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“What’s The Worst Thing People Have Tried To Justify With ‘It Was Normal Back Then’?” (40 Answers)
Times are constantly changing. In the majority of the world, women have way more opportunities than they did a century ago, and the technological advancements we've seen in recent decades are mind-blowing. But at the same time, saving up enough to purchase a home is nearly impossible for many young people today, even if their parents had no issues buying a house in their twenties. We all seem to be living in a completely different world than our grandparents had when they were young, but one of the best changes we’ve seen is a decreased tolerance for toxic behavior.
Redditors have been calling out the worst actions that they’ve heard people attempt to justify by noting how common they were in the past, so we’ve gathered some of their thoughts below. From tactics parents used to discipline their little ones to casually driving home after a few beers, be sure to upvote the behaviors that you’re glad have finally become stigmatized!
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#1
I pointed out that the Mayan and Aztecs' child sacrifice practices weren't any less barbaric because they happened a long time ago, and I got downvoted to hell here.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago (edited)
Yup, mentioning atrocities commited outside of european cultures in a respectful way isn't well received on the internet.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
The purpose of the sacrifices was religious, not cultural. Religion is again the problem here.
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Karl 1 year ago
Anything done in the name of “culture” that violates basic human rights is not worth defending or justifying - it’s just plain wrong.
D “Mr Moisture” Maledicco 1 year ago
I mean. . . Does the child part matter?? Human sacrifice is barbaric no matter what age a person. . .
Doc “Dr Rotwang” Rotwang 1 year ago
Real Actual Half-Mexican here: that stuff was abhorrent, we're glad it's over with, and we hope that tacos, pozole, and Flans help to make up for it.
Jaaawn 1 year ago
It seems as though the blood-thisty gene has been passed on, I mean look at the cartels.
.. 1 year ago
The US army kills way more people annually than the cartels. Even mass shootings in the US kill way more people than they do. And 97% of the guns used in cartel shootings come from the US.
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Michael Largey 1 year ago
Morality doesn't change over time, only people's understanding of it.
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Bookworm 1 year ago
A suggestion - OP is right, but using the loaded word 'barbaric' may have been a mistake. Other words like 'horrific' make the same point without the colonialist 'uncivilized people' connotations.
cherry~ 1 year ago
I would still call it barbaric if Europeans did it. I don't think it is a mistake to use the word here
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Gerald Monk 1 year ago
But the question is, who murdered millions of your brain cells?
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#2
How many witches were burned at the stake during the salem witch trials?
None. There’s no such things as witches, they burned innocent girls and women. Awful.
FreeTheUnicorn 1 year ago
No one was burned at the stake in Salem. 19 hangings, one man pressed to death. More than 180 accused were not killed. Many were toetured. It's a stain on our history but so get your facts right.
Urbangirlatl 1 year ago
While I appreciate my fellow Pandas' attention to historical accuracy, you are missing the point. Across the globe and history, no witches were murdered or tortured because there is no such thing. Innocent women and girls were murdered and tortured.
pyanfaruk 1 year ago (edited)
They didn't burn anyone at the stake during the Salem witch trials - that's an urban myth that 20 seconds Googling would disprove. 19 women were hung, and one was 'pressed to death'.
IamMe 1 year ago
The only girls involved in the Salem witch trials were the accusers. There were 14 women, and 5 men hanged, one man crushed by stones. All were adults, and a lot of them were over today's retirement age.
Aileen Grist 1 year ago
In England, witches were hung - we only burned Christians that we disagreed with (bloody Mary)
Lynn Dougherty Quin 1 year ago
Hanged, not hung, is correct, in the context of this discussion.
Wackford Squeers 1 year ago
"I wouldn't look for witches to be burned, though I can see them doing the burning" - Granny Weatherwax
#3
Open sexual harassment, unwanted touching, SA, etc against secretaries, female assistants, etc by their bosses. Woman were supposed to just grin and bear it.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
And if they held a higher position, the assumption was that she got it by sleeping with someone(s).
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Cathy Roberts 1 year ago
A boss told me outright that he paid men more than women because "men have families to support". It was 1999.
Ruthie R 1 year ago (edited)
We were supposed to laugh it off as a 'joke' - women who complained were told we were just being "prudish" & "hung up". I used to do bar work and some of the customers were just sleazeballs; they assumed that I & every young woman would just accept being groped or having a constant stream of lewd, crude or mean comments about our looks, bodies, etc as a "laugh (though when you give as good as you get, they suddenly don't find it funny). I'm glad times have moved on. There are plenty of men around who'd love to go back to those days, but I sincerely hope womankind (other than the saddo tradwives) will collectively tell them to shove that idea sideways.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
In 1972, the large insurance company my mother worked for told her "Sorry, we've promoted you as far as we promote a woman." Perfectly legal back then - and with our Supreme Court maybe in the future.
DetriMentaL (It/That) 1 year ago
Or other women that belittle the victims because "back in my day"
#4
Doctors going on duty for more than 24 hours straight.
Tamra 1 year ago
I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in the US there has been a long-standing culture of over-working healthcare professionals. It's nearly ubiquitous to see doctors and nurses working insane hours, and it makes absolutely no sense.
JJ 1 year ago
Happens in Europe, too, no matter what the regulations are. Recently I read a comment of a doctor who defended 24 hours shifts and remarked that our health system goes down because millennial doctors are the first generation demanding better work-life-balance. Yeah, blame health workers instead of the sick system relying on overworking, exhausted people.
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Eric Berger MD 1 year ago
When I was an surgical intern, we did full weekends... Saturday morning to Monday night... about 52 hours straight. I'd be in the ER actually falling asleep while suturing a laceration! They said "we did it. Man up."
duckie 1 year ago
People die from that. When I went to hospital on a Saturday, the ER doc was the same one who saw me the next day when I had to come back because my issue had escalated. 24 hours later and she hadn't been home in between. I had to file a complaint for some malpractice that Saturday visit, and I made sure to protest the insane 24 hour shift policy.
Grudge-holding Treefrog 1 year ago
My dad is a physician, and this past year he’s done 3 48 hour shifts
Aurora 1 year ago
It's common for doctors where I live to do 24 hour shifts, but it's rare for them to not get 8 hours of solid sleep during the night. Nurses typically do 16 hour shifts and often won't have time for even one food break. We'd get fired if we slept on the job.
Dolly_of TheCowboy 1 year ago
Yeah quite common where I am to have the junior doctors clock on Friday afternoon and finish Monday morning and as long as there are minimum numbers of them available the others are able to go sleep in their break room for hours at a time while still on the clock and just get woken if needed. Nurses on the other hand doing 12 or 16hr shifts at the same facility (and expected to be back within 12 hours for their next shift) have noticeboards covered with official memos about disciplinary proceedings or instant dismissal if nurses go nap even in their (unpaid) breaks. Their justification is that "nurses must be available for patient care throughout their shifts" and are "only" doing 12 or 16hrs straight but the doctors are there for 48-72hrs so "need to rest where possible because they make the critical decisions". Yeah exhausted people regardless of their job in healthcare make mistake. It is almost like they want scapegoats readily available if a mistake is made...
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Blah Blah Blah 1 year ago
EMT-B's and EMT-P and Firefighters are all scheduled to work 24-48 hours sometimes 72. Also interesting fact. MOST EMT's are paid min. wage or slightly over. And no breaks or lunches a lot of shifts as calls are ran back to back as in working straight no breaks for food or sleep 24 to 48 hrs straight. Again and they're paid on average $16 an hour. Some less some more. Welcome to corporate America!
Catpawsarethebest 1 year ago
It's horrible. Think it's a problem in most of the world. I know how horrible I get after missing sleep (a normal amount) cant inagine how they feel after 24 hours! Just horrible! And mistakes will happen. They are humans!!! It's not right to treat them like this!
ynyrhydref56 1 year ago
How much of this is down to lack of staff, lack of funding, etc etc. A much bigger issue.
#5
Child marriage.
Spencer's slave no longer 1 year ago
The USA has far too many states that have not abolished child marriage, which is always to the detriment of girl children.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
This is most definitely not an "in the past" thing. Looking at you USA. (The majority of US states permit child marriage. Tens of thousands of children as young as 10 are affected.)
Floeckchen 1 year ago
The "in the past" thing is hopefully the part where it was seen as ok
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BrunoVI 1 year ago (edited)
THIS IS LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA!!!! There are several U.S. states that allow judicial exemptions to minimum marriage ages. ("Well, Jimmy Bob and Cyndi ain't even 18 yet, but he's fixinna take over pa's garage as soon as he graduates and we can't keep'em off each other with a firehose anyway, so they might as well make it legal!") and some of these don't have explicit minimum ages, leaving it up to a judge to decide. But California is the only state where judges have been permitting child marriages, ruling that other culture's marriage customs should be permitted.
Mike Macron 1 year ago
Only 10 states in the USA have a law prohibiting people under 18 from marrying.
#6
The way some people treated pets. Leaving them outside. Hitting them.
WindySwede 1 year ago
Talking about shooting cats just to prove they are real men.. no you are not, you are covering up some inside insecurity and feel you have to prove you are a real man to cover it up! 🤨🤕
Royal Stray 1 year ago
Not just cats, people who throw rocks at small wildlife like Foxes, Hedgehogs, and rabbits. It's disgusting and vile and makes me want to bring back throwing rocks at people as a punishment
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Grace Knowlton 1 year ago
Drowning unwanted pups or kittens. How about you just get your animals fixed instead.
geezeronthehill 1 year ago
In reference to bp's picture of a dog behind a wire fence: if a dog must be kept outdoors, (and some must) dogs feel much safer behind a barrier than they do on a chain. On a chain or rope, they know that they cannot escape from an enemy. This is the issue that we are fighting locally. Build a fenced run, rather than putting your hound out on a lead.
Sinnsyk Jakte 1 year ago
Bruh. This family I knew had this poor dog with mange. The father was like, 'We'll dump gasoline on him.'
Ashlie Ann 1 year ago
Anyone who hurts an animal should be in jail for a long time, having other inmates beat and r**e them every day.
Brian Droste 1 year ago (edited)
If you ever seen the first short of Mickey Mouse, Steam Boat Willie, there us animal abuse in that Mickey Mouse short.
- 1 year ago
The Itchy & Scratchy Show, Ren and Stimpy... Maybe Chief Wiggum should investigate...
Load More Replies... #7
Spousal r*pe. It was legal up until 1983 in Canada. It wasn’t until 1993 that it became illegal in ALL of the US; prior to that it was only illegal in 3 as of 1975. I’ve heard some men reminisce about the days when they didn’t need consent from their wives. I’ve even heard women condemn other women for having the “nerve” to ever deny their husbands sex. It’s disgusting.
WindySwede 1 year ago
Here is a great map to boycot buying things from and travel to. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marital_rape_laws_by_country
#8
Bull fighting in Spain.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
People are so hung up on bullfighting because of the visible death that they forget the torture and death inflicted on animals at rodeos.
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WindySwede 1 year ago (edited)
F*****g discussting! Edit, torturing an animal to death for fun/joy, tradition.. I eat meat but hate this!
S. E. 1 year ago
For another activity that involves torturing an animal to death for fun/joy, how about fishing?
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LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
People try to justify bullfighting by saying it's a cultural tradition. No, it's nothing but animal cruelty. The practice needs to be banned in Spain.
Sand Ers 1 year ago
It is a cultural tradition. Their culture retains torturing animals to death as a tradition. One that most other cultures have abandoned.
Load More Replies... Karl 1 year ago
If a bull gores a matador or a spectator, then they all had it coming. If you are part of torturing an animal to death or watch it in the name of entertainment, then you deserve all the pain the poor animal can inflict.
#9
Hitting children. Beating up children badly.
Jon Steensen 1 year ago (edited)
yep, and the scary part is that you get hailed down for it when you point it out.... some even quote the bible to defend it, "spare the rod, spoil the child", while completely ignoring all the other lessons from in there. (I'm not religious, and not trying to "sell" the book, but I know enough to see how that is completely ignorant)
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tori Ohno 1 year ago
Some American schools still use paddling as punishment. We're trying to make it illegal, but some parents agree with it.
ArcanaPanda 1 year ago
Even Catholic schools, at least the ones in my archdiocese, banned corporaĺ punishment in schools by the mid '90s. There are way more effective ways of punishing children that don't involve child abuse.
Load More Replies... Becca not Becky 1 year ago
It's quite accepted in many places, sadly. We have a lot of work to do as a species
#10
Definitely slavery, not just because it's a horrible thing to justify but also because people try to justify it *so often*.
One of the most popular lies in America is the lie that the so-called "founding fathers" can't be judged for owning slaves because that was accepted practice back then. In fact, the judge in the British Somerset case called slavery an "odious institution" in 1772: well before the US constitution was written. The abolition movement was very much in full swing in the anglosphere at the time. The Somerset ruling banned slavery in the British Isles in 1772. Canada banned slavery in 1793.
And yet Americans persist in pretending that slavery was widely accepted with no concerns at the time of the country's founding, just because they don't want to admit that the US founding fathers were bad people. They have their very own mythology, complete with heroes and villains, and they will not tolerate harsh criticism of those heroes.
GettingCereal 1 year ago
There was also a major push to get abolition into the constitution, but the southern states threw such a hissy fit that the rest caved.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
The 13th Amendment has a loop hole in it that allows prisoners to be exploited for slave labor. The U.S. Constitution needs some tweaking.
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Lila Allen 1 year ago
Oh and let's not even get into their referring to Native Americans as merciless savages while admitting in the declaration that one of their grievances against England is that the king insisted on upholding treaties with Natives and wouldn't protect them if they invaded Native lands and tried to steal them.
Pferdchen 1 year ago
I would wager that everybody reading this is benefiting from slave labor, or at least reprehensibly inhumane labor, right now. It's just that it's impossible to know the supply chains that go into the food, clothing and electronics we purchase.
Load More Replies... El Dee 1 year ago
Because it was in the colonies they got away with it. It was despised and shocked people of the time in Britain. They campaigned fiercely to have this ended..
Edward Treen 1 year ago
Slavery was actually abolished in Britain centuries earlier, after the Norman conquest in 1066. According to Marc Morrris, author of the book 'The Norman Conquest', some 15-20% of people in Anglo-Saxon England were slaves. Over several generations, the Normans stopped this practice.
nuberiffic 1 year ago
Listening to christian callers to the atheist experience TV show / podcast try to justify slavery is absolutely insane.
Nimitz 1 year ago
IT wAs LeGAl aT thE TImE! Go f**k yourself. It was legal because the people who owned the slaves wrote the f*****g laws. It was and has always been a crime against humanity. Don't give me your bible b******t, don't give me your enabling scumbaggery. Slavers past and present fall under two categories: those suitably dealt with, and those who are unfortunately still breathing. Death to slavers!
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
This was teh first thing I thought of. I'm surprised it's so low on the list.
#11
Just yesterday i had someone try telling me they regretted taking the covid vaccine and that "back than no one took vaccines".
I replied with "and people got polio".
nm (he/him) 1 year ago
Smallpox has disappeared from the face of the earth since the 80s. And this due to the vaccine. But the stupid antivaxxers ignore it.
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Dre Mosley 1 year ago (edited)
Covid was eye opening. It revealed a lot of anti-science conspiracy theorists to me, even people I've known for years who I never suspected of being that way.
Dean H 1 year ago
Pandemic and Genocide has exposed just how many closeted a******s exist in today's modern society.
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David 1 year ago
I wonder how "back then" they are referring to. I can tell you that as a child of the 60s I got vaccines. I can also remember seeing people walking around crippled up from polio because a lot of folks who had been maimed by it were still around. And in case you were wondering - no, I didn't ask every person I saw on crutches. But there were several I knew well enough to know polio was the reason why.
Margaret Shannon 1 year ago
People have received innoculations against smallpox since the 18th century.
WubiDubi 1 year ago
The press at the time of smallpox vaccine did not help - they had cartoonists showing immunised people turning into cows. The cure was giving people mostly harmless cowpox as it gave immuninty to deadly smallpox. This is several hundred years ago - 1796.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
I grew up on a cattle ranch and I'm immune to smallpox because I caught cowpox when I was a kid. Got it the old fashioned way.
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Wolf princess quinn 1 year ago
These anti vaxers are ridiculous. Keep thier un maxed kid out of ALL SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC. but hey it's not like you care
David 1 year ago
LOL I thought the same. I have a very faint memory of standing in line and having them pop the sugar cube into my mouth when I reached the front of the line. Maybe it stood out because it wasn't a common thing for the school to give us pure sugar. (like ever except for that time) (air quotes around the "pure")
Load More Replies... Stannous Flouride 1 year ago
What drove me nuts in 2020 was seeing people who had literally grown up around people who'd contracted polio and were still anti-vax.
#12
"My parents whipped my butt and screamed at me. I turned out fine."
Umm... no you didnt. You need therapy, boundaries, and a healthier friend group.
Miranda Veracruz de la Joya Cardenal 1 year ago
If you think child abuse was acceptable, you didn't turn it fine
Bill Swallow 1 year ago (edited)
Please note that he apparently never said that he found it acceptable. Just that it happened to him. I'm an old fart, and experienced corporal punishment at school and at home when I was a kid. I concede that I probably deserved some form of punishment or discipline. I do NOT think that that form of punishment is acceptable. I would never do that to someone else, and in most respects, yes, I think I turned out OK, no therapy needed. I try to treat everyone with respect and consideration unless someone indisputably proves that they do not deserve it. And I still love my parents, even though they've both been gone for years. EDIT: Should add that I'm speaking only for my own case. I do not pretend that it's the same for everyone.
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UKGrandad 1 year ago
To be fair, many of us who were beaten as children did turn out fine, but we're also the ones who haven't continued the cycle of using violence against our own children.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Years ago I had a co-worker who told me that his father regularly warmed his britches. This didn't teach him to behave; instead, fear of a whipping taught Our Hero to lie and to loathe his father. My co-worker scolded his kids, but never spanked them.
Load More Replies... Cathy Roberts 1 year ago
I'm gen x so I hear it a lot, from peers. "We turned out fine". OK Sandra, you're a barely functioning alcoholic on three different kinds of anxiety meds and your kids don't share anything with you because you can't connect to anyone emotionally and have no empathy but.....sure.
Catpawsarethebest 1 year ago
Best description I have ever read of the sentence "We turned out fine".
Load More Replies... Catpawsarethebest 1 year ago
Omg I hate when people say this. No one turns out fine after that!
UKGrandad 1 year ago
You're wrong. It's the people who say they turned out fine but repeat the cycle of violence with their own kids who aren't fine. Those of us who determined not to be *that* kind of parent and stuck with it, we turned out fine despite the abuse, not because of it.
Load More Replies... notlikeyou1971 1 year ago
No I didn't turn out fine from the verbally emotionally and mentally abusive father I had or that both my parents played favorites ( my sister was the favorite and still is) I'm Gen X. I ended up in horrible situations because of this. Starting out disabled didn't help. I am a domestic violence survivor. I had to have my abuser's sister rescue me and go to my parents to tell them. I had to disappear in order to be saved from him. It took my mother breaking her leg and being helpless and needing help and basically being trapped in her own home to have the guts to tell her about all the horrible things that she and my father caused to happen to me ( father is dead now and sister lives in another state my bf and I decided to help her while she was helpless) . Finally had the guts to tell her about being terrified of my father. About them ruining my life by dumping me off at a " troubled teen" program despite never doing a single d**g in my life and the place abusing me. It traumatized me. About different situation in different cities being SA ed because they decided knowing that I couldn't fend for myself throwing me out. I really finally told her everything because she and my dad were horrible parents and did a terrible job raising a physically and mentally ill girl and threw me to the wolves. I have no criminal record, never did d***s in my life and don't drink alcohol. Just have crappy parents who don't know a darn thing about me but assume c**p and don't understand or believe the truth about their own daughter.
StrangeOne 1 year ago
It's good to ask them what they got whipped for. If they can't think of the reason why, no lesson was learned.
Carrie Laughs 1 year ago
Er... Sounds like the potential for their doing it again 'if you didn't learn why the first time'.
Load More Replies... #13
Open misogyny and sexual harassment in the workplace. I’m a 64 yo professional woman and the behavior of some my male colleagues and superiors was horrible. And no one batted an eye.
Nimitz 1 year ago
I was a travelling IT guy for an oil company. 10 years ago. I'd go out to remote locations in the middle of nowhere, just a trailer with 4-8 dudes working on shifts. The number of times I heard those a******s say things like "We're all guys here..." followed by some truly bigoted b******t. It was often followed by "We're all white here..." Anyone who thinks this problem has gone away is dreaming! And yes, I reported them to HR
#14
Forced marriage.
WindySwede 1 year ago
An scientific education and sexual education should be mandatory for everyone, all over the world! Let go of old s**t!
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
Good luck getting that through in theocratic countries - we tried to establish that in Afghanistan and look where they are now again
Load More Replies... El Dee 1 year ago
Spoons. This still happen but a spoon can save you. If you are at risk from being forced into marriage then, when travelling overseas, keep a metal spoon in your pocket. It will set off the alarm and you'll be taken for a further search. This will be without those who are travelling with you. If you explain what's happening the staff will guide you to safety..
Keith Lancaster 1 year ago
God, this is such a big subject. In some countries women are considered to be of less worth than animals. Reason? It's cheaper to replace a wife than it is a mule etc. Please don't think that I condoning this.
Travelling Stranger 1 year ago
but in the case of some regions of the world this is mistakenly referred to as "culture" and a critique of this is called "hate speech" and some such, in the name of rEsPeCt..
#15
Adult musicians sleeping with puberty-aged groupies. Guarantee every single one of your faves did it or was in a band with someone who did.
30ninjazinmybag 1 year ago
With david Bowie, iggy pop, Jimmy page and Steve tyler
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laura lee 1 year ago (edited)
Well for those 60s-70s-80s ones Beatles led zep Aerosmith etc etc their own words and were talking 13yrs
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Dilly Millandry 1 year ago
Is it? Her mother was born in 1953 and Liv Tyler was born in 1977. I don't know any other details though - when it started etc.
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Nimitz 1 year ago (edited)
David Bowie. Iggy Pop. Jimmy Page. Elvis Presley. R. Kelly. Jerry Lee Lewis. Ted Nugent. Mick Jagger. Steven Tyler. Only one of them was ever held accountable, and guess what colour his skin is?
LinkTheHylian 1 year ago (edited)
Are you saying R. Kelly was punished for liking young girls only because he's black? Also, everyone else you named was more prominent in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I'm not defending them, but R. Kelly's crimes started in an era where the human race had finally started listening to the victims. And despite that it still took 30 years to bring him to justice. I'm all for the rest of this list (the ones who are still alive) being held accountable too, but don't create your own list of creeps to specifically single out one person for his skin colour.
Load More Replies... #16
Throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges.
Weirdo with Internet 1 year ago
These people are still alive! This wasn't that long ago and even if it was, still wouldn't justify throwing rocks and insults at a child
WonderWoman 1 year ago
Sadly these people are still enraged that there was integration these are trump's people.
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Wolf princess quinn 1 year ago
F*****g racists. I hate that they use the same oxygen as the rest of us.
Debra Robinson 1 year ago (edited)
They needed bricks to the head at close range. And to be set on fire.
Tiny Dancer 1 year ago
Ruby's on Instagram, that's how recent this history is! Vote so this doesn't happen again. https://www.instagram.com/rubybridgesofficial
#17
Genital mutilation of children.
Not Who You Think 1 year ago (edited)
"It's a cultural/religious thing." Maybe you need to take a step back and really pay attention to what you're saying.
DP Nerill 1 year ago
If it is a cultural/religious thing, and not an urgent medical requirement, why not wait for that person to become an adult with adult rights to let them to decide what to do with their own body?
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David L 1 year ago
Don't know why Rick Carrarini has been given so many down votes because he's not wrong. In most cases male circumcision is not medically required so what do you call a blade used on a baby's genitals?
Sergio Bicerra 1 year ago
Is this post related to that or there's other kind of mutilation people are talking about? Just curious cause I think you may be right and don't understand the downvotes.
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Dave Pearson 1 year ago
FGM = Bad, everyone agrees with you. Circumcision = Bad, downvoted to hell and called an anti-semite. Putting a blade to a childs genitals... WTF is wrong with you??
El Dee 1 year ago
We are, rightly, against the Kosher/Halal method of slaughter where the animal is not stunned and we are, again rightly, against female circumcision but, for some reason, we are perfectly okay with with baby boys being mutilated for no good reason in the name of religion..
Dean H 1 year ago
Because not a single atheist ever did anything awful in their life right? /s It's almost like people are evil even with or without religion. Who knew!
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Forrest Hobbs 1 year ago
Unfortunately, gential mutilation of children is still legal for boys in the UK: male infant circumcision is most definitely legal in the UK and doesn't even have to be carried out by a medical practitioner. Yes when it's done properly and nothing goes wrong, it's not dreadful. But it kills some and leaves some horribly mutiliated.
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Sky Render 1 year ago
Still happening worldwide. It's epidemic in the US with circumcisions, and fewer than 10 countries have banned intersex genial mutilation.
Haywood Jablome 1 year ago
The current defense in American culture is it makes you look sexier
#18
Automatically needing to respect your elders (and anyone older than you) just because it's the 'right' thing to do, not because they deserve your respect or did anything to earn it, but just because.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago
As Tony Benn said, you should respect everyone, until they give you good reason not to.
Carrie Laughs 1 year ago
It's really should be 'be courteous to everyone'. I am pefectly polite to some people I have absolutely no respect whatsoever for.
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Kira Okah 1 year ago
There is respect as a person and respect as an authority, tey are different things. Evryone should be respected as a person, beause everyone is a person, but the respect being demanded in this situation is respect as an authority, which has to be earned. It's like that thing said by some "respect me [as an authority] or I won't respect you [as a person]"
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
100% this. Whenever we have conversations about respect, especially whether respect is given or earned, we *must* first clarify which kind of respect we're speaking of.
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Michael Largey 1 year ago
Respect that you might learn something of value from their experience, whether it's wisdom or warning.
🇳🇬 Asi Bassey 🇳🇬 1 year ago
This is a tricky one. If OP were to find themself in a part of the world where the culture is to automatically respect elders, what would they do then, stick with this mindset or adapt?
XanthippeⓐWulf🇨🇦️️🇬🇧 1 year ago
I s'pose I'll always say my "Please & Thank yous" & hold the door for you on autopilot, but if you act like a crotchety old bastard, don't expect much else.
Chris Jones 1 year ago
I'm with you. That's being polite, showing courtesy. Those things don't require respect.
Load More Replies... WindySwede 1 year ago
Though sometimes the worst thing they know (anyone hatefully and demanding respect due to screaming, no matter age), is to be really calm and just not agree with them. Sometimes..
#19
All forms of bullying. It looked cool from people in high school according to my classmates. Now some of my classmates were now gone due to bullying. It’s not cool.
Ace 1 year ago
Bullying was and is never cool. I really don't think anything has changed in this case, it's still just as common and bad as it used to be, just that a lot of it is done via modern tech rather than ust face to face these days.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
A huge lot of children unalived themselves because they were so horribly bullied. The ones who do that sort of intense bullying, whether physical or psychological, have blood on their hands.
Load More Replies... LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
As someone who wanted to take my own life in secondary school to due bullying from some "mean girls", I hate bullies in any shape or form. I was bullied just because I loved anime, enjoy nature and outdoors sports, didn't wear preppy clothing, and was struggling with my sexuality. To the one teacher who would always tell me that I was beautiful and tried to boost my confidence-- thank you! Bullies nothing but cowards.
notlikeyou1971 1 year ago
The biggest mistake my parents ever made was switching me from private school to public school. It was awful and I was bullied all the way through it. Beat up,had my clothes ripped and money stolen and a lot more. The kids were wild animals. I was verbally emotionally and mentally abused at home andmy sister was the favorite and bullied at school. No escape from the hell I lived. The school didn't do a lot back in the days of GEN X I didn't know how to fight or defend myself and I had more than one bully try a load of them. I was lucky to be labeled by the guidance counselor as a kid that had problems though and spent a lot of time in the guidance counseling office by choice. That and I knew how to fool the thing that called your parents to tell them you were absent by showing up for homeroom and knowing when to run away and escape. When I did go to school I was beat up and bullied. I had one girl expelled and pressed charges against another. Didn't stop the bullying. It drove me out of school. I quit school. I did get a GED. I am disabled and have been since childhood. Nothing that put me in Special Ed but seizures, epilepsy, mental illness. Now I have trouble walking have severe pain in my legs hands feet . I've got revenge on 1 bully but that was through a friend. Bullying ruined my life and still to this day has messed me up
#20
Genociding Native Americans.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
And somehow Andrew "The only good Indian is a dead Indian" Jackson is on the $20 bill. How does that make sense?
Janice 1 year ago
It's still happening in the US & Canada. Oh, we don't give them diseased blankets, but the poverty on most reservations is unbelievable, I'm thinking Pine Ridge specifically. We're still killing their spirit and doing nothing to honor the treaties we signed. I say "we," even though I'm 2nd generation, because by doing nothing to change things, we are culpable. "No more stolen sisters" (Google it)
Regina Holt 1 year ago (edited)
The indigenous people were here before America was born. I do not consider them Native Americans. They are indigenous. In addition to the horrible treatment they suffered at the hands of the "white man" we have foisted upon them the word "american" when they were actually native when the Europeans came to this continent. Also, calling them Indians was because when this continent was "discovered" the idiots thought they had reached India.
Forrest Hobbs 1 year ago
Erm, if we're speaking English in the present day, when *that* landmass is referred to as the American continent (or continents, depending on how you view it), calling the indigenous inhabitants of that continent "native Americans" is, well, just trying to be accurate. But: the term "native American" has collected so much baggage that "indigenous American" is the term I'd use - people indigenous to the American continent, because "American" is the only term I've got for that particular bit of geography. However, the term isn't particularly useful and I've read that those covered by it would rather be identified as whatever particular sort of indigenous American they happen to be. And why not? It's not like "indigenous European" is a particularly meaningful term, is it?
Load More Replies... #21
Horrific mistreatment of disabled people. It’s still not great on a general global scale, but at least we don’t get left in the woods as infants or stuck in freak shows to entertain the masses.
WindySwede 1 year ago (edited)
And even just women who be "out of order"? Edit: like put in asylum for being anything her husband/dad didn't want to?
StumblingThroughLife 1 year ago
Yeah, lobotomies & electric shocks were the order of the day, then. Horrific.
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LinkTheHylian 1 year ago
I saw a lot of comments from disabled people after Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson was stuck on a train with no help on her way to the Paralympics in Paris, and had to crawl to the platform to find some assistance. It beggars belief that people "forget" or just don't care to support those who need a little help to go about their day.
StumblingThroughLife 1 year ago
Hitler sent out propaganda re: the disabled, using the phrase "Lebensunwertes Lebenlife" (unworthy of life), and then eventually rounded them up and, with the first 'gas' attempt, used lorry exhausts, extended by hoses & fed into huts until they passed.
Sinnsyk Jakte 1 year ago
I watched something about lobotomies and...despite my strong stomach...was horrified at some of the...finer details as to how it developed and gained popularity. (WARNING. Stop readibg if you're sensitive to abusive practices and particularly inhumane actions.) Specifically, a girl whose hair fell out, and was provided with a wig with whale bone on it. Due to the lack of proper care in the institution she was kept in, the whalebone scraped into her scalp and caused an infection that eventually exposed her brain. Rather than help her, they saw an 'opportunity,' and proceeded to use her to study direct interaction with the human brain. Even in the coldly clinical description of the experiments, it was abundantly evident that she suffered a great deal.
Nimitz 1 year ago
I live in Montreal and I am constantly horrified how nothing in this city is accessible to disabled people. You want a wheelchair ramp into an office building or a mall, there's a very small one somewhere round back. Almost every store has at least one step outside it and very few have automatic doors. If you are in a wheelchair, you are shut out of 80% of society here. It's despicable and the govt.'s answer is "But it would cost money to fix the problem"
Brenda 1 year ago
As a disabled person, I know a lot has changed but it's not enough! It took me 6 YEARS to get my oldest classified as Sp.Ed. The ADA had so many provisions that would have helped him! By the time it finally happened, it was too late and he hated school! My youngest has mental health and physical issues that caused them to miss a lot of school. Even with Dr's notes, they refused to make any accommodations. Me? I have more things wrong than right these days. I was literally HOUNDED & FOLLOWED through the grocery store the first time I went after chemo. Lady yelling at me, I'm faking, I'm just lazy, etc. I was skin & bones, totally bald & obviously not 100%. It took me lifting my shirt to show the scar from having a breast removed for her to ease up. And I can't tell you how many times I have been berated for using handicapped parking, even though I have a placard & license plate. No one believes because my disabilities aren't visible. Disabled people are being treated badly simply because others don't have a license of empathy for us.
Charlotte Sandoval 1 year ago
There's more and more evidence that in prehistoric times they treated people with disabilities with love and kindness, and sometimes revered their differences and lifted them up to be shamans and spiritual guides. We've devolved.
Graham_Illegal 1 year ago
🎉 Yaaay! You've found a Bush policy that actually made sense and helped people! 🎉
Load More Replies... #22
Ownership and the subservience of women. "Back in my day the women didn't vote or work, they waited on their knees for the husband to come home with a hot meal in one hand a strong drink in the other" along with a litany of other female slave fantasies men have of modern women.
WindySwede 1 year ago
That is also a thing in the bible, if someone hurt a women so she miscarriages, they are supposed to pay money to her spouse or otherwise her father. That is nothing in the line of being an independent individual!
Destiny Kruse 1 year ago
That's because the wife and child were property. It wasn't a crime against a person, it was property damage.
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Lisa Lee 1 year ago
as Bette Midler said, "Women are the waitresses at the banquet of life." “What are we ladies? What are we? We are waitresses at the banquet of life! Get into that kitchen and rattle them pots and pans - and you better look pretty good doin' it too, 'else you gonna lose you good thing. And why do we do that, I'll tell you why we do that? We do that to find love - Oh I love to be in love - don't you love to be in love?” Bette Midler
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
Being a "traditional housewife" is fine. It's the fetishizing of it that's completely off the rails in a culturally dangerous way. I'm a "homemaker" and my husband earns all our income. It's just the life we both chose for us. It has nothing to do with anyone else and it most definitely isn't a moral or political statement or superior to any other way of structuring a relationship. I *despise* being associated with "tradwife" in any way.
Load More Replies... Debby Keir 1 year ago
Not true - in older times (think medieval) women had work both inside and outside the house. It wasn't until there were 'salaries' that it became the norm for women to stay at home. Women were business owners for centuries before the Victorians imposed their thinking on the populace.
Michael None 1 year ago
I don't know anyone who says this or longs for those days. I do however know many women who wanted to be housewives but didn't have the opportunity because all adults in a house need to work these days just to make ends meet.
Cherise/Bunny (She/they) 1 year ago
And that's how you end up with arsenic in your coffee (for legal purposes, this is a joke)
ZestyBison 1 year ago
If they did that I can guarantee it's because they either wanted to, which is the goal, a nice consensual relationship, or they were forced to. I've been prevented from leaving the home before - no school or work. It's not pretty.
#23
Lynching black people for failing to show the proper deference to a white man on the street.
El Cucuy 1 year ago (edited)
I think more black people were lynched just for being black than for any other reason. And really those 'reasons' were just excuses to justify the actions of a disgustingly racist white majority country, aka the USA.
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TheLadyMagic 1 year ago
This is an attempt to downplay the seriousness of what happened and it still happening to people of African descent. Men women and children of African descent have been lynched in the United States of America at the whim of caucasians for the randomest things just because they know that they could get away with it and they devalue and dehumanize people of African descent. You pretending that it is anything else deepens that wound. Stop doing that
Load More Replies... #24
Smoking everywhere--even hospitals.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago
We were doing a good job of limiting smoking areas, but now vaping is taking its place with a vengeance. I regularly see (smell them first) people sneaking a vape inside restaurants. It's illegal and it ruins my meal out. Just selfish w4nkers.
Apachebathmat 1 year ago
Yes! The amount of kids that vape while waiting for the bus outside my work (ironically, a funeral home) is shocking
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Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
When I was a kid, my doctor warned me against smoking while puffing on a cigarette.
David 1 year ago
SOOOOOOOooo glad to see that change in my lifetime. The youth of today will never know the 'joy' of being trapped on a bus or airplane with stressed travelers smoking. So gross. Or the 'non-smoking' section of restaurants that almost always smelled like stale cigarette smoke. A few years back WA state extended it to at least 25 feet from the doors / windows of any public accessible building (store, etc) and that also made it nicer for the rest of us.
Michael None 1 year ago
Someone share this comment with all the stoners who's nasty a*s weed I have to smell every day since they legalized it.
MonsterMum 1 year ago
When I had my first two children (90's), there was a smoking room in the maternity unit. You could have a cigarette, come out the room and pick up your baby!
UKGrandad 1 year ago
I remember when it was normal for a doctor and patients to smoke on hospital wards and in doctor's consulting rooms. Strange days, indeed.
Hiram's Friend 1 year ago
When I started nursing in the mid 80's there was smoking in the staff lounge and when I had my tonsils out in the late 70's, my nurse sat on the foot of my bed and we both had a cigarette.
Load More Replies... #25
My grandma was telling us about some random stuff about her life as a kid, the usual, and then she dropped that her neighbor would give her a quarter to see her underwear? when she was like 5-6? wild s**t
also cheating on your spouse .
Not Who You Think 1 year ago
The 25 cents for a little girls underwear peek is truly awful, but I love how "cheating on your spouse" was kind of added as an afterthought.
ZestyBison 1 year ago
I feel like grandma should have told the police and not her grandchildren...
Sandra Morison 1 year ago
They have always been present in society...it was just hidden before
#26
Listening to stories from older colleagues there is so much stuff that was considered standard practice that would give Health and Safety an aneurysm these days. S**t like handling asbestos with zero protective equipment, even after people started realizing how bad it was for your health! Or guys working with natural gas lighting up a ciggie on the job site and it being perfectly fine because "we're not smoking near where people are working with gas at the moment".
Marianne 1 year ago
My family are farmers. 20 years ago, a person would be ridiculed for wearing safety goggles or a face mask while harvesting potatoes. While on the machine, you're exposed to huge amounts of dust that gets into your face. I have asthma and couldn't stand it on dry days. Protective gear just wasn't an option.
David 1 year ago
Marianne, we didn't raise potatoes but I've bucked pea bales back in the 70s and the amount of dirt and dust off those things was horrendous. Fortunately only a couple of times for me because we didn't raise peas (we were beef / dairy) so the peas were on a friend's farm. Standard hay isn't so great for asthma either but I can see were churning up the loose dirt for potatoes could be a lot worse.
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Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Plastic Injection molding (automotive), sending a guy up on top of the press with a pressure container of "die cleaner" (Trichlorethylene) to clean the top of the press prior to a visit by the customer. As soon as someone pulled the trigger on that stuff from 20' away, you could smell it.
#27
Hazing, overworking and basically bullying new employees. C**p like “it’s character building” or “well, I had to do it”. I think people perpetuate this nonsense because they are basically trying to get some sort of revenge.
Petra Schaap 1 year ago
20 year old Sanda Dia got killed in Belgium six years ago, during some insane hazing at the start of the university year. The culprits got away with some fines and community services only. Its probably no surprise to find out that the parents of these guilty students were judges and lawyers etc. It caused quiet an uproar but they got away with it.
Hinrik Ævarsson 1 year ago (edited)
When I was hazed at school it was a great time, it forced an interaction between age groups and gave us all a collective experience to bond over. However it was a pretty small school and almost everybody either knew an older student or had a connection, so it never got out of hand. But I'll concede that this is not the norm, and when the new kids are complete strangers to the hazers it can easily cross into Stanford Prison Experiment kind of s**t. So I won't let my happy memory overshadow the awful suffering others have endured.
Scott Rackley 1 year ago
All the shops I've worked in, yeah, the apprentices had the dirtier, simpler jobs. I don't think that met any of the 3 words you describe.
Janice 1 year ago
College hazing was the even worse. The things they did to pledges, especially in the 60s and 70s, even the 80s, is nothing like it is now. Forcing pledges to drink until they passed out and while they were sleeping, they would be driven hundreds of miles away to some rural area and left there without money, and there were no cell phones then. My brother was a pledge and this was one of the tests he had. One kid was drunk and they left him on the roof of a building on campus. He fell off the roof, broke his back and is still in a wheelchair.
Major Harris 1 year ago
ALL hazing! know a lot goes on in college and in high school that involves sports teams. when i was a freshman and playing football, the varsity players would make us do humiliating things. this was in 1982. and there was a culture of hazing in the military when i served, 86-95, but i have heard that that has been cracked down on now.
#28
Gay jokes. Go watch movies from the 80's & 90's. Or just watch "Friends," there were cheap gay gags in basically every episode. .
Marianne 1 year ago
True! I was so normal. Also using the term "gay" as a demeaning word in all kinds of situations.
Doctor Strange 1 year ago
I'm ashamed to say that I did the same. All I can say is that I have learned better since then, and I try to now be a better person.
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Teachzebra 1 year ago
I’m a middle aged straight white guy. I used to use gay slurs and many other degrading comments routinely. I regret it enormously. This of course has resulted in some calling me “woke.” I tell them I prefer that to “bigot.”
Max Pasterski 1 year ago
I’m a gay person, and I don’t really feel offended by it, but I can understand that others are.
Sergio Bicerra 1 year ago
Some time ago I was thinking I wouldn't be friends with any of them.
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Darthest Starfish 1 year ago
Yes, but words always have varied meanings throughout history. Gay also used to mean joyous, happy, cheerful.........I think the South Park episode about Harley riders applies here as well.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
I'm not familiar with South Park, but, thank you for pointing out what "gay" used to mean.
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OneHappyPuppy 1 year ago
I'll broaden this post by saying any joke that makes a group of people the punchline.
Michael Danhauer 1 year ago (edited)
It was a natural step towards societal acceptance of homosexuality. Human beings use humor to make things that are different from the established norm less frightening and as a result come to terms that much easier. Not condoning it just trying to make it easier to understand.
#29
I take care of a 95 year old woman with dementia who had a black lab as a child. The dogs name was “n**ger”. She sometimes talks about her dog and calls it by name, and everyone reacts how you’d expect, and she always says, “He needed a name! A dog needs a name!”
Not sure if it quite fits this thread, but I was reminded of it so I shared.
Ace 1 year ago (edited)
Yeah, this one is a little out of place because although that term and the one it's derived from could have an insulting meaning if used in a certain context it was also commonly used in this way, perhaps much more outside the US, just because it means "black", ,with absolutely zero implied reference to people with that skin colour. Some people still get upset when they see "négro" used in languages like Spanish where that is literally all it means.
Eric Tapril 1 year ago (edited)
Literally not true. The n-word, although derived from words that just mean the colour black, has itself never been anything other than a derogatory term for a black person. Don't invent justifications for racial slurs.
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Auntriarch 1 year ago
I remember my nan saying dark brown sewing thread used to be called that, now it's called chocolate brown. See, it's not that hard
El Dee 1 year ago
I remember when young in school we had textbooks that referred to the 'N-word' The context was in the same way as 'a girl has ten oranges and a boy has four, how many are there altogether' typa thing except using the N-word instead of boy/girl. Kinda 'casual' racism. Of course language changes. That was the word used when referring to black people specifically. Of course the word was more used as an insult and 'spat out' hence our teacher asking us to score the word out in our text books. Adults at the time would have called that 'woke' if the term existed. Each new word becomes used insultingly and the terminology must be changed. Human nature is awful, we are deeply vile and racist at heart..
Forrest Hobbs 1 year ago
The term "woke" in the sense of "being aware of violent racism" was coined in the 1930s by Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, possibly inspired by Marcus Garvey's writings in the 1920s. It's been extended to cover not just violent racism but other forms of social injustice. People who like racism and other forms of social injustice seem to use the term "woke" as an insult for anything they personally dislike. "Woke" has been around a long time...
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Samsquatch & Monko 1 year ago
One of my friend’s relatives currently has a dog with that name (so that’s why me and my other friends keep having to stop him from comparing the colours of the sand in the sandbox…)
YaMaOnToast 1 year ago
Common name back then for a dog. I was taken aback visiting a country house in the UK and they had gravestones for their pets. That was 1
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar. One of the most distinguished pilots of WWII owned a black Labrador, it was 617 Squadrons lucky mascot. Its name was used as the code word to indicate that the Möhne Dam had been successfully breached by 617 Squadren. On the day of the raid his dog was hit by a car and killed, no one in the squadron was told as it would’ve had an impact on the whole operation. N was buried at midnight as the dambusters raid was being undertaken, his grave is still outside R.A.F. Scampton. The R.A.F. removed his name from the gravestone in 2020 as it was deemed offensive. Times move, history has recorded the name of the dog but we don’t have to be held hostage by the word, we can see how offensive it is, we are able to drop the word and move forward.
Forrest Hobbs 1 year ago (edited)
Not sure why someone posting a bit of factual history gets downvoted. FWIW, Aldous Huxley uses the n-word in one of his novels (Chrome Yellow) - in a cringingly condescending sort of way. Way back when here in the UK, the n-word seems not have been meant *nastily*. We had (and have) other racistly insulting words.
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#30
Hitting a spouse. My favorite tv show of all time is “I Love Lucy” and I have such a hard time watching Ricky put Lucy over his knee. Makes my stomach turn.
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
"POW! Right in the kisser!" -Ralph Kramden to his wife, Alice, in about every episode of "The Honeymooners"
Dread Pirate Roberts 1 year ago
I've only seen a couple episodes of that show, but I actually enjoyed them. It made fun of sexist men and made them look like fools every time while the women always outdid them, bruising their fragile masculinity. It was actually slightly ahead of its time.
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notlikeyou1971 1 year ago
As a domestic violence survivor I can verify that it is the worst thing in the worst thing in the world for a woman, that an being forced to have sex with a bf against your will
Dre Mosley 1 year ago
Ralph Kramden's "Pow! Right in the Kisser!" line has not aged well. I love that old show, but that would not fly now.
#31
Maybe riding around in the open bed of a pickup truck all over town and highways when I was a kid in the 70s.
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
Exactly. It's fine to look back with fondness on personal experiences that (luckily) turned out well while at the same time recognizing that it was a dangerously foolhardy thing to do. I would never suggest that "we should go back to that because that's how it was done" but that doesn't have to tarnish my personal memories one bit.
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RabidChild 1 year ago
We used to ride standing up in the truckbed or sitting on the bedrails but we would yell for the driver to stop when someone fell out 🙄
fan of phish 1 year ago
Once when I was like 10 and my brother was like 8 (around 1979), our dad and his new wife were taking us all the way down to Punta Final in Baja. It’s approximately 6-7 hour drive. We had a big truck with a camper shell. The truck broke down in Tijuana. Then our grandparents came down from San Diego and towed us back up. We were so far behind on our schedule at that point that dad and grandpa just piled all the stuff from the camper shell into the back of the other truck we had. They then tied down a queen size mattress on top of all the stuff. That left us even with the top of the truck bed. They put me and my brother into sleeping bags and had us hold onto the ropes on top of the mattress. During the night, we slept on top of the mattress. The last 20 miles of that trip was off-road on a very bumpy road. My brother and I had so much fun bouncing up and down on that mattress holding onto the ropes. We knew better than to ever tell our mother about this trip or we would never see our
fan of phish 1 year ago
dad again. And my dad was a drinker. As a kid it was awesome. As an adult, I can’t believe that we did that.
Load More Replies... ArcanaPanda 1 year ago
The only reason I think those of us who had that experience thought of it as fun was because even as recently as the 1980s drivers drove a lot more slowly and carefully than they do now, or at least they did where I originally come from. Plus there might be a little of the old survivor's bias going on too. But yeah, there is no way in the world that could happen these days, not even with the most careful driver in the world.
Justbecause 1 year ago
It became illegal when i was in my early teens before that us and the cousins would all pile in the back of the ute for a trip to the beach. We always took the vehicle with a canopy so it was 'safe' we would open up the tail gate when we got to the beach and sit at the back. When it look like the car would get bogged we would jump off and start pushing. Or sometimes someone would jump off just to see how far they could run before there feet got burnt! There were a lot less big cars on the beach back then! But a lot of people got killed and people have still been killed riding on the back of utes on farms since it became illegal.
#32
Cat calling. Honestly can’t remember a time it was okay, but I’m always confused when guys try to justify themselves with “it’s just a comment. It’s always been like this” when I (a woman) get upset. Like I know my a*s is amazing but keep it to yourself, you know?
Apachebathmat 1 year ago
“Thank you for attending our wedding today, I knew Wayne was the one when he shouted ‘WHHHHHHOOOOOA B***H, TIDDIES ON FIRE’ out the window of a speeding car”
ThatOneFish She/Her 1 year ago
"I immediately stopped, dropped, and rolled. His comment saved my boobs which as it turns out were really on fire."
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 1 year ago
Basic rule of thumb, guys - Don't say anything to a woman on the street that you wouldn't want a man to say to you in prison.
Petra Schaap 1 year ago
when men complain that they "cant say anything to women anymore these days" i always asked them "how would you like a man telling you that you have a sexy a*s?"
Michael None 1 year ago
Can we please stop gendering things like this. I would like women to stop doing this as well. I used to have a neighbor lady who would go outside and watch me every time I went to work in my garden. Then she'd post things on FB while watching like "I just love watching these hot men work" or "Looks like I'm gonna have to set the washing machine to spin cycle this afternoon". It was super creepy and I would really appreciate it if the rule applied to everyone cause I never treat women in such a disrespectful way as she treated me. I had to start gardening at night!
Nikole 1 year ago
Because that doesn’t happen NEARLY as much, and I hardly think you’re worried about your neighbor raping you.
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#33
My friend quite seriously told me she didn’t understand the issue with Bill Cosby because quaaludes were all the rage and this is just how it used to be for women around men. Never thought I’d see myself storming out of a Los
Angeles McDonald’s in anger but sure enough it did indeed happen.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago (edited)
Had to read that twice to confirm the friend was indeed a woman. Talk about brainwashed! (Spelling edit)
Lila Allen 1 year ago
I seriously just saw a comment where a woman was defending the guys who took up skirt photos of Shakira because she " should have known she was on a stage and worn something under her skirt or worn pants" I was horrified.
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Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
Giving someone a quaalude then was acceptable only if they knew what it was.
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
The friend is right that quaaludes were all the rage and that is "just how it used to be for women" but how the holy f**k does that justify it!!?? Slavery was commonplace. Beating children was commonplace. All kinds of atrocities were commonplace. We're supposed to be evolving as a species and recognize the mistakes [crimes] of the past so we can change them in the present and for the future.
Steve Hall 1 year ago
D***s are only the rage with druggies! Giving d***s to anyone without their knowledge is totally wrong.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
Drugging people without their knowledge was never a rage. It always was an outrage.
#34
Not back then, but in the present.
I have heard from a relative that pregnancies of indigenous children in my country are normal because it is "part of their culture".
penguino (they/them) 1 year ago
The comments here are weird y’all can go look for yourself-but also, wtf? Kids shouldn’t be pregnant. Period.
UKGrandad 1 year ago
Wow. I said that and got hit with 22 downvotes as of now. Definitely weird.
Load More Replies... UKGrandad 1 year ago
OK, somebody please tell me what's so bad about what I've said here, which in a nutshell is a) children should not be having babies, and b) that it isn't wrong to say that children shouldn't be having babies even if it is deemed acceptable in other cultures. Which of those two things are wrong?
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
My guess? You have grandad in your username and said "so-called liberals". That's all it takes. People just see the words and don't give a second of thought to what they actually mean. Then, once you get one or two downvotes, it's a mindless pile-on. 99% of social media exists for semi-literate, self-righteous crusading.
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#35
Drinking and driving. Every adult over 60 wants me to understand why those were the good ol days.
Ace 1 year ago
Rubbish. I mean yes, is used to be a lot worse, i.e. more common, but you really won't find many people who would suggest that it was better back then as a result.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago
I've met people who say they used to drink drive regularly but they never had an accident, and they miss the freedom it gave them, so I think there are people who miss those days (which is not the same as saying they think we should go back to that system, but they definitely have a soft spot for the stories they tell of those days).
Load More Replies... Paul C. 1 year ago (edited)
Reel your neck in fella. I don't know any over 60 who thinks drinking and driving made anything "the good old days". What a sweeping, misinformed comment. Edit= Just for clarity I'm 70, done some serious drinking in my time and have never, ever drunk driven, nor any of my friends.
WindySwede 1 year ago
Or driving without seat belt. There is a YT where some say it's communistic to use seat belts.. 🤦♂️
UKGrandad 1 year ago
To be fair, seatbelts weren't even fitted in cars until the late 1940s, and they were two-point lap belts. The first three-point (shoulder strap) belts came in 1955, but they were still an optional extra for years after.
Load More Replies... Debby Keir 1 year ago
I'm well over 60, and no, it's never been a good idea. My parents (well before there was drink driving legislation) thought different. Why? Because at that time there was little scientific evidence, just a 'feeling' that it might affect your reflexes. Same with smoking - we all knew you got a cough, but it took years to prove it caused cancer.
Brian Droste 1 year ago
Not me. I don't know if I ever had the good ole days in my life. I am 64. If I could go back in time and stop myself from doing some of things I did, I would.
Ethan Teich 1 year ago
we crashed because of this, me and my dad, i wore a seat belt and he fidnt so i was fin but my dad has an invincible head or somethinng because he just broke his nose and he ended up smashing the steering wheel where it was bent in half with is head during the impact, also he never gets concusions due to any head injury.
Keith Lancaster 1 year ago
There was in the UK a drink driving advert whose tag line was "don't have that 5th pint"
Steve Hall 1 year ago
One angle on this one is that there was a lot less traffic sixty years ago.
Sara Frazer 1 year ago
Still happens all over all the time (in US at least) drunk driving is the #1 cause of car accidents and fatal car accidents. Twelve years ago I lost a dear high school friend to a drunk driver.
#36
Enforced poverty.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago
This has always been a popular policy amongst capitalists - without poor people, nobody would work for sh1t wages in their dangerous factories.
El Dee 1 year ago
"How will our young men gain experience if they do not have access to the children of the poor" A member of the House of Lords unhappy that they have to stop raping poor children..
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
Please help me find a source for that. I can't seem to locate one. Even just the name of the member of the House would be helpful. Thanks.
Load More Replies... Regina Holt 1 year ago (edited)
and in america, with the right-wing bro-birth conservatives that are so against birth control plus abortions, they are the ones that vote to cut back on policies to help the poor. So poor women don't have access to anything to prevent pregnancies and births, they are condemned to a never ending life of poverty that really is hard to escape from.
#37
Racism.
Urbangirlatl 1 year ago
I think I understand where Strings is coming from. When the CEO of Barilla pasta made a neg comment about including LGBT in their ads, I thought something along the lines of "thanks for letting me know where you stand so I can buy your competitor's product". It's not endorsing hate speech, but it's how we know we are dealing with @-holes.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago (edited)
Do you think we should bring back groping in the workplace too so you can spot the mysoginists?
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#38
Physical abuse.
#39
"When I was starting out, our bosses abused us 10 times as badly as what you get pampered with, you don't know how good you got it".
Blondie23 1 year ago
I don't get this frame of thinking. We currently have a new employee on our team and I bend over backwards to get her everything she needs to do her job. In fact the whole team is really pitching in to help her. We want her to succeed. How dark is your heart if you have this much hate in it?!?!?!?!
Regina Holt 1 year ago
This list is naming things that USED to be considered normal. Your workplace is more enlightened than some workplaces were in the past.
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LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
"So sorry you were too stupid and weak to stand up for yourself."
#40
Smoking at 12.
Kalikima 1 year ago
My grandma started smoking at 9, she used to light her mom's cigarettes and just picked it up from there.. this would have been in 1953.. she died in 2018 from multiple health issues, all stemming from smoking. She only quit 10 years before she died, after her 3rd heart attack.
notlikeyou1971 1 year ago
I started at 12 but it is hard to explain but I accidentally quit recently gave up cigarettes in April. I do Vape once in a while though. I said I would never ever quit but shockingly it accidentally happened to me. It was unplanned
ohjojo (you/your's) 1 year ago
In countries other than North America, children still light up at crazy young ages.
LokisLilButterknife 1 year ago
My students in Spain were smoking at 12,13, and 14. We had to hide their cigarettes during field trips.
Load More Replies... #41
Eugenics.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
You might be surprised just how many people are still in favor of some form of eugenics. You see what is outwardly a mild version of it on these boards all the time. A comment like "There should be some sort of test for people who want to be parents." or "People with [insert name of illness here] shouldn't be having children." These comments are not generally condemned.
Kira Okah 1 year ago
That is why my comment on here, it's a direct reference to a comment from another article on here where someone was talking about testing before having children, and did not get how their noble cause of preventing child abuse by deeming who is worthy of having children would lead straight to eugenics.
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Kira Okah 1 year ago
"Oh, but my way of regulating who is worthy of having children won't result in eugenics". It will, it always does, and it will affect the poor and disabled whether or not you want it to. When you start regulating people's worthiness of life, you get eugenics.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
My way of regulating who is worthy of having children is not to have any.
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Xenia Harley 1 year ago
I don't think people are even aware how this erroneous idea permeates US culture.
Mary Kelly 1 year ago
california only made forced sterilization illegal in 2012!...and yes b/c there was a need...it was being done to female prisoners...
flar@pa.metrocast.net 1 year ago
Ah yes, the Margaret Sanger way of controlling the black population. Abortion
Pencil McGovern 1 year ago
There's no question that her views (such as her support of eugenics) were despicable by today's standards but saying that her intent was to control the black population, particularly by abortion, is reductive and ill-informed. She was an tireless advocate for *birth control*, and tried to open birth control clinics in the south, (in part because of the rapidly growing population and its corresponding decline in overall health and in part to have access to federal funding under the New Deal) to serve poor black women.. She never attempted to open any abortion clinics there or anywhere else. Try reading W.E.B. Du Bois' endorsements of her during the years they worked together to bring the clinics to those communities for a more-balanced understanding of her work and beliefs.
Load More Replies... #42
Doctors did not appreciate being told to wash their hands before touching a patient once upon a time.
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein 1 year ago
I don't think anyone is saying we should go back to this.
Debby Keir 1 year ago
Ah, but those same doctors thought that it was an imbalance of 'humours' that made you ill, and used leeches daily. The science eventually made them learn, so it's more a lack of knowledge than outright obstinacy.
#43
Circumcision.
Not Who You Think 1 year ago
If you truly believe that there's a higher power, then why would you want to alter their creation?
Heather Murphy 1 year ago
Originally, it was a Jewish tradition after the 40 years of wandering in the desert. The people didn't like sand in their foreskin.
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Learner Panda 1 year ago
FGM is not practiced for any "hygiene" purposes. It's to prevent a female from having s*x before marriage and also to not enjoy it.
Elladine DesIsles 1 year ago
Sofia, if you are confused because of a language barrier, that is no reason to downvote! I believe the word you were thinking of is "circumnavigation." Circumcision is quite different, as you can see by reading the other comments here.
Sergy Yeltsen 1 year ago
They don't even pretend that women's circumcision is for hygiene or disease prevention reasons, it's only for pain, torture, and to stop them feeling pleasure. Just like religion, this should never be forced on children, but be their decision to make when they become adults.
Load More Replies... #44
Doctors getting female patients to undress to listen to their heart. I was 20 and had to strip off for this male specialist to be a perve. Lots of other instances with a doctor at my clinic when I was 15 - 16 being a creep.
Eric Tapril 1 year ago
In medical notes before patient had access, the acronym TUBE on a female patient's notes stood for "totally unnecessary breast examination".
Learner Panda 1 year ago
I told my GP it was not necessary in order for him to diagnose tonsillitis.
Mary Kelly 1 year ago
went to see an endocrinologist about my thyroid, he told me to get undressed for a pelvic exam, i left.
David 1 year ago
20 is a bit old but for minors, consider there are reasons for undressing that are not "perv". If it is a physical exam, it gives the doctor (male or female) an opportunity to observe abnormalities that may not be mentioned by the child or parent. Including hidden bruises / injuries.
MaximumKarmaSaint 1 year ago
Well yes, but some absolutely shouldn't have it.
Load More Replies... #45
Taking my social security number and taking loans out when I was a toddler but not my brother or half sister. When I confronted my mom about it, she said everyone else was doing it. Um no, most people aren’t stealing one of their children’s identities selectively and then taking hundreds of thousands in loans out. Lolz.
Ace 1 year ago
That is just a fsked-up financial and legal system. No excuse but this should not be, and in most of the world with a better-regulated financial sector it is not, possible.
Catpawsarethebest 1 year ago
I dont even understand how they are able to do that. In my country they can identify your age from your social security number and then you are just denied using it for the purpose of getting money. You just CAN'T!
What do you think ?
UKGrandad 1 year ago
*Note to the usual suspects: please read what I'm about to say for understanding before downvoting it. Thank you* We can all feel morally superior to our ancestors because we know better these days, right? However, how many of us stop to consider which practices we think are morally and legally sound today may, in the future, see us as soundly condemned as we condemn past generations? What do we shrug off as perfectly normal that might make our descend scream 'WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING'?
Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
Some people knew better back then too, but the others didn't listen to them.
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Fun Size 1 year ago
A lot of them are still happening, yes, but at least they're no longer considered normal or acceptable by society at large.
Load More Replies... CK 1 year ago
Of course none of those things are justified; however, we shouldn't give ourselves as individuals any credit for not going along with child sacrifice and slavery in a society where that isn't normalized. The sad truth is that it is incredibly statistically unlikely that you wouldn't have gone along with those things if you had been born in a previous generation. And if you want to prove to yourself that you would have been the one to oppose the brutality? Defy the socially accepted cruelty that's happening now. Fight to end all slavery in the world, to give disabled people all reasonable accommodations with dignity, and to get food and healthcare to all who need it.
Lola Donathan 1 year ago
My grandma had a man show himself to her one day when she was a kid and all my great grandma said was"oh I'm sorry sweetie,but you know,that's just how men are". SERIOUSLY!?
CK 1 year ago
I hate how men engaging in predatory behavior is "boys will be boys" but women wearing comfortable clothes that don't cover everything is "slutty" to the old fashioned worldview.
Load More Replies... Damned_Cat 1 year ago
I love old movies and television, but it's so cringe when I see how they used to make it a humorous plot point when a married man chased women or cheated on his wife. At the same time, any woman who dared to even call attention to herself was an evil harlot.
BravePanda 1 year ago
I used to be sexually harassed in high school in a daily basis because I had big breasts. Boys would hold my arms and hands behind my back, so other boys could oogle. I couldn't be alone after school because I would get cornered by a boy wanting "just to touch." It happened daily during and after school, on campus. It was the 90s.
Justbecause 1 year ago
Not using pain relief for many medical procedures because 'it doesn't actually hurt' or 'they wont remember it'. Pain relief is cheap and readily available it should be used when medical/veterinary procedures are done.
Justbecause 1 year ago
Aboriginal Australians were not considered human until the 70s. They were considered native animals and were treated as such. Many people still think its ok the treat Aboriginal people like this. Australia isnt the only country to treat original people as less than human.
UKGrandad 1 year ago
*Note to the usual suspects: please read what I'm about to say for understanding before downvoting it. Thank you* We can all feel morally superior to our ancestors because we know better these days, right? However, how many of us stop to consider which practices we think are morally and legally sound today may, in the future, see us as soundly condemned as we condemn past generations? What do we shrug off as perfectly normal that might make our descend scream 'WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING'?
Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
Some people knew better back then too, but the others didn't listen to them.
Load More Replies... Fun Size 1 year ago
A lot of them are still happening, yes, but at least they're no longer considered normal or acceptable by society at large.
Load More Replies... CK 1 year ago
Of course none of those things are justified; however, we shouldn't give ourselves as individuals any credit for not going along with child sacrifice and slavery in a society where that isn't normalized. The sad truth is that it is incredibly statistically unlikely that you wouldn't have gone along with those things if you had been born in a previous generation. And if you want to prove to yourself that you would have been the one to oppose the brutality? Defy the socially accepted cruelty that's happening now. Fight to end all slavery in the world, to give disabled people all reasonable accommodations with dignity, and to get food and healthcare to all who need it.
Lola Donathan 1 year ago
My grandma had a man show himself to her one day when she was a kid and all my great grandma said was"oh I'm sorry sweetie,but you know,that's just how men are". SERIOUSLY!?
CK 1 year ago
I hate how men engaging in predatory behavior is "boys will be boys" but women wearing comfortable clothes that don't cover everything is "slutty" to the old fashioned worldview.
Load More Replies... Damned_Cat 1 year ago
I love old movies and television, but it's so cringe when I see how they used to make it a humorous plot point when a married man chased women or cheated on his wife. At the same time, any woman who dared to even call attention to herself was an evil harlot.
BravePanda 1 year ago
I used to be sexually harassed in high school in a daily basis because I had big breasts. Boys would hold my arms and hands behind my back, so other boys could oogle. I couldn't be alone after school because I would get cornered by a boy wanting "just to touch." It happened daily during and after school, on campus. It was the 90s.
Justbecause 1 year ago
Not using pain relief for many medical procedures because 'it doesn't actually hurt' or 'they wont remember it'. Pain relief is cheap and readily available it should be used when medical/veterinary procedures are done.
Justbecause 1 year ago
Aboriginal Australians were not considered human until the 70s. They were considered native animals and were treated as such. Many people still think its ok the treat Aboriginal people like this. Australia isnt the only country to treat original people as less than human.
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