Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

1y ago

What is something that people think is dangerous but in reality is completely harmless?

387 comments

MSG. People will swear it gives them all manner of ailments
- I bought a big pack of msg from the Asian supermarket and use it instead of normal salt for many things. My partner and I call it wonder salt.
  (Of course, msg like normal salt or anything should be used in moderation lol)
  
  I bought a big pack of msg from the Asian supermarket and use it instead of normal salt for many things. My partner and I call it wonder salt.
  I hear the voices of my ancestors cry in confusion.
  But seriously speaking, I've never encountered MSG being used in place of salt. We use it here to give food more of that nondescript meaty taste (aka umami).
  Personally, if I need both salty and umami tastes I'd reach for soy or fish sauce first (depending on what's being cooked). I'd only add MSG and/or salt if I really have to—usually to make minute adjustments.
  
  I heard a lot about how msg can make stuff taste great, so I bought some a while back and I try it every now and then, but I can't really tell the difference. If I use too much I do notice that it makes the taste worse. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong.
- I remember when I was looking up diet videos years ago everyone was VEHEMETLY advocating against MSG and how bad it was for you, especially for diabetics. I'm still not entirely sure what to believe, but I know MSG isn't as bad as everyone thought it was.
  
  It's basically just salt. Salt can be bad for you if you eat too much of it. Don't over salt your food and you're fine.
  
  MSG isn't "bad" at all, it's just another ingredient really. The campaign against it was entirely bullshit that was driven by racism against Asian people because it's a common ingredient in Chinese food.
- There's glutamate, although not MSG, in breast milk. Also sugar in the form of lactose. That's because that's what gets babies to keep sucking.
  
  MSG is naturally in certain foods too, like tomatos and seaweed.
- I remember reading something from Chef John being against MSG (he was commenting within one of his YouTube videos). But not for health reasons. He just felt the flavor punch it gave lead to addictive overeating.
  I'm like removed, that delicious food you showcase does the same thing, you don't hear me removed about it.
- I love the taste of msg, unfortunately over the past few years it seems to have become a trigger for my migraines. I miss eating noodles with msg.
  
  Had a gnarly migraine yesterday after having msg. Hope its not msg causing it, so tasty 😩
- That's actually a misconception within a misconception.
  It's not that MSG allergies don't exist, it is that they are often downplayed for the same reason that Celiac's disease is downplayed. When a few people fake or overexaggerate their symptoms, credibility is taken from the rest of us who actually suffer from it. Now people are always quick to invalidate those who are symptomatic.
  Yes, it's true that some of the rumors around MSG are racially motivated, and that some people who claim to be affected are lying. But that doesn't mean that MSG related symptoms aren't real for the rest of us. Speaking as someone who is from Hong Kong, grew up with MSG, and absolutely loves the taste of it, but developed health conditions that were comorbid with MSG intolerance.
  As a chronic pain and migraine sufferer, large quantities of MSG is a common trigger for migraines (or headaches when I'm lucky). I've been blind tested before with someone else's help using the same quantities of salt vs MSG in a cellulose capsule. Each time, I would happen to be fine after taking the salt capsule with a glass of water. But after taking the MSG capsule with a glass of water, I would have have a headache or a painfully tense sensation around my head. This was done multiple times across separate days to rule out confounding factors.
  It's likely true that for the vast majority of people MSG doesn't trigger a reaction. However, a few of us have an intolerance and we are frequently dismissed and medically gaslit. Please believe us. I'm so tired of people telling me that what I'm experiencing isn't real. I wish it didn't have to be real so I could go back to eating whatever I want and not worry about migraines.
- I was confused at first how anyone thought that Madison Square Garden was dangerous, could it be all that ice-hockey they play there. Then I read the other comments and now I realize it's the basketball.

Socialism.
- Careful, friend. Once you start giving a shit about people who don't have much money it's a slippery slope
- Yeah...good trolling there.
  
  The government providing a baseline existence for it's people is like super fucking dangerous.

LGBTQ people and drag queens.
- First the gay agenda, now the trans agenda, when will the agendas end?!?
  
  I'm telling ya, it's all a part of Big Agenda...
- Speak for yourself, sis. I'm a dangerous homosexual. 💅🔪

In South Korea most fans have timers so they're not left on overnight, because people think it'll kill you if you do leave it on.
This belief wasn't helped by medical examiners putting "death by fan" on the death certificates of suicide victims to help the dead save face and spare the families the embarrassment of a "cowardly death" for a few decades.
- What is death by fan supposed to mean? Like how would you die from a fan?
  
  Ask John Lennon.
  
  Many people believe that death by fan sucks but really, it blows.
  
  I think they believe it will blow all the air out of the room
  
  Fan Death.
  
  I used to work in a real sweatbox of a factory so we had huge fans running all day. It was deceptive because you'd normally be drenched in sweat but the fans prevented it. So you'd drink a gallon of water and take maybe one brown ass dehydrated piss. I could see something like that being blamed on a fan. Just heat exhaustion or dehydration
- So do they think that CPAP machines are just suicide devices?

For my country (Germany): Catching a draft. Basically people believe that a light breeze from an open window will make you ill.
- We have a similar one here in the US. People think if you go outside when it's too cold, you'll get sick.
  
  It's not completely baseless. You can't get sick from the cold itself, but lower core body temp does weaken your immune system until you warm up, making it easier for you to get sick if you do get exposed to something.
  
  In the US, I hear this more when your hair is wet: "Don't go outside, it's cold and your hair's wet, you'll get sick!"
- Not only colds, but you also get stiff necks! According to my mother, it's almost instantly. Leaving two windows open makes here neck stiffer than a priest in a kindergarten, but only inside. Standing in the wind outside is perfectly fine.
- Also Russia and probably most eastern European countries. One of my kids will catch a cold and the first thing my mother or grandmother will ask is if they were somewhere drafty.
  
  It's even in the name! A "cold", huh!
- I've heard that cited in stories, usually older. A baby dies and they blame someone leaving the door open too long and letting in a draft.
- God, on one hand, catching a draft makes you die and then on the other STOSSLÜFTEN!!
  
  Tja ein STOSS ist halt kein ZUG!
- Similar in France, also airco giving you all kinds of symptoms
- I didn't know it's a thing in Germany too. 😊 Drafts are also blamed for pretty much any unexpected ailment, from rheumatism to toothache. And off course cold, flu and so on.
- That's totally cultural, in the US it's dehydration
- I don't know about that, I always get a pink eye and my sinuses start to hurt if I stay in draft for a longer period of time.
- Oh, that kind of draft
- Yeah, but then they go and open all the windows to "change the air" no matter the weather.
  I used to work with a bunch of Germans in the US. I came in to the office one time at about 4:30am in February. One of the guys had all the windows open when the outdoor temperature was something like -20F.
  Like Moritz, I think that avoiding the draft is more important than changing the air at that point. 🙄
  I also had an old manufacturing guy tell me that drinking cold water in the summer would kill you because of the shock to your system.
- Same in Czechia.
- Similar to "fan death" in Korea, where they think running a fan in your bedroom while you sleep can kill you.

Living near a nuclear plant.
Little do they know, that they get more than 50x more radiation effect from the natural surroundings and the rocks in earth than from the nuclear plant 🤭 And our body is really capable of dealing with that since the beginning of our evolution (DNA repairs and co).
https://pages.vassar.edu/ltt/files/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-21-at-1.18.09-AM1.png
here is a chart showing radiation intensities for various sources of radiation
- Living near a coal plant, on the other hand, is really, REALLY bad for you.
- Woah, this one is actually surprising to me. Even though I am in favour of nuclear power, I do have some fear of living in close proximity of such plants, especially seeing how even the clothing used in the facility is mixed into the barrels of radioactive wastes.
  
  Would you rather the clothing get washed at your local cleaners? Or washed on-site and the water drained into the city sewers?
  Seems like a sensible precaution
  
  Not all the clothing anyone wears in a plant. Clothing special for contamination areas. They also do scans at thresholds and anything you carry with you that gets contaminated is confiscated. Nuclear plants genuinely have a level of safety in the us that is pretty hard to comprehend, it's all done out of an abundance of caution more than a genuine need for it. Not quite security theater, just a very high degree of security.
  
  generally, if in doubt, do the math
- it's not the background radiation that worries people, it's the risk of a Fukushima-type incident.
  
  Ehhhh, those are the ancient light water designs. Fuck light water, even though it's actually pretty safe. Advanced sodium reactors are where it's at. One loop is molten salt and nuclear fuel. The salt makes it less dense so it can't melt down like a traditional reactor. A second loop of salt is what steals heat from the fuel, which loops around to a water boiler further away. In essence, it's airgapped. While corrosion can be an issue, the lack of water in the salt loops helps a ton.
  Solar towers with molten salt generators also work in the same way. The salts are molten and continue pumping out power for 12 hours after the sun has set, which makes them an excellent source of power for cities :)
  I'd live next to a nuclear plant any day of the week! Especially if the homes are less expensive because of it :D
  
  And even then, despite the catastrophe it was, it only had 1 death attributed to it.
- While true when everything works, people don’t want to live near a nuclear power plant because sometimes there are accidents. They are rare, but severe when they happen. Also because nobody wants to live in sight of one, it affects how easy it is to sell land and property.
  
  The probability of such accidents are waaaay to overestimated by the general population. Take a look at this: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-energy-production-per-twh
  it shows the deaths per kWh for various sources of energy. Nuclear power is really as safe as wind and solar. Nuclear power is sooooo safe honestly. But coal? We have global climate change, dirty air, smog, .... and radioactive materials in the atmosphere due to the coal 😅 Fun fact: Way more radioactive materials are spewed into the atmosphere due to burning coal than is actually by nuclear power plants.
  The human emotions are waaaay too inaccurate in this situation here
- I read somewhere that suggested that background radiation is actually (ever so) slightly lower near a nuclear plant, because all the shielding effectively casts a 'shadow' in the background.

as a chemist by trade: all sorts of random chemicals
also some people believe that microwaves are harmful and 5g towers will turn all your frogs gay or something like that. gee i wish they were consistent in their beliefs, if they were i'd never find them on internet
- Microwaves are harmful. Unless you mean the device. Which still can be harmful if it's broken. Edit: I see the good old Reddit behavior of downvoting facts is back.
  
  Or dropped on someone
  
  Only sort of, it's not ionizing radiation so it can only burn you. Internally.
  
  maybe if you manage to get microwave burn, these can be nasty. otherwise no

Staying in hostels when traveling overseas. The amount of people who tell me I'm crazy and going to get murdered if I stay in a hostel is ridiculous.
Hostels are great, and not any more dangerous than hotels are, you just have to look at reviews and go for the type you want. You can also rent private rooms at a lot of them. I always stay at one's with a kitchen so I can save a bunch on food, too.
- That fear is what happens when the only exposure people have to hostels in the US comes from horror movies. I didn't know that you can rent private rooms and get a kitchen - sounds like a nice setup.
- Who thinks hostels are dangerous? lol I've stayed at hostels all over the world including places like La Paz and had a fucking awesome time every time. I could understand a single female not wanting to stay in a mixed dorm but other than that, they're fine.

5G, Vaccines, MSG, WiFi, Socialized Medicine, Jews.
- Why did I read that like the Pokérap
  
  Or lyrics to an updated Billy Joel song "We Totally Started This Fire"
- Studies showed that MSG is entirely safe and only that some people may have "sensitivity" to it, akin to caffeine or any other food sensitivity. (note this is not allergy)
  I've always wanted to try mixing my Bugles with a dusting of MSG, it could be so tasty!
- 2.4ghz WiFi is actually classed as a carcinogen by the WHO. There's some pretty interesting and heavily peer reviewed research supporting this. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10643389.2021.1951549

The Tor Browser, it's just a normal Browser with some functionality to improve privacy.
- Like many tools, it can also be used for nefarious things, but that's not its only use.
  
  The use case for TOR is illegal activity. Some illegal activity is not immoral, like organising a protest against a dictatorship. But Tor is not a useful tool for simply browsing websites. The inconvenience isn’t worth it when a regular browser fulfills your needs better.
  It’s like money laundering. It could be done recreationally, but that’s not the normal use case.
- It's more than just privacy. It allows you to visit .onion sites, which will not load in a traditional browser. As a harmless example, this is Duck Duck Go: https://duckduckgogg42xjoc72x3sjasowoarfbgcmvfimaftt6twagswzczad.onion/. Trying to click that in a normal browser doesn't work because they don't support the onion network. But using the Tor browser unlocks that as well as all sorts of nefarious sites that you can't access through a "normal browser"
- I've encountered DNS poisoning (or similar?) multiple times. Wouldn't call this completely harmless. I wouldn't use it for online banking.

Jet fuel.
People seem to have the impression that it's some extremely explosive stuff that has to be handled with the upmost care, but it's just highly refined kerosene. It can be used as a replacement for Diesel fuel in many cases - in fact, U.S. military vehicles can run off either. We put it Toyota Hylux pickups up in northern Greenland because it doesn't gel up like Diesel fuel.
- It doesnt even melt steel beams, so...
- In case anyone is not aware, "upmost" is a word, but it's often substituted incorrectly for "utmost." https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/utmost-vs-upmost-difference#:~:text=Utmost%20means%20%E2%80%9Cgreatest%E2%80%9D%20or%20%E2%80%9C,mean%20%E2%80%9Cgreatest.%E2%80%9D%20Use%20utmost
- is current jet fuel even hypergolic?
  
  I suspect you're thinking rocket fuel. Some rocket fuels are hypergolic. Jet fuel is just kerosene with a few additives to prevent icing and improve engine performance.
- Yes, people expect it to be MORE volatile than gas for your car, but actually it's heavier and harder to burn. It's like diesel, only a bit more so.

Swimming around in a spent nuclear fuel pool: https://what-if.xkcd.com/29/
- This whole Japan nuclear wastewater thing going around the news has me shaking my head.
  The word nuclear in general just scares people.
  
  Well we've had decades of fossil fuel company scare propaganda to make sure everyone is scared of nuclear power.
  
  Most of it is fear mongering but you know bioaccumulation is a thing right? Water is a nice shield against radiation reaching you but if radioactive nucleai are in the water, it's going to accumulate in animals that grow in that water and cause heavy metal poisoning, like Mercury.
- I think there is a Tom Scott video where he does exactly this

Australia. Maybe not completely harmless, but far less dangerous than non-Australians make it out to be.
- That's what the drop bears want you to believe...
  
  I recently read an article that said an animal that could be described as a drop bear actually might have existed some thousands (millions?) years ago.
- Sounds like something an Australian would say!
- Cue this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrRAO_vG_K4 I've heard it described as the unofficial national anthem...
  
  I thought you were going to link this instead
  https://youtu.be/XfR9iY5y94s

Video games. There’s absolutely no evidence that they make people more violent.
- Nah man, my friend plays GTA and the next morning he got hit by a bicycle, that's very dangerous
  
  Friend of a friend sued an antibiotic manufacturer. I think it was Cipro? He started a course for something then a few days in snapped and stabbed someone several times. His claim was that the Cipro caused him to become violent. I don't think my friend is friends with them anymore.
- It's not quite NO evidence. I would say that it's very weak evidence of a minor effect. For example: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games
  It's a nuanced point where the people who complain that video games are ruining society should be completely ignored, but things like age ratings on games are probably a good idea.
  
  It's very easy to correlate a lot of things. Particularly if weak correlation is sufficient. For example, what do you think we'd get if we tried to correlate murderers with cheese consumption?
  I would suggest using the word evidence very carefully. Particularly in a scientific context.
  
  I think part of the nuance may be that people who already have violent tendencies might gravitate towards more violent video games. In that regard it may be an indicator of existing violent urges but the game being the cause of violent behavior in otherwise non-violent tending people seems not to have any hard evidence.
  
  Except age rating is a joke - especially 18+. I get that many games are violent, contain sex scenes, drugs etc., but in my eyes 18 is a barrier when you become responsible for your actions, which would imply playing 18+ games is dangerous like alcohol and cigarettes, while it's just a PEGI's way of saying "Somebody said fuck several times".
  Like Witcher 3 obviously fits into 18+, but not because it's should be 18+, but we got used to these games being 18+. At the age of 14 in school I was required to read Sapkowski's novels, but god forbid you play Witcher 3.
- Gacha games and addiction though.
- More violent? No. But there are mountains of evidence that video game addiction is detrimental to people's mental and physical health.
  Nothing wrong with spending some spare time gaming, but when it becomes something you arrange your life around it's not healthy.
  
  Would you still consider "arranging your life around" a problem if it were a different hobby?

Nuclear power in general.
- Completely harmless? C'mon.
  
  There have been three accidents related to nuclear power generation, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukashima. There were a total of 33 deaths attributed to those three incidents (32 from Chernobyl and 1 from Fukashima.)
  There are 58 deaths per terawatt-hour attributed to coal alone, mostly due to air pollution.
  I'd say that nuclear power is very close to completely harmless in comparison. Certainly in contrast to its perception among the general public.
- It's just the radioactive waste we don't know what to do with and becoming a military or terrorist target parts that are dangerous.
  
  No, we've known what to do with the waste for decades. Put it in cans, fill the can with cement, coat the can in cement, put the cans in a facility that is protected from geological events like earthquakes, and periodically check the cans/facility. In the US for example, The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was being made before political pressure shut it down.
  The waste issue is and always will be one of political pressure and ignorance by the masses, not an actual logistical issue

Huntsman spiders
They are large, and they gallop across your ceiling like demented gazelles, chasing down cockroaches.
However, they're nonaggressive to humans, you'd have to seriously harrass one to provoke it into biting you, and the worst they could do to you is a beesting-like bite.
They're also all named Kevin.
- Sorry, as an arachnophobe, Kevin better stay out of my house or have a faster draw than I do or he's toast. Castle doctrine applies to spiders that large lmao.
  
  My house would be a pile of ashes if I saw one of those inside.
- This is all true except I've met huntsmans with different names.
  Also as you said, they are not completely harmless like OP requested. Going by these standards we could also list a lot of animals that occasionally bite or sting non lethally if provoked.
  
  Granted, but they look a whole lot more threatening than they are, which I felt was in the spirit of the thread.
- I sincerely hope you aren’t lying because I will accept this as fact and act accordingly should I ever see something I think is a huntsman spider
  
  There's apparently one subspecies of huntsman that could make you a bit nauseous and headachey, but the majority aren't going to do more than hurt a bit. And yeah, they're cool.
  Of course, I'm not going to take responsibility if you misidentify something else as a huntsman...
- I'm allergic to actual bee stings ...
  
  I've never had one, so I don't know. I've always been irrationally nervous around bees, and I really, really don't want to find out if I am or not.

Sharks.
More people die due to things like selfies, falling out of your bed, tipped vending machines and heck, even balloons, then to a shark.
Just because something can kill you doesnt mean it will, more often than not, it actually wont.
- Here there might be a confusion between danger, and statistics.
  all those examples are about events or things that are far more frequent than be near a shark
  if the average person could be close to a shark as many time in life than leaving a bed, be close to something that can flip, or to people taking selfies, statistics might be very different
  
  Most of the fear of sharks is due to media. Like the vast majority of sharks will not attack a human even when in close proximity. There are like 1 or 2 species of sharks that have any danger to humans: bull and tiger sharks if I remember correctly. And even those 2 will most likely not attack, it's just that other species are no danger at all.
- A shark killed my brother a few years back. He was just standing there minding his own business and this shark came out of nowhere and toppled a vending machine on top of him. Poor bastard never knew what hit him.
- That's because people rarely are where sharks can kill them. If they were, sharks would quite often kill them. Much more often than vending machines, though I'd watch for those too.
- Wolves are similar, but for more understandable reasons. They may leave us alone, but they really love our livestock.
- I'd be interested in the death numbers relative to exposure. What percentage of people who tip vending machines die compared to those who swim among sharks at the beach? How about compared to those who sleep in a bed?
- My favorite has always been that falling coconuts kill more people than sharks

The dark. Everything seems more scary in the dark
- I love the dark ... especially pitch blackness.
  As a kid I used to crave wanting to eliminate all light when I went to bed. As a teen, I would seal the edges of my door to stop the hall light in our house from coming and put up black out curtains even at night. It always bothered me if I woke up with a bit of light. For some reason I felt better waking up in the dark. I always know where my things are and I can wander around in the dark to f find my way.
  I haven't had that in years because my wife wants some night lights on somewhere. She thought I was nuts to want complete darkness at night.
  
  I'm actually afraid of the dark. My mind makes me see shadowy figures and scary faces. I don't think I'll ever get over it even though it's illogical.
  
  I was the same as a kid, then I got used to sleeping with some light and haven't needed to block out lights since. However, I recently bought a weighted mask and omg I seriously recommend that! I really feel like I sleep a lot better with it on, wake up more rested. Could be placebo of course, but I don't think it is.
- The key to feeling confident in the dark is feeling like the hunter, not the prey.
- It's not completely harmless, it's much easier to stub your toes! 😧

Scuba Diving. Lots of people have heard that your lungs can pop or something similar and it makes them really afraid to try it. If you hold your breath, you may have issues with your lungs but your SCUBA apparatus is such an amazing design that even if you need to throw up underwater it's designed to filter your vomit through the apparatus so you can continue breathing even after throwing up THROUGH it (which you should do if you feel nauseous down there). Just keep the apparatus in your mouth and don't stop breathing and you'll have a great time.
Scuba Diving is one of my favorite things to do and I really think more people should try it!
- I'm simultaneously amazed by being able to vomit while diving and just breathing normally - and disgusted when trying to imagine how that' would look and feel like...
  But thanks for the info. Never thought they're so Great
- In the same vein, freediving is easy to learn up to a certain point and safe as long as you don't hyperventilate and stay away from caves. Most people can learn to dive to 10-15m and look around a bit before they have to resurface. That's far from breaking any records, but enough to have fun and see some cool stuff that you can't see from the surface.
  Plus, you don't need any special gear, besides snorkel, mask and fins.
  
  I want to free dive so bad but I'm a heavier weighted dude so I float too easily and have to work to keep myself underwater. Working on losing weight so I can do that kind of stuff!

Spiders.
Even black widows basically have to be harassed into biting.
- Good, I'm glad someone said this already. I love the spiders in and out of my house. Most are totally harmless and keep the numbers of other bugs in check. Plus they can be really fun to watch. Granted I'm in the US, some places have really wicked spiders I wish to never meet.
- I wouldn't take that bet with a funnel Web spider.
  that said the fear is way out of proportion to risk, yes many people are bit, but antidote is a thing. I think there's only been a very small handful of actual spider bite deaths in Australia in decades and those that were were mainly untreated

Dihydrogen monoxide except for when it completely replaces the air.
- Oh, that shit is dangerous.
  At high pressure it can cut through pretty much anything.
  Heated to vapor can cause severe burns. (Steam)
  A high percentage in the air when it's not enough will cause your body's cooling ability to fail. Killing you very quickly.
  And that's just off the top of my head.
  
  drinking more than a liter (L) or so per hour for several hours can kill you
  
  Not to mention it's potency as a solvent.
  It also severely decreases function of you car brakes, which can lead to severe injuries or death.
- Dam I was hoping no one had suggested that one yet!

Canadian Geese. They are super aggressive but cannot hurt you.
- Dude one stole some Doritos from me once. Wtf do you mean "they can't hurt you"
- One time, I was walking along the sidewalk next to some geese. They were so close that the intrusive thoughts won, and I tried to poke it. It hit me with its wing and left me with a nice bruise :(
  
  If you successfully poked it, was it kinda soft? They look kinda floofy.
- My nuts would like to disagree with you.
- I've heard stories that their wings are powerful enough to break an arm... But I've never heard first or second hand of that actually happening.
  Considering how much denser our bones are than thiers, it always struck me as a risky proposition on their part to hit us that hard.

Cellphones in a gas station. Also double dipping in a sauce or dip.
- Also double dipping in a sauce or dip.
  Perhaps, but still gross.
- George likes to double dip
- And here I'm paying for gas using phone near distributor. Well it can be dangerous when someone try to stop you because they think you didn't pay for gas.
- Was this a technological change, or did gas stations just not want people loitering on their phones?
  
  IIRC, the rate of explosions at gas stations started going up around the time that cell phones were becoming popular. The investigation teams would review camera footage and see people on their phones. So the government changed the mandatory warning stickers on the pumps to include a "do not use your phone while pumping" warning.
  Turns out it wasn't because people were using their phones near the gas pump, but that they were getting back in their cars to play on their phone while the pump was running. They'd build up a static charge by getting in and out of the car, which would arc to the pump handle when they went to hang it up.
  It took a while before they realized what the actual problem was.
  
  It's probably just a precaution measurement or for liability reasons (like don't put your hamster in the microwave).
  Here's more to read: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fuelish-pleasures/ The rumour of cellphones not to be allowed at gas stations has proven to be false.

People who are dependent on opiates and opioids.
Some people who are in a lot of pain legitimately need the medicine in order to have a normal life. It doesn't make us high, it makes us 'normal' because we actually require the medicine to bring us to normal levels of activity.
Just because someone is physically dependent on the medicine, does not make them an addict too
Most of us would rather never take another pill in our lives if we were suddenly healed.
- If you’re dependent on the drug that’s an addiction. You may feel that your addiction is more justified than others, and that’s ok. Humans have been using drugs for thousands of years both recreationally and medicinally.
  
  That's not true. There's a difference between addiction and dependence medically.
  You don't say that a person on insulin is an addict. You don't say that a person on heart medicine is an addict. We shouldn't say that a person on opiates are addicts.
  Addicts take the medicine without a medical need. Dependent people need to take the medicine in order to live a normal life.
- I was just commiserating with my wife about how we both exhibit a bunch of signs of ADHD but can't get medicated because doctors are highly discouraged from prescribing them, because of the misuse associated with them.
  GPs won't prescribe them because of societal pressure, and yet there is also a nationwide shortage of psychiatrists.
  The end result is that people who need something to get them to baseline suffer because politicians need to make a hammer-style policy for a scalpel-style problem.
  
  A lot of people are turning to the dark web to get just basic medicine because it's such a headache to get the medicine that they need. It's WAY cheaper too.
  It's sad that people have to resort to that, but it's better than suffering.
- A similar thing with me. I am on Trazodone for sleep. If I miss one dose the next day I will have panic attacks where I’ll sit curled up in the shower and bawl my eyes out until I get another dose. I am chemically dependent on this medication. Whether the or not it even helps for insomnia anymore I don’t know.

Wild strawberries. As far as I know there are no wild strawberries that are poisonous. There are two types, wild strawberries that resemble normal strawberries but smaller, which taste delicious, and mock strawberries, which taste like water but are also safe to eat. Mock strawberries can be recognized as growing upward and having protruding red seeds.
- Depending on where you live, you should be aware of the fox tapeworm. It's really, really nasty for humans and can be fatal.
  
  Absolutely terrifying read.
  
  Now I know why they say to not pick wild plants if a dog could have potentially peed on them, next to being disgusting of course.
- Someone really thinks that? Which country?
  
  Yeah, I was pretty surprised to learn it, as I also thought they were toxic from a young age. My friends and family were also surprised when I told them. I’d rather not say my country.
- The words "wild strawberries" never fail to bring to mind this Shel Silverstein poem:
- Didn't know people thought this. Anyway they're definitely missing out because wild strawberries are great, much better than other strawberries imo
- Yeah, I was pretty surprised to learn it, as I also thought they were toxic from a young age. My friends and family were also surprised when I told them. I'd rather not say my country.

Muslims.
- On the surface level, yeah. But if you dig a bit deeper a religious person upholds the idea that religious belief is reasonable. When people have the opinion that religious belief is reasonable it causes measurable harm to everyone on this planet.
  An individual believer cannot be separated from the religion.
  
  My point was that people fear the average person who works a common job raising a family but is also Muslim. There's definitely crazy religious zealots in Islam, but they are the minority of the ~1.5 Billion.
  
  Not all religious people are fundamentalists. The vast majority of Muslims (and Christians and Hindu and Jews and Buddhists etc etc) are moderate to progressive believers who aren't necessarily any more toxic than those of us who aren't religious.
  Not separating individual believers from the religion and each other is every bit as bigoted and stupid as claiming that all atheists eat babies just because I do.
  
  This is a very narrow viewpoint in my opinion. I'm not denying religion has caused harm, but a large portion of people have found it to be a means to do good (and I mean legit good that almost everyone can agree on, things like foodbanks, stopping addictions and so on)
  
  Someone call a plumber, /r/atheism is leaking again
- As an Icelandic guy in Palestine I confirm this is true.
  
  How are you finding Palestine in general. I'm planning a trip in a couple years to visit the done of the rock and although I'm a Muslim in a very white blonde hair blue eyed American with very limited Arabic skills.
- I don't know about this one man.
  I'm sure that most common day Muslims are fine normal people that live their lives as decently as anyone else.
  And there are crazy ass Christians and Jews and Buddhists out there of course. But the kind of crazy levels Muslims can attain are astronomical!
  I mean... The dress code of women alone are just out of this world...
  
  Extremists are extremists.
  Everyone’s got crazies.
  Muslims as you said.
  For Christian’s in the US they are the largest terrorist group.
  https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s894/BILLS-116s894is.xml
  For Jews (I am Jewish and Half Israeli) look at the current Israeli administration.
  Frankly it doesn’t matter what religion, dogma, ideology, or doctrine you follow. Replace label X with Y. Someone will always take the rhetoric to far.
  
  A lot of that has more to do with modern politics than with religion, most of that is a reaction to Western Imperialism. Look at the way women dressed in the 50s and 60s in Tehran. Even Indonesia, the country with more Muslims than anywhere on earth had a female prime minister before Hilary even ran.
  
  There's definitely a lot of crazy ass Muslims as well as Jews, Christians and Buddhists like you mentioned. However, I think the fear is irrational. Most of them just want to raise a family and live life. There's extremists in all groups: every race, every religion, every political belief system, etc. This doesn't mean that the minority extremists should define the majority.

Climbing, the gear is all rated to lift 2 tonnes, so a medium sized car. It won't snap with you on it.
Edit: sorry this is misleading, climbing is not harmless, and a lot can go wrong even with good equipment. The point I wanted to convey was that equipment failure is an unlikely cause of problems for climbing
- I’m a climber and while yes, the gear is very well made and over engineered climbing is still quite dangerous. That rope could be rated for 500KN but if you repel off the end of it you’re still going for a fall.
  
  You're right, my first post was a bit over reaching
- I don't think it's the ropes that are used that make climbing dangerous...
  
  what is it in your opinion?
- I had a huge carabiner holding a free climbing rope fail on me at my local climbing gym. Dumped me at least 15’ and I broke my foot. Definitely a weird one off but it’s not always the rope that fails.
  
  ah that is unfortunate, they probably hadn't inspected it in a while

According to my mother, gay marriage. Nuts on mustaches is just the end of the world to her for some reason.
Otherwise, she's a sweet lady.
- Gay sex is fine, but they dare not try to ceremoniously demonstrate their love and devotion.
- I was actually a bit disappointed when it wasn't as hyped up as religion makes it out to be. It feels extremely similar to having sex with women, lmao. I thought it would be super different and scandalous or...something? But yeah. Guys, gals, and everyone in between are basically just slightly different muscle tones, and slightly different pressure points.
  Everyone gets excited by romantic dates and you doing the dishes out of love, remembering anniversaries, all the normal stuff. Sometimes boyfriends like to play videogames and do pedicures too, which are actually a blast and everyone should try them, haha.

ITT: people that don't know what completely harmless means
- Right? Jews aren't completely harmless

Most US cities are not as dangerous as the news makes them out to be.
- What about Detroit? I'm not even remotely near US and I see a lot of stereotype about Detroit
  
  There are certanly a lot of very not nice places in the city. You probably don't want to be walking around them after midnight, but there is also no reason to be in these places at night as a visitor.
  The downtown area is relatively safe (some recent gun clown activity in nightlife areas but it's the USA after all) and populated.
  The city has come a long way since the bankruptcy in 2013. It had been struggling for decades before this too. Industry and population leaving the city for the suburbs. The stereotype comes from this and it's hard to move on from because the city stil hasn't even though it's made some big steps.
  It's not a perfect city but having basic street smarts you would use in any other city will keep you out of trouble.

Are you going to make me log back into reddit to find the most upvotes comment to this question?

Use a cellphone under trees in rain.
Learned few days ago that it's not actually dangerous, at least doesn't make you have a higher change to be struck by thunder.
- ... where in the world was/is this a thing? That's the dumbest thing I've heard xD
- To be honest, I feel like I'd be more concerned with my phone getting water damaged, than getting struck by lightning.
  
  It's not a good idea to stand under a tree when it's lightning, but if you really want to for some reason, then don't stand next to a trunk.
- Can't be struck by thunder unless you're AC/DC

Threads
/s
- Like, the movie?

Reading in the dark.
- Not dangerous but definitely becomes more difficult the older I get.
- I do this a lot (reading books on my phone before I sleep)
  it does but damage the eyes?
  
  It doesn't damage them, just makes them more tired. Sleep can fix that, though.

Sharks during scuba dive. Most sharks are not dangerous / interested to humans when following some rules.
- How do you get the sharks to follow the rules?
  
  Reward good behavior with snacks and belly scratches.
  Punish bad behavior by screaming loudly and getting choppered to an emergency room, thus removing the snacks.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_NC-_fvKs
- To be fair, sharks have the statistical advantage of not being where humans are almost all of the time.

Many people think sharks are dangerous, but shark attacks are accidents in which sharks mistake humans for seals. Sharks are actually in more danger from us.

Vaccinations!

I'm not sure I'd say it's completely harmless, but isn't pumping gas while the car is running generally not a huge risk?
- Why would anyone do that outside of a formula one race?
  
  Situations where you can't really turn your engine off. Like I once had my car battery die and after a friend jumpstarted it, I was gonna go drive around for a bit to charge the battery but then I realized my gas tank was completely empty. So I had to fill it up while it was running.
  A rare situation for sure, but it's at least one reason.
  
  FYI Formula 1 banned refueling during races in 2010.
  
  Even F1 doesn’t take on any fuel during pit stops these days.
- Hot exhaust and gas fumes don't seem like a good mix.
- I saw my high school chemistry teacher do it and right then, I knew it had to be safe.
- According to myth busters, smoking in and of itself is also not a problem when pumping gas. Cigarettes don't burn hot enough to light gasoline. A lighter CAN light gasoline tho (obviously).

Weed doobies

Carbon-Fiber submersibles. There was only one, then it went pop.
- Need more, though. We still have far too many billionaires.

Speak for yourself, sis. I'm a dangerous homosexual.
- must be the flames

Eating mushrooms you find wherever

The steam coming out of an Instant Pot. People have looked very worried when I put my hand into the steam blasting out.
- It absolutely can burn you, especially if you're taking about when doing a quick release. I've burnt my hand numerous occasions trying to cover the steam vent with a tea towel.
  
  Yeah the second-worst burn I ever got was from steam when I was opening a pressure cooker.
  The first-worst was from accidentally touching a soldering iron.
- Terrible idea. Steam will fuck your entire world up. I can put my hand onto a flat top, but steam is bullshit
  
  Fun fact about steam, unlike normal burns it doesn't kill your nerves.
- I would look worried too, from what I've felt the steam from my Instant Pot is extremely hot!
  
  One might say, it's boiling!
- I would guess that's hot vapor, not steam. Actual steam is invisible and will burn you
  
  There are a few kinds of steam!
  Wet (unsaturated) steam: this is probably what's coming out of the instant pot. It's gasified water mixed with tiny particles of liquid water. Industrial processes do not want wet steam in their systems. They have machinery to separate the liquid out. If that liquid water settles out inside a pipe and blocks it, it'll go shooting down the pipe like a bullet and cause damage to whatever is at the end of the line. If the droplets get into turbomachinery, they'll tear up the turbines. Adding additional heat will not increase the temperature, but will get consumed by the phase change to evaporate the remaining water and change the wet steam into...
  Dry (saturated) steam: this is precisely the point when all the water has been evaporated. If you remove heat, it will start to condense without changing temperature. If you add additional heat, it will increase the temperature of the steam, because there is no water left to evaporate. This is useful because changing phase between liquid and gas consumes/yields a ton of energy, and that happens at a constant temperature. So if you need to transfer heat from one place to another, then saturated steam is what you want. Adding heat to saturated steam gets you...
  Superheated steam: at this point you can conceptualize water as a gas. Intuitively, it works just like air or nitrogen or whatever. Pressure/temp relationships act like you'd expect from your everyday experience, because you're far enough above the gas-liquid phase change temperature that you don't have to worry about condensation getting into your equipment. If you want to use steam as a working fluid in turbomachinery or something, then you want superheated steam.
  All three can hurt you badly, but inadvertent contact with superheated steam will fuck you up or cause irreversible death.
- Why do you put your hand into the steam blasting out?

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