Editor's note: this is a post about American Independence Day celebrations

existentialmemes

Alright, I'm going to launch explosives around your house. For several hours. Yes it is dangerous and terrible for wildlife and the environment. And yes your pets will get sick from eating the debris and you will feel terrorized inside your own home.

No you can't opt out of it. Everyone is doing it and frankly it's weird that you don't want to.

No you can't be the one launching the explosives you need a license for that. You can however launch these marginally smaller ones though. Yeah just whenever you want. 2am sounds great.

So anyway, fireworks were a mistake and it's never too early to start reminding you of that.

I got temporarily banned from Reddit for saying that people who blow their own limbs off with fireworks had it coming, so here I'll post my actual opinion: if you set off explosives in the middle of my neighborhood, I hope those explosives take both of your hands so you can never set off fireworks again.

I don't wish maiming on people who light fireworks. They can learn. I sure did. Used to be a huge fan to the point my dad and I would volunteer to help setup a few pro shows around us (one of only three happy memories with him so you can imagine how important they were to me). I now understand though and don't light them myself. I've found many people around me legitimately have just never heard the arguments against them and when I lay it out they at least only light them at reasonable times and clean up more though some no longer light them at all.

Now my asshole neighbour who three years in a row I've had to sic the city code enforcement on for just tossing his mortar tubes and boxes and stuff into my yard...

stupidity based injuries are consequences. the fuck did they expect?

got banned for something similar.

funny how advocating safety and common sense is a bad thing on Reddit.

isn't most of the world moving away from fireworks? too polluting.

No you don't understand...
It's a celebration!

For what? Well uhh, nothing much in the past decade (we even lost a few wars)...
but the country became independent 250 years ago so we do this every single year.

I'm more down for burning in effigy

Professional firework displays are ok. If it's scheduled ahead of time and there's some choreography and art to it and it's contained to one area, that's cool. It's the people setting off mortars at all hours of the day in residential areas that I have a problem with.

And I don't really want to see limbs blown off, it's just that I've interacted with enough people who hear arguments against it, and still set a bunch of fires and blow up a bunch of explosives outside my damn house, that I have to assume malice on their part. Like, every house on this street has dogs. They've seen how their dogs react to fireworks. Why are they setting off pounds of dynamite?

What really set me off was getting banned from reddit for expressing an opinion moderately spicier than "explosions can be bad, sometimes." I like this platform because having strong opinions doesn't get me instantly banned by a machine before a human ever sets eyes on it. Even if a moderator removes my other comment, I won't be too upset, because there will be a human being behind that decision instead of an algorithm

I appreciate in the latest season of The Pitt they show a few fireworks injuries. They can really fuck you up if you don't know what you're doing.

Leave explosives to the trained professionals. I don't wish harm on anyone but fireworks are just explosives and if you aren't trained you're just asking for trouble.

Ok, this bums me out. I love fireworks and the 4th of July. I have such fond memories of it as a kid and am building memories with my own kiddos. Our whole neighborhood gets together and sets them off, and grills and hangs out. It is a whole (wholesome) thing.

I've had a car roof dented from a chunk of concrete from a firework. Not a fan.

There's plenty of fireworks that aren't a problem. Fountains and Spinners and sparklers are rad as hell, and honestly as a kid I hated the ones that are just really loud for no reason

People love loud sounds and lights, be it explosions, light shows, loud music, automobiles, and a myriad of other things, what can I say? It's a form of group stimulation that for whatever reason cultures find acceptable.

I don't launch fireworks, and I agree people should be much more considerate about it, and keep loud sounds to specific pre-arranged times like 11pm to 1am for midnight events like New Year, 9pm-12am for other events. It's not so bad if you can expect it, but it's the random intermittency through the whole night is what I think is the most harmful thing about it. ANC headphones is the opt-out.

Those are mostly what we do. No fire crackers. My kiddos are autistic, so ear protection is a must, just in case there is a loud one. But they love it and are even starting to love the louder ones as they get older.

Launching fireworks had been banned in Kyiv for the last few years, for hopefully obvious reasons.

At least one good thing has come from it.

Our whole neighborhood

Even the pets? The people with PTSD?

Once again, a few assholes ruining it for everyone else ...

I mean, it is a small neighborhood. 🤷 There are pets, but they appear u bothered. My dog, for example, has no idea they are happening. The hot dogs on the other hand...

I'd happily see consumer fireworks banned. If people like them so much then there are plenty of organized displays which have way better shit than you can buy at Walmart, and I know roughly when they're happening so I can turn the TV up loud, close my windows and keep my pets from being too traumatized.

What I can't stand is the random 3AM explosions that sounds like the start of WWIII. If you're one of those people, fuck you. Sincerely.

Yup but here in the good ol US of A we are dumb as fuck and polluting our environment is our way of life.

it's so weird, coming to the US from Europe is line travelling 20 years to the past.

I see your point, but what if you love to be drunk, belligerent, and imposing your will on unconsenting, helpless victims? 🤔

Wait till you learn about birthdays, even if people have shitty years the undeserving bastards still celebrate them.

My MIL..

Every year for a dozen years our dog would get so traumatized by fireworks that you could literally hear her teeth chattering. We'd turn up loud music in the house, and make her a bed in a closet, but she'd still bolt out and look for anywhere where it was less noisy or safer (there wasn't such a place, but we couldn't convince her of that). She'd jump into the bathtub or claw her way into a different closet, only to bolt away to find a better spot at the next explosion. And neighbors would light off the occasional firework until like 2 or 3 in the morning. We couldn't go off and leave her. I grew to really hate the 4th.

She died a couple months ago, so I guess that's no longer a problem for us personally, but I know we aren't the only ones with sensitive pets.

It's not so bad if you can expect it

Animals will not expect it. Also they do not unterstand why and what's happening.

ANC headphones is the opt-out.

How about an opt-in?

You wish grievous, life-altering injury on people who… irritate you once a year? Girlypop you got some issues to sort out

I don't enjoy fireworks. Maybe if it was like the year 1600 and I'd never seen color and light it'd be really cool. But we have high definition Tv now.

Xanax. It’s a good thing.

Benadryl if you can’t get none. Plus the other stuff you mentioned.

Huh, we arnt as behind as I thought.

I was so annoyed when NJ finally went and allowed fireworks in public hands. Now instead of having nice controlled by the township level shows with professionals, I get dipshit down the street setting them off and causing every dog to go batshit. And because anyone can buy fireworks, no one donates to the township show so we don't even get to see the nice show anymore.

yet, y'all racing backwards

Yeah why is it okay to demand opt-out as the default for tech stuff, but unreasonable to expect the same courtesy for the crazy things society deems "normal"

Because opt-out in tech stuff is stupid too.

Just because society is okay with it, doesn't make all the issues miraculously go away.

Air quality is shit for a long while after displays, especially if you live within view of multiple displays.

Plastic waste and other garbage leaving just from the display alone, to say nothing of the crowds that gather for them.

Animal life around the displays get to deal with the sounds and percussion types that literally gave ww1 soldiers ptsd. They are also animals and have no idea what's happening. Wildlife nearby gets screwed over every 4th. Not to mention animals with sensitive hearing like dogs. Hell, I live many miles and hills away from the closest display I could find with my drone last year, yet my dog was still terrified.

Sorry if that's being a party popper, but at one point in time, public executions were considered entertainment and I'm sure there were a few party poopers who pointed out how barbaric it was. It didn't make them wrong to point it out.

Of course not. I wish they wouldn't detonate bombs in the first place.

irritate you once a year?

Were im from, its a month long event. And then a week for new years, and then throughout the year just for the hell of it.

Benadryl, or diphenhydramine hcl, doesn't really help much for stress. It's true that it can make dogs sleepy, and if given soon enough before the fireworks they may sleep through them. The problem is that some dogs have the opposite reaction and become hyperactive. Hyperactive and stressed will just make for a bad evening for everyone.

It is best to talk to your vet in the days before the fireworks start. A prescription is likely to be a better option for your pet. Talking to your vet first will also help to make sure you get the dosing right for your dog.

If they are tossing around concrete and denting cars, then the proper term isn't fireworks, it's demolitions.

I also don't get why anyone films them. We have so many videos of fireworks as a species. Like we have the whole phenomena comprehensively documented, we're good.

All the cool smaller stuff was banned long ago in the UK. 'Items of Erratic Flight' including all the ground spinners, helicopters, bottle rockets etc. The consumer stuff these days is so boring. What would've made so much more sense is to keep the smaller 'novely' type fireworks that are typically relatively low-noise, and much better suited to the relatively small gardens here.

Instead we have these relatively powerful cakes that should have a 25m safety radius that almost nobody actually has in their garden.

Many countries have a unique style of firework making that is part of their cultural heritage, ours is almost completely lost as everything is imported from China now, we outsource the danger of production to child labour in Luiyang. Its a sad state of affairs.

I don't have a pet either, but I'd think to wrap a scarf or blanket around the head of your pet to dampen the noise and keep them close to you or in your bed to reduce the harm.

The OOP mentioned there's no opt-out, hence my suggestion of ways to opt-out, but most public firework shows are opt-in and I agree it should be the main way to see fireworks. I bring earplugs to some fireworks shows I see, because I'm trying to protect my hearing even as I am enjoying it. In the spirit of offering solutions to this problem, you can start your own HOA where you either ban pets because they could be harmed by fireworks, or outlaw anything that could ever be an inconvenience to anyone.

I’ve already been hearing them go off all month long in my neighborhood. Still another month to go.

God damn that is American 🫡 🇺🇸

Had an apartment in a shady neighborhood for the first time in my life once. Did not appreciate the random "pop" noises that never really sounded like fireworks. Will never live that down.

My neighborhood starts early, as early as those stands pop up, and somehow they continue for months.

They also import illegal ones, although not at much this year. Local city governments have been cracking down. Last year, I heard heavy duty fireworks as early as mothers day.

On one hand, agreed. On the other hand, all of those Europeans are here for the world cup. I'm absolutely giddy to see their unbridled horror at this shit.

Counterpoint

Playing with fire and blowing things up is fun if done responsibly. Really, given the kinds of annoyances that are legal year-round (drunkards, loud exhausts, barking dogs, late-night parties, yelling loudly etc.), it really isn't that bad to have fire & explosions once per year for like... two hours. (Reiterating, responsibly)

but I'd think to wrap a scarf or blanket around the head of your pet to dampen the noise and keep them close to you or in your bed to reduce the harm.

That's not doing the job. But I admit you are indeed able to reduce the noise with ANC headphones attached to the dog. (Did this and seemed to do the job.)

But that's not the point. I shouldn't be forced to do that in the first place.

but most public firework shows are opt-in

This could be a solution (banning private fireworks at the same time), but ignoring the fact fireworks not only harm pets but animals in the wild too.

you can start your own HOA

Snarky.