" It is so frustrating to shop on Amazon with the Chinese sellers and manufacturers on the site.

The fake reviews are overwhelming (think 50-90% fake reviews on FakeSpot or ReviewMeta), plus the products are cheap and break and when you go back to the manufacturer, most of them don't exist after 1-2 years. I would assume it's the same group of people making cr#ppy merchandise and cycling their names over and over again and buying the same fake reviews.

Beyond this, I'm always worried that they've put some pollutant or carcinogen into the manufacturing process because their regulations are so lax. The examples in the media are countless--toothpaste with diethylene glycol, pet food that kills our dogs and cats, toys with lead paint, make up with lead, beryllium, bacterial contamination, cheap hardware that self destructs after a year.

And it can be so hard to tell because they often manufacture for companies like Mattel and Nestle so you think you're getting American or European.

This has been going on for decades and we just turn a blind eye to it because they're cheaper. Business ethics wise, they're about where the US was in the 1920s. This is an example of how capitalism can result in deadly consequences without strong governmental regulation.

Please feel free to downvote me into oblivion, whatever, I don't care, I'm just sick of the nonsense."

"Not Learning (Or Worse, Not Teaching Your Kids) To Swim Is One Of The Absolute Stupidest Things You Could Do"

" Swimming is like walking, but for water. It's part of the few basic means of movement we, humans, have at our disposal, along with running, crawling and climbing. Not knowing how to swim puts you at a HUGE disadvantage, as you pretty much can't avoid water. Any mildly interesting / fun activity might turn into a potentially lethal one, should you not know how to swim. Going fishing? Better not fall into the water... It's like permadeath for video games: instead of ending up wet, and maybe slightly (or very) cold, you just friggin' die if you fall into deep water. I know, swimmers can drown too, but if you can't swim, you're guaranteed to have to be rescued.

On another note, it's so weird to see healthy people being incapable of performing the most basic human activities: I've seen grown men injure themselves trying to climb over a 3 feet fence (not drunk), women twisting their ankles and tearing tendons when running towards a bus stop, etc. Now, I'm not saying that everybody needs to be a world-class climber like Adam Ondra or swimmer, like Michael Phelps. But learning how to... I don't know, not die when navigating anything but flat terrain seems like it should be part of being a grown human."