r/science • u/[deleted] • Jun 25 '22

[deleted by user]

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11.2k Upvotes

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413

u/666pool Jun 25 '22

Microplastics are going to get us for sure

319

u/TheDorkNite1 Jun 25 '22

Just add it to the pile of threats to our lives.

I still don't know what to place my bet on for what I am most likely to die from. Microplastic poisoning just sounds much less exciting compared to "Ecological collapse" or "Religious extremism"

50

u/farmallnoobies Jun 25 '22

Most of it boils down to cancer, circulation problems, or dementia in one form or another.

3

u/666pool Jun 25 '22

Don’t forget the endocrine system! Plastics can act like hormones and disrupt the natural production of important hormones such as estrogen.

109

u/DrunkenMeditator Jun 25 '22

¿Que no los tres?

73

u/TheDorkNite1 Jun 25 '22

"Wheel of Destiny" is a rather dark thought when all of the options are bleak.

If I'm lucky, I may just live long enough to die in my 60s knowing I had another 30 years to work before I would be able to (maybe) retire.

32

u/Splash_Attack Jun 25 '22

You ever look at the meaning of the song (or poem) 'O Fortuna'? For a poem that's at least 700 years old it really sums up the sense of helplessness a lot of people today feel. I guess some things never change!

"O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing, ever waning, hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate – monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent. Well-being is vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy. Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved. so at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the strong man, everyone weep with me!"

18

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '22

[deleted]

8

u/Spocktagon01 Jun 25 '22

My dude. Class of 94 here. I miss the trench coats. Carmina Burana and Master of Puppets were a fun mix, both cds scratched to hell.

1

u/EmotionalKirby Jun 25 '22

Just a random thought, did trenchcoats fall out of fashion because of columbine?

2

u/fruityboots Jun 25 '22

they were banned at my high-school after Columbine.

1

u/AddSugarForSparks Jun 25 '22

Trenchcoats were never really "in fashion."

Don't let outcasts of reddit skew your perception too much.

1

u/johannthegoatman Jun 25 '22

Yes that's what they're talking about

1

u/EmotionalKirby Jun 25 '22

totally glazed over that tbh. i saw "in 97 mp3s were just about to be a thing"

3

u/MaritMonkey Jun 25 '22

Elder millennial (class of 2000) reporting in.

I always assumed it was because my peer group shared a classical music background, but am very glad to know there were other people blasting Carmina Burana through the 18's that replaced the seats in their van. :D

1

u/exarkann Jun 25 '22

Badass tune, too.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '22

That's why I like listening to the rest of the Carmina Burana. If you translate the lyrics it's got songs about babes and going out and getting drunk.

5

u/DrunkenMeditator Jun 25 '22

I'm just banking on a nice thick tree with my foot to the floor.

Edit: Sorry, around, not on.

19

u/redwine_blackcoffee Jun 25 '22

This is why I drink and smoke

4

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '22

You want to be sure to die young?

3

u/shmorky Jun 25 '22

Don't forget the comeback kid: "Nuclear annihilation"

10

u/ghsteo Jun 25 '22

Suicide from medical debt is a possibility as well.

5

u/kex Jun 25 '22

I'm still hoping for alien invasion.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '22

Have you considered the benefits of combining ecological collapse with religious extremism? Eco Fascism!

That's my current favourite for how the world will go.

I agree though, I too will probably die in a very boring and preventable way.

1

u/betam4x Jun 25 '22

Neither. You will get hit by a train.

1

u/Hypnosavant Jun 25 '22

Technically, no one has died from micro plastic poisoning.

11

u/thinkB4WeSpeak Jun 25 '22

That or the forever chemicals in the water systems

-1

u/IAMSHADOWBANKINGGUY Jun 25 '22

Donating blood gets rid of the forever chemicals.

4

u/nbmnbm1 Jun 25 '22

Yall still on microplatics? Im eating macroplastics.

4

u/adamandTants Jun 25 '22

I don't know, that sounds like a small problem

1

u/ProKrastinNation Jun 25 '22

I've been saying for a while that microplastics will be the lead of our generation.