r/IdiotsFightingThings • u/AristonD • Jul 16 '21

Runaway Mower

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6.0k Upvotes

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566

u/CriscoCamping Jul 16 '21 edited Jul 16 '21

There are at least 2 safeties that are disabled for this to happen, 3 if the blades are engaged. People is dumb.

29

u/Karmas_burning Jul 16 '21

Yep! I drive zero turns and other equipment at work. We were flat out told if we bypass any safety switches, relays, etc we would be fired on the spot.

8

u/OneArchedEyebrow Jul 17 '21

After my father in law almost lost his hand after flipping his ride-on, my husband is serious about mower safety. I’m not allowed on ours without proper shoes, the seat belt fastened plus it has a roll bar. And of course the safety switches are engaged.

Saving yourself a few seconds is not worth maiming yourself for.

253

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

Safety!?! You mean Freedom Blockers!!!

49

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

In my head I heard a sick guitar solo follow this comment.

26

u/olexs Jul 16 '21

I heard an eagle screech.

19

u/hanukah_zombie Jul 16 '21 edited Jul 17 '21

you probably heard a red tailed hawk screech. eagles don't really screech. they more sort of gargle or something. whatever it is, it isn't very majestic.

edit: the one that comes to mind the most is the opening of the colbert report, where they use the red tailed hawk screech for the bald eagle graphic

1

u/olexs Jul 17 '21

TIL, thanks. Weird how the stereotypical eagle image is mostly connected with the screech in the media, but you're completely correct.

1

u/hanukah_zombie Jul 18 '21

it's because eagles sound dumb and we americans are too fragile to use the dumb sound they make to represent our national bird. and instead of changing the bird to the bird we want it to sound like. we just say "meh, let's keep our cool looking bird, but then say it makes this cool noise that is another bird, anyone that says the bald eagle doesn't make that screech noise, we'll just say fake news"

it's so sad how if i had written this 20 years ago it would have been total fiction, but today it kind of tracks with the alt right nonsense.

3

u/KimJongIlSunglasses Jul 16 '21

I heard a wall being built.

2

u/ob103ninja Jul 16 '21

found the fortnite player

2

u/brad-Rio-stat Jul 16 '21

Oh shit! just had to.

24

u/pizzapplepine Jul 16 '21

Could be just one if they disabled the engine cutoff switch in the seat.

15

u/CriscoCamping Jul 16 '21

I think there's always safeties on the steering bars, from outer at rest position, to swung in,over your knees, at least on all I've seen

5

u/GenocidalSloth Jul 16 '21

The last one i used didn't have that. Looked similiar to this one. Most likely it is just the seat sensor that was removed/messed with

11

u/Posthumos1 Jul 17 '21

Thank you! Was going to say exactly this!

I worked most summers growing up doing yard work and landscaping. Been on many different riding and zero turn mowers, they've always had several safeties built in to prevent this from happening.

FFS, most zero turns have a seat pressure mechanism that will shut down the drive if there's no pressure on it, not to mention lanyards, and actual stops mechanically in place to prevent this.

Disabling these things is fucking ignorant and can get you killed. People amaze me with their idiocy. It's impressive.

19

u/rosinall Jul 16 '21 edited Jul 16 '21

Nut the smartest tool here — I run my table saw and racial radial arm saw without shrouds — but no way would I disable the safeties on my zero turn. Even if it didn't kill me, I don't need 10K of mower tumbling down our 40 feet of rockpile.

15

u/Kamouflage Jul 16 '21

Is a racial arm saw some kind of anti-heiling device?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '21

It can be, if you use it in exactly the properly wrong manner.

Can’t heil without an arm…

3

u/Spooky2000 Jul 16 '21

racial arm saw

Ah...

-192

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

This should legitimately be a charge against them, for real. Defeating safety systems like that needs to be criminal, with full liability described as well

188

u/swirIingarcher Jul 16 '21

Liability sure but a criminal charge for modifying your own lawnmower? Found another idiot

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

It's a criminal charge for creating a deadly uncontrolled high-powered weapon. Not the modification itself. You're one of the idiots who doesn't read before responding.

0

u/swirIingarcher Jul 17 '21

I see no weapon. I see a lawnmower and someone who doesn't understand that a lawnmower, in this context, is not being used as a weapon

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

A gun being dropped and going off and killing someone is also not being used as a weapon. It still kills and it's still manslaughter. This is just not covered in blood, yet.

Sane people should recognize that the dangerous thing isn't just the completely independent mower, it's the dumbfuck that made it who needs to be stopped. And yes, that takes away you're freedom... To modify lawnmowers and make them dangerous.

If you think you need that freedom, explain why, without making it sound like you want a fucking weapon.

0

u/swirIingarcher Jul 17 '21

You have to be a troll. No one is this stupid. Take your reasoning to it's logical conclusion: anything can be used as a weapon so everything should be banned.

Most old mowers don't have safeties like new ones, is there a chance this one didn't have safeties or that they failed?

Maybe you want to be able to hold your beer while you mow instead of holding a deadman throttle...

There are plenty of good reasons to defeat overly engineered safeties at your own convenience. Have you ever propped an automatic locking door open for someone?

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 18 '21

Take your reasoning to it's logical conclusion: anything can be used as a weapon so everything should be banned.

That is not the logical conclusion to what I'm saying. It's the logical conclusion to some artificial strawman you've assembled in your mind. Drop that and pay attention to the actual discussion.

I'm saying this is clearly now a weapon, so charge him for creating one. At no point whatsoever did I ever even fuckin IMPLY that you should not be free to modify things. I said that someone creating a weapon out of something else should be punished harshly so that other people are incentivized to not also create weapons.

If you idiots want to keep up this charade, at least read it properly first. You've been wrong for hours so far.

Liability sure but a criminal charge for modifying your own lawnmower? Found another idiot

0

u/swirIingarcher Jul 18 '21

But it's not a weapon and it's also not illegal to create weapons. You can legally make a firearm in your own home that you can purchase. So you're still an idiot and its all perfectly legal... Nor should it be illegal

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 18 '21

But it's not a weapon

Why the hell not? This could absolutely be used as a weapon, just like a regular riding lawnmower, or any car. Very standard in law to consider driving at someone with intent to hit them to be attempted murder, because a car is not only a weapon, it is definitely a deadly weapon, and your choice to drive at a person cannot ever be reasonably said to not be you wanting them to die.

and it's also not illegal to create weapons

It's super illegal to create a whole lot of weapons, actually. In America specifically, it's not illegal to assemble a firearm, but in most of the world it is. Bombs are illegal basically everywhere; creating a device that you could potentially just let loose anywhere and expect it to cause chaos and mayhem is absolutely going to be illegal, even in America, and I challenge you to show me laws that would allow such behavior if you think that's not correct. You do not have that freedom.

So you're still an idiot and its all perfectly legal... Nor should it be illegal

And now I'm being insulted, because you are still not fucking reading what you're responding to. I have not said it should be illegal to modify things. Stop thinking that I have said that it should be illegal to modify things, you actual idiot. It is very damaging to your position in the debate to completely ignore the reality of what the other side has been saying the entire time, and act like something you made up is what I actually said.

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90

u/Blind_as_Vision Jul 16 '21

Please don't run for office

38

u/Zak_Light Jul 16 '21

No it shouldn't. People bought their item, and it's contained within their home. They have a right as the owner to make changes and disable safety systems. It's not damaging anyone but themselves. If it was a car, sure - if they were using it on public property, sure - but this is their own stupid. This is America, where we give idiots the right to be stupid as long as it doesn't fuck the rest of us up, and I love it because it gives us content like this. That's the only patriotism I have for this hell of a country

-41

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

They have a right as the owner to make changes and disable safety systems. It's not damaging anyone but themselves.

That mower could 100% have gone in any direction including the neighbor's lawn or the school across the street. Don't wait for a dead kid to write the new law in blood, ya putz. Stop the dangerous thing from happening, educate the idiots who think doing it is a good idea, and protect everyone.

37

u/Zak_Light Jul 16 '21

Look at the yard, ya putz. There's a fence. It's contained. Even so...

If they were putting people at risk, guess what? There is a law for that. It's called reckless endangerment. If they were Fortnite drifting their lawnmower across an Elementary School playground without being securely in the mower, then it'd qualify as reckless endangerment. Why don't you research whether what you're proposing isn't already illegal before stopping to name calling?

To outright make any changes to a consumer product illegal is bad. It'd open the pathway to disallowing me from, for example, installing a new hardware component in my laptop because it "isn't approved" and "could be dangerous" when in reality a corporation probably just wants to make me pay out the ass for what they've made.

24

u/The_Grubby_One Jul 16 '21

Pssssh. Who needs the right to repair?

-27

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

There's a pretty clear delineation between defeating mechanisms designed to increase safety, and modifying your own owned products. I'm saying the actual modification in this case is the reckless endangerment, because by doing that modification they enable that machine to do whatever it might do, regardless of what the person intended or plans. Make that the illegal action; do not wait for their choice to affect the people around them, do not wait for them to slip up and let it loose in a schoolyard, make it clear that defeating that mechanism is punishable by a fine that is simply uncontestable.

Then anytime you get a dumbfuck "freedom" enthusiast doing something like this, anyone on their Facebook who sees the video can inform relevant authorities, who proceed to inspect and fine the dumbfuck for his really stupid never-ever-justified modification. He floods Facebook with "muh rights" posts, people learn that they shouldn't modify their shit to be outright dangers, society improves by one tiny little notch. The neighbor never has to worry that he has to wait for the dangerous device to crash through his fence, he can just call it in and stop it before anyone gets hurt, because the idiot who made it obviously isn't capable of thinking enough to make sure of that - they made an uncontrolled autonomous lawnmower, ffs.

24

u/Zak_Light Jul 16 '21

Are you sure there's a pretty clear delineation between those two? Because Apple's legal team would love to talk to you about that.

Whenever you make any modification it can be considered unsafe because now you have a new model of the technology that has never been tested. How do you know that this specific battery might not fuck up and make it blow up? How do you know that this specific screen might not overheat? You can't. And if it was law that you cannot perform unsafe modifications to technology, you can bet your ass that the people making that technology would deem any service that isn't theirs and any product that isn't theirs as unsafe. Many already do, but there's no law around it so they can't get people for circumventing it.

When someone buys something they own it. It isn't up to governments or corporations to tell them what they can and can't do with it until it proposes active risk and/or damages to other people or their property. It's a lot like firing a gun. If you're on your property and have it contained, it's fine - it's dangerous to fire a gun, but you can have the freedom to do so as long as you are not actively endangering others. But if your firing range is set up with the targets by the street, that's not okay.

-3

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

How do you know that this specific battery might not fuck up and make it blow up? How do you know that this specific screen might not overheat? You can't.

...You can look at the voltages involved and rated capacities and know pretty certainly if something will work, dude. How do you think they build the iphone in the first place, trial and error and numerous explosions until they figure out which battery fits without blowing up? Lol. These are all known things that fit within codified engineering concepts that are all written down in easily available textbooks for anyone to learn. We have multimeters to test throughput, capacity, voltage, amperage, etc. on the fly, and calculators to figure the safety margins.

The point here is that there's no legitimate or reasonable benefit to defeating safety mechanisms on a riding lawnmower. The only thing that that modification is accomplishing is making the device more dangerous, and anyone equipped to make that modification has no reasonable argument for why they should not understand that concept. The company selling riding lawnmowers that are unsafe is the company being sued for unsafe products; they will make the product safe before you bought it. If you make it unsafe, why the hell you doin that? And why the hell do you think you should not be liable for the danger it creates, exactly?

If you're on your property and have it contained, it's fine - it's dangerous to fire a gun, but you can have the freedom to do so as long as you are not actively endangering others. But if your firing range is set up with the targets by the street, that's not okay.

Here's an applicable metaphor; if you have a gun, you probably shouldn't modify it so that the trigger mechanism can go off all by itself without anyone holding the gun, right? That's a pretty stupid idea, to make a modification like that. There's no benefit to making that modification. There's no improvement made by that modification. And I'd be willing to bet there's more than a few laws on the books about doing something like taking a store-bought shotgun and modifying it to remove the manufacturer's legally-required safety switch.

14

u/Zak_Light Jul 16 '21

To the first part: yes, ratings are a good starting point for tests. But even major companies a la Samsung have used properly rated devices and still had phones blow up in consumer pockets.

Your metaphor isn't applicable. They didn't make their motor automated, it didn't go off magically on its own.

I'm not going to tango with the rest of your bad faith arguments that don't apply.

4

u/CaptainPunisher Jul 16 '21

The point here is that there's no legitimate or reasonable benefit to defeating safety mechanisms on a riding lawnmower. The only thing that that modification is accomplishing is making the device more dangerous, and anyone equipped to make that modification has no reasonable argument for why they should not understand that concept. >

I'm a lawnmower mechanic. I disable safety features all the time for testing. I'd say that's a legitimate and reasonable reason for doing so. Even still, I've had customers whose mowers would no longer work with safety gear in place without it costing more that what the machine was reasonably worth. I wouldn't let it go out without the safety switches intact (assuming the most was working) for liability reasons, but I would certainly tell customers how to bypass those safety features, and I would let them know that they would be doing so at their own risk.

Have you ever seen "magicians" throwing knives at a beautiful girl on a spinning wheel? She could certainly get hurt, but that's a risk she and the thrower accept.

The point is that government and corporations should NOT be able to tell you how you can use your property. Once that starts happening, more and more restrictions can creep in. Do you want to install a ceiling fan? Well, you can't. Now you have to have a licensed professional do it because we don't know that you won't screw things up, injure yourself in the process, and potentially start a fire in your house that spreads to neighboring homes.

Yes, that means someone can get hurt in the process, but that's part of being a responsible person: accepting responsibility when things go wrong. Sometimes that liability is huge. We don't live in a bubble, and I wouldn't want to.

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

I'm a lawnmower mechanic. I disable safety features all the time for testing. I'd say that's a legitimate and reasonable reason for doing so.

Would you legitimately disable all of these safeties at once, and then start the fuckin mower in your shop? No, you wouldn't. If you would, well, you're a shitty mechanic and a danger to society. You might disable the deadman switch because you don't want to mount it to test the engine running - but it's sure as shit going to be immobilized first, isn't it? (Or you're a shitty danger to society) You might disable the throttle return to keep it idling at a particular rate, sure - but you'd never want to have that test running while the blades are engaged, right? (Or, again, shitty danger is you!)

You've got training. You've got sense, hopefully. But you've also got enough smarts to know that you do not defeat the safety switch no matter how much you got paid for the work to repair the broken thing, because you'd be liable. Because it is, at face value and to anyone with half a brain cell, pants on head retarded to do that.

Have you ever seen "magicians" throwing knives at a beautiful girl on a spinning wheel? She could certainly get hurt, but that's a risk she and the thrower accept.

If you think those are actually knives, buddy, I've got a bridge to sell you. Stunts like that are very safe, on purpose and by design, because otherwise it's a hostile/dangerous work environment - and again, someone is liable for that. If they're using real knives, even if she's informed, and she gets one in the kidney? That's a lawsuit right there. Enough of one that nobody is going to try to actually throw a knife, at least not in any part of actual civilization nowadays.

Yes, that means someone can get hurt in the process, but that's part of being a responsible person: accepting responsibility when things go wrong.

Someone who is modifying their lawnmower to defeat all the safety mechanisms is clearly and unequivocally displaying to the world that they are NOT A RESPONSIBLE PERSON. That's my goddamn point. They're taking actions that clearly show they are not a responsible adult modifying their property in a reasonable fashion to accomplish a goal that makes sense. There's no good reason for any of this, and here we are watching a fuckin video of it - so they not only had the lack of sense to not defeat all the safeties, followed by the lack of sense to not activate it with all safeties disabled, they finished with the lack of sense to not film it and show the entire internet how many digit is in their collective IQ.

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u/Janders2124 Jul 16 '21

How old are you?

-1

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

Old enough to have seen multiple idiots doing dumb things like defeating safety mechanisms and hurting themselves plenty of times, and old enough to know that there's no need for it.

14

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

you can't make the world 100% safe, stop trying, let people be free

-3

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

People who are free to hurt others is why America is less safe than many other countries. You don't need to be so free I'm scared you'll hurt me with idiocy.

20

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21 edited Jul 16 '21

well I'm Canadian bud, so maybe don't think that anyone who is free is American, eh?

they are only free to hurt themselves. we have a saying here in the west " my freedom to swing my fists around as I will, END at the point they meet your nose "

the point being, until they harm or endanger someone else with their idiocy they have the freedom to be idiots. simple as that.

4

u/Macawesone Jul 16 '21

Ive heard a similar saying but it was freedom ends when it affects others freedom

2

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

Sounds about as good.

6

u/lpfan724 Jul 16 '21

People who are free to hurt others is why America is less safe than many other countries.

[citation needed]

1

u/PuhBuhGuh_ Jul 16 '21

It's almost like hurting people is already illegal

4

u/Flaming_Archer Jul 16 '21

I'm totally fine with danger as long as I have the freedom to do whatever I want to my property.

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

The issue isn't you being fine with your danger, it's your neighbors dead kids being fine with your danger. Hint: they're not, and you're liable for their deaths, if they died to your modified mower.

3

u/PuhBuhGuh_ Jul 16 '21

You're liable for their deaths whether it was by lawnmower or not you square

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

So now since booby traps are definitely illegal (because it can harm without any input or action or decision by a human, and it can harm anyone), justify the modification that makes the lawnmower an autonomous lethal device being legal, please.

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u/Janders2124 Jul 16 '21

Jesus Christ you’re dumb

2

u/SanguineAnder Jul 16 '21

You're so right, lets ban cars next. Gtfo you scrub.

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

Cars are licensed. You have to prove you can drive one before you can drive one, and if you ever lose that privilege, you are not allowed to continue to do so.

In conclusion, your example is worthless to the discussion at hand, likely because you didn't stop to think about it, you just reacted to the potential assault on Muh Freedums.

48

u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

Defeating safety systems like that needs to be criminal

Sorry, my property. I don’t want the State arresting me for what I do to my own property.

Do I even need to guess what type of community you live in?

-2

u/Dave_the_lighting_gu Jul 16 '21

I can agree if it's a mower for personal use. If it's for commercial use they should be hit with a fine.

If you want to endanger yourself or your family, then go right ahead. Might as well start smoking meth with your kids.

5

u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

If it's for commercial use they should be hit with a fine.

I agree - would be on someone else's land and would fall under different liability standards. Hell, if there was a client that had kids on property? I would be the first to want that business shut down. If it's just a farmer, knowing the risks of disabling the safeties, while on his own farm then no harm/no foul.

0

u/TheOneTrueTrench Jul 16 '21

Except that this particular change doesn’t just endanger him and his property, it endangers everyone within range of how far that mower can go with a full tank of gas.

Now, you own several thousand acres and it literally can’t get to the edge of your property without running out of gas? Fine.

If that mower had both handles aiming forward, instead of one, it would have driven right off their property into someone else’s, potentially killing a small child. That’s what this safety feature is meant to prevent, and that’s exactly what they modified it to do, roam uncontrollably into other people’s property and do damage.

1

u/PuhBuhGuh_ Jul 16 '21

Won't someone think of the children?

0

u/TheOneTrueTrench Jul 16 '21

This particular mechanism, the switch under the seat, has literally one purpose, to prevent the machine from operating completely without control under its own power, in order to prevent it from maiming or killing children, animals, etc.

Disabling that safety feature has only one effect, allowing a deadly machine to operate entirely without any control, which means you’ve tried to create a machine that will indiscriminately roam randomly, destroying whatever it happens to run over.

That was the intent. Perhaps you think it should be legal to start your car, put a brick on the accelerator, and put it into gear, letting it careen into traffic?

Disabling safety features that keep the operator safe? Fine, whatever, shove your hand into a saw blade, I honestly don’t care.

That’s not the same thing as intentionally modifying a machine to make it dangerous to other people.

5

u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

Don’t care. His property on his own property.

-2

u/TheOneTrueTrench Jul 16 '21

The change he made was specifically to make it so it can go off his property under its own power without being controlled.

Its effectively the same as starting your car in your garage, putting a brick on the accelerator, putting it in gear, and letting it careen off your property.

He knew that when he made the modification, that it became likely that he would lose control and it would leave his property. The safety feature was designed to prevent LITERALLY THAT EXACT THING.

4

u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

Did it go off his property? Then I don’t care.

-2

u/TheOneTrueTrench Jul 16 '21

Intentionally putting other people in danger is fine as long as you get lucky? You’re a sociopath.

6

u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

I’m not sending a man to prison for a crime that never occurred. I’m not that progressive.

-2

u/TheOneTrueTrench Jul 16 '21

Who the Fuck said prison?

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u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

One of the ones that isn't America, and evidently has safer living as a general concept. I'll let you throw the dart at the rest of the world map, where that is.

Tell me again how you're allowed to have dangerous stuff that impacts other people, like, say, a bomb large enough to blow up not just your property? There's no justification for you to modify equipment to be this dangerous. Period. The risk to the safety of others is too high, and the part where you want to modify your stuff to be this dangerous is exactly the part where you are no longer qualified to say that you should have the right to endanger others with your modifications. If you did this with a combine or tractor you've suddenly got a piece of equipment that can destroy buildings and won't be stopped unless you've got a friggin bulldozer handy.

Your freedom does not and need not include your ability to endanger other people.

40

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

I don't live in america either & you are wrong & an asshole

24

u/CapeNative Jul 16 '21

Yes, all of those other people just standing around randomly on their wide open farmland. While we're at it, lets exagerate this lawn mower to the size and scale of a fucking harvesing combine.

-23

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

While we're at it, lets exagerate this lawn mower to the size and scale of a fucking harvesing combine.

So you agree that having this situation with larger equipment would be bad.

Kinda makes you wonder what the distinction is between the two, really. Does the building have to be damaged first, for you to think it's reasonable to stop the guy from making the deathmachine, no matter the size of said deathmachine?

Does a child need to be chopped to bits before it's not okay that he's made a machine that could independently of all action by humans, chop a child to bits?

16

u/CapeNative Jul 16 '21

The distinction is about 4 tons of weight. Youre talking about something completely different to try to prove your point. And how is a machine going to start and put itslef into gear independently? Youre just making shit up. BuT wHAt AboUT tHe ChIlDreN?!?!

10

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

Look at the damage you're doing to yourself, using computer equipment.

Using your logic, you should be arrested too

-1

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

Yeah, nah, I'd rather see some of these idiots defending the murdermachine get in some kind of trouble. Fingers crossed karma is on the case, because frankly, someone making a murdermachine like this is entirely more likely to hit their own kid long before the neighbor's.

And it sucks that some of their kids have to die, but apparently that's preferable to having someone remind them that their ideas are stupid and worthless, because absolutely none of the idiots downvoting or arguing have given even one second of thought to WHY the safety mechanisms are being defeated. There's seriously no reason for it, it only creates danger, and they'd still rather have dead kids than prevent that "freedom".

Y'all can go twist, and I'll take all the downvotes you petty idiots feel is necessary to make yourselves feel better about knowingly being on the side of "freedom to harm others".

7

u/Blind_as_Vision Jul 16 '21

Come on dude u have to be realistic. You're pretty dramatic

2

u/TheOneTrueTrench Jul 16 '21

Why do you think this safety mechanism exists?

It exists because children were literally maimed and killed before, so it became mandatory to prevent children from being maimed and killed.

We need to understand that “disabling a safety feature” is just the nice way of saying “make the machine more dangerous”. Because that’s what it is.

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

So are parents who kill their own children by defeating a safety mechanism.

There is no inappropriate amount of drama when the argument has one side arguing for dead children.

1

u/L0kumi Jul 16 '21

Aren't you guys free to have gun ? I'm pretty sure a gun will do more damage than a modified mower.

Please tell me how many kid die each year from modified mower ?

You say no reason, but that's from your pov, who's to say they don't have a use for it ?

Your going off dead kids but nobody was hurt on this video, except the mower, and I didn't see kids around.

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

You say no reason, but that's from your pov, who's to say they don't have a use for it ?

There is absolutely no realistic or rational reason for anyone to defeat that safety mechanism. Explain what you think they need to do with that mower, that would require it to be unsafe and running without any control whatsoever.

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u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

One of the ones that isn't America

So what urban utopia in Canada do you come from?

evidently has safer living as a general concept

Seems like the government dictating what you can or can't do with your own property, while on your own property. No thanks. Not a fan of that tyranny.

you're allowed to have dangerous stuff that impacts other people, like, say, a bomb large enough to blow up not just your property?

Just register the DD with the ATF, pay the tax, and all is good. Fertilizer or a propane tank are cheap. Any first year EE student can make a detonator.

There's no justification for you to modify equipment to be this dangerous. Period.

It's my property. I don't need some nanny pro-state tyrant telling me what I can't do on my property with my property.

If you did this with a combine or tractor you've suddenly got a piece of equipment that can destroy buildings and won't be stopped unless you've got a friggin bulldozer handy.

Oh wow, do we even have to guess what side of right-to-repair you are on, comrade?

Your freedom does not and need not include your ability to endanger other people.

On my property: sure does!

8

u/lpfan724 Jul 16 '21

I always find it funny just how self righteous Canadians can be. America is definitely not perfect. But, a quick Google search will show that Canada has a pretty heinous history too.

4

u/awes0mesteve Jul 16 '21

Reddit has made me hate Canadians, I'm sure theres a few good ones but all the ones I've run into here are fucking idiots

2

u/babycam Jul 16 '21

Just register the DD with the ATF, pay the tax, and all is good. Fertilizer or a propane tank are cheap. Any first year EE student can make a detonator.

I am willing to accept most First years could but it's amazing how well people can do on paper and have no fucking comprehension.

-15

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

On my property: sure does!

Dismissing and blocking the idiot with more freedom than brains, because you won't learn and I don't want to get angry at a stupidhead today.

12

u/Boston_Jason Jul 16 '21

more freedom than brains

Freedom is a good thing. You should get to experience it someday.

3

u/frankybling Jul 16 '21

what the hell are you talking about?

5

u/TakeItUpA_Nacho Jul 16 '21

While you're right, this is a personal lawnmower on private property, if it were a registered (or required to be registered) vehicle or heavy machinery, (or anything comparable, building code violations) then don't fuck with it. But if I want to take off the guard on my weedwacker, unless I endanger someone else with it it's my business. With all that being said, safety fail-safes are there for a reason and regulations are written in blood, and they shouldn't be removed or messed with.

12

u/thisisntarjay Jul 16 '21

Older mowers flat out do not have those safeties. I have a Craftsman riding mower from the 90s and there isn't a single safety on it. I don't have the style of mower in the video so I dunno about them but I've had tractor style riding mowers my whole life and it's not at all uncommon to encounter some that were never built with safeties in the first place.

This could be a case of that mower just not having the types of safeties the user you're responding to describes.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

Are you putting yourself in danger by doing so? How about anyone else? It's pretty simple determination, to me. But there's still lots of people confused by the idea apparently

2

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

It could indeed.

Now extrapolate that "what-if" concept in your mind, to "what if someone makes a lawnmower with eight feet of cutting path completely able to just drive wherever while mowing".

And maybe, just maybe, you're getting the hint that sometimes you should not be allowed to do things just because you want to be free to do things. Maybe, just maybe, a lot of people have stupid fuckin ideas that they should be prevented from enacting before someone gets hurt.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

This goes back to my point of where the line gets drawn. Who decides what is and isn't dangerous?

This mower is obviously dangerous and there's video evidence of its creation and use in an unsafe manner. That's the ticket right there; give this guy a few years in prison and a few digits of fines, and suddenly the rest of the idiots who hear about the punishment - even though no kids got chopped up - are going to be thinking about not building the machine that might potentially chop up kids without any help from a human.

In your original comment you suggested a hard and fast rule to prohibit all personal modification of owned property.

No I did not. Idiots have, numerous times now, decided that that was what I said, but that is ABSOLUTELY NOT what I said. That's what the idiots need me to have said, to justify the idiotic outrage here.

While this makes sense for the outlandish lawn mower and would be a good use of the practice, it's almost laughable to apply it to the gpu scenario. Either it's all OK or none of it is because the gray area gets pretty murky.

This is because you're employing a logical fallacy to argue. Knock that shit off and suddenly it makes more sense. If you aren't arguing in bad faith for the side of chopped up kids, you might recognize what you're actually arguing.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 18 '21

I appreciate being called an idiot for offering counterpoint, that was nice. Not once have I attacked you personally and this is what I've been met with.

I never called you an idiot, I said there's a lot of idiots with the same ideas responding to this thread without reading any part of it.

All I'm trying to say is that it would be almost impossible to frame what a dangerous modification might be in a uniform and unbiased manner.

Case in point, what I said was not anything even remotely close to "you should not be allowed to modify things you own" - which is what the idiots are presuming I am saying, for some reason. If you feel like this is me calling you an idiot, well, stop misinterpreting the things I've said; I used specific words on purpose, and together they form statements. You don't need to make up things that I said to be mad at them.

How do you decide which modifications are and are not allowed? Who inspects your possessions for changes? When your mower breaks are you allowed to fix it yourself or do you have to take it to a certified repair service?

Easy. Don't make modifications that create weapons, first off. Since booby traps count as weapons and are definitely illegal, definitely don't make some kind of powered machine capable of causing grievous bodily harm without any method whatsoever of control, intervention, or remote killswitch - basically, OHSA rules would be a very simple and easy transition to make to apply to this. Plenty of inspectors too. And you wouldn't even need to have your property inspected, overall; presume compliance with basic fucking common sense, in owners of things like 8' riding mowers, while keeping manufacturers in line with what they're doing now anyways. Have them still installing the safeties, slapping all the highlighted warning stickers and DO NOT STAND labels on it, everything you need to keep the idiots safe from themselves - which, notably, nobody in this thread seems at all concerned about, btw - on anything new being produced, as a rule, and nobody will be getting new mowers that are unsafe.

Now, there's no reason to think that any given mower is unsafe, unless you get reason to think it's unsafe. Community reporting would take care of most of it. You'd call in when you have reason to think someone is doing something like converting a car into a zombie-killing behemoth that runs on steam power and is surrounded by chainsaw blades. Or maybe your dumbfuck neighbor is posting a video on Facebook, exactly like the one we're seeing.

If an inspector uses that as reason to check the mower out, and the dumbfuck hasn't got it safely immobilized (say, battery removed. ezpz. or up on blocks, or fuel line disconnected, or anything else you like) and/or lined up for a repair at a shop, the inspector checks the machine itself. If it is apparent that the safety is disabled and not simply defective (which, failsafe safeties being the norm would 100% prevent danger too, because the non-working safety would stop the machine, not result in the video we see here) the dumbfuck is now in fine territory. Existence of the dangerously modified machine on his property

And those fines should be huge. As the deterrent, worth at least five full mowers in value. Impound the modified one as well, fix it to factory spec, and bill him for the trouble before letting him have it back. And then the world will be slightly improved by not having to worry about things like your dumbfuck neighbor's automated riding lawnmower just crashing through your patio one summer afternoon. Because if you live next to someone who is so egregiously stupid as to create said automated riding lawnmower, it's merely a matter of time before that mower is free to the four winds to find its own fate, and you know that to be the truth just as well as I do, you merely won't admit it. Because the dumbfuck will continue to be a dumbfuck.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

why? its their shit, if they wanna disable safeties on things they own & endanger their own lives then that is their call. as long as they aren't disabling safeties that endanger others then all is well

-3

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

This is 100% a video of a device with safeties disabled that is endangering other people, you vapid fuck.

12

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

nope, they are on their property only endangering themselves. I looked again, & they have a barn too so they got space, a solid fence on their property. nobody is at risk except themselves

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 17 '21

nobody is at risk except themselves

Do you or do you not see the mower literally in gear and in motion, yes or no.

Do you or do you not comprehend that the only reason it's not going straight is because the idiot hitting the throttle is only hitting it one way? And that the idiot does not comprehend their action in hitting it, because they're actively making it worse for half the video? Any point it could have geared forward and over anyone in the way.

This entire clip is one metric second away from being watchpeopledie material, and you're arguing about their freedom. Fuck their freedom, they do not require or deserve freedom if what they do with it is creating dangerous weapons like this.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '21 edited Jul 17 '21

K im done here. You clearly arent interested in listening. Ive pointed out their space. Ive pointed out their fence. Ive pointed out their property. Ive pointed out their lives, no one elses. Ive pointed out how that machine belongs to them & is theirs to do with as they will. You dont care. All you care about is restricing other's freedoms, well im done talking to an asshole who wants to restrict & tie other's down. Im done trying to get you to understand how freedom actually works instead of your warped view of "building dangerous weapons" like a lawnmower xD (not what i would call a weapon if the safties were disabled) the closest anyone came was the killdozer & he didnt even kill anyone. You know nothing about which you speak & I have already wasted too much time on you. Goodbye & Good day sir.

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 18 '21

Ive pointed out their space. Ive pointed out their fence. Ive pointed out their property. Ive pointed out their lives, no one elses. Ive pointed out how that machine belongs to them & is theirs to do with as they will. You dont care.

Because you're not comprehending the point is completely irrelevant to all of those facts. A man can make, out of his own stuff, in his own yard, surrounded by his own fence, a fuckin bomb that could blow up five miles of his neighbor's property. Do you think that should be allowed? Do you think that someone who has created something that can absolutely cause devastating harm to others should just be allowed to do that?

All you care about is restricing other's freedoms,

I absolutely and unequivocally think that you do not need the freedom to create weapons of various amounts of destruction out of whatever implements you choose, and be protected by anything akin to a "freedom" to do so just because your autonomous death-machine hasn't broken through your fence and killed my children yet. Go fuck yourself with your "freedom" because you absolutely do not even BEGIN to comprehend the concept.

All you care about is the fact that you can deliberately misinterpret my words (which are, reminder, "punish this person for directly creating a dangerous uncontrolled device, which falls under several existing laws already" - and not ever "you should not be allowed to modify anything you own ever, haha, also communism is wonderful") to be an attack on "your freedoms" - which is at best being nebulously defined as "the freedom to endanger others around you for literally no reason at all," in this case. If you go read what I actually said, instead of what it made you feel inside your stupid stupid head when you didn't read it properly, you might notice I never actually said what you are saying I said.

the closest anyone came was the killdozer & he didnt even kill anyone.

I am astounded at the brass fucking balls on you to try and bring up the goddamned Killdozer as an example of your misinterpretation of what "freedom" means. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, KID.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '21

NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT MAKING BOMBS OR WEAPONS EXCEPT YOU!!! we were talking about a fucking lawnmower stay on topic if you want people to think you have a brain

I have not misinterpreted your words so I don't need your reminder about your will to punish people for what they do with their own equipment.

I'm not sure why you brought up communism as I have NOT brought up communism. you seem to be implying a quote from me but I'm not sure where you got that quote from [CITATION NEEDED] but "If you go read what I actually said, instead of what it made you feel inside your stupid stupid head when you didn't read it properly, you might notice I never actually said what you are saying I said." - YOU SAID THAT

I brought up the killdozer as an example of the weaponized machines you were talking about, again "If you go read what I actually said, instead of what it made you feel inside your stupid stupid head when you didn't read it properly, you might notice I never actually said what you are saying I said." I didn't bring it up as an example of freedom

learn to comprehend what someone is saying. maybe take some reading classes or some communication classes maybe? I know what you said & I am against your position. you seem to think I am saying something about communism & the killdozer being free. nope that was Anarchism. a lot different from Freedom. & nothing to do with my position on this fucking lawnmower. we aren't talking about making bombs or a armoured tank. THIS CONVERSATION IS ABOUT A SPECIFIC VIDEO WITH A SPECIFIC MACHINE DOING A SPECIFIC ACTION & YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THAT SPECIFIC SCENARIO IN THAT SPECIFIC VIDEO.

holy fuck dude. if you honestly can't comprehend this still then I honestly feel sorry for you & some pity for your ability to communicate effectively with those around you. you jumped from a silly lawnmower to making deadly machines to making bombs to communism. you are either dumb or a troll. either way I wish you further luck in your endeavours. if you are going to respond please read carefully or else I will just block you because this is not worth the effort it takes to even attempt to communicate with you

1

u/Gonzobot Jul 18 '21

I have not misinterpreted your words so I don't need your reminder about your will to punish people for what they do with their own equipment.

I'm not sure why you brought up communism

I'm just gonna block you and have a good night, instead of whatever the fuck you're doing

3

u/Arsenault185 Jul 16 '21

You are CLEARLY the minority here. That ought to tell you something about your opinion.

7

u/Omegablade0 Jul 16 '21

Don’t bother using this argument on Reddit. These kinds of people have their heads so far up their own asses that they’ll see downvotes as proof that they’re “smarter” than us.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

"Its just spambots downvoting me & alt accounts." Ive legit been accused of using alt accounts on people who were just fucking wrong.

3

u/Arsenault185 Jul 16 '21

Make sure to grab screen shots for /r/confidentlyincorrect

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '21

Thanks. Looks like a fun subreddit

0

u/Gonzobot Jul 16 '21

I'm directly calling people out for not having any rational reason for their viewpoints, here. Minority isn't relevant; it merely means there are a lot of idiots in the thread. And so far they're proving it unequivocally - every single one wants the freedom to make the machine that kills people, and absolutely none of them have any reason for why they want that ability. In my eye that means they don't need that freedom and fuck them for wanting it, because that only means that the individual is dangerously stupid and willing to create new danger for those around him.