My grandparents had one too. I never once saw them sharpen anything, but it moved around the front yard every once in a while, so they must have been keeping it out for something.
The first thing I thought of reading this was how you could write the exact same about the rural midwest US. I was the only kid in my class who had ever seen a black person face to face, and that was because I lived in Florida first. My grandma still calls to warn us to stay inside if a non-white person is spotted near town (usually a utilities guy fixing power lines). They just have no experience with the wider world and know only the stereotypes they echo back and forth to each other.
The peace corp warning does a good job framing it as it is, but it's important to remember that "innocent" ignorance can still carry real violence and hatred.
I was just thinking this should be a "First time?" meme instead. It feels like there's always one instance down.
But it's nice that Lemmy as a whole is never down, just individual pieces.
In college I lost one of my jobs and knew I needed another one fast or I wouldn't be able to make rent. I spammed my resume on Indeed and Monster.
I got an email offering an IT-adjacent job in town. It was Saturday and they said I could stop by in a few weeks to fill out the paperwork or we could do it over the phone and start Monday. I called so I could get my first paycheck before the end of the month. We eventually got to her asking for my Social Security number and I froze.
I realized this could be a scam, but I was really desperate. I tried to think of a way to test them, so I said that I just realized I would be unavailable during certain hours, would that still be okay? She said she had to put me on hold to talk to the manager. After a while she came back and said it should work, but I would have to discuss the specifics with my supervisor once I started.
That sounded real to me. If it was a scam surely she would have just immediately said my schedule was fine, right? I gave her my SSN. She said I was ready to go and to have fun on Monday. I got there and it was just a parking lot. Couldn't get a response via phone or email.
A couple months later I found out someone across the country had used my SSN and I had to freeze my credit.
I have the exact same issue. I thought buying directly from the manufacturer's site would fix it, but I still get Amazon boxes from some of them. I don't buy from them again, but it still sucks. I have ended up buying even less, and I wasn't buying much before.
I try to buy things used, but sometimes that's just not possible. If it has to be new I try different sites until I find one that doesn't go through them. You can even call customer service for some smaller sites and find out ahead of time.
I don't agree with the "don't bother" hopelessness in this thread. Trying to do the least bad thing is still worthwhile, even if you can't do something perfectly ethical. I'm proud of you for doing your best.
I was gonna say the same. If I had to go back the only change I would make is avoiding the cops, school councilors, relatives, and judges I thought I could trust. Every attempt we made to get away from our mom made the beatings worse.
When I was 10 or so my cousins and I put a basketball hoop in the barn loft after all the hay bales were used for the season. My uncle came up the ladder and told us to be careful or we'd "get a bunch of coons in here playing ball." I didn't know that word was a slur at the time, so the image of a bunch of raccoons playing basketball was hilarious to me.
When I was in my 20's I told that story and everyone just grimaced. Someone had to tell me what he had actually meant.
A Teams meeting!? I wish I was as brave as you. I'm not even brave enough to poop while listening to a Teams call, much less showering. I'm terrified they'll call me out and I'll either have to unmute at the worst possible moment or stay muted and have my boss assume I'm not paying attention.
If I showered during a meeting I would be paranoid about somehow magically turning on my camera.
Incredible how well this matches.
I Think You Should Leave is such a gold mine of meme templates.