Category: Society & Laws

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People Talk About the Statement, “Travel Culture Is Another Form of Flexing”

You know you have some people like this in your life…

They have a ton of money, they’re always traveling to amazing places, AND they’re constantly posting pictures of their adventures.

And some of these folks can be really shallow…you know it’s true!

Do you think travel culture is just another form of flexing and doesn’t make people any more enlightened?

Let’s take a look at how AskReddit users responded.

1. Here’s the deal.

“Many bash those who waste a lot of money on materialistic goods or who like activities that are considered “shallow”, like clubbing and partying.

Meanwhile, “traveling” is often portrayed as the enlightened way to pass your time. Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with traveling, but I disagree that people who travel a lot are automatically any less shallow than those who go clubbing or buy a lot of stuff.

First of all, “travel culture” is a form of flexing. It has become less acceptable to brag about owning expensive stuff, so people now brag about their trips. Especially on Instagram, it is obvious that many use their travels to flex and show us how “superior” they are.

“Traveling” doesn’t make you an enlightened intellectual in any way. I could maybe understand this argument 30 years ago but nowadays, anyone can find any information they want about any place they like.

They can use the Internet to explore a country, without traveling there and contributing to its destruction. (tourism can be very bad for the environment)

Also, people have fun with different things. Maybe someone thinks that buying a PS5 is more fun to them than going on some stupid trip. That is their business and their choice is not inherently inferior.”

2. Great experiences.

“I am an introvert but one of my best experiences was like, I am buying a ticket from London to Brazil…. Total bliss!

I absolutely love getting to know places on my own and meeting the locals. I have had a lot of fun travelling on my own. Met great people.”

3. A competition.

“I was really interested in this girl that traveled a lot and I travel a lot for work so I thought maybe we had something in common.

When I found out that all she does is get a $30 Airbnb to sleep somewhere for the night and then go to the next place just to mark it on her passport but never actually enjoys any of the places, I definitely said pass pretty quickly.

I was wondering what the hell is the point of traveling that much if you’re not enjoying any of it. It was like she was on this competition to check in on Facebook to as many places as possible and then used that in all of her conversations to try to act like she was better than everyone else.”

4. Let’s go a bit further.

“Taking this point a bit further, traveling to do the same activities everyone and their mother does aimed at tourists isn’t enlightening

Traveling becomes enlightening when you explore the culture, mingle with locals, try their traditional food.

That’s not something you can google or check online, it’s something you experience.”

5. Street cred.

“Tinder and Hinge in my 30s is at least 50% women with only pictures of travel, and their desires are travel, and the profile describes how they are the traveliest traveler that ever traveled.

I’ve traveled for work and vacations. It is not my personality. It really does look like gaudy flexing to me.

The ones that really irritate me are the people who “vacation” to oppressive dictatorships and dangerous areas like warzones for the traveler street cred.

It’s like being some kind of weird upper-middle class adrenalin junkie.”

6. Never heard that term before.

“My husband calls these people “globe f**kers”.

As someone who has lived and travelled in many different countries because of my work, I’m hyper paranoid about sounding like a pretentious a**hole when I talk about my experiences.

Being well travelled is not a personality trait, but the worst have to either be the people who “backpacked” (drunkenly stumbled thru 3 countries for a month) and talk about it for the next 15 years.

Or the volun-tourism crowd who think they really made a difference during their 2 weeks at an orphanage in a country they dont speak the language, or building houses with zero skills.”

7. The straight dope.

“The benefit is really only for people that pay attention and keep an open mind.

My family has some very devout Mormons in it, and a weird Mormon thing to do is to spend at least a few hours at exotic temples when in the area. My aunt and uncle went to Italy a couple years ago and literally spent two days at the Mormon temple there, in which they play dress up and watch the same Adam and Eve movie as they do at their temple in the US.

I’m sure they still did a few cool things, but I think that perfectly highlights a bit of an oblivious emotional distance from their destination’s culture, and I really think they miss out on the beauty of it by having such a cursory and perfunctory approach to travel.

I can’t deny that people over romanticize it and it can become a classist bulls**t flex, but when you get to go to a new place and see the world a little differently or understand their way of life a bit better, I think it can improve your own worldview and increase empathy….but you gotta actually get out there and pay attention to it all.”

8. Don’t show off.

“Finally having the ability to do some limited travel has really opened my eyes to the rest of the world in a way the internet never could.

I’m in my late 40s now, and I know it’s expensive, but I wish Americans traveled internationally more. We’re so much smaller than we think, and no amount of internet can showcase that in the same way actually staying in a foreign country can.

I think your issue is not with travel but with the way some people talk about travel or show off on social media.”

9. A good thing.

“Maybe it’s a flex for some, but there’s is no substitute for seeing and experiencing the world for yourself.

It does change you and reading about it isn’t the same by a mile.”

10. Just fantastic.

“I think traveling and exploring the world is a fantastic way to spend your fleeting life.

I have made it a point to travel frequently and to some pretty awesome places. I don’t even have Instagram and only take pictures of animals and landscapes. For me, it’s mostly for the food and different species of animals, because that’s what Im into as a biologist.

My favorite was the Peruvian Amazon. 7 monkey species, macaws, all kinds of snakes. You can see them in books, but there is no substitute for in person.”

11. What’s the motivation?

“Saying “I like traveling” is the same as saying “I like reading” – it tells you nothing about the person unless you ask more questions and ask them to elaborate.

Someone who says “I like reading” but only reads books like “Twilight” or “50 shades of grey” is different from someone who reads history books or specific books about their interest – space, chess, math, you name it.

Someone who says “I like traveling” but only goes to Thailand or Bali to party and drink for 2 weeks is not the same as someone who cycles around the world for 6 months, or crosses half the world on a boat, or backpacks through Africa staying in villages and connecting with local people.

These are all different experiences. One of them is definitely more enlightening than the other. One is about just having fun without improving yourself as a person while the other one is more likely to give you some “food for your brain”.

The important part is the motivation behind these activities. Why does the person travel? Some travel for parties, other travel for sports (surfing, diving, kayaking etc), others travel for nature (hiking, camping), other travel for volunteering (helping with wild life conservation, preservation, beach cleaning), other travel for the cultural exchange (teaching kids in remote villages English), some travel for their own education (taking Spanish lessons in Bolivia).

Some people combine several of them (personally that’s what I do). There are many reasons to travel. If you think that every traveler is the Instagram traveler you are just stupid and shallow which is pretty sad actually.”

12. From a travel industry worker.

“I used to work in the travel industry and dealt with numerous ‘country counters’ (people who are trying to visiting every country in the world).

It felt like the majority of them were mindlessly trundling around the world, ticking off countries as if it was simply something to consume. If that’s not sad enough, some of these country counters even compete with one another using league tables or try to bolster their reputations by marketing themselves as the first *insert s**uality, insert gender identity, insert race, insert social class, insert nationality, insert whatever* to visit every country in the world.

I can tell you now, despite what these people like to think there’s no skill in visiting a s**t-load of countries for sightseeing. It’s not an achievement and nor is it remarkable. All that’s required is money, competent travel agents and local fixers.”

What are your thoughts about this topic?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Talk About the Statement, “Travel Culture Is Another Form of Flexing” appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss the Statement, “A Lot of People Only Care About a Cause When It’s Trendy”

I’d like to believe that people support causes because they believe in helping folks out.

But, as I’m sure you already know, we live in a social-media-obsessed world where image is everything for some people.

And sometimes people latch onto the popular causes of the day because of how they think it will make them look…but how widespread is that phenomenon?

AskReddit users talked about whether or not most people only care about causes when they become trendy.

Let’s see what they had to say.

1. What’s up with that?

“Hence why literal g**ocides have been going on in China for years now and yet most people in my day-to-day life have no idea whatsoever.

Even when I tell them, they barely give it more than a seconds thought because IT ISN’T TRENDY and there’s nothing for them to gain socially by pretending to care.

But you better believe they’re radical followers of whatever Tik-Tok and their television screen is pushing at the moment.

Also, where are all of those young people who were suddenly civil-rights revolutionaries last summer? The trend d**d down and I haven’t seen them post anything about any of that ever since… It’s back to non-stop selfies and photos of Starbucks coffee.

What’s up with that?”

2. Inauthentic.

“This is why I didn’t do the ‘black out’ social media posting last year. I didn’t want to inauthentically hop on a trend.

I always sign petitions/ signal boost / etc any good cause I see, but I wasn’t going to intensively commit to something I wasn’t prepared to keep up when it comes to social media. It felt fake to do so.

I keep learning and growing as we all do, but that isn’t gonna take the sum of one summer when literally everyone else is talking about it for the same length of time.”

3. A lot of issues out there.

“Part of the issue is that there are so many issues that are important. Enough of us are working most of the time and can barely manage ourselves that even if we care about something, we don’t have time to be active, without potentially putting our own welfare at risk.

When “cause” trends go around, especially if it’s not your primary concern (for example maybe you’re more of an animal rights activists or environmentalist) posting a black square is like the easiest lift for people to say, yeah I’m solidarity.”

4. All support is good.

“Any form of support is good. Whether monetary or otherwise, just showing solidarity is important.

To me, that’s what the black square thing was about, showing the people on the street and, more importantly the white supremacists that are actively combatting that movement in that specific scenario, that the public is on their side.”

5. A hot take.

“I don’t care about social issues.

I know, I know. I should care about everyone and everything. I just can’t mentally handle it.

Sorry no matter how manipulative your language is I can only physically care about a certain amount of issues.

I know I am not cool and trendy, but I’m fine with that. Most people who support every social issue going on in the world tend to be miserable.”

6. Some perspective.

“At a certain point, there’s just so much s**t that is and has always been going on in the world so to assert that you have to care about all of it all the time is, I think, pretty naive.

You can’t only care about things that affect you but at the same time those things should be like 90% of your focus. You’re just begging for a poor mental state in exchange for not really being able to change much.

My personal view is that the ones out there railing about X Issue tend to be young people from wealthy families who haven’t had much adversity of their own to deal with but just want some instance of adversity to get emotionally invested in.”

7. The man in the mirror.

“It is much more effective to just be a better person than yesterday and help everyone around you whenever you can.

No need to find and stay 100% updated on all the highlighted issues of the society on the internet and exhaust your brain and energy on learning manipulative stuff and propagandas of big corporation’s/leaders to make some more bucks or gain some more control/power, while the homeless near you starves for the 2nd day.

The only thing that people should feel the need to change is the man in the mirror.”

8. Overwhelming.

“I don’t think it’s fair how we’re expected to care about everything.

I think if every person cared about one cause then that would be enough, instead of expecting people to advocate for every single group.”

9. Woke.

“Welcome to the 21st century my friend , where people only care about something when it benefits them in some way or are socially pressured into thinking they need to care about something when they really don’t .

Honestly pretty much everyone ( obviously an exaggeration because there a few who genuinely care about the cause ) only care about something when it’s popular to support it , care or h**e on it for some reason or another .

And they couldn’t care less to get to the root of these issues or why they even exist in the first place , because all they care about is looking morally superior/woke or whatever and riding on their moral high horse while looking down on others , as if they’re so superior.”

10. Hashtag activism.

“Hashtag activism gives the individual a dopamine rush with minimal effort.

Basically it’s just a drug hit of self-righteous feel good bullc**p.”

11. Wouldn’t that be nice?

“There are many world problems people don’t talk about. I wish caring about all injustice and pain in the world was trendy so more people could be informed.”

12. Isn’t helping.

“It is called virtue signalling. Celebrities do this all of the time.

Wokeness is also the same thing and hurts certain campaigns rather than helping them.”

What do you think about this?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The post People Discuss the Statement, “A Lot of People Only Care About a Cause When It’s Trendy” appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Talk About Things That Sound Futuristic but Are Happening Right Now

The future is now, people!

While it might seem like crazy inventions are a long way off, we’re already living in it!

And we’re about to get some inside info.

What sounds futuristic but is happening now?

AskReddit users shared their thoughts.

1. Robots.

“It’s quite phenomenal how much certain industries have developed their robotics.

You just don’t see it in your everyday life, but places like Amazon and pretty much all mechanical-related businesses are developing robotics at an insane rate.”

2. Didn’t see it coming.

“I still feel a tiny bit blindsided by lab-grown meat suddenly being commercially viable. Would not have predicted that one.

Those drone light-shows too. What year was it where radio-controlled drones just kind of showed up, and became commonplace?

I think around 2015 was when they really “took off.””

3. It is a big deal!

“Private companies launching rockets into space like it’s no big deal. You can literally walk outside one night and think “what tf is that???”

And someone will tell you “oh that’s just the latest Space X launch.” And you go about your business.”

4. There you go.

“My 2 yr old daughter, walking around the house following and talking to a robot while it vacuums our house.”

5. Pretty insane.

“I have a device that fits into my pocket.

I can get virtually every bit of information produced by the human race if I know what buttons to push.

It’s also voice-activated, so I can just talk to it and figure out when my flight leaves or where the nearest fresh tomatoes are being sold.”

6. Seeing double.

“Scientist have already managed to clone a living thing.

And it happened around 25 years ago.”

7. Open Sesame!

“Automatic doors.

I remember seeing the first 6 Star Wars films many years ago (I’m 18 now) and playing the Lego games of it and I remember thinking to myself how cool the sliding doors were.

I understand they’ve been around for so long, but recently it just came to me that they have automatic doors just like in Star Wars.”

8. Scary.

“In China, they are using AI to identify Uyghur Muslims from the rest of the population.

It detects “classic Uyghur features” based on complexion, and facial features.

It’s the worlds first instance of “automated racial profiling.””

9. Weapons of war.

“Saw the recent news of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, including footage of Iron Dome being used.

I remember seeing the prototypes of that system in a “future weapons” documentary on TV years ago, but was never really sure if or when it entered active service

So yeah, we have rockets that shoot down other rockets now and might have for years already.”

10. Antimatter.

“The fact that humans are capturing and containing antimatter for study is amazing.

The fact that we can store it longer than a year at a time is extraordinary.”

11. That’s crazy.

“Facebook is integrating occlus rift support.

I’m not sure what’s available to the public, but in-house, they are having 3d meetings like in Star Wars. They can project and manipulate a screen in 3D like the 3d map in the first Ray movie. It doesn’t wrap around you yet, it hovers in front, but it will.

My friend works for FB in the AI dpt. The first software I tried out was a demo for medical education. I saw a life size human and I could use gestures to look at his different body systems, right in front of me, like on the Holodeck.

You turn the system on by holding up your palm like a wizard and an interactive sphere appears on your hand.”

12. Gene editing.

“CRISPR gene editing. People’s genes can literally be edited.

Basically, people get this enzyme called Cas9 (a nuclease) inserted into their DNA somehow (don’t know how, maybe an injection?) and Cas9 slices the target strand of DNA open, allowing a sequence to be taken out and replaced with something else which can then be transcripted into RNA, translated into a protein, and used in the body.

It’s mostly being used right now for gene therapy, stuff like sickle cell anemia, and agriculture but it’s crazy to think about what it could be used for in the near future. It’s kind of controversial because people don’t like the unnaturalness of it (like people’s dislike of GMOs), and I can see their point, I just think it is very intriguing and revolutionary, and I will be interested in seeing what happens with it in the future.”

Now it’s your turn to sound off.

In the comments, tell us about things you know about that sound futuristic but are happening now.

Thanks in advance!

The post People Talk About Things That Sound Futuristic but Are Happening Right Now appeared first on UberFacts.

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What Small Ways Has Society Progressed in the Last 20 Years? Here’s How People Responded.

You blink and you’ll miss it.

An older gentleman told me that when I graduated from high school. I kind of shrugged off his words of wisdom but it turns out he was right…

And things are always moving forward, which is good news for all of us here on planet Earth.

In what small ways has society progressed in the last two decades?

AskReddit users shared their thoughts.

1. That’s nice.

“My grandfather has been blind for forty years.

He says people are way more friendly than they used to be, especially younger people are eager to help.”

2. Much more aware.

“I think the majority of the world knows a lot more about other cultures and countries.

Thanks to the internet and learning facilities and the vast possibilities of travelling, people can really get into these topics if they want to.”

3. Progress.

“Infant mortality rate in Africa is now the same as it was in Europe in the 1970s.

Absolutely amazing progress.”

4. Knowledge is power.

“Think about the public’s access to information.

Just Wikipedia is equivalent to thousands of dollars of encyclopedias and almanacs in the 1990s.

And it’s way more valuable than that because it’s constantly being updated.”

5. A good thing.

“The rapid skill increase across all forms of gaming/sports, art, leisure activities, etc.

The internet really has allowed niche-activity folks to learn the most effective practices collectively, as opposed to independent and un-structured learning.

Hobbyists can (and are) now able to quickly get really good at nearly everything, at a ridiculous rate. Poker, paintball, video editing, computer games, etc…. doesn’t matter what it is, it’s easier now to jump from “beginner” to “pretty good” in nearly anything.”

6. You can learn anything!

“The intermet has made it easier to learn almost anything.

When something in my house/car breaks or needs upgraded, I can generally diagnose it with Google and then watch how-to videos on youtube to decide if I should do it myself or just save time and contact a professional to complete the repair.”

7. Click it or ticket.

“Stressing the importance of seat belts and helmets.

Old TV shows commonly depict no helmets and seatbelts.”

8. The little things.

“I took my grandparents to my Grandpa’s sister’s funeral, on the drive back home I had to buy a Pepsi and a coffee because I was tired.

I finished the can of Pepsi, and put the can in the cup holder.

Grandpa said “you know son, 10 years ago that would have went right out the window.””

9. More opportunities.

“Giving more opportunities to people with disabilities.

And this doesn’t mean just work either, but designing more building to universal design so that people with disabilities can access more spaces unassisted.

It’s really great!”

10. You see it less and less.

“Way fewer people smoke these days.

Honestly, in my extended family it’s maybe only one of my distant cousins.”

11. No more stigma.

“Wearing glasses has all but lost the negative stereotypes surrounding it.

They often used to make kids suffer through school unable to see.”

12. Normalizing.

“We’re normalizing openly discussing miscarriages. It use to be uncouth to discuss in social settings and was more something that couples had to suffer silently to themselves.

After recently experiencing one, the outpouring of support has been amazing and such a pillar of support for us through this tough time. We were thankful to have others to mourn with us.”

13. Preservation.

“In my country several efforts have been made to save our only remaining native indigenous language from being extinct.

A decade ago less than 1,000 people could speak it, now I believe the number is closer to 10,000.”

How about you?

What progress do you think we’ve made in the last two decades?

Sound off in the comments and let us know!

The post What Small Ways Has Society Progressed in the Last 20 Years? Here’s How People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

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What Food Seems Okay Until You Realize How It’s Made? Here’s What People Had to Say.

We’ve all heard the stories about how hot dogs are made…yuck!

But they sure are delicious, don’t you think?

You know it! But still…kinda gross…

What food sounds fine until you learn how it’s made?

Here’s how AskReddit users responded.

1. Didn’t know.

“I once was at a conference in Japan.

Me and some friends went into a small restaurant for dinner. My French colleague insisted on ordering Foie Gras, besides other things.

I knew the German name for this but not the French one, so I didn’t know what he ordered there until I later called my boyfriend and he told me.

In Germany you can’t even produce Foie Gras due to obvious animal welfare problems with literally force feeding geese into developing a fatty, sick liver just to eat it.”

2. That’s a bummer.

“I was surprised to learn from people who’ve worked on farms just how bloody harvesting crops is.

There’s not really a good way to clear out wild animals so all of them get ripped to shreds by the heavy machinery moving through the fields.

I miss being able to assume no animals d**d making my produce.”

3. Scraps.

“While off-putting I see no problems with some of the “scraps” we eat.

It’s perfectly fine to me that I’m eating the scraps of chicken in chicken nuggets. Gelatin from bones and ligaments. The reject pieces of animal being used to make so many great foods or items. People want to say the Natives had the right idea, using every part of the animal.

But suddenly turning around to say eating black pudding is disgusting? I feel better knowing that we used every ounce of that cow, the cow didn’t d** in vain. The cow was used for milk, once done with that stage sold for meat. The meat market sells the bones for dog bones, gelatin, beef stock, literally anything else. Nothing goes to waste.

Don’t get me wrong the treatment from cow to meat and then the food waste alone is problematic but that’s not what the thread is about. We use every part of every item. ‘Scuse me, I have nuggets in the oven that are ready.”

4. Never had it.

“Black Pudding is a common breakfast food, but kinda messed up when you think about how it’s made.”

5. Hell no.

“Cranberry harvesting.

There are a lot and I mean a ridiculous amount of spiders especially Wolf spiders, everywhere.

They crawl up the machines, they crawl up the people harvesting them it’s a nightmare.”

6. Now that’s ruined.

“Gummy Bears ( or just gummies in general).

Took me 19 years to find out that the way they’re made is with pig carcasses and bones.”

7. Hmmm…

“Cheez whiz. It’s transparent until they add the orange coloring.

I don’t know why but that makes me nope out. Not like Cheez Whiz is a salad or anything, don’t get me wrong.

But I don’t think I fully comprehended just how fake it was until I found that out.”

8. Messed up.

“Goose liver.

The goose has been force fed corn and fatty foods its entire life causing intense strain on the liver as it swells and bloats within their body, resulting in better flavor at significant expense of the goose quality of life.”

9. What’s that smell?

“Gelatine.

Comes from processing cattle faces, noses and ears still attached. I worked in a tannery, the face doesn’t have any viable use once tanned so it’s cut from the rest of the hide.

Fun Fact: the truck only came once a week and the pieces were stored outside in a half walled shed, so during summer the smell could be rather…ripe.”

10. Avoid them.

“Avocados from Mexico.

I just learned about the avocado cartel and how they make more money than the drug cartels and it’s insane. Do some research.

Don’t eat avocados from Mexico.”

11. Wow.

“Fish sauce

I went to a fish sauce factory in Vietnam a few years ago. In a giant silo, they put in 1 tonne of fish, and 1 tonne of salt.

After a year, they open a tap at the bottom of the silo, and hey presto, the liquid that pours out is fish sauce.”

12. Thanks, Grandma.

“My German/Polish grandmother made Czernina – Duck Blood Soup.

Being a good farm wife, she would go out to the shed where my grandfather kept some of his birds (chicken, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, peahens, peacocks and a few more I don’t remember). She usually was able to grab a duck on the first try and slit its throat with the straight edge razor she used for butchering small animals. She would squeeze the blood into her steel Thermos bottle, cap it and butcher the duck (sometimes a chicken).

She would roast or fry the bird and make the Czernina which smells exactly like you would think boiled blood smells like but worse. It would take at least a week for the smell to leave the house.

There were times when she would send me to school with her Thermos bottle (filled with milk this time) to school a day or two after she washed out the blood.

Of course, she also made Jello salad with peas, carrots and corn in it. Also, tuna hot dish. There’s no such thing as a casserole in Wisconsin or Minnesota, its proper name is Hot Dish, that’s a hill I will d** on.”

Are there any foods that you refuse to eat because of how they’re made?

If the answer is YES, please talk to us in the comments.

Thanks in advance!

The post What Food Seems Okay Until You Realize How It’s Made? Here’s What People Had to Say. appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share Free Resources Available to Everyone That We Should Take Advantage Of

Who doesn’t love free things?

I’m pretty sure 99.9999% of the population does…but that’s just off the top of my head…

And today we’re gonna get all kinds of great info that you might not know about.

What are some good free resources people should be taking advantage of?

Here’s what people said on AskReddit.

1. That’s awesome.

“I was stunned to find out our local library has telescopes you can check out, musical instruments, even a 3-D printer where you only pay for the printing material.”

2. Take a look.

“The Internet Arcade where you can play a lot of classic games along with the Console Living Room which is similar.

They have access to tons of old PC games too and you can even play the original Oregon Trail online. There’s a lot more in their software section too.”

3. Good to know.

“If you’re concerned about your kid’s development (speech, physical, emotional, etc) you don’t have to wait until they are school aged to get services.

Ask at you school district office to have someone come and see if you kid qualifies to have a specialist come to your house (or their daycare if you work) to help out your kiddo.

It’s through the school district, so it’s completely free.”

4. Booyah!

“FilmRise channels on YouTube.

Full length episodes of really cool documentary-style tv shows (including old-school Unsolved Mysteries).”

5. Nice!

“If you live in the United States, you can access a system of volunteer master gardeners who have been trained and certified. They are often an adjunct of the states education and agricultural systems.

They have online classes (due to COVID) and (later) in person classes. You can call help desks, send email, and visit web pages for advice on growing pretty much anything in your residential garden.

Farmers already know about the parent organizations. The master gardener groups were set up to offload residential questions from the ag experts.

Note: They cannot advise about growing cannabis, but -cough cough- whatever helps your tomatoes grow works for pot.”

6. Use it or lose it.

“The Butterball hotline on Thanksgiving for turkey-day tips and tricks.

The West Wing taught me that one.”

7. Very useful.

“PDF24 is a free, simple PDF reader and editor that is a great alternative to paid software- for most people’s needs.

Would especially recommend for students.”

8. Great!

“Free classes online!!!!

It’s so cool dude, EdX, through Harvard, MIT, I know I’m missing some other’s.

They offer online courses for free.

If you want the certificate at the end of the course, you pay $50.

I learned about John Snow, and the Cholera epidemic of 1854, a psych corse, and currently thinking about starting another.

You get to watch lectures from their professors, you have assignments due at certain times, quizzes, and then the final.”

9. A great resource.

“The Library of Congress, specifically the searchable newspaper archives

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

The amount of info in there is staggering.”

10. Academia.

“Outline.com to read articles that are behind a paywall.

And if you read scholarly journals and want to read someone’s paper that’s behind a paywall, you may be able to get it from the author by contacting them directly.”

11. Helpful.

“If you receive SNAP or EBT benefits, many states have programs to pay for you to take one certification course/trade at a local community College.

Just look up the program for your state.”

12. Get ‘er done!

“The Los Angeles Public Library has a free high school diploma program for anyone who is looking to receive their high school diploma.”

13. Serving the community.

“Food banks besides the “official” ones or the Salvation Army.

CHURCHES. Serious, a ton of churches of all denominations have food banks where you can go.

At some, you not only get frozen meats and canned goods but donated local produce like fruits and veggies or chain/small business donations of bread/sweets.

Since COVID, a lot of places might be running dry but just open the phone book and call around and ask.

Also “Mission” services, they don’t always just help the homeless – if you’re down your luck you can score free meals and other essentials like diapers, formula, etc.”

14. FYI.

“Dial 2-1-1 for essential community services anywhere in America.

Basic Human Needs Resources – including food and clothing banks, shelters, rent assistance, and utility assistance.

Physical and Mental Health Resources – including health insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, maternal health resources, health insurance programs for children, medical information lines, crisis intervention services, support groups, counseling, and drug and alcohol intervention and rehabilitation.

Work Support – including financial assistance, job training, transportation assistance and education programs.

Access to Services in Non-English Languages – including language translation and interpretation services to help non-English-speaking people find public resources (Foreign language services vary by location.)

Support for Older Americans and Persons with Disabilities – including adult day care, community meals, respite care, home health care, transportation and homemaker services.

Children, Youth and Family Support – including child care, after-school programs, educational programs for low-income families, family resource centers, summer camps and recreation programs, mentoring, tutoring and protective services.

Do you know of any great free resources that we should all be using?

Please tell us about them in the comments.

We’d really appreciate it!

The post People Share Free Resources Available to Everyone That We Should Take Advantage Of appeared first on UberFacts.

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Stockton, California Gave Residents $500 a Month. Here’s How It’s Going.

There are a lot of conversations happening in politics these days about how we can better take care of everyone in our society. What can we afford, how can we re-allocate funds, who deserves what, and what history says about supporting people with a safety net when times are hard.

Michael Tubbs, though, the young mayor of Stockton, CA, is done talking – in 2020, he decided to start doing, instead. He and the city council approved a budget measure that would give 125 randomly selected residents with a median household income below $50k a year an extra $500 a month.

Image Credit: Pexels

There were no strings attached. No drug tests, no requirements to work or be actively looking for a job. Very little monitoring was done at all.

Tubbs is heavily invested in Stockton, having grown up there below that median income line himself, and was so dismayed in 2012 to hear Forbes call it one of “America’s Most Miserable Cities” that he ran for mayor. He was elected at the age of 26, making him one of the youngest mayors in the country – but also perhaps, one of the most forward-thinking ones in the crowd.

He founded the Stockton Empowerment Distribution (SEED) in 2019. The funding comes from philanthropic donations, and when a team of independent researchers heard about the initiative, they couldn’t get there to conduct a parallel experiment fast enough.

Researchers Stacia West of the University of Tennessee, and Amy Castro Baker of the University of Pennsylvania, worked together to collect data from those who received the money, and also established a control group of people who were not selected.

What they found was that, instead of “squandering” the cash – a worry of some who thought there should be some requirements and stipulations placed on it – what the extra month did was reduce people’s income volatility compared to those in the control group.

Image Credit: iStock

Basically, unexpected expenses up to $400 in a month would be able to be handled instead of causing an issue that could take months to straighten out, which also improved people’s mental health.

One recipient said that she “had regular panic attacks and anxiety. I was at the point where I had to take a pill for it” but after the checks, “I haven’t even touched the pills in a while. I used to carry them on me all the time.”

The study found that families typically spent the money on essential items like food, home goods, utilities, and gas, and that instead of encouraging people to stay home, the extra cash did the opposite – after one year, the percentage of recipients who were employed full time grew from 28% to 40%, more than twice the rate for the control group.

Image Credit: iStock

Baker believes that having something of a safety net makes it easier to not only imagine a different job or future, but also to take the risks that are often associated with interviewing for new jobs.

“People were able to apply for jobs they knew they were eligible for but just literally could not take a shift off work to do so.”

She adds that people who don’t have enough money almost always don’t have enough time, either.

“When you live in constant scarcity your entire day is taken up with battling poverty and trying to make ends meet.

You literally don’t have the capacity, or the time to even breathe and reset and think about what a different goal might be.”

Extra money, according to the study and also this participant, made a huge difference in that area.

“I was able to finally take time off work to study and complete my real estate license and even pursue an associate degree.

I have more time and net worth to study…to achieve my goals.”

This experiment joins many others that are seeking ways to alleviate poverty around the world, and the idea of a universal basic income is gaining some traction. We’re seeing the needle move in the States with the stimulus checks and also the recent changes to the child tax credit, both of which were given to people without any strings attached as to how they would spend it.

The full analysis from this study will be available in 2022, and in the next few years, researchers agree that there will be a good knowledge base across diverse populations that can be used to make an assessment.

We’ll just have to keep our fingers’ crossed that good policy follows.

The post Stockton, California Gave Residents $500 a Month. Here’s How It’s Going. appeared first on UberFacts.

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Ex-Racists Talk About What Changed Their Views

I’ve seen a few documentaries about people who used to hold hardcore r**ist views and how they completely changed their minds and decided to dedicate the rest of their lives to helping other people and spreading messages of peace and love.

And I think that if guys who used to be that into a r**ist subculture can do it, there’s hope for everyone out there.

AskReddit users who used to hold r**ist views talked about how and why they changed.

Let’s check out their stories.

1. A big lesson.

“The Army forced me to live with black people.

Turns out I didn’t h**e anyone, I was just afraid of what I didn’t understand and had some very stupid notions passed on to me from my dad and his dips**t friends.

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to understand a greater sample of people than my tiny hometown afforded me.”

2. Changed for the better.

“From birth I was raised to be r**ist in a ra**ist household in Virginia. I was ignorant. I used the “N” word, antisemitic, h**ophobic, r**ist language everyday.

My immediate family and extended family all share the same ignorance. At family gatherings if one of my older cousins let slip they were dating someone new, the first question would be “Is s/he white?” Followed by laughter, but the question was serious.

Then I started middle school. 6th grade. On the first day of class I set down my backpack against the classroom wall (like every other student) while we found our desks and had a small Meet & Greet w/ new classmates. I made sure to only speak to the kids (white) whom I knew from elementary school.

Our teacher told us to take our seats. I’m 42 yrs old and I remember this like it was yesterday. I picked up my backpack, found my desk, before I could open my bag the girl behind me told me she liked my earrings, her Mom wouldn’t let her get her ears pierced until high school.

Then I heard another voice from further behind me say, “Ms. Kay, this isn’t my backpack”. The backpack sitting on this girl’s desk was identical to the one sitting next to my desk. We both opened our backpacks and realized we’d grabbed the wrong bag.

Internally I rolled my eyes in disgust, this girl was a “N”. But I was taught to never let it show. So we met each other to quickly exchange. Her smile was beautiful. She wore glasses the same shape as mine. She wore her hair in a pony tail, just like mine. In our back to school shopping we picked the exact same backpack and we picked the exact same Nikes (pink/white).

Her name was Jacinda. I found myself genuinely smiling back to her, and giggling like young girls do. That day she asked to sit together during lunch, and we sat beside each other for lunch every single day of middle school. She was my very first best friend. Jacinda taught me about her Sunday School classes (my family never attended church), we talked about everything important in the life of middle school girls.

She wasn’t allowed to attend my birthday parties, and I wasn’t allowed to go to hers, but we always celebrated together at school. I loved her so much. When it was time to go to high school I continued in public school and her parents chose to homeschool her. I thought homeschooling was the coolest idea. Jacinda was (is) brilliantly intelligent.

God, she was going to do great things for this world. Long before the age of social media, we lost touch sadly – but I still think of her often. After meeting Jacinda I never used another r**ist or derogatory word. Meeting Jacinda changed my life for the better.”

3. Small town in Iowa.

“I grew up in a very small town in Iowa. Couple of hundred people. All white.

So I guess I was raised not to discriminate against people that were different from me because we were all the same. Once I got older and moved to the city, oh yeah. R**ism is alive and well in Iowa.

I didn’t fall into that trap. I didn’t understand it. Ended up in Alabama. My best friend was black. We just had the same sense of humor and liked the same things. I credit him with my kids being non r**ist. He would crack jokes about racial things and they would be shocked.

As they got older they just rolled their eyes. Funniest thing was one of my daughters date shows up and he opens the door and introduced himself as her dad. He moved to Michigan. I miss Charles.”

4. Quickly realized.

“It’s simple really.

I was raised in a r**ist family. Growing up I was kinda r**ist.

Once I actually spent time with people of different races I quickly realized how stupid that is.”

5. Just plain dumb.

“My dad has some pretty xenophobic points of view and that definitely rubbed off on me when I was younger.

Meeting actual people of color through my teenage years made me realize I was being dumb.”

6. Just jokes…

“I grew up thinking I was not a r**ist. I didn’t think badly of blacks or Hispanics. But r**ist jokes didn’t hurt anyone.

Then I moved to an area with about a 90% Hispanic population. The little things that weren’t r**ist, were. The “How many Mexican” type jokes were hurtful and I felt bad. So I stopped.

The easy same thing with blacks , Asians etc, etc. was about the same time.”

7. Poisonous ideas.

“I was not raised by r**ist parents but you can’t help growing up with r**ist messages all around society and tending to believe some of them. I had ideas about indigenous people, Muslim people, all sorts of poisonous ideas.

When I got into my early twenties I started to make good money and began traveling, and all of my r**ist notions disappeared with that. Nothing made me realize how similar human beings are regardless of race, than traveling.”

8. Native people.

“I definitely had some r**ist ideas about native people in my city growing up. There are a lot of native addicts and vagrants but it’s very much a result of a system that’s rigged against those communities.

I didn’t know any of that growing up so when I saw a group of drunk, native people in the park or something, I was generally unimpressed or even frightened.

And I definitely applied those feelings to all the native people I came across. It’s hard to change those reactions but we can all identify the bad reactions and try to curb them.”

9. No indoctrination.

“Grandfather on one side would drop jokes with hard Rs, grandmother on that side would talk about how (whisper) Mexicans were ruining South Dakota long before complaining about illegal immigration was mainstream.

Father wasn’t nearly that far gone, but after one failed relationship with a Chinese woman he encouraged me to marry a white woman, and my mother once vehemently objected to my sister having an openly gay man as a roommate.

So where did it all go wrong? Basically, I traveled to different places and met different people. The town where I grew up had a pretty large Indian population, and I had an Indian best friend growing up (he was also a bit r**ist at the time, frankly).

Went away to Boston for a summer, and through some random set of circumstances found myself going to a black church for the summer. They were just like the white church I had been going to, one kid wanted to grow up to be a programmer just like I wanted to at the time, etc etc. Went off to California for school and was exposed to a wide variety of people.

Hispanic roommate and Hispanic RA freshman year… one was an a**hole, one became a good friend, and I realized it had nothing to do with their ethnicity. Made a good friend sophomore year, and he later came out to me, and either I wrong the whole time about Josh or I was wrong about whatever leftover prejudices I had about gay people.

Now I’m married to another Chinese woman, one of my best friends is black, another is gay, one of my daughter’s best friends is Hispanic, and I’m still here in the bluest part of CA.

There was no liberal indoctrination in college like conservatives are always b**ching about. There was just meeting people and realizing that whatever reasons I had for disliking them or distrusting them from the beginning were false.:

10. Helped you understand.

“When I was going into college I was ignorant, bitter, and certainly not on a good path.

I had a roommate in college who was a person of color, who really helped me understand and put into context a lot that I had been ignorant about.”

11. Dismantle your thought process.

“My situation was complicated growing up. My father was the son of an Italian immigrant with Egyptian roots and he was so ungodly r**ist towards anyone not considered white as he considered himself white.

The thing is, my dad has dark brown skin, dark brown eyes and black kinked curly hair. He looked EXACTLY like the people he was r**ist against. And he hated Arabs…. all Arabs…. and he is part Arab. This was so confusing. He also hated gay people, Muslims, “commies” and any type of alternative lifestyles.

My father hated black people the most. He told me if I ever brought home a black boyfriend he would disown me. He told me, as a small child, that if I misbehaved I would be sent to live with a ****** family in the ghetto.

He was equally misogynist and held onto a strong patriarchal mindset.

I admit, as a kid I repeated his words. All the other kids did too on my neighborhood so I thought he was right. It wasn’t until I was literally in my 30s did I realise the internalized r**ism I still held onto.

All my partners and friends were white my entire life. I felt unsafe near a group of black men. It was only until I moved to northern Europe that I realized that I am not considered white here and experienced r**ism myself and oooooo wow what an eye opener.

I began to dismantle my entire thought process and honestly, I am so repulsed by my father now I can’t even speak to him without feeling disgusting inside. He’s really old now and much more calm and probably won’t live more than 10 years. I have not returned to my birth country to see him in almost 7 years because I am so angry at him.

Because of his r**ism I missed out on friendships, relationships and understanding cultures different from my own. I am making up for it now as the immigrant community that I live in is amazing and supportive but I will never get back that lost time and I will never know fully the extent of damage that my hateful words may have done to people who didn’t deserve it.”

12. Changed your mind.

“Joined the military, left home and experienced cultures around the world.

I was severely lacking in cultural awareness due to growing up in a small town surrounded by openly r**ist people.

Luckily, my children are able to grow in a completely different environment than the one I did.”

Now we’d like to hear from you.

Do you know anyone who has changed their radical views like these people did?

If so, please tell us about it in the comments. Thanks in advance.

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What Myth About Your Country Is 100% False but People Still Believe in It? People Responded.

There are so many myths and generalizations floating around out there about people from different parts of the world that it’s enough to make a person’s head spin.

And a lot of them aren’t even true!

But still, people believe what they want to believe…until now, that is!

What myth about your country is false but people still believe it?

Here’s how people responded on AskReddit.

1. Not worth it.

“That Welsh people f**k sheep.

Temptation is there but the static shock wouldn’t be worth it.”

2. Not accurate.

“Iceland was not named as part of some conspiracy to keep folks away from a good thing.

The name comes from the fact that early settlers arrived during summer and then suffered horrible losses of livestock and people once winter hit and icebergs were seen filling the fjords. It was more of a warning than anything, that this place sucked.

Greenland on the other hand was probably named as such to make it sound more hospitable.”

3. Kenya.

“Kenyans are all long-distance runners, live in huts, speak no English, and have pet wild animals. Ugh.

So here goes: The long-distance guys are mainly from one community/ tribe called the Kalenjin that’s about 15% of the population. Next, Kenya is still a developing nation with a lot of poverty, but there’s a lot of modern architecture.

Next, the country is rated 18 out of 100 on the English Proficiency Index. And lastly: you can apply for a special (and rarely-granted) permit for your bobcat named Babou, but keeping wildlife is not at all common.

And the Kenya Wildlife Service will conduct regular visits to ensure Babou isn’t being kept in Meowschwitz-like conditions.”

4. Italy.

“No, Italians aren’t all short, black-haired, fat mobsters who wear wine-stained tank tops.

We are loud though…”

5. Zing!

“Romania.

Many people believe we have vampires, but in my 700 years of living here, I haven’t even seen one.

I asked my mates back in the castle and they also haven’t seen any, and they’ve been around for longer than I.”

6. Not the way it is.

“People generally assume that when you’re from Belgium, you are French-speaking.

While a big part of the country is Francophone, the majority population is Flemish (Dutch-speaking).

I blame this on mostly 3 factors:

People mainly visiting Brussels (which is bilingual, but has a Francophone majority)

Americans mostly having been stationed in the French speaking part in WWII

Hercule Poirot.”

7. All kinds of stuff.

“Greece is not only beaches and Islands, we also have beautiful places for the winter.

Many mountains and mainland attractions.

Every corner have something interesting.”

8. The view from Russia.

“The myth is that everyone here is always d**nk on vodka and people all ride bears, play on balalaikas and dance the kazachok and that we’re either dr**k or mad.

While there IS a problem with al**holism, a lot of people don’t drink, especially not vodka.

Funnily enough, bears do appear, but VERY rarely. And the people that ride bears or have them as pets? They’re considered unusual by other Russians.

Balalaika is dead I know one person that plays it and thats it

We dance the kazachok only ironically at this point lol

We’re not always mad. We’re. Just people. With emotions ?

But, ushankas ARE great and warm, so people do wear them – not ALL of them though Also we’re not all superpeople.”

9. Dutch life.

“All of our country is just weed and red districts.

Yes we have these things.. but the Netherlands has lots of culture!”

10. Aim high!

“That the Irish are the biggest d**nks in the world.

Completely false and mean as we’re only the second biggest drinker in the world but we hope to get first place next year.”

11. Oh, Canada!

“Everyone drinks maple syrup, there are moose everywhere and we’re saying “sorry” all the time.”

12. Don’t ruin it for me!

“That we say “shrimp on the barbie”.

It was an ad campaign to appeal to Americans.

It was the most successful tourism campaign still to this day, but literally no one in Australia says that.”

13. Get it straight!

“That Brazil is a huge tropical jungle in which people speak Spanish.

Brazil actually has several major cities and different environments.

São Paulo for instance is a huge sprawling metropolis with as many inhabitants as New York and Los Angeles combined.

In some southern areas of the country it actually snows.

And we were a Portuguese colony, so we speak Portuguese.”

Now we want to hear from you.

What myths about your country are not true?

Talk to us in the comments!

The post What Myth About Your Country Is 100% False but People Still Believe in It? People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss the Biggest Culture Shock They’ve Experienced in Another Country

Have you ever experienced real, legit culture shock?

I’ve been to other countries, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so blown away that I was shocked.

But my brother taught English in China for a while and he said that was a huge adjustment for the first month or so he was there.

And a friend of mine went to India for work and said everything was so different: the sights, the sounds, the smells, all of it.

Maybe I’ll experience that one day…

AskReddit users shared the biggest culture shock they’ve ever experienced.

Let’s see what they had to say.

1. Japan.

“People in Japan love to stare at people who look different.

I’m a very tall black guy and had people looking at me like I was wearing a mascot costume for 3 weeks.”

2. They like to follow the rules.

“People in Germany actually expect every one to be punctual and respect deadlines.

It was so weird to me, when at my first party there, my friends were so shocked that I arrived one hour later than planned.

Whereas I was used to the fact that when “the party starts at 7PM”… It means it doesn’t start until 8:30PM.”

3. Utah.

“I went to Salt Lake City once and it was so weird.

Mormons are really nice to outsiders, but at the same time, far-gone religious nutters, so you’re getting this lovely guide to all the best bits of the city you neither asked nor paid for, and also simultaneously being preached to.

Very odd, and also the most American that entire holiday felt.”

4. Personal space.

“I’m from the USA and for me it was lack of awareness of personal space in Argentina. Don’t get me wrong I loved it there. But people don’t care as much about personal space.

Was sitting on the end of an otherwise empty bench all by myself while waiting for a ferry. Had my bag close to me so it wasn’t taking up needless space. Some women came over and sat ON the straps of my bag.

It wasn’t a small bench. There was plenty of room. But for some reason that I will never be able to comprehend, she felt the need to sit ON my bag. I had to get up and move elsewhere.”

5. Slums.

“Been living in Jakarta, Indonesia for almost 2 years now.

Its a beautiful city and it has amazing and glorious skyscrapers, yet on the other side of the city, you see slums in a dirty environment thats filled with a huge population living in poverty, with houses that seems like its about to collapse at any moment.

I knew slums and such existed but I never knew how terrible they actually were.”

6. Suburban wasteland.

“US Suburbs.

Compared to the German suburb I grew up it, it basically felt like a wasteland, without any playgrounds, cafés, restaurants, parks, doctors, pharmacists or anything beside other houses.

It felt like a prison because you can either stay at home or you need a car.”

7. City by the bay.

“First time I visited San Francisco.

That was a huge culture shock. The amount of homeless people and rich people living side by side.

Really reminded me of other third world countries. And a lot of it is manmade.”

8. Interesting.

“The entire Haitian district of Paris was a culture shock because of how unlike the rest of Paris it was.

They had open air markets put together with scrap, and our guide said that most of them were illegal but they had runners that would let vendors know if the police were coming.

He also said not to take too many photographs, especially of people because they DO NOT appreciate that.

That said, I didn’t hate it. It had lots of personality and was totally distinct from the rest of my trip, very memorable.”

9. Definitely different.

“I was working in Shanghai. Decided to get McDonald’s breakfast.

A cute girl sat next to me and started loudly chewing with her mouth open. Seriously, I thought she was messing with me.

Turns out that’s how everyone in China eats.”

10. Nothing to see here.

“Middle of town in Amsterdam.

Outdoor urinals with no walls.

You just lean against them with people walking by.”

11. Oklahoma.

“I’m from New Hampshire and spent a couple of years in Oklahoma for work. Christianity is such an ever-present part of life there. People bring up God in ordinary conversation.

When I checked out a local rodeo event, they kicked it off with a prayer. I don’t think I can convey how weird it was, since this relies so much on personal experience.”

12. Amazing and shocking.

“My first time leaving American was to India, I was alone and just landed after a 22 hour flight. My body and mind felt like I was dreaming, everything was completely different.

The way people greet you, the food, the car steering wheel was on the opposite side and I would always get in the driver side when using a taxi lol the taxi person thought I was weird.

My hotel room was an experience on its own, the outlets, the constant power outage, the bathroom was a room with a toilet and a shower head on the ceiling so when you showered the entire bathroom was soaking wet, even the toilet paper. The constant honking from cars and the cows, dogs and monkeys, the loud noise was hard to get use to.

But at the same time these things were absolutely beautiful. Everyday was a celebration with some kind of festival, seeing everyone in the streets enjoying life made my soul feel renewed. The river and prayer. The walks through the jungle and seeing wildlife was my favorite part of walking to my school everyday.

I can talk about India all day, it was amazing and shocking all at the same time.”

Now we want to hear from you.

What do you think is the biggest example of culture shock you’ve experienced?

Talk to us in the comments. Thanks!

The post People Discuss the Biggest Culture Shock They’ve Experienced in Another Country appeared first on UberFacts.