My top ten pet peeves – not necessarily in order.
- pollution
- cars
- traffic
- big government
- police
- oil companies which ultimately provide funding to corrupt middle eastern governments (all of them)
- wasting natural resources
- industrial meat farming
- people who lie about the climate, for the purpose of getting funding
- people who lie about the climate, for the purpose of taking other’s freedom away
Police? This may be an apples and oranges thing, as I live in Canada … I sympathize with the cops as they are hamstrung by a very weak justice system. My sister is a cop and I have heard many stories. One night she went to arrest a guy with a record a mile long; his line was, “I’m a career criminal … I have rights”.
I would mostly agree with the others, though I don’t hate cars. I do hate traffic immensely, which is why I take the toll highway to work, and arrive with my nerves and sanity intact ;).
The police here won’t deal with actual criminals, so they spend their time trying to take money away from honest people.
On that point, I will agree with you to an extent. However, I lay much of the blame on the justice system. The amount of time and paperwork a cop has to go through (here anyway) after making an arrest is ridiculous, all the while knowing little or nothing will actually happen to said criminal.
Colorado must be one of the exceptions. Most police do a good job.
I worked as a programmer at a local law enforcement agency some years ago. I found the majority of cops to be upstanding, who took their job of protecting citizens to heart, but as in everything a few bad apples can give the rest a bad name. It is a thankless job that I could not handle myself. If we could get rid of the politics and so many of the nuisance laws and limit them to protecting our life, liberty, and property, they could not only save money, but improve their standing in the community.
The only way I would sympathize with cops is if they claimed to be illiterate. They knew the rules when they signed up for the job. They should go get jobs as productive members of society if they don’t like being “hamstrung with rules”.
I like your list of pet peeves, It shows for the most part that your not a hypocrite. I think cars should be at the top of the list along with “people who lie about the climate, for the purpose of getting funding”
and “people who lie about the climate, for the purpose of taking other’s freedom away”
I’ve never had a bad personal experience with police but I do understand that in some countries they are very authoritarian.
Even tho an 18yr old knocked down and drove away killing my younger brother, I do not believe in taking someones freedom away to drive a car, I have no interest in cars or driving and I despise them, but i do respect peoples freedom to drive responsibly.
My take on “industrial meat farming” is that farm livestock should be treated humanly.
On pollution, Carbon dioxide (Co2) is not a pollutant but a very important gas for the entire spectrum of ecology on earth. There is a lot of areas where Toxic Pollution should be prevented but Co2 is a red herring and those who believe that they should be in control of it have a dubious motive both for financial and politically motivated control over populations and their wealth.
I never get in a car unless I have no other choice. I regularly ride a bicycle in -10F weather rather than get in a car.
Since my personal pet peeve is the junk pseudoscience called ‘Conservation Biology’ and the whole ‘extinction crisis/species listing research-lawyer-industrial complex’ I would do this:
“people who lie about the climate or species at risk for the purpose of getting funding
people who lie about the climate or species at risk for the purpose of taking other’s freedom away”
I have no problem with my car but don’t like all the other ones and the resulting traffic. Those people just don’t seem to realize that I’m in a hurry sometimes. How inconsiderate.