Food for thought

The United States is a country that really likes to do things it's own way. I remember in elementary school we had a unit on measuring temperature, and my teacher showed us a map of countries that use Celsius vs countries that use Fahrenheit. The only countries that used Fahrenheit were the USA and Liberia. The US was like, “I'm going to commit to this measurement, even if my sole ally is a country with a population less than half the size of Ohio.” That's what I call standing your ground. It's…

Expert advice

Older daughters are often forced to be third parents for their younger siblings. Many parents have more kids than they can reasonably care for, putting excessive pressure on their older children during their teenage years. Teenagers already go through enough stress, trauma, and anxiety without the element of rearing children. They didn't ask to be parents, yet they are forced to perform that role as if it's their duty. Redditor u/Dangerous-Host9819 is one of those eldest daughters. Her mother e…

If you've never heard of Andrew Tate, congratulations! You're either over the age of 16 or not on TikTok , either of which are equally admirable accomplishments. If you are both, even better! Andrew Tate has blown up in a Jordan Peterson-esque manner, catapulting his online presence seemingly overnight. For those who are no longer dependent on our parents, the question remains: who the hell is this guy? Andrew Tate is a former professional kickboxer and Big Brother UK contestant. He was removed…

Scary mental images

The city I used to live in had a local cult. They preyed on international college students, those searching for a religious community, and straight-up loners to build an army of members. With promises of friendship and community, they'd isolate people from their families and other friends to the point where they'd spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the cult. They'd provide housing for members and “strongly encourage” them to get in relationships and marry. As bemusing it is to have a…

I played Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the first time on Christmas day in 2001. That morning, after all the presents had been opened, my dad popped our new game (that he got for us) into the PS2 so that he could “test it out.” Five hours later, he finally concluded that the game was in working order and reluctantly handed off the controller to me and my little sister. Up until that point, I had only ever played games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Ape Escape— which are all iconic ga…

As humans we are constantly being told what is bad for us. Don't drink this. Don't eat that. We all know that smoking causes lung cancer, and that fatty and processed foods are nearly poisonous to your body. Drugs? Fuhgeddabout it. We talk a lot less about the stuff that seems completely harmless but could actually really mess us up. Redditor u/Sealedbox recently asked the r/AskReddit community to share situations, objects - and even animals - that fall into this category. They came through wit…

Watch out

Some people have a knack for avoiding disaster

The conversations around the appropriateness of breastfeeding in public have been contentious for many years. Many mothers have been forced to breastfeed their babies in public restroom stalls, in their cars, or under blankets because of the perceived inappropriateness of the act. On a different leaf, Reddit's AITA (Am I The A**h*le) thread concerns weddings as one of the most frequent discussion topics. Many clueless rude wedding guests ruin family weddings, and there is also no shortage of gr…

Alarming facts about the dark side of humanity seem to overwhelmingly make up most of the content that bombards us on a daily basis. But what about the good stuff? Is the world really as awful as it's made out to be, or does the media like to tell a different story because the bad stuff attracts more clicks? In any case, there are plenty of comforting facts that could reassure even the most jaded doomer, and one redditor seeking a bit of optimism asked Reddit to share some of their favorites. W…

Modern slang can be a bit elusive for people of older generations. Words that might have been explicit digs 30 years ago are now the highest compliments. While sometimes this generational divide can be used to lodge veiled insults at others, it can also give way to unexpected praise.

The paranormal world is a pretty big part of pop culture . It overlaps with the horror genre (the unexplainable, to most people, is pretty damn terrifying), and has been the basis for (or a topic on) sixty eight reality television series. People live for ghost stories, tales of UFO sightings and abductions, and somehow, are really interested in Bigfoot. I know some folks who shell out hundreds of dollars on psychics, and hold seances in earnest. If I hadn't heard a ghost story from an entire fa…

Weddings…a time of love and romance, not drama, chaos, madness, confusion, and betrayal, right? It's not an easy task for getting hitched to go off without a hitch. Some weddings are plagued with bridezillas who try to control their guests in a demanding and inconsiderate way. However, this goes two ways, and sometimes reasonable requests made by the wedding party are ignored by selfish and rude individuals, ruining the wedding for the couple. The latter is true for Redditor u/babyweddingthrowa…