Things that piss you off

[Verlander]

Hmm, would be a toughie for me. I live in belgium and here we have companies that don't pay tax. Well they do but due to our taxation system they can bend the rules and come out at a net 0% paid (roughly, could be 1-2%). And it is pretty much legal. Now I don't know how they do it. But since it is legal, I'm assuming our countries rules are fucked. HOWEVER, the taxation on wages is so incredibly high that it is still not very profitable to produce stuff in our country (t-shirts, refrigerators, cars,...). Only stuff that requires highly educated work personnel is being produced here. So, even though it is fucked up that they don't pay taxes, I would not change it. Out of fear of even more companies packing up their shit and shipping off to another country. Which makes me a liberal I suppose.

Now mind you, my opinion is based on very little actual knowledge of this topic. So you might say: nop, you're wrong. I'm not too vocal about this stuff if that counts xD.

It is likely that those companies are paying tax, just not in Belgium. They are probably shifting profits overseas, and paying taxes over there, because the Corporate Tax rate in Belgium is quite high (comparatively). If you lower taxes, you could possibly convince companies to retain some of that profit, but there is the risk that they would not, and there would be a loss on taxes that are currently being paid - it's why people don't like to rock the boat, as it were. There are other incentives a country can do to retain corporate profit, but it might not be worth the risk.

There is a significant domino effect whenever things like tax rules are changed, and it's often incredibly difficult to predict what will happen. However, according to the comments section on youtube, just doing this one change will fix everything...

Ugh.

 

[Coruptin]

Yesss... Let your anger consume you. Give into your hatred and make it empower you. The dark side will make you stronger than you ever dreamed possible.

Or you could talk about it like you are now and let your frustration subside. The internet can wear down on you and make you a bitter cynic. I find that for my personal mental health if I have grievances it's better to communicate why I am annoyed rather than hold it in, and I always try to ready myself for compromise or to relent my position all together. The internet breeds stubbornness and miscommunication (I am almost certain these account for the majority of inane comments) we should do all we can do to combat it. If people respond with disrespect I suggest you make like Jesus and dust your feet and get the hell outta there.

But be careful not to put yourself in an echo chamber. Those places are what creates stubbornness and miscommunication

 

[bliebblob]

Eeeeyup though I'm still a student I live and work in a similar field so obviously I deal with the exact same issues. So to answer whether or not you should respond to these things, let me explain how I cope.

1) With the exception of peer reviewed journals do not read anything about biology on the internet.
If you need to know about it, you'll find out through more legit channels sooner or later.

2) Never "take on" more than one person at a time.
It's true there are no dumb questions, but it's also true that one idiot can ask more questions than a thousand sages can ever answer. I'm sure you're familiar with how much effort can go into disecting even one of these uninformed statements by one person. If so, you can probably also see the madness in dealing with more than one at a time.

3) Have an opinion.
Biology is the most controversial science in the world right now. What other field deals with such a laundrylist as GGO's, global warming, animal testing, creationism, habitat conservation, etc., etc...? As such you're bound to deal with highly opinionated people (well informed or otherwise) sooner or later. When that happens the best response is to state your well thought out opinion on the matter and walk away. Don't stick around trying to "win" the debate, noone has ever changed his/her mind after a single counter-argument. Unless they weren't that opinionated to begin with, but then they wouldn't have started the discussion in the first place.

4) Never start these discussions yourself, only respond when "challenged".
You can spend a lifetime sniping off every misconception you come across and still achieve no net result. Stick to the ones that matter instead. For example: if someone you care about is getting ripped off by a spirit healer or whatever. And even then tread carefully: being told you're wrong is not fun and noone will ever thank you for it, regardless of if you were right.

5) Have some empathy.
If you were born only a few short generations earlier you'd probably have a problem with woman voting. Would that have been your own fault? Hard to say right? Keep that idea in mind when dealing with anyone with an uninformed opinion. It's not about dragging them into the Glorious Light of Science, it's about gaining the respect you know your field deserves.

Hope it helps

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

Ignorance can get on my tits but I can live with it. I actually find it almost cute when someone thinks that HIV is a cell or that mitochondria have something to do with an involvement of a third person during sex. hilarious, really.
Oh, and I have a friend whose ex freaked out when she got a drop of his ejaculate on her hand. She genuinely thought that the contact with the skin of her hand was going to make her pregnant. It was hysterical. I could not stop laughing when he told me.

Then again, I understand how frustrating it must be for you if you really care about the topic. Ignorance does piss me off big time when it comes to questions of EU and immigration. I am an EU immigrant living in the UK so the topic concerns me a great deal. And sure enough, the 'bloody immigrants stealing our jobs' thing was funny at first, until I realised there are people who are serious about that. Serious enough to let UKIP win European parliamentary elections.
The sheer amount of ignorance being thrown around is astounding when it comes to euroscepticism. The main arguments against EU flow from misunderstanding its purpose. I've heard people claim it hurts trade when it was literally designed to promote it. I've heard people complain about the european court of human rights imposing its values on member states as a major anti-EU argument when the ECHR is not even an EU institution.
Yes, I am strongly pro-EU. And yes, you are allowed to be a eurosceptic but not without doing your homework first. Unless you understand what EU is and what it does, I do not want to hear you complain about it.

When it comes to the internet though, it's not the ignorance that gets to me. It's the utter lack of basic human decency. The people who bully a young woman into committing suicide for having THE NERVE to play in a porno. In her own time. With her own body. Doing something utterly harmless that she enjoyed and got paid for it. That makes her a FUCKING WHORE because she likes having sex and feels comfortable enough with her own body to be able to do it on camera. Because that's how logic works. So of course we have to publicly humiliate her and harass her to the point when she can't take it anymore and takes her own life. But do not stop at that, no! How about some extra attacks and shaming after she is dead? Why not? And how about we also point out that we're going to masturbate over her video anyway? The whore had it coming!

I'm sorry. That one thing just got to me. I went white with rage the moment I learned of it. I hesitate to use the word evil because that implies a certain level of sophistication but... this is just sad. It's horrifying and disgusting. I can not believe that people that think this way actually exist. I just cannot. I was left speechles, thoroughly sick to my stomach and just... sad. And the worst part is that you run into news like this every other day.

 

[Phasmal]

To be honest the whole bloody gaming community pisses me off sometimes.

Sometimes I just want to play an MMO without having stupid zone chat about how the idea of someone of my gender playing an MMO is hilarious and couldn't possibly happen. And MMO's are one of the `safer` genres for the ladies.
Honestly, some people.... I just want to sit them down and ask them about their issues.
I was dealing with this shit when I was fourteen, didn't think I'd still be dealing with it at 24.

I know it probably shouldn't even bother me anymore.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

All of humanity pisses me off, at times. Especially guys named Todd.

But what really pisses me off is not knowing something to explain it simply. That drives me to understand it, which takes time and interaction with people. People that don't know how to explain simply what it is that I am after. And it pisses me off even more.

ARGH!

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

What really annoys me are people who have snarky remarks about damn near everything while refusing to contribute in any meaningful way with a helping hand or good advice.

 

[Drake Barrow]

Don't waste your time with them. There's a quote attributed to Mark Twain: "Don't argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level, and then beat you with experience."

 

[And Man]

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people think that we (and when I say we I'm speaking of the United States) should stop all use of fossil fuels and switch over entirely to renewable energy sources, but we haven't yet because of "big oil" or some such nonsense. Renewable energy is great, but currently it's incredibly expensive and still has reliability issues, while coal and gas (especially coal) are insanely cheap by comparison. We're just not at a point yet where we can rely heavily on renewables and still have affordable and reliable electricity. I'm an electrical engineer for a nuclear energy company, and my college studies had a heavy focus in power, so it really irks me when people go on about renewable energy when they really have no idea what they're talking about.

 

[SadisticFire]

Things that piss me off?
Slurping,it's not a discomfort. The moment I hear some one, even across the room, I get sent into a blood boiling rage whether I want to or not. The same thing goes for the sound of some packaging, and the sound of others eating. It just sets me off that I sometime have to put on music to calm myself.
Oh and kill stealing my revenge kill in TF2 on a bad day.

 

[Muspelheim]

Whenever the topic regarding Police using firearms comes up. Especially when there's the one moron who's never touched a weapon in his life going on how they should "shoot for the legs or something". If you have no idea about the subject you're arguing, don't fucking argue it.

Agreed. Or even better, when the advice "just shoot the gun out of their hands!" gets a spin. It worked in Thunderbirds, certainly, but...

Even better; most police corps use HP rounds, I believe. To the outrage-baiting press, that means "special killing bullets for killing", rather than bullets less likely to pass straight through and injure someone else.

 

[wetfart]

Perhaps the most petty thing in this thread:

People saying they're going to roll a in a mumorpuger. You're not rolling anything! Stop saying that! If you want to roll a fighter, go get four friends, some d6s and a copy of the Player's Handbook! BLARGH!

Perhaps the only thing that makes it bearable is the smug sense of self-satisfaction when I confuse those people by saying "Ok. 3d6, in order".

 

[IllumInaTIma]

What really annoys me are people who have snarky remarks about damn near everything while refusing to contribute in any meaningful way with a helping hand or good advice.

OHGOD you nailed it! There's this one guy that I work with online and 90% of what he says is basically a variation of "this is shit". No matter the game, movie, tv show. "this is shit". And this moron also thinks that his opinion is worth something, not realizing that when 90% of what you say is the same, your opinion isn't worth, well, shit! You can't imagine just how much I want to tear his fucking jaw off.

 

[Flames66]

People saying they're going to roll a in a mumorpuger. You're not rolling anything! Stop saying that! If you want to roll a fighter, go get four friends, some d6s and a copy of the Player's Handbook! BLARGH!

I second this. It is terminology that makes no sense outside of board games and it pisses me off. Stahp!!

Something that has been getting on my tripe recently is that one post that always seems to happen in serious discussion threads. It goes something like "I don't care about this issue, why is anyone discussing it?" You clearly do care because you have taken time out of your busy self flagellation schedule to comment on a thread about it. If you really don't care, PISS OFF and let people who do have a FUCKING discussion!

Spoiler

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Oh yeah, I also can't stand whiners. Whether it's online, in game or in real life, there's always this one person who always whines.
"I'm sorry guys, I can't go to cinema with you, my parents didn't give money. They never do. I'm so sad. I'm gonna go home and play on my brand new high-end PC"-IRL
"WTF guys?! They ganked me and destroyed the tower! That's gg, I'm gonna stay on the fountain"-In Dota2 while we have more towers, better late game and have more kills
"They didn't show any Mass Effect footage, or Mirror's edge footage. WORST E3 EVER FROM THE DAY 1!"-just recently from one Russian gamer community.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I understand the original poster's agitation when it comes to popular articles on science being posted online. I am a biochemistry major and it really can get frustrating when people get very basic biological concepts wrong. With the HIV thing I would be too apathetic to post anything, such as explaining how HIV is a retrovirus and what not. I generally just avoid comment sections, especially the youtube ones, doubly so if politics or economics is brought up.