Suicide should be a human right. You should have to prove that you’re of sound mind and that you’ve considered and tried all other options. But once you’ve proven you’re not manic, psychotic, intoxicated, being coerced, etc and no other option will reasonably bring you peace you should be able to do it and get help making sure you don’t get stuck halfway or receive comfort care only until it’s over. Also every psych unit I’ve worked requires suspension of a DNR which terrifies me for involuntary admits.

I’m sure I have a bunch, but for the fediverse I think the most controversial is that I think neopronouns are a bad idea. DISCLAIMER I support queer folks, and I also use neopronouns when requested (because there’s zero reason to be a dick about it), but I think everybody would be better off without them.

The entire purpose of pronouns is to offer a quick, generic (i. e. non-individual) way of referring to people or objects without using their names. Using neopronouns which have to be communicated and learned first is the opposite of that. So in my view they’re not really pronouns, just additional names one has to learn for a person.

I think the most sensible way of accommodating all genders is using whatever pronouns are present in the language (usually male and female, or a generic pronoun), plus a non-binary pronoun if needed, like singular they in English.

It’s controversial in countries like Australia…

We need to standardise English, and we need to accept the US won in spelling.

Conversely, the US needs to accept they lost the metric/imperial war and start changing their shit to be less stupid.

What the fuck is 90 stone? How long is 2.5 miles? Pounds = lbs? How? (Okay US doesn’t use stone)

Don’t get me started on the “19 hamburgers is equal to 5 eagles” memes.

Also, everyone needs to accept the ISO date format.

YYYY-MM-DD

You’re objectively wrong if you think any other format is comparable.

David Bowie is overrated.

• Some people absolutely need to be killed for the greater good of society.

Most controversial opinion I’m willing to share:

I think we should replace incarceration for certain crimes with corporal punishment, such as canning. Ideally we would build the agony booth from the mirror universe of Star Trek.

Incarceration is overly harmful to the future of the offender. Incarceration is expensive for society. Authorities hesitate charging people with crimes for these reasons. Corporal punishment solves this.

As long as there is no long term damage, I believe the physical pain is more human than the lasting harm going to prison can cause.

Unless you extensively have knowledge and experience with another country’s politics, you shouldn’t comment on anything besides humans rights violations or similar. You’re likely to make a grossly ill informed assessment or opinion that you’re regret. As well stereotyping is abound with such situations.

drunk driving is a skill you can get good at.

The placement of pineapple on pizza is subjective

Vegans shouldn’t have pets. If the ethos of veganism is consent for the things others give then it should be thought of as slavery for them to own any, especially if they feed a carnivorous animal a vegan food alternative.

Nudity alone - without the intent to shock or arouse - shouldn’t be taboo, criminal, or censored.

Everyone (including kids and teens) should have full bodily autonomy. This includes how they express gender. Parents should not be allowed to circumcise/mutilate their kids’ genitals for reasons that aren’t medically necessary, nor should they be allowed to lay their hands on their kids in a violent way (and yes, that includes “only” spanking). Parents who hit/spank their kids should be charged with assault and child abuse.

Kids and teens having basic rights might not be controversial here, but in the rural area that I’m from, it certainly is.

Voting requires citizenship. But citizenship itself should require more than just existing.

If we look back to Greek and Roman democracy, it was true that every citizen got a vote. But the people who were citizens was much more stringent.

The basic idea of the ars liberalis or Liberal Arts translates literally as “The work of freedom”. Exercising your right to partake in a democracy required that a person be knowledgable about history, civics, rhetoric, politics, philosophy. Without that knowledge, you were not allowed a vote in how things are run.

Essentially, you had to know what you were voting on.

Unfortunately, that meant that in essence only the rich landowners could be citizens because they were the only ones with the time and money to get educated while the underclasses were too busy working to suvive.

But in the modern age, where public schooling is a thing, we should be able to figure out a way to make such a thing work. Nowadays, the only thing keeping people ignorant is choice. And if you make the choice to be ignorant, you should forfeit your right to have a say in the governing of your nation.

This is a tricky subject to approach, since it can be reduced to a really hurtful or even misogynist slogan, but I’d like to see more physical comedy in media involving women. Think running into walls, smacked by a spinning plank, or depending on the cartoon believability of the media, crushed by a falling piano.

I started a longer writeup of why that’s “important” to me but before I bend over backwards to defend it I’m curious what others think.

Stupid people exist.

I mean this actively: stupid people aren’t theoretical brings who exist outside this discussion we are having here. Many people in this thread qualify. There’s regular stupid, which is just most people. That’s the benign kind of stupid which maybe is indicative of a lack of training or bad circumstances for learning in earlier life. You can also find double down stupid in this thread. The flat earth conspiracy, “consciousness” mysticism, and can barely craft a sentence kind of stupid.

The general public is even worse.

People are all willing to admit that stupid exists, but most won’t point the finger. Close your eyes and point and you’ll hit someone, bless their hearts.