The Appalachian foothills in Kentucky are pretty geologically dead; there aren’t any fault lines anywhere close by. It’s about as safe as any cave network can be.
I do recommend going to that are and taking some tours, especially in the middle of summer where you can see the inversion layer where the air goes from being 95F to 60F. Even the fully-accessible tours that don’t go through any tight spaces are pretty cool.
SCUBA is even worse because any movement kicks up sediment, so that visibility quickly turns to nil. Cave diving has a very, very high mortality rate; BASE jumping is safer.
Honestly, they’re pretty neat. I’ve gone through tours of Mammoth Caves that require waivers, and they strongly recommend that you not take that tour if any part of you has a circumference of more than 42", because you won’t fit. There was a spot that was about 12" high, and 72-ish wide that you had to crawl through that took a sharp right; you had to take your helmet off to get through. But then you get out into this enormous cavern filled with rock formations that are seen by less 100 people/year.
But if I didn’t know that that crack was passable, that I’d be able to get through or get back out again? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no.
Like having a good life insurance policy that pays out even if you die doing something stupid? And maybe having a fake tooth filled with cyanide so you can go out quickly instead of dying of exposure?
“Lemming” is used to refer to people that use Lemmy (lemmy.world, lemm.ee, etc.). Give that you have to have an account to post, you are def. a lemming.
I was raised Mormon. Mormonism is somewhat unique in that it claims to have a modern prophet and leadership that are directly led by god, and it strongly encourages members to pray to god and ask god for confirmation that this is true. Mormons are also taught that god would not allow their prophet to lead them astray, and that your local leaders are also inspired by god in what they do in their official capacity.
I was a missionary when shit started to break. I had a nervous breakdown; I am on the autism spectrum (although that diagnosis wasn’t available at that time; it was almost 30 years ago, back in DSM-III), and being a missionary was a lot too much for me for many, many reasons. I became suicidal. My leaders–again, people who were supposed to be called by god and led through inspiration from god–insisted that I must be acting in some sinful way, and that it was sin that had led to me being suicidal. They encouraged me to read my scriptures and pray more–as if I wasn’t already doing that a lot as a missionary–and to repent of my sins (whatever they were, because I sure as fuck didn’t know). If I was not sinning in some way, then Satan never could have taken hold in my heart, and Satan was obviously what was causing me to be suicidal. Obviously these commandments did not help, because I wasn’t doing anything ‘wrong’ in the first place.
But that leads to a problem: I believed that these people were called by god, and acting under god’s instructions, because I had received a spiritual witness. However, it was clear that they were wrong; I was not acting in a sinful manner (certainly less so than other missionaries!), and I had nothing to repent of. So these things are clearly contradictory: if I have received a spiritual confirmation from god that these men are led by him, then what they are saying must be from god and therefore true. But I know my own actions, and I know that I haven’t done anything that is sinful under any remotely normal definition of sin. Therefore, the feelings that I believed were spiritual confirmation must not have been spiritual confirmation at all.
Once you realize that feelings can not be a reliable way of knowing if something is actually true or not (or True, for that matter), then all of it falls apart. You realize that ‘answers’ to prayers are just feelings, not communication from the divine. The bible is suddenly a book of myths. Miracles dissolve like fog in the sun. When you look at religion–not just Mormonism, but all religion, and you compare it against things that can be verified empirically, none of the claims stand up.
Even though the foundations of my faith cracked while I was a missionary, I was unable to accept the meaning for several years, because Mormonism is a cult, and it’s very hard to escape even when you know it’s garbage.
Huh? No, of course you can’t, because you’d first have to be able to prove that any person in question had lived a previous life, and that kind of belief isn’t falsifiable.
If the whole thing could be proven or disproven, then it would be science and not religion.
I’d argue that the problem isn’t so much saying that you’re a vegan because X, Y, Z, but that very often vegans extend that to moral judgements about people that aren’t vegan, without accepting that there are reasons someone may not wish to be a vegan. Y’know, god forbid that you tell a vegan that you hunt your own meat, and only kill/eat invasive species that are disrupting the ecosystem, like feral pigs, or lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico.
No, that’s a core belief of Buddhism. You move up or down as you achieve–or lose–enlightenment, and once you’ve extinguished all desire, you achieve enlightenment and nirvana. Hindu might also have beliefs in reincarnation, but IDK.
This depends on how cold, and how physical the labor is. The more physical the labor is, the less you’re going to want to wear (in general), because movement and exercise is going to keep you warm.
But, here’s a basic guideline.
First, no cotton. Full stop. Cotton will absorb mater, and then loses it’s ability to keep you warm. Jeans are an absolute non-starter in really cold weather. Leather is okay, but absolutely must be oiled and sealed against water (I’ve been experimenting with a beeswax and neatsfoot oil combination that seems to penetrate pretty well when applied with heat, but that’s more work than most people want to do).
Second, layers. Generally speaking, you want a wicking layer right next to your skin, insulation layer(s), and a waterproof/windproof shell layer over everything. Polypropylene long underwear is the normal technical choice for a wicking layer, and you can get polypro sock liners and glove liners as well. Wool should be your go-to choice for insulation layers; it has the fairly unique property of keeping you warm even when it gets wet, particularly because it’s really hard to get wool ‘wet’ (because wool is hydrophobic). Gore-Tex is gold-standard shell material; it gives you some level of breathability (e.g., allows sweat to evaporate out) while preventing water from getting in and keeping the wind out. With a good shell, you should be able to open vents to cool yourself down if you get too warm (and definitely cool yourself down well before you start feeling sweaty!) Goose down is great at keeping you warm, but does lose it’s loft–and insulating properties–when it gets wet. Depending on what you’re doing, you may want abrasion-resistant panels on your shell layers, as Gore-Tex isn’t as durable as, e.g. 1000D nylon pack cloth.
For boots, the US military ‘Mickey Mouse’ boots are pretty great. They’re several layers of rubber sheet, with wool felt insulation. You want to get them sized up a little so that you can get a liner sock and full cushion wool hiking socks in. All leather ankle-height hiking boots (Sorrel used to be one of the top choices, I’m not so sure any more) with lots of oil/wax based sealants and gaiters is another good choice.
As far as hands go, the same basic principles apply; a lightweight liner, a heavier insulation, and a shell layer. Generally speaking, you want mittens rather than gloves. If you must have gloves, then shooting gloves or lobster claw gloves are better than gloves that separate all of the fingers.
You’ll also want a good scarf–again, wool–and a long hat or balaclava, covered by the hood of your shell layer. The downside to a balaclava over a hat is that if it’s cold enough, your breath will freeze in the balaclava, leaving you with icicles hanging on your face.
This is what I’ve worn when I’ve done multi-day camping trips in the mountains in -20F weather. I’ve made mistakes–like choosing boots with different insulation, which kept my feet wet for three days straight–and the mistakes were painful. Poor footwear choices when bicycling at -20F has meant that I’ve had frostbite in my feet–not severe, thankfully, but incredibly painful as they thawed out.
EDIT As a final note - avoid anything that’s really constricting. Your wicking layer should be against your skin, but not tight. Anything that restrict blood flow is going to be a risk to developing frostbite. Shoes that are comfortable without heavy socks are going to be too tight with them. Depending on what you’re doing, you may need to make compromises. For instance, if you’re doing roofing, you’re probably going to have to get cotton, because that’s what Carhartt is available in, and you probably don’t want to be wearing $500 Gore-Tex shell pants for that.
FWIW, I am very much a leftist. I’m mostly an anarchist, although I also recognize that having a large, diverse, functioning society is extremely difficult–bordering on impossible–without some degree of authoritarian control. (And I’ve also seen just how paralyzed radically democratic groups can get, when they have to vote on everything.) I want the people on the left, the people that want a more equal society, to do better, because I think we can be better.
Being kind to people–not fake kindness, not kindness with an agenda, but just kind–can go a long ways for leftists. For women, well, I’m not a woman. But having women as friends and them being open with me about what they experienced as women went a long way towards opening my eyes.
And, FWIW, I started from a position of being deeply conservative, very religious, and having absolutist views on gender identity and gender roles, and the godly nature of capitalism.
I’ve absolutely, definitely met people IRL that have argued in exactly the way I outline. …Although “argue” is charitable, since they’re just haranguing their victim subject. I’ve also known plenty of people that claim that they know they aren’t going to change the mind of the person they’re verbally assaulting–because people can’t change, I guess?–but that they want to win the hearts of the people observing. …Which they also aren’t doing, since they’re appearing to be mean-spirited to observers. (And yes, there’s nuance here, and I still firmly believe in punching Nazis.)
David McRaney has been talking for a while about what actually works for changing the way people think and believe (and he just recently published, “How Minds Change”), and Anthony Magnabosco has been posting street epistemology videos on YouTube for years. Both of them have found–to be really reductive–that you need to emotionally connect with the person you’re talking to, and you need to ask open-ended questions that allow them to consider the foundations for their beliefs.
And to your point, yes, that’s hard to do online. I get it. I often fall into the trap of arguing instead of being empathetic. So I need to take my own advice.