Personally I kind of dislike how they’re used in the west. Peak individualism. Everyone goes out and wastes a bunch of money so they can compare economical dick sized with their neighbours in a pointless competition. The novelty is gone after the third boom, and it looks like shit, because nothing is coordinated.
I wish fireworks were only allowed to be used by professionals, and there was a tradition that each neighbourhood pooled its’ money together in order to hire someone to come and do a cool show instead. And then give the kids some tiny bombs so they can run off and have fun with that. But none of the rockets or anything.
How about you?
I dislike that they upset animals, but like that they upset veterans. Truly a land of contrasts.
truly
I considered adding the bit about upsetting veterans, but then I thought of cool veterans like those that fought for the USSR or Vietnam or the like and I felt sad for themI dunno, bud. Not all veterans are bad. I’m friends with several and at the time of enlisting all of them were:
- children whose brains weren’t truly capable of providing informed consent and making such a life altering decision
- poor as shit
All of them have since turned out to be extremely left of center, and engage in direct action.
Truly enlightened centrism 😆
Look at the real world example of China. Fireworks were invented in pre-revolution China, some hundreds of years ago. China produces around 90% of fireworks in the world, including around 90% of fireworks used in the US.
In the 2010s, China observed that fireworks were a large source of air pollution. By 2018, more than 400 cities across had banned fireworks to combat pollution. When China allows fireworks to be used, critics of China complain about air quality in China. When cities of China banned fireworks, critics of China complained that China was too authoritarian. It’s like the Parenti-quote, the western media will criticize China either way.
In the 2020s, China has begun replacing some firework shows with drone light shows. They have swarms of hundreds of quadcopter-style drones with LED lights, programmed to fly in shapes to mimic the effect of fireworks.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/kindle/2015-02/20/content_19626000.htm
Here’s a new CGTN opinion article about firework bans
Yeah, can’t have fireworks in Wuhan anymore, Spring Festival is oddly quiet (to me). Someone will set some off every now and then, ofc, but intermittently.
Good post.
It is bad for the birds and makes me sad. They definitely should not be legal for individual use
Holding my finally sleeping kid who is exhausted and in his cry-voice said “they should stop”.
Guess my opinion
They should be completely and wholly banned from society. Not because of any of the actual reasons that exist. But simply because I don’t like them. I don’t ask for much so give me this society.
Completely illegal. The only reasons I’ve ever heard for their use is selfishness. Bring up all the dead birds, people don’t care. Bring up all the terrified pets, people don’t care, muh bright shiny boom boom. Fuck em. Illegal.
Unsurprising, the average Westerner only gives a rat’s ass about themselves
I think that they should only be allowed in sanctioned areas, like shooting at a gun range, but should generally be allowed. Shooting them off in neighborhoods is peak asshole shit, but at a bonfire on a beach, launching them out over the water at night is peak partying. I could get behind limiting them to certain times of year too, like how China allows gambling around New Year’s celebrations.
They’re an abomination. My city’s parks department is so underfunded that they no longer provide pizza parties for staff or portapotties in parks with otherwise closed bathrooms. A small fraction of the employees have health insurance while the rest haven’t seen a raise since 2020 and make less than fast food workers. Last year they spent $30k on the 4th of July fireworks. They set them off in a bird sanctuary above the protected nesting grounds. It was a terrible 15 minute show which terrified all the pets and wildlife in the city, a complete letdown compared to driving an hour for a larger city’s fireworks. Despite there being one centralised mediocre show, every hog in the city spent the weeks before/after doing their own backyard shows that they drove an hour to buy the illegal fireworks for.
All of this happens during the height of fire season above dry grasslands and dead forests. It repeats for New Years Eve when our most expensive wildfire, which wiped out a town between two of the largest cities, occurred on 30 December. This winter it has snowed once, the latest first snow in history, and they spent the night terrifying my dog while under a fire ban. It’s the most antisocial thing someone could do outside of driving a cybertruck or randomly firing a gun in the air.
Fucking PREACH
Interesting to me people are only talking about emotional distress (not that I think this is insignificant). I went to school with both a kid who lost their hand and another whose house was burned down by fireworks.
They absolutely shouldn’t be in the hands of any random drunken asshole.
I used to like fireworks but now it’s just every major holiday I go “welp, I wonder if they’re going to shoot off fireworks and scare the shit out of my cat tonight”
My little cat gets SO scared. She hears a boom and even if it’s not audible to me, she’s alert and agitated. She hears a second one and she gets low to the ground and starts to army crawl around, tail down, looking for a place to hide. She’ll get under the sink, or in a corner behind the trashcan, or between an open door and the wall, and just press her face into the corner as hard as she can, like she’s trying to phase into the wall.
Nothing I do comforts her. Honestly it probably just scares her more. I’ll try to sit in there with her and make soothing noises and pet her and just generally show her that Im there and she’s safe and I’m not scared. But it doesn’t matter, she’ll squirm away from me and back into her corner or wherever.
So yeah I fucking hate that. I’m never going to buy fireworks again because I know she’s not the only animal who gets so scared from it and they don’t deserve this shit. I sit around scared of nuclear war but every time some asshole shoots off fireworks for all they know the bombs really are dropping.
Also last night a fucking cop parked in front of our house from like 12:12-12:30 and it’s like, the fireworks were clearly being shot up on the next street over, why the fuck are you sitting in front of our house? I wanted to go out there and be like yeah, can i ffucking help you? but obviously don’t want to start shit with a cop
P.s. my fat cat doesn’t give a single SHIT about fireworks. While i was trying to comfort the little one, she immediately jumped up from her nap to steal the other cats food >:[
Would putting a blanket over her make her feel safe?
probably not :/ I mostly just let her do her thing but I worry about her trying to get behind the washing machine or something
Unironically the only good fireworks show in all of history was the 2012 Big Bay Boom because the fireworks accidentally went off all at once.
I was literally at this show, what an awesome display of firepower. Not worth the traffic though.
that happened at a different fireworks show when I was a kid. I think the platform the pyros were launching from fell over and shot rockets into the crowd and then a bunch of loud fuckers exploded at the same time. Total chaos. :D
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I am the only one who should be allowed fireworks. They’re too dangerous and obnoxious for the rest of you.
Same, professionals only and at designated areas away from people and pets.
I love fireworks. The big ones should probably be limited to professionals. The small ones should probably be limited to, like, skate parks or something else that’s not flammable.
I’ve outgrown them. Drone swarms are much cooler.
