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.

  • nullspace@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I like fireworks. I don’t like when people continue to set them off at odd hours weeks after the 4th.

    I think complaining about fireworks on a day of celebration is some grumpy old NIMBY shit.

      • nullspace@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        You ever taken a look at your local level politics? It’s mostly NIMBYs trying to use environmental law not to protect the environment, but to protect their property value and keep out “undesirables.”

        They’re also trying to shut down night clubs, roadblock any method of transportation that isn’t car-oriented, enact curfews, and generally just suck all the joy out of life like these no-fireworks having fun police.

        • Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 days ago

          The primary perpetrators of environmental law in my city are people who genuinely care about it.

          Fire works are not the same as the other things you have listed(well, not the car part); as they do actually have a substantiable effect on the environment and local air quality.

    • zane@infosec.pub
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      7 days ago

      My argument is what the fuck are you celebrating? Did you get enough of your freedums this year?

      • nullspace@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Okay, now say that about literally any holiday aside from the one you personally dislike and see how it holds up.

        • zane@infosec.pub
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          7 days ago

          Halloween. Celebrating recruitment into the skeleton army. Duh? What an insane take. My valid criticisms are invalid since other holidays exist.

          • nullspace@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            You used a bullshit apples to oranges comparison for your bullshit criticism. You didn’t say New Years or Juneteenth, actual fireworks holidays, because it highlights how stupid your “get over it” argument is.

            • zane@infosec.pub
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              6 days ago

              I’m just going to chalk this up to either you misreading, misunderstanding, or just being a fucking idiot.

              • nullspace@lemmy.world
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                6 days ago

                My argument is what the fuck are you celebrating? Did you get enough of your freedums this year?

                I really have no idea what you were saying then. Are you saying people shouldn’t celebrate the 4th because a rapist is currently in charge? Or that doing it every year ad infinitum is too much?

                Either way I stand by what I said. Let people have their fireworks and stop being a grumpy old fuck about it.

  • DevDave@piefed.social
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    7 days ago

    Heh, I live in a racially mixed neighborhood where the Mexicans help the rest of the us find the “good stuff”. I have been in an actual war zone but my neighborhood is at WW1 level amounts of black powder and badly made improvised explosives with copper, magnesium, and titanium sprinkled in for seasoning. Last year there were teenagers with eight inch mortars which I cannot convey how insanely illegal those are.

    Kind of amazing we haven’t set the neighborhood or even a single house on fire now that I think about it.

    • FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      PSA do not mess with additives other than Titanium for salutes. Ideally do not mess with improvised explosives at all but if you really are hell-bent on upping the noise, a string-bound blackpowder maroon is the way to go. Hello interpol my old friend.

      • DevDave@piefed.social
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        6 days ago

        The real way to get on the list is to give advice on how to acquire salt peter or acquiring in bulk precursors like ammonium nitrate (or is it nitrite, not going to look that up)

  • smh@slrpnk.net
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    7 days ago

    We used to hide in the basement with our pup and watch a movie. She could still hear the fireworks, but it seemed to take the edge off.

    Current pup has gone deaf in his old age. Before then, he’d growl and bark at both thunder and fireworks. Now he just sleeps through it.

  • Noodle07@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    14th of July is the day in France for fireworks, there’s the fireworks set by the city for 30min and after that everyone goes back home, dont have people setting them off all night 🤷

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    7 days ago

    Celebrating america’s freedom by triggering all of our traumatized veterans with inescapable rapid-fire explosions for three weeks straight!

    Who the fuck even thought of this?

    • qaeta@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      It makes more sense when you realize that Americans don’t actually give a shit about their veterans, they just like virtue signalling like they do. The VA would be in much better shape if they actually cared.

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Who the fuck even thought of this?

      No one has ever accused Americans of being smart.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      6 days ago

      This is america, everyone here either doesn’t care about or actively hates our own veterans. You got the right (red) who only likes them while they’re overseas killing middle easterners, you got the right (blue) who doesn’t think about them at all, and you have the left who think we’re the villains in every armed conflict since WWII (“Kuwait? What’s that?”)

      Caring about veterans makes you a tiny minority in this country

  • chunes@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Thank you. Fuck fireworks and the apes who enjoy them.

    That aside, what do you even have to celebrate? Fuck you if you’re proud of any of this.

    • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I’ve never thought about the country when lighting off fireworks. It is just the time of year to do it.

      All of the points OP put down to not light off fireworks I completely agree with. Maybe “apes” is the correct description because that boom boom sparkle really fires off the seratonin in me.

      • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I’ve never thought about the country when lighting off fireworks. It is just the time of year to do it.

        So you’re a mindless sheep with lack of critical thinking skills?

        i lIgHt fIrEwOrKs oN DaY BeCaUsE OtHeR PeOpLe lIgHt fIrEwOrKs oN DaY

        • nomy@lemmy.zip
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          6 days ago

          You’re a very charming person with rational, valid takes all over this thread.

  • bassgirl09@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I’ve had yokels launching aerial fireworks that were extremely loud and bright within city limits when it is expressly against city ordinance to do so for 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after the 4th of July. My windows shook over and over until 3 a.m. I had to work at 7 a.m. the next morning. My cat hid in the downstairs shower because it was the quietest place in the house every night. People who do this have ZERO regard for others. I expect the night of 4th of July to sound like the war of 1812. Not every night for two weeks leading up and 4 weeks after every night past midnight. Have some respect for your neighbors by stopping by 11 p.m. or Midnight the rest of the nights. Nobody wants to hear fireworks after midnight except you.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    My neighbor sets of fireworks all summer. But they really go nuts on the 4th.

    Not once have I felt “terrorized”.

    Cam we stop with the over dramatization of everything. And don’t give me ‘well some people might have PTSD from being deployed’. My brother in law is one of those. You don’t need to white knight for them, or wrapping their experiences for you agenda. They know the 4th is coming, they know what to expect.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Not once have I felt “terrorized”.

      Had a shooting in my neighborhood a few months back. Multiple neighbors reported it, but the police dragged their feet to investigate because it was being written off as “just someone playing with fireworks again”. Family annihilation. Really grizzly depressing stuff.

      Anyway, you still see folks popping off in the group chat every time we hear a loud bang, because everyone’s trying to figure out if it’s fireworks or more gunshots.

      On the flip side…

      We’ve been able to do these for nearly a decade. They’re less expensive. They’re more artistic. They don’t have all that ugly smog the next day. And you don’t need to terrorize every dog in the neighborhood to put them on.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      6 days ago

      Why does no one ever consider the people who don’t mind it? I mean shit, some people like blowing up fireworks 365 days a year, so I guess it’s always fine!

      Gonna set up a shooting range in my front yard, and if anyone complains I’ll just direct them towards the comments in this thread

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I don’t make a big deal about them them on the 4th on for New Year’s. They can be fun and people love the experience.

      But they also terrify my dogs, so the other 363 days of the year I’ll call the cops.

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Hey everyone, shut the thread down. This one individual doesn’t feel bothered or affected by fireworks. Therefore if you have PTSD, severe anxiety, or your pets panic over loud sudden noises, it’s perfectly okay because this one person’s anecdotal experience overrides everything you feel.

      • Ostrichgrif@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Their opinion is not overriding your own or anyone else’s. They dont mind the fireworks and you do, why make it out like they’re trying to silence you?

        • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          They said can we stop over dramatizing it, which is minimizing other peoples experience of being startled, scared, or in cases of ptsd actually terrified. It’s like if I said “I was in a car crash and was fine, can we stop the dramatization of car crashes?”

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        and lighting up the neighborhood, during a fucking heat wave… gee let’s see how many fires we can start this year!

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        You shouldn’t assume this type of thing. Most of our neighborhood comes out to see our show; some even donate to it.

        My actual opinion is that fireworks on the actual night of the 4th, especially ones designed for visual flair, are fair game, whereas launching sonic boom mortars at 3am is lame. It’s just about respecting other people, like most larger exercises of freedom.

        • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          If your fun removes other people’s rights to enjoy their life in their own home, your fun fucking sucks and so do you.

          • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            You are an unpleasant person and do not understand what I have already written. Blocked, and please reconsider yourself.

            • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              What kind of pussy replies to someone then blocks them?

              I mean, the same person who loves fireworks and doesn’t care about how other people around them feel, so the main character syndrome tracks.

            • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              You know what’s unpleasant? setting off explosives to celebrate a country that’s done the shit the USA has done in the last year.

              rah rah america bullshit blam boom fucking garbage

              • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                6 days ago

                We set them off to celebrate with our friends and family. America sucks but I am not letting that take away our joy.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          BULLSHIT. your neighbors hate your garbage. I hate your garbage.

          Some dumbfucks give you money for fireworks - that’s not a plurality you dope.

          yes, you might keep your bullshit to the 4th, but that’s not representative of the majority who do it all hours for weeks on either side.

          if you respected other people you’d go to a show and leave it to the pro’s.

          hope you don’t blow up your face or hands.

          • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Step back for a second. You’re assuming a lot of things that you have no way to verify are true. You don’t have any real idea what my neighbors think or how they behave-- surely less of an idea than I have. I also agree with you that people lighting them at 3am on some random day in late July is dumb. I appreciate your concern for my face and hands but I assure you I am very safe in dealing with them.

            I’m curious what argument you have that supports going to professional shows, but not in running a consistent large show for the community ourselves? To give you some context, this is a 20+ year tradition involving several redundant fire protection systems, fused + remotely detonated fireworks, and special effects. The only actual difference is the scale (obviously a town can afford more fireworks) and that we aren’t technically professionals.

            • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              do you have the consent of the entire community?

              no you don’t. don’t even lie.

              you do it because you want to, and fuck all the people it effects that aren’t you.

              • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                6 days ago

                You’ve made your incorrect thoughts about my motivations clear already. You also avoided answering my question. What is the difference? Are professional shows not similarly violating the consent of some community members?

                • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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                  6 days ago

                  Are professional shows not similarly violating the consent of some community members?

                  I ignore pointless questions because - haha - I’m not here to answer your fucking queries.

                  you’re the one trying to justify setting off explosives ‘because everyone loves it and gives you money blah blah’.

                  Professional shows end at the appointed time and usually no one gets maimed.

    • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      The only thing wrong with hurting other people for your own enjoyment is when they complain about it

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    I just want some bottle rockets, maybe a couple of small crackers, couple of fountains and some blacksnakes.

    The big stuff isn’t all that amazing if you’re not right under it. Watching a show from a mile away is FAR less than then screwing around with a handfull of fairly safe rockets in your backyard

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      7 days ago

      Bottle rockets, firecrackers, fountains, snakes, rad as hell. Love em. Mortar shells that release a concussive blast that makes the dishes in my cabinet rattle? I wish harm

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      7 days ago

      Snakes? Wouldn’t the rockets and fire crackers stress them out? Ive never heard involving snakes in a celebration, except maybe in some religious ceremonies from some niche christian groups, but even there I think they use venomous ones.

        • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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          7 days ago

          Oh, I think ive heard of like chemistry demonstrations that do a trick like that but ive never heard of it as like a fireworks thing. I’ve seen enough people refer to black ratsnakes as just “black snake” that that was where my brain immediately jumped for some reason, like someone taking their pet snakes out to a homemade fireworks show for some reason, which would seem inadvisable.