Dating myself a bit, but fans of Rent back in the day. When it was super popular, everyone was pretending to be into theatre. These people only knew Rent and Phantom and phantom is objectively terrible.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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Asklemmy
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Military worshippers. Tacticool cosplay. Currently employed in large numbers by ICE.
Yeah I think this wins.
Saw a guy in the airport with a freaking tactical baby carrier. Ultimate poser move.
Well but MOLLE is pretty practical for a baby carrier. You can add lots of attachments like bottle holders. And having a baby in front of you is basically like a meat shield, if someone shoots at you the projectile still needs to penetrate the baby to hit you. I don't see an issue there.
What even is that?
Oh, it's simply something for men who are super worried about other men thinking they're manly enough. They think having a child makes them weak, and so they have to macho it up to super prove to other men that just because they're... tough? Super manly tough. Like really macho awesome bicep manly.
I mean what makes a baby carrier "tactical"? Being black, tan, or camouflage fabric? A lot of loops?
Tan military style coloring, padding simulating "armor", tactical bulky pockets mimicking pockets on military gear, it was pretty obvious if you saw it.
I looked up tactical baby carrier
and they really do not look all that different than when I look up baby carrier
Granted, I'm not into fashion or anything. I would have no problem using either of these.
Your first one is this one: https://tacticalbabygear.com/products/tactical-baby-carrier, which looks maybe like it, but in the "Coyote Brown", but I swear the one I saw had big tacticool pockets on it
Oh I've seen one of those ... just bizarre. I feel sorry for the baby.
Telling your child almost immediately after birth that you're embarrassed to be seen carrying/being around them. Not a great look for a new dad.
Okay, was there a baby in it (or at least nearby)? Style, even if bad taste is one thing, but if they were using that as gear, that's a whole different story
Meal team 6 reporting for duty sir!
Is the valor thief not a bigger fan of the military than the Kyle & the Jodie, ultimately, the better lover to the Jodie?
The car fandom. The amount of people who can't explain how a motor works but try to mansplain me how one motor is "better than the other" simply because it has more displacement is... Staggering.
Someone recently told me that electrical motors are bad for the environment because you need to replace the brushes every few thousand kilometers.
And to top it all off, apparently older cars are better for the environment because bigger motors run more efficiently when they're not at 100% power. I nearly get an aneurysm talking to those people.
Dude, these guys are absolutely the “it’s got electrolytes” crowd.
Oh my dog, yes.
Extra torture is talking to people like this while daring to be female!
I've literally had men tell me that my car, that I am driving, is a) just a completely different car with a body kit, b) a kit car, c) illegal to use on the road, d) a gas guzzler because it's a V8, e) cool because it was in Back to the Future
The car in question? An old and bone stock Dodge Daytona, which is none of those things.
I’m not that into or familiar with cars, but I can do what I consider the basics: replacing lightbulbs/wipers, changing oil, changing tires, jumping/replacing a battery, etc. I moved to a new country with a different language, where very few people do their own auto work.
I’m a woman who doesn’t know any of the vernacular for mechanical issues, and so they just completely ignore me. My husband seems like he might be into cars, but he was astonished when I changed his headlight for him while we were dating. Now we just go together. They only talk to him, but I make the decisions (he used to pay €200 for the headlight replacement, which he considers normal and which I find profoundly overpriced- I won’t do my own brakes, because I don’t want my last thought to be about how I shouldn’t have done my own brakes, but it’s very easy to figure out if you did the light right).
Now we just go together. They only talk to him
What the fuck, if I'd be your husband I'd just tell them to "talk to my wife because she knows more about cars than me".
Nah, I have a very low tolerance for a patronizing tone, but a pretty high one for being ignored, and the language barrier makes me seem even less knowledgeable, so it’s a recipe for condescension if I’m the primary communicator. My husband would love it if I let loose on them in English, but that feels like giving up a little.
We just laugh at them together afterwards and if they’re too awful, we find a new place.
Good on you for being willing to give it a go :-)
As someone who can rebuild pretty much any part of an internal combustion car, there's no shame in being careful with safety items. Also, brake work is nasty, dirty, and often swear-inducing ... so you're not missing out, lol
Yeah, I’ve helped others with brake jobs, and it’s no fun. That and my experience with handling asbestos claims are also probably pretty big factors
Yeah. Even though asbestos has been illegal for ages there's still loads of black soot ... plus the hazards to skin of brake cleaner and brake fluid :-/
TBH the only time I do brake work now is when there's something special needed, like a rebuild of something that needs to be done with care and attention
I’m sorry to tell you this, but asbestos was banned in brake pads in the US in 2024. There were restrictions in the type and processing of asbestos in the 80s, and most manufacturers stopped in the 90s, but it’s definitely still out there, especially if you’re working on a classic car, a junker that someone chose the cheapest parts for, or any kind of industrial vehicle (the last one isn’t likely for non mechanics, but most people I know who work on their own cars are working on one of the first two).
That said, I don’t think a few exposures over a lifetime are likely to cause mesothelioma. I hesitate to even say that, because it could happen with one fiber, but the vast majority of people who develop mesothelioma had multiple exposures, either very early on (eg. children of mechanics who did the laundry every other day for years), along with comorbidities (smoking, drinking, using a wood/peat stove, etc.), or on a daily basis for years and years.
I’m not saying that it’s not a danger or that you shouldn’t treat it very, very carefully (almost as delicately as you’d handle an open vial of fluorine), but I do always wonder if it would be better for everyone to do themselves it every couple of years instead of giving all of the risk to mechanics. They should have better PPE and knowledge about how to handle it than lay people, but A) we won’t really know if the PPE was effective until people have been using it for forty years and then do or don’t develop mesothelioma, and B) there is unfortunately a lot of pressure on people, from both peers and employers, not to advocate for best practices and sufficient PPE, which, along with a culture of machismo in many trades, means that people aren’t actually as protected or careful about disposal as the industry reports that they are.
But then again, given that these are brakes we’re talking about, I absolutely don’t want lay people fucking up their brakes and endangering everyone. The best solution imo would for 60+ year old mechanics to volunteer to do it (or even for the government to create a program for retired mechanics to work one day a week part time for as long as they’re capable/willing without any impact on their retirement benefits/social security). It takes several decades to manifest, so they’re almost certainly to die of something else first.
Sorry, should have clarified - I'm European so less of an issue.
But also, if you're considering it, it's not hard to avoid brake dust going into the air for the most part. One guy I met just rained the brake cleaner over everything before starting, for instance.
That being said I've had an awful lot of brake fluid and cleaner (plus engine and gearbox oil, coolant, etc etc) on my hands over the years, so they're probably going to fall off any time now ... taking care of ones skin is important too :-)
Yeah, that’s absolutely fair. It was fully banned in the EU in 2005, which is still way too late, but much better. Several individual countries had banned it earlier, but I don’t know how many or how effective that actually is in the single market.
I was handling all types of latent claims with long term exposures which aren’t exclusively toxin based, but it was mostly environmental/workplace poisoning, like lead paint, asbestos, printing chemicals, or radiation. One of the things I realized is that we’re either all fucked, or we’re more resilient than we expect, because most of us have a lot more casual contact with serious carcinogens than we think we do.
I try to lean towards the latter while still taking appropriate precautions, but none of us gets out alive. If I loved working on old cars, I’d probably do it despite the risks (but I’d definitely do a wet clean with as fine a mask as I could find and a disposable smock, then I’d immediately shower and get rid of my rags afterwards), because I think it’s better to use your time in a way that makes you happy than preserve a life that doesn’t fulfill you.
Anyway, that got very off track from the original diversion, but it was a fun chat. And now I’m going to throw a pair of dishwashing gloves in my trunk.
Better to carry a packet with a couple of nitrile gloves ... you're not going to be able to work properly in dishwashing gloves :-/
I don't know what the opposite of survivorship bias is, but it sounds like your work on claims gave you that. If humans were easy to kill there wouldn't be so many of us!
Oh yeah, I was a worrier before working exclusively with people who got the worst result from the dangers constantly around us, but I try not to let it spiral.
I also used to be a smoker, which weirdly makes it easier to dismiss worrying about other things.
This 100% as a fan of cars and the technology and beauty of it all the amount of people who say they like cars but don’t know shit is hilarious.
It's OK to say you like cars and don't know how they work. But the moment they're laughing at me because I don't know the current model lineup of BMW, while simultaneously not being able to explain what a carburetor is, is where I draw the line.
carbrains can't extinct fast enough
Music. Most music fans can barely even play an instrument themselves
Eh, as a player myself, i differentiate between listening mode and playing mode, but both are totally valid ways to be a fan of music.
Deep listening, dancing, ect is almost more fulfilling as a music fan personally than playing but to each their own.
The Alabama Crimson Tide
The finals of major sports. Zero fucks given for the entire season, but that last game/series has everyone invested in the outcome.
Many have pointed out that the point of fandom is to be a fan of the fandom & to have conversations on rails. In that sense I don't think the distinction is meaningful. You're supposed to rant at your loved ones & friends about shit they hardly understand & vice versa. Not just endlessly recite confirnation you have the same interests to other "fans".