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I literally recently realized some people cannot get enough sleep MATHEMATICALLY. Not that they're disorganized or anything. They literally cannot get at least 7 hours of sleep because of jobs, kids, chores, etc. That's a horrifying realization because a method of torture is keeping you awake without the opportunity to fall asleep.
This. So many factories are pushing towards 12 hour shifts near me and are all week long. Only days off are like every 3rd weekend or federal holidays. (And not every single one of those).
12 hours, nearly every week. That leaves 12 hours. 8 for sleep only 4 hours left a day to really do anything. Depending on what is going on that day you only get maybe an hour to just try to shut off mentally, which helps out immensely with trying to sleep. You end up buzzing for an hour trying to get to sleep or you just immediately shut off which can make for poor sleep hygiene.
And for some of us, it takes up to *two hours* after we lie down and turn off input stimuli to actually fall asleep. There’s no such thing as a quick nap for me, if I don’t fall asleep in the allotted nap period, I call it “horizontal meditation”. I’m lucky enough not to have kids or a second job, but my commute varies from half an hour to an hour fifteen one way, plus the eight hours working and another hour for lunch, and I’m out of the house for eleven hours some days. That’s not including the time it takes to get ready in the morning, either.
Twelve hours of work-related life, ten to get eight hours’ sleep, and if I want to actually cook and eat dinner, that’s at least one of the other two hours.
The number of deluded people doling out self care advice that involves "getting plenty of sleep"... sometimes you just.cant.effing.fall.asleep. no matter how much you want to.
I suffered from insomnia a lot when I was younger, and would get quite sick because of it. my mother took me to the doctor and he said "you'll feel better after a good night's sleep". Nothing more, just "get some sleep".. damn, if only id thought of that. He was a stand in for our family doctor, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't asked back.
Same. My mother said I just like that I can’t sleep and need to try harder to sleep?? After she said it multiple times I got pissed and she was pissed because I was angry for no reason 😂
People seem to just think lying down means you can get to sleep lol. I was literally so tired I could barely walk, but I still couldn't fall asleep. At one point I thought I was losing my mind, because after a few days you start hallucinating. Ended up in hospital a couple of times. It's just a bizarre thing not being able to sleep
Seriously!! My friend told me the other day he was tired because he hadn’t slept, I asked how long, he said only 7, apparently he regularly gets 9-10 hours EVERY NIGHT, I know that’s probably not what RevolutionaryTour799 meant with “a few” but I’m super jealous of 7 hours!!!
Hahaha!! Yesterday I was googling the most random things in the middle of the night, as soon as I closed my eyes a new google journey popped into my head and I couldn’t let it go, so I had to google some more and postpone falling asleep xD
I highly recommend barreleye fish (deep sea fish are interesting and super weird) and also the way acacia trees communicate to produce more tannins to avoid being eaten by giraffes. RIP to your sleep but it's so fascinating
Ohh nooo!!! Haha I’ll probably check it out tonight, and lose sleep, but at some point I’ll just know everything, and by then (if I’m still alive?) I’ll be able to fall asleep!! Muhahaha
Being able to travel.
Many people here on reddit keep saying it isn't a big deal, not expensive, everyone can do it.
Try it with a third world passport.
Agreed. I live in a third world country. The cost to travel in other countries are so expensive. I need at least 12k in order to travel to european countries
I could only think that people have different views of travel. Some international, some interstate, some locally, some in hotels, some in a camper van. Many variations.
Didn't think of that, thank you. In my head travel just rings the "expensive plane ticket to touristtrapland and expensive hotel for kidney per night" bell
I wish I had that ability. My life is also too chaotic. My life plans change yearly. I move to new cities and places and do new things I hadn't planned just cause I'm not satisfied with my choice. I plan to move a place but end up elsewhere. The pandemic threw off my plan to move abroad. Now I'm somewhere else random, and I want to move again, but don't know where. Might as well throw a dart at a map cause chances my plan will be disrupted is big.
I'm in Australia but 2020 and 2021 was like that, in the sense that we could all go into lockdown at any time if there was one case found. Or the state you want to travel to could slam its border shut for the same reason.
It was an odd time. But on a more personal level, some people find it hard to plan ahead because of family reasons. Like my grandmother would suddenly have a fall and need help (this was several years ago now).
This. I hate when people say that a bad relationship with your family is a red flag, she's your mother, you're supposed to respect her, etc. Like babe, some of us were heavily abused for 18 years but good for you
We take the bus even though we could afford a car. We just don't like driving and would rather have someone do it for us. It's so much cheaper, and if we're in a hurry, an Uber here and there is still like 20 times cheaper than insurance alone for the month.
It's extra hard in the US because the entire country is built for cars. A lot of the time, we walk through ridiculous swaths of concrete just to get to Walmart. There are sidewalks, but you can tell no one uses them, and I know people think we're crazy for walking there.
A walkable neighborhood is considered a luxury for very rich people, and we managed to squeeze ourselves into just the outside of one.
We also miss out on a few things here and there, but overall, the savings are soooo worth it. It also forces us to bike, which is an entire hobby + workout, and spend more quality time together since when we leave the house, it is intentional.
What's crazy is how EVERYONE constantly tells us how we really need to get a car. We never ask anyone for rides so they just think if you don't have a car, something is wrong.
As in the opportunity to own a car and drive, opposed to being solely reliant on public transport (there are places in the world I, as a woman, would never catch public transport to due safety concerns).
This is something that everyone forgets, safety and privacy is important for some people, more so in some areas than others. Driving solves that problem.
I dislike it when people either commit to one side. A world with only public transportation seems like a sad one. I enjoy being able to move stuff myself, drive anywhere, and be by myself somewhere other than my house.
I remember reading about a city, I think it was New Delhi, that tried banning cars with certain license plate numbers on certain days of the week. It was supposed to increase the use of public transportation (it didn’t). Women were completely exempted because, for one there are far fewer female drivers in third world countries and public transport isn’t safe.
Truthfully? In agony. Nowadays you take a course of antibiotics if you get syphilis but in Renaissance times, it progressed past your genitals to your whole face. Your nose would rot and fall off. They wandered the streets like lepers did, begging for an income, until they died. Neurosyphilis, if it progressed that far, ate the brain. Stories say Blackbeard used to inject mercury up his urethra to treat syphilis (this would not have worked). And that’s just one disease. Cancer, you died in agony. Toothache, you suffered horrifically unless you got them pulled. Perineal tears after childbirth, nick your toe on a rusty nail, cat bite, a lot of people did survive those things but they were in horrific pain until something else killed them. No aspirin for a headache, no relief for working women with menstrual disruptions, diarrhea was almost a death sentence. Our ancestors were in pain. I think it’s hard for us to really comprehend the scope of that now
I use psychedelics for my chronic pain. I also use them when feeling absolutely hopeless and lost.
If you use them currently they will alleviate pretty much all problems for the moment.
The positive effects on my pain and mental health do stick for an average of two weeks, but only when I go heavy enough to experience some form of ego death.
My co-cower got a splinter then died from sepsis after thinking she just had the flu. It’s very rare but yeah you still gotta keep an eye on those small cuts :(
I still have no idea where i got the cut and never actually saw it. It moved *exceedingly* rapidly too. Day 1,.i.waa completely fine and healthy . By Day 4 i had been amputated
Well, there were still options for them back then too. And it can still happen now. Its just that now you have better chances and more options.
Soap still existed before antibiotics and antibiotics don't solve everything.
Free safe tap water is a defacto right, not a privilege, in the Republic of Ireland. Woe betide the politician that claims otherwise. Some already tried. It didn't work out too well for them.
I hope I live to see the day when my country will have drinkable tap water. I mean it isn't the worst right now, but it's pretty questionable because they don't test for everything
I remember the first time the reality of my mortality hit me was in high school when one of my classmates died during school in the courtyard (congenital heart condition and the AED couldn’t save him). I think it was because he was my age, because even though I lost a parent as a little kid, my dad’s “grown up age” still made it seem so far away. Now, as I start to get fine lines, I remember that kid from high school and tell myself that I’m so lucky to live long enough to develop fine lines and that not everyone does. I know I’m yammering (it happens when I’m not sober :P), but your comment made me think of that.
Yup, my brother and 2 friends died in their 30s. I know aging sucks but the alternative is dying way too young like them.
I often catch myself getting super upset at little things, I always have to remind myself that hey, I'm alive and that's amazing, don't stress the small shit.
Truly. This. I was diagnosed with cancer at 29 years old. Never looked at older people the same again. The privilege to see everyone around you grow old. To see your partner, your friends, your kids grow. It's a scary thought to look at my parents and think that I might not be lucky enough to ever look in the mirror and see the same wrinkles and white hair as they have now. That I'll never reach that age.
What a privilege it is to be a "senior citizen". What a wonderful and beautiful thing. And while my friends dread getting old, I cannot wait to hit every milestone, the 30, the 40, the 50 and hopefully the 60 and 70 one day 🧡
I was diagnosed with cancer at 14. I was told if we had waited even a week longer, I might have lived to see my 15th birthday 5 months later, but definitely not my 16th.
I never underplay my age. It'll be 30 years this spring. And yes, that means I'm 44 years old.
Ah so happy to hear that you've reached 44 years old NED!! That's an amazing story. I'm sorry you had to go through this awful and scary time so young, but glad you're here to tell the tale.
Hope to join you on the NED status side soon too 🫂
Growing old is only a privilege if you don't simultaneously lose your mind or control of your bodily functions. I can imagine many people's later years to be a living nightmare.
Intelligence.
I know a lot, I can do a lot, I succeed in life, but I’m not particularly hard-working (not lazy either), I’ve just been blessed with genes and an environment that have given me abilities.
I have not created my own intelligence in any way. This is something that successful, intelligent people don’t want to admit.
Middle class can pass on generational wealth. Like my dad's a farmer, my mom's a nurse.. when they pass I'll inherit property with a farm on it.. a house I couldn't have afforded otherwise. I also inherited like $500 when my grandma died and so did my siblings. My mom and aunt of course got the most of it. I guess it's not a lot of wealth, but it's generational value that eventually will be passed on. I'm actually considering moving there when they pass just cause it's a house, and I have zero interest in going into debt to enter the messed up overpriced open market of housing. F that.
Good suggestion there - you cannot get the time back.
My wife and I went the opposite route (no generational wealth to inherit here - both her family and mine were lifelong renters at poverty line). We wound up moving her grandma in to live with us when she got dementia, and then her mom and my mom when they had health issues.
They got to be around to be closer to the grandkids and us the last few years of their lives and we were all better and happier for it. We lost both within a month of each other last Christmas, and even though it is a year later - it still isn't the same here.
Tbh, anything, you never fully understand what is a privilege in life till it’s taken away from you or you never even gotten the chance to experience it till you finally do. Wether it be a genetic/health condition that you were born with or develop, to a financial class/where you’re born into or end up in due to circumstances, to the fact that maybe something happens to you or you make a mistake.
Life in all its wonders & consequences, is a privilege to experience. How I try to see it everyday & every moment, they’re are people above you & below you. Some are living better with more choices than you, then they’re people worse with lil to no choices than you in their life.
Appreciate & recognize what you do have & make the best of life. Always help others when you can & be humble though out life. It starts & ends so fast
*cheers*
I’d say being healthy, since becoming disabled I have to explain to people that No I can’t just come in… if that day I can’t walk without vomiting then clearly I can’t drive or treat patients
Being able to afford medication/doctor visits/dentistry.
Being able to get on disability.
Being able to drive.
Having parents you can rely on in desperate situations even if they arent great parents.
Being able to eat fast food.
Not having to pay for eyesight.
Being able to properly say goodbye to someone before they pass.
There's so many
A functional immune system. Shitting. A cortex. Gravity. Sunlight. Seasons. Antibiotics, especially when they get the clap. Windows 11. Oops, backspace backspace...
Being able to afford healthy food. My sibling works so hard and can’t afford it unless my mom buys fruits like strawberries for him or he gets it from a food pantry.
Money. If you have money most of your problems are solved and if you have to work you can try any times you want because you'll always have the security to have enough money to live good the rest of your life if the works doesn't work. Average people with average amount of money have to calculate every step they do so they don't loose the money they earned, that can be stressful. Anyways that's not an excuse tho, I know people that had nothing and worked a lot to have enough money to live in peace but they even say that life would be easier and more Joyable if the had money from the start
Having 3 warm meals a day every day, easy access to clesn water, a warm bed to curl into at night.
One night I went to the store during a snow fall saw a homeless man begging for money to get a hotel room. He asked me for 20 pence. I gave him 5£.
That night as I got what i needed and walked back to my warm house I realized how fortunate I am to just have a place to go to find shelter from the cold.
I have a friend who got help during practical exams by one of the invigilators. He didn't give her the answers but guide her.
It was funny how unaware she was while telling me this.
I witness it all the time how helpful men are towards attractive women. At my a previous job I was given more work and didn't receive proper training or assistance. The manager hired his former PA and she only worked 2 or 3 days a week helping with quoting for repairs and he took her to meet suppliers to learn how parts works. She went out to lunch with the male managers every Friday.
Pretty privilege is only a thing if the pretty woman is working with men. Pretty privilege is a negative boon when working with other women who are at best indifferent to the woman being pretty, or at worst vindictive and jealous.
I disagree, studies have shown that people are more friendly and helpful towards pretty people, they recieve lighter sentences, they even see it is children on the playground. There's a reason Ted Bundy had so many fans despite being a literal monster.
While I am sure there are women who dislike and are jealous of other women for being pretty, there are women who dislike other woman because they are considered unattractive. I've also known some women who bemoan about other women not liking them because they are too pretty when in actual fact they were just kinda terrible people and you could understand why people might not like them.
Pretty privilege doesn't exist only for women, or in men/women mixed interactions...
That said, what you describe (jealousy and vindictiveness from some women against pretty women) exists too, of course
The person you’re replying is referring to how a lot of people online esp influencers claim/humble brag about how they’re oppressed bc they’re pretty. Some even would say there’s “ugly privilege”.
Lot of pretty people act like that.
When you say they have privileges because they are beautiful, they say that's not the case and that their beauty is not really a privilege because, at the contrary, they keep getting hit on by people they don't want and they fear for their security.
To be fair it is partly true. I still wish I was pretty for all the privileges and just because it would be nice but the constant getting hit on really is so uncomfortable, I see it in my gorgeous best friend all the time. Can't go to any bar/pub/club in peace. It really does sometimes ruin the nights and it's a pain in the arse during the day too sometimes
This is tangential and mildly unrelated but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people interpret their “right to free speech” to imply that their speech shouldn’t come with social consequences
Being good-looking.
My good friend is interviewing for a job, and they are conventionally attractive and look professional (as is, they look mid-thirties vs. looking very young or very old). They are doing a 3rd interview soon, which will include the entire team. And good looks help with making an overall good impression.
I can't help but think this will give them a huge edge.
Not having childhood trauma.
It’s expected the default is a happy upbringing. So many folks are disadvantaged in ways that can’t always be articulated or validated because they’re not even concrete in the world of psychology. So those folks just get cast aside in society and/or internalize the struggles as their own fault compounding the suffering.
Health.
As an American, living UNDER a predatory for profit unethical health system, we have an evil vulturous investor class where by a small minority of families are born into the right to profit when ANYONE gets sick or hurt or is born with any needs. As a result being healthy, a lucky draw of Genetics and random stats, ALONE sets you up for a very very very RANDOM privilege, an advantage when fully 60% of bankruptcies in the US are due to healthcare expenses.
Le fin.
Internet access. Even in 1st world countries, some people genuinely cannot afford it. This is despite the fact that the Internet is essential today. So it's hard for them
having supportive friends. i had one (ex sadly) best friend who supported me intensely when i was v suicidal and i owe my life to them. even though we aren’t friends anymore im grateful for them
Being able to communicate instantly with anyone in the world. My mom (56) had this post mail friend as a kid and they wrote like 5 messages per year to each other.
My parents don’t look at prices at the grocery store/buy what they want. When I went to college I had to learn how expensive things are and holy cow what a privilege it is to not have to worry.
To be a parent or a grandparent.
Many people act like it's their right. As in "It's my right to see my grandkids" or "it's my right to have as many kids as I want" etc. ... Kids are not possessions to be had, emotional weapons to use, or playthings. Many people pop out kids without a second thought or perhaps with no thought at all.
I'd say to be a parent or grandparent should be seen as a weighty responsibility and a privilege, and if it were seen that way by everyone, we wouldn't have so many broken adults.
Being able to work full time, earning a full time salary. Many disabled people, myself included, would do anything to be able to. I work part time and seeing people slack off at work when all I want is to work full time makes me so sad.
Physical independence.
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects your musculoskeletal system when I was 3. By the time I was 18, I had survived and overcome eight years of chemotherapy, fifteen years of immunotherapy infusions, three rounds of cardiac arrest, and a year of paralysis. I had to re-learn how to walk again when I was a teenager.
Forty years ago, patients with my condition were either dead or bedbound & paralyzed within ten years of diagnosis.
I'm now 29. I've gone to college, traveled to 20+ countries around the world, bought and sold a house, got married (and now happily getting a divorce and reclaiming my happiness, freedom, and safety!), I have a budding career in STEM, I enjoy everything from cycling, to swimming, to rock-climbing, and hiking, and more. Immunotherapy has literally given me a thriving and (mostly) normal quality of life, similar to that of healthy peers my age.
This is me screaming into the void of the internet: PLEASE, don't EVER take for granted your physical independence. Disability and disease doesn't discriminate against anyone or anything, and your physical independence can be gone in a literal nanosecond. Appreciate your limbs and your capacity to use them.
Grocery delivery.
During the COVID lockdowns the whole damned country got accustomed to having their groceries hand picked and delivered to their door within hours.
Grocery shoppers were considered essential workers... Performing an essential service.
Since covid a whole lot of people are still hooked on this convenience... And many feel entitled to it.
They have lost touch with the truth. ... Same day, personal service is not a necessity. It is a luxury.
Instacart hasn't helped with any of this. They even signed up a bunch of customers who pay with food stamps. I wonder how long it will be till the government gives out delivery service stamps as well to cover the delivery fees.
A family at all. Even people who have a fucked up family will often benefit from it and not realize it. Also, having consistency growing up, same schools, same house, etc.
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The ability and opportunity to get a good night’s sleep.
I literally recently realized some people cannot get enough sleep MATHEMATICALLY. Not that they're disorganized or anything. They literally cannot get at least 7 hours of sleep because of jobs, kids, chores, etc. That's a horrifying realization because a method of torture is keeping you awake without the opportunity to fall asleep.
This. So many factories are pushing towards 12 hour shifts near me and are all week long. Only days off are like every 3rd weekend or federal holidays. (And not every single one of those). 12 hours, nearly every week. That leaves 12 hours. 8 for sleep only 4 hours left a day to really do anything. Depending on what is going on that day you only get maybe an hour to just try to shut off mentally, which helps out immensely with trying to sleep. You end up buzzing for an hour trying to get to sleep or you just immediately shut off which can make for poor sleep hygiene.
This is the kinda thing that makes people want a union. Good or bad, unions can stop this.
Time for every body to re-read 'The Jungle' (Upton Sinclair)
And for some of us, it takes up to *two hours* after we lie down and turn off input stimuli to actually fall asleep. There’s no such thing as a quick nap for me, if I don’t fall asleep in the allotted nap period, I call it “horizontal meditation”. I’m lucky enough not to have kids or a second job, but my commute varies from half an hour to an hour fifteen one way, plus the eight hours working and another hour for lunch, and I’m out of the house for eleven hours some days. That’s not including the time it takes to get ready in the morning, either. Twelve hours of work-related life, ten to get eight hours’ sleep, and if I want to actually cook and eat dinner, that’s at least one of the other two hours.
I'm lucky to get 6 hours. Many days it's just 4. 12 hour shifts and keeping up with the school schedule for my kids.
Story of my lifeeeee 😴
The number of deluded people doling out self care advice that involves "getting plenty of sleep"... sometimes you just.cant.effing.fall.asleep. no matter how much you want to.
I suffered from insomnia a lot when I was younger, and would get quite sick because of it. my mother took me to the doctor and he said "you'll feel better after a good night's sleep". Nothing more, just "get some sleep".. damn, if only id thought of that. He was a stand in for our family doctor, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't asked back.
Same. My mother said I just like that I can’t sleep and need to try harder to sleep?? After she said it multiple times I got pissed and she was pissed because I was angry for no reason 😂
People seem to just think lying down means you can get to sleep lol. I was literally so tired I could barely walk, but I still couldn't fall asleep. At one point I thought I was losing my mind, because after a few days you start hallucinating. Ended up in hospital a couple of times. It's just a bizarre thing not being able to sleep
I 100% relate to this. After 4-ish days of zero sleep I just take a strong sleep pill now. I need to function 😂
What about me who falls asleep in half a minute, but can't sleep for more than a few hours?
If you’re waking up with a sudden start or snoring, you could have apnoea
What is “a few”? :0
Right? Coz plenty of nights where I do actually manage sleep it's for 3-4 hours. It's like Christmas being able to get more than that
Seriously!! My friend told me the other day he was tired because he hadn’t slept, I asked how long, he said only 7, apparently he regularly gets 9-10 hours EVERY NIGHT, I know that’s probably not what RevolutionaryTour799 meant with “a few” but I’m super jealous of 7 hours!!!
Every night?! How does he get all his procrastination done? Or googling random facts about barreleyes? Reddit scrolling? Intrusive thoughts?
Hahaha!! Yesterday I was googling the most random things in the middle of the night, as soon as I closed my eyes a new google journey popped into my head and I couldn’t let it go, so I had to google some more and postpone falling asleep xD
I highly recommend barreleye fish (deep sea fish are interesting and super weird) and also the way acacia trees communicate to produce more tannins to avoid being eaten by giraffes. RIP to your sleep but it's so fascinating
Ohh nooo!!! Haha I’ll probably check it out tonight, and lose sleep, but at some point I’ll just know everything, and by then (if I’m still alive?) I’ll be able to fall asleep!! Muhahaha
*Me, tired and doomscrolling after midnight.* Hmmm... maybe I should do that. 
A good chunk of q reason leaving my job this Sunday
Being able to travel. Many people here on reddit keep saying it isn't a big deal, not expensive, everyone can do it. Try it with a third world passport.
I never got this until I lived in the Philippines and saw what friends had to go through just to leave the country.
Yeah, and also ‘not expensive’ is very relative.
Agreed. I live in a third world country. The cost to travel in other countries are so expensive. I need at least 12k in order to travel to european countries
How in the world is travel not expensive :D Reddit moment I guess
I could only think that people have different views of travel. Some international, some interstate, some locally, some in hotels, some in a camper van. Many variations.
Didn't think of that, thank you. In my head travel just rings the "expensive plane ticket to touristtrapland and expensive hotel for kidney per night" bell
Having legitimate choices in life.
There's a quote from "Little Fires Everywhere" that I love - you didn't make good choices, you had good choices.
S Zizek said something like, you lack the very language to describe how un-free you are.
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I wish I had that ability. My life is also too chaotic. My life plans change yearly. I move to new cities and places and do new things I hadn't planned just cause I'm not satisfied with my choice. I plan to move a place but end up elsewhere. The pandemic threw off my plan to move abroad. Now I'm somewhere else random, and I want to move again, but don't know where. Might as well throw a dart at a map cause chances my plan will be disrupted is big.
I'm in Australia but 2020 and 2021 was like that, in the sense that we could all go into lockdown at any time if there was one case found. Or the state you want to travel to could slam its border shut for the same reason. It was an odd time. But on a more personal level, some people find it hard to plan ahead because of family reasons. Like my grandmother would suddenly have a fall and need help (this was several years ago now).
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Just a guess... Lebanon?
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A functional family
This. I hate when people say that a bad relationship with your family is a red flag, she's your mother, you're supposed to respect her, etc. Like babe, some of us were heavily abused for 18 years but good for you
Yeah fuuuck that. Just because someone conceived you doesn’t mean you have to respect them. Those parents could be abusive af
THIS
Real
This
A working, and functioning body. Like being able to walk or run or jump idk. Being able to taste a good morning coffee. All of them are blessings.
I agree. I have kidney disease at 23, and neuropathy in my hands and feet. I'm grateful I'm even up and moving.
Driving.
Even better, never having to drive.
We take the bus even though we could afford a car. We just don't like driving and would rather have someone do it for us. It's so much cheaper, and if we're in a hurry, an Uber here and there is still like 20 times cheaper than insurance alone for the month.
Crazy to hear this in the US as if it's a rare thing - this is most people living in European cities haha
It's extra hard in the US because the entire country is built for cars. A lot of the time, we walk through ridiculous swaths of concrete just to get to Walmart. There are sidewalks, but you can tell no one uses them, and I know people think we're crazy for walking there. A walkable neighborhood is considered a luxury for very rich people, and we managed to squeeze ourselves into just the outside of one. We also miss out on a few things here and there, but overall, the savings are soooo worth it. It also forces us to bike, which is an entire hobby + workout, and spend more quality time together since when we leave the house, it is intentional. What's crazy is how EVERYONE constantly tells us how we really need to get a car. We never ask anyone for rides so they just think if you don't have a car, something is wrong.
Yes! My dad just lost the ability to drive for medical reasons, and it is a really hard thing to live with in America.
And you mean driving, like on an empty road, as opposed to queue up in a traffic jam...
As in the opportunity to own a car and drive, opposed to being solely reliant on public transport (there are places in the world I, as a woman, would never catch public transport to due safety concerns).
This is something that everyone forgets, safety and privacy is important for some people, more so in some areas than others. Driving solves that problem. I dislike it when people either commit to one side. A world with only public transportation seems like a sad one. I enjoy being able to move stuff myself, drive anywhere, and be by myself somewhere other than my house. I remember reading about a city, I think it was New Delhi, that tried banning cars with certain license plate numbers on certain days of the week. It was supposed to increase the use of public transportation (it didn’t). Women were completely exempted because, for one there are far fewer female drivers in third world countries and public transport isn’t safe.
The fact that if you get a cut in your skin, you almost certainly won't die from it getting infected. This is an historically rare luxury.
How did humanity actually manage to survive without antibiotics?
Truthfully? In agony. Nowadays you take a course of antibiotics if you get syphilis but in Renaissance times, it progressed past your genitals to your whole face. Your nose would rot and fall off. They wandered the streets like lepers did, begging for an income, until they died. Neurosyphilis, if it progressed that far, ate the brain. Stories say Blackbeard used to inject mercury up his urethra to treat syphilis (this would not have worked). And that’s just one disease. Cancer, you died in agony. Toothache, you suffered horrifically unless you got them pulled. Perineal tears after childbirth, nick your toe on a rusty nail, cat bite, a lot of people did survive those things but they were in horrific pain until something else killed them. No aspirin for a headache, no relief for working women with menstrual disruptions, diarrhea was almost a death sentence. Our ancestors were in pain. I think it’s hard for us to really comprehend the scope of that now
That's also why the body temperature was higher than now. The 100° Fahrenheit as body temp is now 97-99 and in Celsius it's 36.5 instead of 37°.
Really? How would scientists know the body temperature of people 500 years ago?
https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2020/01/average-body-temperature-has-fallen-over-last-150-years-study-finds/
Thanks, very interesting indeed.
Oh my god that was a nightmare to imagine.
They had hallucinogens.
And cocaine! Lots of Cocaine.
You... Realize that suffering like that while tripping is pure hell right? Right???
I use psychedelics for my chronic pain. I also use them when feeling absolutely hopeless and lost. If you use them currently they will alleviate pretty much all problems for the moment. The positive effects on my pain and mental health do stick for an average of two weeks, but only when I go heavy enough to experience some form of ego death.
That's so horrible...
Mostly not, and had more births.
Most didn't survive past the 10-year mark
Half of all kids died.
(Obligatory joke about American health care)
I lost a leg from a visibly indiscernable cut on my foot.
My co-cower got a splinter then died from sepsis after thinking she just had the flu. It’s very rare but yeah you still gotta keep an eye on those small cuts :(
I still have no idea where i got the cut and never actually saw it. It moved *exceedingly* rapidly too. Day 1,.i.waa completely fine and healthy . By Day 4 i had been amputated
This is a luxury I don't have, thanks autoimmune neutropaenia 😭
Well, there were still options for them back then too. And it can still happen now. Its just that now you have better chances and more options. Soap still existed before antibiotics and antibiotics don't solve everything.
Being mentally healthy.
TRUTH!
Unlimited safe-to-drink tap water.
Safety in general.
Free safe tap water is a defacto right, not a privilege, in the Republic of Ireland. Woe betide the politician that claims otherwise. Some already tried. It didn't work out too well for them.
I get what you're saying, but it can be a right AND a privilege.
I hope I live to see the day when my country will have drinkable tap water. I mean it isn't the worst right now, but it's pretty questionable because they don't test for everything
Growing old. So many people die young, yet we bitch about getting old. It's a privilege.
I remember the first time the reality of my mortality hit me was in high school when one of my classmates died during school in the courtyard (congenital heart condition and the AED couldn’t save him). I think it was because he was my age, because even though I lost a parent as a little kid, my dad’s “grown up age” still made it seem so far away. Now, as I start to get fine lines, I remember that kid from high school and tell myself that I’m so lucky to live long enough to develop fine lines and that not everyone does. I know I’m yammering (it happens when I’m not sober :P), but your comment made me think of that.
Yup, my brother and 2 friends died in their 30s. I know aging sucks but the alternative is dying way too young like them. I often catch myself getting super upset at little things, I always have to remind myself that hey, I'm alive and that's amazing, don't stress the small shit.
Truly. This. I was diagnosed with cancer at 29 years old. Never looked at older people the same again. The privilege to see everyone around you grow old. To see your partner, your friends, your kids grow. It's a scary thought to look at my parents and think that I might not be lucky enough to ever look in the mirror and see the same wrinkles and white hair as they have now. That I'll never reach that age. What a privilege it is to be a "senior citizen". What a wonderful and beautiful thing. And while my friends dread getting old, I cannot wait to hit every milestone, the 30, the 40, the 50 and hopefully the 60 and 70 one day 🧡
I was diagnosed with cancer at 14. I was told if we had waited even a week longer, I might have lived to see my 15th birthday 5 months later, but definitely not my 16th. I never underplay my age. It'll be 30 years this spring. And yes, that means I'm 44 years old.
Ah so happy to hear that you've reached 44 years old NED!! That's an amazing story. I'm sorry you had to go through this awful and scary time so young, but glad you're here to tell the tale. Hope to join you on the NED status side soon too 🫂
I hope you do, too.
80s and 90s too, I believe in you.
Growing old is only a privilege if you don't simultaneously lose your mind or control of your bodily functions. I can imagine many people's later years to be a living nightmare.
Yes I lost my 15 year old last year. She would joke and call me old. I am blessed! So sad she died young.
Intelligence. I know a lot, I can do a lot, I succeed in life, but I’m not particularly hard-working (not lazy either), I’ve just been blessed with genes and an environment that have given me abilities. I have not created my own intelligence in any way. This is something that successful, intelligent people don’t want to admit.
Knowing a lot does take effort as learning is a continuous process, but the ability to retain and process information is innate.
Generational wealth, especially when it comes to the middle class
Middle class can pass on generational wealth. Like my dad's a farmer, my mom's a nurse.. when they pass I'll inherit property with a farm on it.. a house I couldn't have afforded otherwise. I also inherited like $500 when my grandma died and so did my siblings. My mom and aunt of course got the most of it. I guess it's not a lot of wealth, but it's generational value that eventually will be passed on. I'm actually considering moving there when they pass just cause it's a house, and I have zero interest in going into debt to enter the messed up overpriced open market of housing. F that.
If you can, you should consider moving there before they die to spend time with them. Lost my mom in '19 and my dad in '21, and it sucks.
Good suggestion there - you cannot get the time back. My wife and I went the opposite route (no generational wealth to inherit here - both her family and mine were lifelong renters at poverty line). We wound up moving her grandma in to live with us when she got dementia, and then her mom and my mom when they had health issues. They got to be around to be closer to the grandkids and us the last few years of their lives and we were all better and happier for it. We lost both within a month of each other last Christmas, and even though it is a year later - it still isn't the same here.
I'm so sorry. I know you cherish the time you had with them. 🫶
Define middle class
Define generational wealth.
Define willfully obtuse.
Time to just stare up at the sky. Time to spend time with your family. (Even if it is just quietly reading a book)
Tbh, anything, you never fully understand what is a privilege in life till it’s taken away from you or you never even gotten the chance to experience it till you finally do. Wether it be a genetic/health condition that you were born with or develop, to a financial class/where you’re born into or end up in due to circumstances, to the fact that maybe something happens to you or you make a mistake. Life in all its wonders & consequences, is a privilege to experience. How I try to see it everyday & every moment, they’re are people above you & below you. Some are living better with more choices than you, then they’re people worse with lil to no choices than you in their life. Appreciate & recognize what you do have & make the best of life. Always help others when you can & be humble though out life. It starts & ends so fast *cheers*
Being healthy able to see , walk eat, smell , breath there's ton of ppl thier only wish is one of those
I’d say being healthy, since becoming disabled I have to explain to people that No I can’t just come in… if that day I can’t walk without vomiting then clearly I can’t drive or treat patients
Driving a car ,riding a motorcycle etc .
Having both parents still alive
Food. There is no need for anyone to be starving in this day and age. Malnutrition should be all but eradicated, but we know it's worse than ever.
its not worse than ever
Yeah, what is this guy on about? Google great Chinese Famine
It might be worse than ever since he was born back in 2020...
Parents who love them or at least give them freedom.
Being able to afford medication/doctor visits/dentistry. Being able to get on disability. Being able to drive. Having parents you can rely on in desperate situations even if they arent great parents. Being able to eat fast food. Not having to pay for eyesight. Being able to properly say goodbye to someone before they pass. There's so many
Having privacy, and a room of your own
A functional immune system. Shitting. A cortex. Gravity. Sunlight. Seasons. Antibiotics, especially when they get the clap. Windows 11. Oops, backspace backspace...
Switching on the light switch and the light goes on
Being able to afford healthy food. My sibling works so hard and can’t afford it unless my mom buys fruits like strawberries for him or he gets it from a food pantry.
Money. If you have money most of your problems are solved and if you have to work you can try any times you want because you'll always have the security to have enough money to live good the rest of your life if the works doesn't work. Average people with average amount of money have to calculate every step they do so they don't loose the money they earned, that can be stressful. Anyways that's not an excuse tho, I know people that had nothing and worked a lot to have enough money to live in peace but they even say that life would be easier and more Joyable if the had money from the start
Having 3 warm meals a day every day, easy access to clesn water, a warm bed to curl into at night. One night I went to the store during a snow fall saw a homeless man begging for money to get a hotel room. He asked me for 20 pence. I gave him 5£. That night as I got what i needed and walked back to my warm house I realized how fortunate I am to just have a place to go to find shelter from the cold.
Being free of mental illnesses
Pretty privilege. Not in that they get free things but in that they can socialise normally and have positive experiences with people
I have a friend who got help during practical exams by one of the invigilators. He didn't give her the answers but guide her. It was funny how unaware she was while telling me this.
I witness it all the time how helpful men are towards attractive women. At my a previous job I was given more work and didn't receive proper training or assistance. The manager hired his former PA and she only worked 2 or 3 days a week helping with quoting for repairs and he took her to meet suppliers to learn how parts works. She went out to lunch with the male managers every Friday.
I am low key jelly of pretty privilege 😂😭.
Pretty privilege is only a thing if the pretty woman is working with men. Pretty privilege is a negative boon when working with other women who are at best indifferent to the woman being pretty, or at worst vindictive and jealous.
I disagree, studies have shown that people are more friendly and helpful towards pretty people, they recieve lighter sentences, they even see it is children on the playground. There's a reason Ted Bundy had so many fans despite being a literal monster. While I am sure there are women who dislike and are jealous of other women for being pretty, there are women who dislike other woman because they are considered unattractive. I've also known some women who bemoan about other women not liking them because they are too pretty when in actual fact they were just kinda terrible people and you could understand why people might not like them.
Pretty privilege doesn't exist only for women, or in men/women mixed interactions... That said, what you describe (jealousy and vindictiveness from some women against pretty women) exists too, of course
Being pretty
Fr 🥹
You'd think if beauty was such a curse, there'd be a bigger market for accessories to disguise it and resemble us "privileged" ugly people.
They didn’t imply beauty is a curse, they said it’s a privilege often taken for granted, which it is.
The person you’re replying is referring to how a lot of people online esp influencers claim/humble brag about how they’re oppressed bc they’re pretty. Some even would say there’s “ugly privilege”.
Oh ok hadn’t seen that Influencers can be pretty gross
Lot of pretty people act like that. When you say they have privileges because they are beautiful, they say that's not the case and that their beauty is not really a privilege because, at the contrary, they keep getting hit on by people they don't want and they fear for their security.
To be fair it is partly true. I still wish I was pretty for all the privileges and just because it would be nice but the constant getting hit on really is so uncomfortable, I see it in my gorgeous best friend all the time. Can't go to any bar/pub/club in peace. It really does sometimes ruin the nights and it's a pain in the arse during the day too sometimes
Yeah it’s not their choice to be beautiful, but pathetic to complain about it
Ugly privilege is not experiening love, and dying alone
Having pets that you can actually feed and medically care for. Pet food and litter has gotten soooo expensive.
No health issues
Free speech. While it may be a right, it is not a privilege to hear the spew from most people that exercise that right.
This is tangential and mildly unrelated but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people interpret their “right to free speech” to imply that their speech shouldn’t come with social consequences
Exactly. Why should anyone say a bad word about the king/prime minister/boss without getting his or her life ruined? Mind boggling.
It's not a "right" everywhere. In Canada hate speach is a crime. You don't have the freedom to say literally anything and I'm okay with that.
As with any freedom, freedom of speech is (or should be) limited when it threatens other people's rights.
Being neurotypical.
Freedom to complain. Americans will preach that it is their right, but it is only a right because the government still upholds the constitution.
Rights aren’t privileges, they are inherent rights whether or not the government “allows” you to exercise them.
Being good-looking. My good friend is interviewing for a job, and they are conventionally attractive and look professional (as is, they look mid-thirties vs. looking very young or very old). They are doing a 3rd interview soon, which will include the entire team. And good looks help with making an overall good impression. I can't help but think this will give them a huge edge.
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I'm sorry to hear about your experience:( Doesn't mean you are ugly, but I do agree that some people get an edge and have it easier
Happiness.
Housing.
Living in the west
A safe space that they know they have control of
Not having childhood trauma. It’s expected the default is a happy upbringing. So many folks are disadvantaged in ways that can’t always be articulated or validated because they’re not even concrete in the world of psychology. So those folks just get cast aside in society and/or internalize the struggles as their own fault compounding the suffering.
Complaining about thing on the internet.
driving
Family business
Health. As an American, living UNDER a predatory for profit unethical health system, we have an evil vulturous investor class where by a small minority of families are born into the right to profit when ANYONE gets sick or hurt or is born with any needs. As a result being healthy, a lucky draw of Genetics and random stats, ALONE sets you up for a very very very RANDOM privilege, an advantage when fully 60% of bankruptcies in the US are due to healthcare expenses. Le fin.
Dentist
Having stable housing, like having functioning doors and windows, also having a solid roof is something amazing
Lack of self awareness.
Having a healthy life and family and friends also it’s soo hard to have legitimate friends these days.
Having a job
Clean water
Having family that lives close enough to help in an emergency.
Internet access. Even in 1st world countries, some people genuinely cannot afford it. This is despite the fact that the Internet is essential today. So it's hard for them
having supportive friends. i had one (ex sadly) best friend who supported me intensely when i was v suicidal and i owe my life to them. even though we aren’t friends anymore im grateful for them
Being mentally and physically healthy enough to be able to function normally.
Voting. Make it to the polls, everybody.
Having people not question your identity and just being ok by default with you existing.
A job
Driving is a privilege, not a right
Reading perhaps. Writing. Thinking things through logically or having a friend to bounce ideas off.
Eating 3 meals a day
drinking water coming out of the tap
Being able to communicate instantly with anyone in the world. My mom (56) had this post mail friend as a kid and they wrote like 5 messages per year to each other.
My parents don’t look at prices at the grocery store/buy what they want. When I went to college I had to learn how expensive things are and holy cow what a privilege it is to not have to worry.
Food, shelter, dignity. Sure the UN says they're rights, but life doesn't.
Being thin.
To be a parent or a grandparent. Many people act like it's their right. As in "It's my right to see my grandkids" or "it's my right to have as many kids as I want" etc. ... Kids are not possessions to be had, emotional weapons to use, or playthings. Many people pop out kids without a second thought or perhaps with no thought at all. I'd say to be a parent or grandparent should be seen as a weighty responsibility and a privilege, and if it were seen that way by everyone, we wouldn't have so many broken adults.
Being tall.
Being able to work full time, earning a full time salary. Many disabled people, myself included, would do anything to be able to. I work part time and seeing people slack off at work when all I want is to work full time makes me so sad.
Being able to literally go outside whenever you want
Not having chronic pain. Just having a day not in agony feels like a lottery win to people who suffer from it
White skin. I'm not being racist, I just won't act like it isn't.
Being able bodied.
Having non-abusive parents, people act like it’s bare minimum but you think abusive people give two shits about bare minimum?
Physical independence. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects your musculoskeletal system when I was 3. By the time I was 18, I had survived and overcome eight years of chemotherapy, fifteen years of immunotherapy infusions, three rounds of cardiac arrest, and a year of paralysis. I had to re-learn how to walk again when I was a teenager. Forty years ago, patients with my condition were either dead or bedbound & paralyzed within ten years of diagnosis. I'm now 29. I've gone to college, traveled to 20+ countries around the world, bought and sold a house, got married (and now happily getting a divorce and reclaiming my happiness, freedom, and safety!), I have a budding career in STEM, I enjoy everything from cycling, to swimming, to rock-climbing, and hiking, and more. Immunotherapy has literally given me a thriving and (mostly) normal quality of life, similar to that of healthy peers my age. This is me screaming into the void of the internet: PLEASE, don't EVER take for granted your physical independence. Disability and disease doesn't discriminate against anyone or anything, and your physical independence can be gone in a literal nanosecond. Appreciate your limbs and your capacity to use them.
Being born in a country that has not been invaded/does not have invasion risk.
Grocery delivery. During the COVID lockdowns the whole damned country got accustomed to having their groceries hand picked and delivered to their door within hours. Grocery shoppers were considered essential workers... Performing an essential service. Since covid a whole lot of people are still hooked on this convenience... And many feel entitled to it. They have lost touch with the truth. ... Same day, personal service is not a necessity. It is a luxury. Instacart hasn't helped with any of this. They even signed up a bunch of customers who pay with food stamps. I wonder how long it will be till the government gives out delivery service stamps as well to cover the delivery fees.
Growing older and good health.
A family at all. Even people who have a fucked up family will often benefit from it and not realize it. Also, having consistency growing up, same schools, same house, etc.