This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I agree with your argument overall, but I think hanging is not as painful as you say that it is. It's just some pressure for a few seconds and then lights out for the next 20 minutes while your body kicks around and tries to free itself. The real bother for the suicidal person there is that they need a good rope, they need to find a good spot that will support them and not let them come loose, they need to be able to tie a great knot, and they need to worry not about aesthetics of such a violent death. I imagine that these constraints are themselves large barriers to depressives who have little willpower for planning in the first place.
The thought sometimes strikes me of unique ways to commit suicide. Ones I have wondered about:
You never hear about people doing either one of these. I don't know if that's because it just doesn't work or because nobody goes for them. The apple seed one would be painful, anyway, and there are probably more effective drugs out there...
Without the barrel directing it, bullets don't go anywhere. The case will split open and the bullet will not shoot out. There's no viable path to suicide based on holding a hot frying pan to the backs of rounds held against your head.
The bullet itself might not do anything, but the explosion would be enough to do something. I saw a photo of some guy's finger that got mangled after he struck a .50 cal bullet with a hammer. That should work on any part of body...
... unless it were encased in bone!
That is indeed a constraining factor, but we're talking about a whole pack exploding right next to your skull. I don't have my strength of bones calculator handy, but I mean, maybe our aspiring depressive could throw in a pack or two of tannerite, which is also legal and doesn't require a background check. I understand that does change the hypothetical significantly, and it would also explain why one would never hear of this method (because it's lumped under an Explosives death).
I agree a whole pack at once might do it, but I don't expect that the whole pack would explode at once.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
No, but coming up with a way to direct a bullet that will work for a shot to the head isn't rocket science.
Actually, come to think of it, it pretty much is rocket science. But very simple rocket science.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I once had the same thought about eating cherries in bulk.
I vaguely recall some movie where this happens, a guy heats shells on a frying pan.
Won't work, you'd just get peppered with brass shrapnel and suffer horribly, but you won't die because the energy isn't concentrated enough to pierce your skull. The polymer coated buckshot would do even less.
Maybe you'll get lucky and hit an artery and bleed out, but at that point it's a lot cleaner to just use a blade.
You need pressure for a good powder burn. That's why we have the brass in the first place: it seals up the breech and allows the pressure to build up during combustion so the energy has nowhere to go but heat and increasing the velocity of the projectile. Blowing up cartridges without a breech lets the energy tear the cartridge and vent gas in all directions instead of speeding up the brass.
Youtube is full of videos of rednecks blowing up .50 BMG on its own and they're always amazed how underwhelming the performance is.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I must try so very hard to not get nerd-sniped again into an argument about convenient household or pharmaceutical techniques to kill people quickly and easily.
More options
Context Copy link
Re. hanging, I did a deep dive into the biomechanics of hanging on a morbid curiosity kick a while back. My conclusion was that (to not put too fine a point to it) it's possible to set things up such that only a relatively painless blood choke is applied and conciousness is lost in 8-10 seconds, but the standard method of hanging puts much more pressure on the trachea and inconsistent pressure on the carotid arteries, causing a far more painful and likely drawn-out death.
Damn, how horrifying. I always thought that I would prefer not to be hanged if I had to be executed, glad I was right. Guillotine is far more humane, though my real preference is for the firing squad.
Firing squad is the way to go. That or ground zero of an explosive with enough force to instantly destroy your brain.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Makes sense. I've done Jiu-Jitsu for a long time and whilst I've never been out-out I've spent a lot of time being choked in various guises and if somebody's got a clean bite and catches a blood choke perfectly it's blackness oncoming almost instantly. But also plenty of chokes where it's see-sawing the line the whole time and can be minutes of awkwardness
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link