxic stuff, then dropping it into a few thousand dollars' worth of casket..."
"...then dropping all that into another couple grand worth of concrete 'burial vault'..."
"...then putting all of that in a big hole in the ground--and charging the emotionally distraught grieving family a fortune to do it."
-- captain_borg
A Reminder: They are ALIVE
"Keeping exotic pets (reptiles, amphibians, etc.) in horrible conditions because people don't feel the need to do research beyond what they were told by the Petco employee at checkout." -- MissMetalSix
"It's not only exotics. Hamsters, bunnies etc. are kept under horrible conditions (tiny cages, social animals alone, no vet care) in most homes because people just don't care to do any research at all because 'It's just a bunny.' And they suffer in silence." -- WeirdOctopus
Horrible Even if it was Rare
"Child abuse is way too common. I mean in general, abuse is too common, but especially child abuse." -- Aperture_T
"I'm gonna say it, any amount of child abuse that isn't 0 is way too common." -- ihavetwonoses
Living Decorations that Feel Plenty of Pain
"Breeding animals with disabilities for our pleasure. Get a rescue pet people!" -- The-Herbal-Cure
"Pugs can have their eyes pop out of their sockets due to how they're bred." -- AdventureGirl1234567
"I was looking at pictures of bloodhounds recently and I couldn't believe it. The skin around their eyes sags so much beneath the socket that you can see the red flesh inside of the skin that wold normally be hidden behind the lower lid."
"Basically, if you pinched your lower lids and dragged them downward as far as possible." -- onepigeon
Hollowed Out
"I've worked at Panera bread... Some people don't eat any of the bowl! What a waste of good bread! In the trash!" -- Parkerthekitty4
"As a (former) baker, the best way to ruin a perfectly good loaf of bread is to carve out the middle and throw it away all to make a bowl out of it." -- SuiXi3D
Systemically Screwed Up
"In several states, a woman can marry at 16 if her parents consent, then her spouse becomes her guardian, meaning, if she wants a divorce, she needs his approval" -- FestesTestes
"I've recently been enlightened as to just how many states still have really old-fashioned laws like this. My wife recently told me that a lot of places still require a husband's consent for a woman to get her tubes tied."
"I can see how that sort of thing makes sense in some way, but the fact that men don't need the same consent for vasectomies kind of ruins any kind of argument for it."
"This is the kind of sh!t I just assumed had been phased out decades ago." -- FullTorsoApparition
Hopefully a Dwindling is at Hand
"Declawing cats-- even though I'm pleased to see that's in decline nowadays. Most shelters won't let someone adopt a cat if the person plans on declawing it-- or will blacklist them if they find out. Some vets will even refuse to do the procedure."
"However, where I live it's still a common practice. In order to declaw a cat the procedure removes the first finger where each claw grows out of. Imagine if someone chopped off your fingertips! Just to keep your furniture nice?"
"Cats are living breathing creatures and are not meant to be used as decoration. If you wanted a decorative pet you should have gotten a fish."
-- ZeD00m
Monsters
"Leaving shopping carts scattered all over the parking lot. In the United States we definitely live in a 'someone else will take care of it' kind of culture." -- weatherloft
"I worked at a grocery store as a teenager, the worst was the people that left them in the handicapped space." -- adventuresmith
Busy Shifts Do Not Justify Attacking People
"Have worked in a lot of cafes, restaurants and bars. Every single venue had chefs that acted in barbaric ways toward other staff members. Bullying by chefs has been normalised if not glorified by people like Gordon Ramsay."
"Bullying literally destroys peoples lives, why is it okay as long as somebody claims the title of chef?"
-- sadie_faye
No Say
"Circumcision. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a circumcised d***, but the fact that people are carving up other people's genitals without their consent is barbaric."
"Even worse than circumcision is the practice of "fixing" intersex babies genitals. This practice especially should be illegal."
-- twstdrose
Just Hold Onto it For Like One More Minute
"Littering."
"In nearly every major city around the world we have bins in the streets. Far far to often you walk down the street and less than 5 feet from a hanging bin there is a bottle, wrapper or worst of all Cigarette ends."
"It is simple common curiosity to walk over stub, crumble or crush you're rubbish and toss it into the bin."
"Another problem is how we are dealing with our littler. Land fills! Let's dig up a big whole and out it under the ground run land that could be used to grow life and nurture new habits for animals - instead our governments allow it to continue and do not take it serious enough."
"It really is a matter of Out of sight out of mind applied to far to many of us in this day and age."
-- SimplyNot0
Microscopic Horrors
"Walking out of a washroom without washing your hands. If you don't wash them, many people are basically indirectly touching your genitals."
"And you're indirectly touching the genitals of everyone else who didn't wash their hands."
-- raccoonTowel
Ugly Behind the Scenes
"Ballet, as a former ballet dancer, I loved it, but I would never let any daughter of mine do it, the pressure, the eating disorders, the bloody, blistered, calloused feet from hours of practice"
"I still can't feel parts of my foot & eventually, all that time in turn out & en point comes back to bite you with knee/ hip joint problems."
"Parents, please put your girls in a safer sport."
-- Dyingforsomelove
What's the Rush?
"Piercing baby girls' ears. Ear piercing hurts. Why would you do something that hurts your child, just for aesthetics? It's different if it's something for their own good, like a vaccine, but parents get their baby girls' ears pierced, why? So everyone knows she's a girl?"
"I used to pierce ears at the mall and I refused to pierce any child who wasn't old enough to ask for it."
-- absentbusiness
Stop Enabling Injuries
"I'm going to say it, and I'm going to be ignored or get a ton of crap for it. Football, especially in high school and middle school."
"Kids can get really messed up and for some reason everyone is like yeah it's okay, it's tradition or some other lame excuse."
-- McNoobens
Cash is King
"The concept of posting bail is so absurd it feels like something from last century."
"It's literally saying 'rich people get an easy way out, poor people can go f*** themselves.' Allowing a non-dangerous inmate to buy their way out of jail is one of the most elitist sh** still embedded in our legal system."
"If they're being allowed a bail out, they shouldn't be there in the first place."
-- acgian
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