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Asbestos, indoor smoking and child labor are just some of the things that used to be a lot more common in the past and are, fortunately, less common now. However, it’s still important to note that back then, folks would have thought that these things are very normal parts of everyday life.
Someone asked “What's something that's normal to us now, that in 50 years people will look back on us as barbaric?” and people gave their best suggestions. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own ideas and thoughts in the comments below.
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#1
Forcing terminally ill people in constant pain and discomfort to stay alive without the option to be helped to end their lives peacefully and with dignity.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 14 hours ago
I live in Oregon. We were the first state with a death with dignity law.
RELATED:
#2
Women getting procedures on reproductive organs without pain medication.
#3
My votes are:
Countries that lack universal healthcare.
Environmental neglect.
#4
Keeping aquatic mammals in captivity for entertainment.
#5
For-profit prisons and for-profit health insurance hopefully.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 15 hours ago (edited)
Since the election of DJT stocks in for profit prisons are skyrocketing. Think about what that means.
#6
I think the way we treat the environment will be something future generations look back on and see as barbaric. We’ve been very careless with pollution, waste, and climate change, and in 50 years, they might wonder how we didn’t do more to protect the planet when we knew the damage we were causing.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 15 hours ago
All for the relentless pursuit of profit. We're trading the next generation and the generations after them's wellbeing for temporary luxury today. BTW we are capable of solving these issues. We healed the hole in the ozone layer. We can fix this but we are choosing not to.
#7
Holding entertainers as more important than educators.
#8
Might be too soon, but the goddamn school shootings. There’s got to be a way out of this.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 15 hours ago
LESS GUNS! Look at the statistics. If you have a gun in your home there is a 90% chance that it will kill YOU or someone you love. Only 1% of guns kept at home are ever used to stop intruders. Just stop the flow of guns. How about make gun owners have INSURANCE like we do with cars? See how much they like paying $300 a month just to own the damn thing. The 2nd Amendment says a "Well Regulated Militia". That's it. So regulate that Sh!t!
#9
Hopefully child beauty pageants but especially child marriage.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago (edited)
Child beauty pageants put on display the ugliest sort of parent.
#10
The cruelty with which we treat animals.
ScootyPuffJr 3 hours ago
That's a nice pipe dream. We can't even stop abusing and murdering each other.
#12
Letting people die from lack of medical care because they're poor.
#13
Horse and dog racing.
keyboardtek 2 hours ago
Nothing wrong with either. Both race horses and racing dogs are considered prize athletes and get the best care.
#15
Hopefully, underpaying workers. No one who works full time should only be able to afford a studio apartment and top ramen.
Robert Beveridge 5 hours ago
Oh, dear. For minimum wage workers in America, a studio apartment and top ramen is aspirational in every state. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/full-time-minimum-wage-workers-cant-afford-rent-anywhere-in-the-us.html
#17
40 hr work week.
Willem Andries Oosterhof 13 hours ago
I don't mind 40 hours. But not getting a proper salary is ...
#18
Factory farming, fur farms, animal experimentation, animal cruelty--all the horrific things we're doing to nonhuman animals that would get you in jail for life if it were done to a human.
#19
Mammography machines. Maybe they'll finally invent an anatomically appropriate machine instead of the torture device?
Oerff On Tour 8 hours ago
Some women have dense tissue. Mammograms for them doesn't work. The only way to detect cancer for them is MRI.
#20
Lack of effective American gun laws, I hope.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 15 hours ago
We have more guns in the USA than people. I'm talking men women AND CHILDREN! Are we arming pets now? It's nuts!
#21
I wish I had the optimism necessary to believe we'll still have a functioning society in 50 years.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago
I wish I had the optimism necessary to believe we have a functioning society today.
#22
Forcing people whose disabilities prevent them from working to live in poverty--the average amount of a monthly Social Security Disability Insurance benefit check is $1400.
leendadll 14 hours ago
When I looked into fed disability, I learned I didn't qual because you must have less than $2k in "assets" (I have very small 401k). Given current rent, pretty much anyone who saves up for monthly rent is disqualified. Even if I did qualify, my benefit would have been less than $300/mo.
#23
The way companies are using the internet and what its doing to our brains. I mean the constant garbage we consume on the internet and its long term effects on our mental health.
#24
Removing iud without anesthetic
Most uterine medical ‘care’.
#25
I think the use of single-use plastics for real. The amount of waste we create is crazy, like super barbaric. The future generations will probably be shocked that we didn’t find better solutions sooner.
#26
The fact that any child can turn on the TV and find several shows where violence is rife. Oftentime, it's even promoted and glorified, but if a channel shows one teet, it's banned. I've heard this is not the case in Europe, but in the U.S., it damn sure is.
#27
Seeing images of children left unattended with electronic devices. Similar to how we see old pictures of children smoking cigarettes today.
#28
Our meat industry.
#29
Burning fossil fuels for most of our energy.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 15 hours ago
Every nation should have a plan in place to end fossil fuel. It will end. Right now, with fracking, we're squeezing the orange that is our planet. We will run out of juice. It's not a renewable resource unless you believe some really deranged conspiracy theories.
#30
Driving. I think in 50 years it will seem crazy that people controlled vehicles themselves, leading to countless deaths on the road.
Robert Beveridge 5 hours ago
Bruh, do you really think AI powered navigation is gonna REDUCE accidents
#31
Over 90% of NFL players getting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The NFL will be viewed like we view gladiatorial battles now.
#33
Smoking. I know the mentality is slowly shifting and it’s proven to cause all kinds if health related issues, yet there are still 1.25B smokers worldwide.
Also, sitting. Same as with smoking. We’re starting to understand the risks. I expect companies in the future to hold standing or walking meetings a lot more than they do now.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 15 hours ago
I spend all day on my feet. Please don't take my comfy chair!
#36
Data collection in order to bombard us with targeted information, misinformation, and ads.
If most people knew how much data their phones collected, they’d smash them with a hammer.
Google can tell if you’re standing still, walking, running, cycling, in a car, bus, taxi, or train. They can tell if your device has been stolen from your hands while walking down the street. If you have an Apple Watch, the watch the can detect when you’re having s*x. Our phones can gather enough data to know that our family is over for dinner, or that your wife messaging her friend about jewelry will cause you to get jewelry ads. This stuff isn’t even the top of the iceberg.
Robert Beveridge 5 hours ago
I accidentally clicked "details..." on one of those banners about cookies. Always assumed they were talking about a handful, maybe a few dozen... just in the marketing cookies part, there were over 1200. (no longer remember the site, but it was a national news source of some sort, like NY-level). The intrusion is awful, but on a more personal level, hitting "reject all" every time you get the choice will keep your devices WAY more responsive.
#37
50 years is probably not quite long enough, but I think that in the near future people will look back on the process of industrialized agriculture and wonder how we could have *possibly* been so foolishly stupid. I'm talking about plants here, not animals which is a whole different bag of hammers. People are going to judge us and revile us for the way we farm animals, but it's the plants that are more harmful in my opinion, and it all boils down to insects and how unimportant people today consider them to be.
Montanavanna 2 hours ago
The science has been out there for some time now, suppressed or marketed as progress. Ùgh, the key to success is genetic diversity. Our totalitarian agriculture systems aim.to destroy genetic diversity and anything that threatens the crop by any means necessary. How were companies going to use all those chemical weapons after the war? Rebrand them into pesticides for one. Our global food system is crazy fragile, the way it has been done and continues to progress.
#38
-Allowing private health insurance companies to get away with only half-insuring people.
-Allowing companies to fund political campaigns
-Allowing a revolving door of employment between military contractors and government defense/intelligence agencies
-Allowing congress to invest in the stock market
-Allowing human beings to drive automobiles.
M O'Connell 2 hours ago
The last one is largely a skill issue. We have a LOT of people who are forced to drive by their circumstances, but who have no skill or coordination with which to pilot a vehicle.
#39
How much single use plastic is part of our daily lives.
#40
Any form of circumcision ( male OR female ) that isn't absolutely medically necessary.
#41
Hopefully chemotherapy: I mean, it's the best we got in many cases to treat cancer, so i'm thankful it's an option, but basically you're putting poison in your body.
#43
Maybe in a hundred years--eating meat that is not lab made.
Most of us (including me) will be on the wrong side of history.
#44
In no particular order:
Homelessness. Healthcare for profit. Prisons for profit. Any/all exploitation for profit (see billionaires) (edit: see also murder, war)
Slaughterhouses. Perhaps even keeping pets.
Climate change through fossil fuel dependency. Gridlocked highways crammed with single occupancy vehicles instead of efficient transit.
All of the ways in which we act against our real (not imaginary like tribalism) collective interests. For a few examples.
#45
Dentistry in it's current form.
I hope, anyway. I keep hearing things about being able to regrow teeth or enamel and I hope they're true.
I want fixing teeth in the future to be so quick and painless that we look back at how things are now the same way we look back at surgery pre-anasthetic. Like "I know it was the best option at the time but holy s**t that's horrifying. You had to just yank them out? And live like that? And they used a needle in your mouth to make your face numb? ".
#46
Full time work.
UBI will give all of us a comfortable life to pursue our own productive interests whilst the robots do all the work.
Real work-life balance will be achieved.
General Anaesthesia 8 hours ago
For a long time most of all labor productivity gains have gone to the C-suite and shareholders. I don't expect much change in that any more.
What do you think ?
Bret Sander 2 hours ago
Transing kids. We're going to look back and on it the way we do frontal lobotomies, and forced sterilization.
Bret Sander 2 hours ago
Transing kids. We're going to look back and on it the way we do frontal lobotomies, and forced sterilization.
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