Thinking about a conversation I was having with an acquaintance years ago. He was a friend of a friend and we were talking about food. I forget the exact phrasing but I brought up loving avocados. He said “what’s that?” I was a bit surprised and explained. He responded “OH thats crazy I thought that was one of those made up words”. The statement was like a flashbang I had to contemplate for a few minutes. PERSONAL STORIES ONLY, DO NOT INCLUDE A STATEMENT FROM A CELEBRITY OR POLITICIAN.
I’m having a conversation with a family member. Somehow the topic of firefighters comes up. She pauses, looks very thoughtful for a moment, then asks, “Do you not like firefighters, either?”
“What? Why would I not like firefighters?”
“Like how you don’t like police.”
She knows me well. I boggle at how my distaste for cops could be this misunderstood.
It’s easy to understand once you realize that most people think police is only about “being the one to call in an emergency when a bad guy tries to hurt you”. In that line of thinking it’s the same as “the one to call in an emergency when a fire is trying to hurt you” or “the one to call in an emergency when an injury/disease is trying to kill you”.
No one becomes a firefighter because they enjoy wielding authority over other people
FWIW, some become firefighters because they enjoy lighting things on fire. The correlation between firefighters and arsonists is very strong. But even then, nobody (except maybe some cops) has ever seen firefighters roll up to a scene and thought “well my day just got worse.”
Emergency response is emergency response. Tell us how you hate ambulances upsetting the commute.
Fuck SAR. Did you ever ask whether those people want to be found?
Fuck the fire department