This Is A Dumb Rant About A Dumb Argument I Had Ages Ago But I Am Still Bothered Sometimes By This Really,

This is a dumb rant about a dumb argument I had ages ago but I am still bothered sometimes by this really, really stupid in-person argument I had once about urbanism, cars, trains, etc. this one time with a person who had the most absurd argument you could possibly imagine. I was trying to explain how trains are much more efficient and safer than cars because you need like hundreds of cars to transport as many people as you would with one train, combine multiple train routes and you have an extremely safe and accessible city, and that trains are on tracks instead of being like a highway and there's this constant stream of cars with drivers with varying levels of care for road safety. And they tried to tell me that no? Trains are not actually safe? Huh? Wuh? I explained that yes, they are. You wait for your train and you get on the train and then it takes you where you're going and there is one very well-trained driver for the entire train. You don't have situations where a pedestrian has to to cross a busy street and worry about somebody in a lifted truck not even seeing the top of their head while they mow them down, and this person I'm arguing with tells me that no, it's not safe... because, and I'm telling you, they provided no other reason besides this... because it's super easy to off yourself by jumping in front of the train? And then they simply would not acknowledge me when I tried to get them to understand that the exact same thing is true of cars??? Any suicidal person will have--at the absolute very least--a completely equal opportunity to jump in front of a car as they will jumping in front of a train? In fact, cars are probably a lot more easy to jump in front of because they are absolutely everywhere? Like, even in cities with lots of trains... the street is right outside your door? It's so much easier to just step onto that? This person tried to argue safety statistics, despite both of us having none prepared, and I tried to explain to them that even if we had such statistics to go off of, that statistics about suicide are not the same thing as statistics about accidental deaths... And then they acted like I was being... super fucking insensitive about suicide? Like, no, I'm not!? Suicide is about mental health rather than physical safety?! For the love of god?! It's not insensitive to point out that killing yourself on purpose because of bad mental health isn't the same as killing yourself by accident due to the hazards of a physically dangerous environment?! Because... like... think through this argument with me, right? You can make the world safer to be in by making less hostile architecture, better accessibility, etc. But to factor in making sure that the world is also safe enough that a person who is suicidal would not be physically able to kill themself? Like??? Think about what you are saying?? Do you realize that that very much in fact means we would basically have to toddler-proof the entire outdoor world? Which, is both a practically impossible task as well as one that would make for a really boring dystopia novel? You can't just get rid of every tall building!? You can't just get rid of every cliff or ravine!? You can't just get rid of every single person's access to every single dangerous environment, substance, or object?! And somehow I was the bad guy for pointing out that suicide is a mental health issue rather than a safe urban design question? How!? How on earth were they making this argument with me when I was trying to explain that trains are safer than cars?

Christians hate when a gay man goes “fuck it, I’ll gladly go to Hell if you want me to so bad” because it takes the edge away from their tools of fear. If they can’t scare you with threats of eternal damnation then one of their main weapons is taken away.

behold: the last place your name will ever be spoken aloud.

I think it should bother people more to know that if you had your birth certificate issued from most western countries and even many countries elsewhere in the world, then the last time that any human will ever read your name, it will very likely be a mormon reading it, and then they will perform a posthumous conversion-to-mormonism ceremony in your name. Some mormon will almost inevitably find it in a record book at some time in the future, digitize it to an online database owned by the mormon church and hosted from a physical microfilm vault also owned by the mormon church located inside of a mountain that's 30 minutes from Salt Lake City. While they do that they will also send a printed copy of the name to their temple where they will do a ceremony where they'll have somebody get into a big tub of water where somebody will baptize them and say they are doing it in your name. And then they'll mark your name down as "baptized." Yes, it's true. And you may have heard of the time when a bunch of families of Holocaust victims noticed that the mormon church was doing this with their murdered family members' names. You may have heard that the mormon church annulled those records, apologized, and asked that its members only baptize the names of direct family members, but let me tell you something: they're not looking to make sure. They can't. They cannot find every name, and their followers don't care. The families of Holocaust victims continue to notice the same names getting marked as baptized. Church leaders have admitted that there are most likely thousands of names of people who were likely holocaust victims that have not been checked for removal, and that they can't do it. There is no system in place to ensure that consent is asked from the family of the deceased, much less the consent of the actual dead person. Even if you specifically told the church that you do not consent to a posthumous conversion ceremony forever, they will never listen. Even if you make sure your whole family for multiple generations requests your name be removed, the mormon church won't, and probably can't, do anything about it. If having this happen to you doesn't bother you very much then I'm very happy for you. I'm glad it doesn't stress you out, but I'm not like that. It's the most insulting thing that could ever happen to me. I will never be able to die in total peace knowing this will happen to me. Also if you're trans, most mormons will bust their ass trying to find your birth name and assigned gender at birth.

making a moodboard called "why i would die in a fantasy realm"

behold: the last place your name will ever be recorded. (It's owned by the mormon church)

I think it should bother people more to know that if you had your birth certificate issued from most western countries and even many countries elsewhere in the world, then the last time that any human will ever read your name, it will very likely be a mormon reading it, and then they will perform a posthumous conversion-to-mormonism ceremony in your name. Some mormon will almost inevitably find it in a record book at some time in the future, digitize it to an online database owned by the mormon church and hosted from a physical microfilm vault also owned by the mormon church located inside of a mountain that's 30 minutes from Salt Lake City. While they do that they will also send a printed copy of the name to their temple where they will do a ceremony where they'll have somebody get into a big tub of water where somebody will baptize them and say they are doing it in your name. And then they'll mark your name down as "baptized." Yes, it's true. And you may have heard of the time when a bunch of families of Holocaust victims noticed that the mormon church was doing this with their murdered family members' names. You may have heard that the mormon church annulled those records, apologized, and asked that its members only baptize the names of direct family members, but let me tell you something: they're not looking to make sure. They can't. They cannot find every name, and their followers don't care. The families of Holocaust victims continue to notice the same names getting marked as baptized. Church leaders have admitted that there are most likely thousands of names of people who were likely holocaust victims that have not been checked for removal, and that they can't do it. There is no system in place to ensure that consent is asked from the family of the deceased, much less the consent of the actual dead person. Even if you specifically told the church that you do not consent to a posthumous conversion ceremony forever, they will never listen. Even if you make sure your whole family for multiple generations requests your name be removed, the mormon church won't, and probably can't, do anything about it. If having this happen to you doesn't bother you very much then I'm very happy for you. I'm glad it doesn't stress you out, but I'm not like that. It's the most insulting thing that could ever happen to me. I will never be able to die in total peace knowing this will happen to me. Also if you're trans, most mormons will bust their ass trying to find your birth name and assigned gender at birth.