Things That Irritate You in Life

[Mossman Joe]

People who are scared of spiders. I don't see why you should be because you are giant compared to them.

I suppose that's why phobias are defined as irrational fears. I personally don't see an issue with people fearing spiders, as it's often a psychological condition people are born with. My gripe is with people who don't see how irrational their fear is and use it justify hating or even killing innocent animals

 

[PossumRoach]

People who are scared of spiders. I don't see why you should be because you are giant compared to them.

To be fair the fear is justified in some parts of the world where one can die from spider bites. However what I find stupid is that I have been hearing about video games having arachnophobia modes where imagery of spiders are removed. This irrational fear thing is getting… well, irrational.


In another note, one thing that bugs me is when some zoos in Turkey refer the animals that reside in the zoo as “under protection”. I have a gut feeling that this is done to appease the general public and those who want zoos closed regardless of the treatment or welfare of the species. It definitely won’t work for the latter group.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

One thing that really irritates the crap out of me and gets under my skin is the bureaucracy involved in the renewal of passports, which I am currently dealing with, and not to mention how long it takes to finally get your passport after the application process is finalized. Frankly the very idea of passports irritates me as I really don't like having to get permission from the government to travel and explore my own planet. To give some historical context, passports were originally intended to be a temporary wartime measure during World War I. They were originally initiated by the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. The League of Nations themselves expressed a desire to phase out passports and make them obsolete. I strongly believe it is important to revive and move forward with this goal.

 

[Chlidonias]

One thing that really irritates the crap out of me and gets under my skin is the bureaucracy involved in the renewal of passports, which I am currently dealing with, and not to mention how long it takes to finally get your passport after the application process is finalized. Frankly the very idea of passports irritates me as I really don't like having to get permission from the government to travel and explore my own planet. To give some historical context, passports were originally intended to be a temporary wartime measure during World War I. They were originally initiated by the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. The League of Nations themselves expressed a desire to phase out passports and make them obsolete. I strongly it is important to revive and move forward with this goal.

I don't think I've ever heard someone complain about the existence of passports before! Travel documents have been a thing for probably most of recorded history - passports aren't something that was dreamed up in WW1, that was just when a universal set of guidelines and format was begun.

Out of curiosity, how do you think global travel would function without travel documents?

 

[Lafone]

One thing that really irritates the crap out of me and gets under my skin is the bureaucracy involved in the renewal of passports, which I am currently dealing with, and not to mention how long it takes to finally get your passport after the application process is finalized. Frankly the very idea of passports irritates me as I really don't like having to get permission from the government to travel and explore my own planet. To give some historical context, passports were originally intended to be a temporary wartime measure during World War I. They were originally initiated by the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. The League of Nations themselves expressed a desire to phase out passports and make them obsolete. I strongly it is important to revive and move forward with this goal.

The notion of passports / passage for conduct dates from the 15th century and passports in the form of nationalities and indeed entrance requirements date from way before pre WW1. The standardisation around the time of the Great War was about standardisation.

The passport requirement has nothing to do with permission from your government allowing you to travel, it is all about the entry requirements of where you are travelling to and your own country allowing you back in (based on proof of citizenship). Issuing passports or having one also convenes no right to travel, nor guarantee of admission to another country. It's not realistic that countries will drop all border requirements. Indeed there are three major conflicts going on across the world at the moment, claiming hundreds of lives a day, which relate directly to disputed territory, along with many other 'skirmishes'. When border requirements are lessened and freedom to travel is introduced, people then vote against it. It's massively inconvenient to have to get a passport (and here we also suffer from extortionate delays) but the concept of them is not going to go away.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Short or completely abolishing passports, I think we could or should at least eliminate their expiration dates allowing them to be permanent.

 

[Chlidonias]

Short or completely abolishing passports, I think we could or should at least eliminate their expiration dates allowing them to be permanent.

I mean, there are a whole bunch of reasons why they have expiration dates.

Just as some examples:

Passports have a photo in them, and people age. A five year old looks quite different by the time they get to twenty-five.

Technology changes and this is reflected in the features passports incorporate to combat fraud.

People can change their citizenship status, among other things.

The pages get filled up with stamps. There are only so many extra pages which can be inserted.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

I mean, there are a whole bunch of reasons why they have expiration dates.

Just as some examples:

Passports have a photo in them, and people age. A five year old looks quite different by the time they get to twenty-five.

Technology changes and this is reflected in the features passports incorporate to combat fraud.

People can change their citizenship status, among other things.

The pages get filled up with stamps. There are only so many extra pages which can be inserted.

For what it is worth here in Arizona, if someone gets their driver's license, once they turn 21, their license doesn't expire until they turn 65. Think about the amount of aging that takes place in such a time span. Having that type of format in place is a lot less stressful.

In terms of stamps books filling up, I don't know... maybe make the booklets thicker with more pages?

 

[Chlidonias]

For what it is worth here in Arizona, if someone gets their driver's license, once they turn 21, their license doesn't expire until they turn 65. Think about the amount of aging that takes place in such a time span. Having that type of format in place is a lot less stressful.

Yes, but you're not using a driver licence for international travel. It's a false equivalence.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Yes, but you're not using a driver licence for international travel. It's a false equivalence.

How so?

 

[UngulateNerd92]

I wanted to also say, another thing that irritates me is tax liens and tax levies, something else that I am currently in the process of dealing with the impact of from a state I haven't lived in for years. It is especially disconcerting when they can seize money from your savings and checking accounts without prior warning and create financial strain, especially if you have pivotal bills to pay and expenses to deal with. I have said before, wages are too low and prices are too high, but that is another conversation for another day...

Adding to that irritation, the complications and headaches involved in the tax filing process, one little mistake, one tiny mistake and you can be in hot water with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) or your state's tax collection agency (eg. California Franchise Tax Board, New York Department of Taxation and Finance, Massachusetts Department of Revenue etc.)

If you are a freelancer or are self-employed, these agencies will make your life a living hell. I wish we could massively, massively simplify the tax code.

I also strongly believe we need to render state and local taxes completely obsolete and we need to fully federalize every (or as many as possible) state and local public sector agency and consolidate each of them into their equivalents at the federal level. Short of that, we could at least revive revenue sharing programs like what was more common before the 1980s. If not being fully federalized, I do think many of these state and local agencies need to be shrunk to the size that they drown in a teaspoon or at least a sink.

As far as I understand it, the thing I appreciate about Sweden, Japan, and the Netherlands for example is that their equivalent of the IRS does the filing work for you and you don't have to hire or use outside tax preparation services. In other words you can read through the form they give you and file your taxes in as little as 10 to 15 minutes, if even that.

Unfortunately, here in the United States, the tax filing industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry and their lobbyists convinced the IRS not to have these services built in. That irritates me too!

Here is a good video on the matters; Two Cents | Why Do We Hate Paying Taxes? | Season 4 | PBS

 

[UngulateNerd92]

I wanted to also say, another thing that irritates me is tax liens and tax levies, something else that I am currently in the process of dealing with the impact of from a state I haven't lived in for years. It is especially disconcerting when they can seize money from your savings and checking accounts without prior warning and create financial strain, especially if you have pivotal bills to pay and expenses to deal with. I have said before, wages are too low and prices are too high, but that is another conversation for another day...

Adding to that irritation, the complications and headaches involved in the tax filing process, one little mistake, one tiny mistake and you can be in hot water with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) or your state's tax collection agency (eg. California Franchise Tax Board, New York Department of Taxation and Finance, Massachusetts Department of Revenue etc.)

If you are a freelancer or are self-employed, these agencies will make your life a living hell. I wish we could massively, massively simplify the tax code.

I also strongly believe we need to render state and local taxes completely obsolete and we need to fully federalize every (or as many as possible) state and local public sector agency and consolidate each of them into their equivalents at the federal level. Short of that, we could at least revive revenue sharing programs like what was more common before the 1980s. If not being fully federalized, I do think many of these state and local agencies need to be shrunk to the size that they drown in a teaspoon or at least a sink.

As far as I understand it, the thing I appreciate about Sweden, Japan, and the Netherlands for example is that their equivalent of the IRS does the filing work for you and you don't have to hire or use outside tax preparation services. In other words you can read through the form they give you and file your taxes in as little as 10 to 15 minutes, if even that.

Unfortunately, here in the United States, the tax filing industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry and their lobbyists convinced the IRS not to have these services built in. That irritates me too!

Here is a good video on the matters; Two Cents | Why Do We Hate Paying Taxes? | Season 4 | PBS

The attitudes of the people on the phone when you call these tax agencies (especially state) can be irritating and off-putting as well.

 

[Lafone]

For what it is worth here in Arizona, if someone gets their driver's license, once they turn 21, their license doesn't expire until they turn 65. Think about the amount of aging that takes place in such a time span. Having that type of format in place is a lot less stressful.

In terms of stamps books filling up, I don't know... maybe make the booklets thicker with more pages?

The Arizona policy is out of step with many places in terms of drivers licences. However the drivers license in most places is perpetual (unless cancelled on medical grounds or expiring at an age date) it’s the physical license which is being renewed (every 10 years etc). Same with passports.

Due to entry requirements you have to have a passport where you are accurately captured and to ensure that they just set age related renewals.

Passports also can’t be infinitely thick. I’ve had extensions to a passport when I travelled a lot. They still fill up and get worn etc. If you have repeat visas, work permits etc for some countries they can take up whole pages by themselves.

Passport technology also evolves, making it faster to gain entry to some places with biometrics for example where checks can be automated due to agreements between some countries or at least back into yours. They also introduce new fraud measures. Perpetual passports wouldn’t work for keeping passports up to date.

I think along with the point on tax that it is challenging to use the complexity of getting a thing done to justify eliminating it. Though the bureaucracy is undoubtedly irritating!

 

[UngulateNerd92]

One thing that really irritates the crap out of me and gets under my skin is the bureaucracy involved in the renewal of passports, which I am currently dealing with, and not to mention how long it takes to finally get your passport after the application process is finalized. Frankly the very idea of passports irritates me as I really don't like having to get permission from the government to travel and explore my own planet. To give some historical context, passports were originally intended to be a temporary wartime measure during World War I. They were originally initiated by the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. The League of Nations themselves expressed a desire to phase out passports and make them obsolete. I strongly believe it is important to revive and move forward with this goal.

Here is a relevant article about this; Passports Were a “Temporary” War Measure | Speranta Dumitru

I just value the idea of freedom (including and especially freedom of movement) quite a lot, it is near and dear to me!

 

[Chlidonias]

Here is a relevant article about this; Passports Were a “Temporary” War Measure | Speranta Dumitru

I just value the idea of freedom (including and especially freedom of movement) quite a lot, it is near and dear to me!

It's only "relevant" because it plays into your fear of society and cherry-picks out specific items to make you say "I knew it!". I mean the article starts out with the sentence "It takes less than a century, it seems, to see the absence of freedom as a natural condition."

A quick scan down the articles on that page, and I wouldn't be advising anyone to be using that website to inform their world-view.

 

[PossumRoach]

I just value the idea of freedom (including and especially freedom of movement) quite a lot, it is near and dear to me!

I too value freedom of movement. However, one must consider that fugitives exist and bodies of security have to make sure that they don’t escape justice. Sadly we live in a world where the faults of one will result in the compromise of freedoms of all.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

I too value freedom of movement. However, one must consider that fugitives exist and bodies of security have to make sure that they don’t escape justice. Sadly we live in a world where the faults of one will result in the compromise of freedoms of all.

Yeah and that leads to yet another thing that really irritates the crap out of me, when one person or a few people have to ruin something for the rest of us. I am sure you have heard the saying, "why can't we have nice things?"

 

[Strathmorezoo]

People using the word "of" instead of the word "have ",basic English

 

[Dr. Wolverine]

When on that one day you don't go birding with your friends, they see a pair of Kestrels mating.

PS, this happened to me yesterday...

 

[Lycaon]

Toxic positivity.

Like when you bring up a problem you have with a movie/TV show, and someone who disagrees with you uses some cheap excuse or tries to downplay your argument. It's okay to disagree, just be respectful about it and try not to talk down to the other person and treat them like they're in the wrong.