Editor’s note: this is a post about American Independence Day celebrations
existentialmemes
Alright, I’m going to launch explosives around your house. For several hours. Yes it is dangerous and terrible for wildlife and the environment. And yes your pets will get sick from eating the debris and you will feel terrorized inside your own home.
No you can’t opt out of it. Everyone is doing it and frankly it’s weird that you don’t want to.
No you can’t be the one launching the explosives you need a license for that. You can however launch these marginally smaller ones though. Yeah just whenever you want. 2am sounds great.
So anyway, fireworks were a mistake and it’s never too early to start reminding you of that.
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I’d happily see consumer fireworks banned. If people like them so much then there are plenty of organized displays which have way better shit than you can buy at Walmart, and I know roughly when they’re happening so I can turn the TV up loud, close my windows and keep my pets from being too traumatized.
What I can’t stand is the random 3AM explosions that sounds like the start of WWIII. If you’re one of those people, fuck you. Sincerely.
Well, you could always be the reason they get banned… just gota get creative with it?
I promise you if that ban happened people will buy gun powder and build their own. Now they’re more dangerous and made in Jimmy’s garage
You may say ban blackpowder, but then you run into the 2nd amendment lobby
Idiots making home-made explosives sounds like a problem that can solve itself eventually.
You’d be quite surprised. Making fireworks isn’t all that complicated.
Of course more would die, but not enough to eliminate the practice
Yeah, just look at how well the Dutch firework ban works. Or how well the German one during covid lock downs worked.
Although in those cases the fireworks were only imported illegally from other EU countries, and not homemade, so it’s not a perfect comparison
The Dutch firework ban is only starting this year. During covid there was a ban and while it wasn’t totally quiet, it was a lot more doable. A lot less people in the hospitals too: about one third of the previous year. Most people do follow the law.
I get really tired of people saying it won’t work anyway. The only reason to say that is to oppose a ban. Instead try to persuade Poland and Italy to stop selling bombs to citizens.
Yeah the free sale of blackpowder is the issue, and that is tied to our general gun control issues. Our Supreme Court has been taking a hard stance on pro-gun rights
Counterpoint
Playing with fire and blowing things up is fun if done responsibly. Really, given the kinds of annoyances that are legal year-round (drunkards, loud exhausts, barking dogs, late-night parties, yelling loudly etc.), it really isn’t that bad to have fire & explosions once per year for like… two hours. (Reiterating, responsibly)
I don’t know about The North Americas, but in AU all of those things you listed are illegal here. Except the loud exhaust. You have to really piss someone off to get reported, but if your dog barks every night you’ll get a knock on the door with a mandatory dog training leaflet. Disruptive parties at night are tolerated occasionally by neighbours, but if it happens every Friday for 6 hours you might get told to turn it down by police. Same with belligerent or disorderly behaviour. I think the law is don’t wake people up between 7pm–7am mon–sat. But also the police here won’t attack you, so it’s more annoying than dangerous for the recipient.
Do you guys have noise disruption laws like this? Genuinely curious.
We do, but it takes more than fireworks.
Yeah fireworks are allowed here too, but only when you would “expect” fireworks if that makes sense. “Firework displays and community events” are exempt. I think it’s pretty common sense whether something’s ok or not though. Like randomly popping off fireworks every night at 2am would get shut down. Definitely an entire month of fireworks is insanity. But I hear fireworks every major holiday like Easter, Christmas, new year’s, Chinese New year, etc. The dogs, cats, birds, possums, everything goes mad like there’s a bush fire.
it was nice for a few years. i’m not sure whether it was better enforcement or mass trauma after the town nearly burned down, but all the nighttime fireworks just didn’t happen for a couple years.
Many regions in America do have those kinds of laws, but the cops are too busy shooting our dogs and pulling over minorities to enforce them
two hours
if the idiots would actually do that, it wouldn’t be a problem. instead it’s a two week window of booms and flaming bullshit DURING A HEATWAVE IN WILDFIRE SEASON.
how fucking dumb do they have to be, that this needs to be explained?
Where I am from, civilian fireworks are pretty much happening only during NYE. It is roughly 2 hours. The rest of the year fireworks are pretty much happening on some special shows or celebrations. You almost never hear fireworks the rest of the year.
Where I live now people like to shoot fireworks at random. I used to live near private small garden area and fireworks would fire on weekly basis all year long. It is even forbidden to do it at random, but that is not stopping people for some reason.
Wanted to add also that in my homeland fireworks are sold typically in hunting shops and I guess are strictly regulated while at the country I am at right now you can buy loads if fireworks in a grocery store if some sort of a festive celebration is around the corner.
Where I am from, civilian fireworks are pretty much happening only during NYE. It is roughly 2 hours. The rest of the year fireworks are pretty much happening on some special shows or celebrations. You almost never hear fireworks the rest of the year.
oof sounds lovely.
Where I live now people like to shoot fireworks at random. I used to live near private small garden area and fireworks would fire on weekly basis all year long. It is even forbidden to do it at random, but that is not stopping people for some reason.
in past years it’s been like this. I think that they tightened some of the sales because the world cup is in town, but we still have mortars and other shit going off two weeks before the 4th :|
there’s too few consequences for irresponsible assholes.
I love fireworks! I like going to the big displays, I like hearing neighbors setting them off in the distance. It reminds us that even thought things kinda suck now, we can still have some fun.
This country has turned so rigid, it is so disappointing. No loud music, no firewoeks, no dance clubs, no outward displays of anything. Just go home buy stuff online and watch your screens quietly.
One night a year… Heh. It’s been going on for a month already at my sisters’ place
It depends on enforcement. Where I live it’s pretty strictly enforced. I do wish the big fireworks show was on the edge of town rather than in the middle of it but I still want the show. Just as responsibly as possible.
Where do you live where it’s only two hours?!?
Large town in Sweden. I’d say 95% is within the legal time span in our neighborhood and from what I’ve seen elsewhere it’s fairly similar.
This is excepting no-go zones & rougher neighborhoods, but in some of these areas they literally attack first responders with fireworks so I’m not counting them.
Okay then let’s do it only in winter when it gets dark early enough.
For some reason all the holidays happen when the day is long except new years which for has fireworks happening at midnight.
The laws are not made to minimize the downsides.
Agreed, but it is interesting to hear about its impact on the environment. Obviously it spooks pets and livestock. But what is it doing to the local flora and fauna? In some situations it probably kills birds through constant stress. And what about trees that are normally used to peace and quiet? They’re probably deaf now.
Oh honey. You think it’s for 2 hours? It’s roughly once an hour from the middle of June to the middle of July
I love this time of year. It drowns out the sound of gunfire.
fr, oh to live such a privileged life that the worst noise pollution you have to deal with is fireworks a couple of times per year.
Where do you live? That’s excessive.
Worst I’ve seen in rural Michigan, is occasional fireworks the week before and after the 4th.
Now that I’m in the suburbs? Maybe a day before and after. Eh, could be worse.
Kansas baby, deep red territory. It sucks here lmao
Doesn’t have to be deep red. Sacramento is fairly purple and they’ve been at it too. Same as every year.
Well, that’s how it is in my country, and mostly respected outside no-go zones :)
Slightly different per municipality, but in general it’s permitted 23-01 around the new year. Outside that, you need to apply to the police for permission.
Especially barking dogs.
All of whose owners, who let them bark 24/7 the other 364 days a year, go into full meltdown mode on social media over their poor pupper’s right to be catered to every 4th of July.
I like fireworks. I don’t like when people continue to set them off at odd hours weeks after the 4th.
I think complaining about fireworks on a day of celebration is some grumpy old NIMBY shit.
I agree. There’s a time and place. It’s the 4th, and maybe new years
Honest question: What the fuck do American’s have to celebrate?
Not being British. It’s all we got left
Yo mama
Yeah caring about the environment is nimbyism…
You ever taken a look at your local level politics? It’s mostly NIMBYs trying to use environmental law not to protect the environment, but to protect their property value and keep out “undesirables.”
They’re also trying to shut down night clubs, roadblock any method of transportation that isn’t car-oriented, enact curfews, and generally just suck all the joy out of life like these no-fireworks having fun police.
The primary perpetrators of environmental law in my city are people who genuinely care about it.
Fire works are not the same as the other things you have listed(well, not the car part); as they do actually have a substantiable effect on the environment and local air quality.
My argument is what the fuck are you celebrating? Did you get enough of your freedums this year?
As a white property owning male it’s my day of freedom 🦅🦅🦅
Okay, now say that about literally any holiday aside from the one you personally dislike and see how it holds up.
Halloween. Celebrating recruitment into the skeleton army. Duh? What an insane take. My valid criticisms are invalid since other holidays exist.
You used a bullshit apples to oranges comparison for your bullshit criticism. You didn’t say New Years or Juneteenth, actual fireworks holidays, because it highlights how stupid your “get over it” argument is.
I’m just going to chalk this up to either you misreading, misunderstanding, or just being a fucking idiot.
My argument is what the fuck are you celebrating? Did you get enough of your freedums this year?
I really have no idea what you were saying then. Are you saying people shouldn’t celebrate the 4th because a rapist is currently in charge? Or that doing it every year ad infinitum is too much?
Either way I stand by what I said. Let people have their fireworks and stop being a grumpy old fuck about it.
Sure buddy.
Ok, this bums me out. I love fireworks and the 4th of July. I have such fond memories of it as a kid and am building memories with my own kiddos. Our whole neighborhood gets together and sets them off, and grills and hangs out. It is a whole (wholesome) thing.
There’s plenty of fireworks that aren’t a problem. Fountains and Spinners and sparklers are rad as hell, and honestly as a kid I hated the ones that are just really loud for no reason
Those are mostly what we do. No fire crackers. My kiddos are autistic, so ear protection is a must, just in case there is a loud one. But they love it and are even starting to love the louder ones as they get older.
Once again, a few assholes ruining it for everyone else …
All the cool smaller stuff was banned long ago in the UK. ‘Items of Erratic Flight’ including all the ground spinners, helicopters, bottle rockets etc. The consumer stuff these days is so boring. What would’ve made so much more sense is to keep the smaller ‘novely’ type fireworks that are typically relatively low-noise, and much better suited to the relatively small gardens here.
Instead we have these relatively powerful cakes that should have a 25m safety radius that almost nobody actually has in their garden.
Many countries have a unique style of firework making that is part of their cultural heritage, ours is almost completely lost as everything is imported from China now, we outsource the danger of production to child labour in Luiyang. Its a sad state of affairs.
Our whole neighborhood
Even the pets? The people with PTSD?
I mean, it is a small neighborhood. 🤷 There are pets, but they appear u bothered. My dog, for example, has no idea they are happening. The hot dogs on the other hand…
I have fun memories of my country’s major holiday blackface character, and yet somehow I don’t feel the need to pass that tradition on.
The nice thing about fun is that you need almost nothing other than other people’s company to have fun. You can play with sticks or pebbles or flowers or snow or lines in the sand or with just your body. If you’re feeling fancy, get a ball or some instruments or a deck of cards or pen and paper. All you need to do is coordinate with your community to go outside together (and prevent any roaming murder machines from murdering people).
Yes, fireworks are exactly like blackface.
🙄
Doesn’t change the fact that it’s bad for the environment and animals, and it’s a fuck to of noise polution.
Heh, I live in a racially mixed neighborhood where the Mexicans help the rest of the us find the “good stuff”. I have been in an actual war zone but my neighborhood is at WW1 level amounts of black powder and badly made improvised explosives with copper, magnesium, and titanium sprinkled in for seasoning. Last year there were teenagers with eight inch mortars which I cannot convey how insanely illegal those are.
Kind of amazing we haven’t set the neighborhood or even a single house on fire now that I think about it.
Not so much illegal as commercial. For professional use only.
PSA do not mess with additives other than Titanium for salutes. Ideally do not mess with improvised explosives at all but if you really are hell-bent on upping the noise, a string-bound blackpowder maroon is the way to go. Hello interpol my old friend.
The real way to get on the list is to give advice on how to acquire salt peter or acquiring in bulk precursors like ammonium nitrate (or is it nitrite, not going to look that up)
I love fireworks shows done responsibly, our local show is on a beach away from most of civilization and wild life.
That said I think a drone show is cooler, better for the environment, and would love to see densely populated towns replace them with drones.
On a beach… Away from wild life? What?
No you don’t understand, they simply moved outside of the environment.
A wave? In the OCEAN? Chance in a million.
Beaches around here are out in the open with a treeline that isn’t close to shore, most animals aren’t going to be around due to the threat of predators, with the exceptions of insects.
The area is similar to Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, though not as far removed from everything and on a lake, rather than on an ocean.
Yeah, I would never expect wildlife to be around a lake, probably no impact at all
Blowing up drones is cooler than blowing up fireworks depending on the drone
We used to hide in the basement with our pup and watch a movie. She could still hear the fireworks, but it seemed to take the edge off.
Current pup has gone deaf in his old age. Before then, he’d growl and bark at both thunder and fireworks. Now he just sleeps through it.
have a hound that couldn’t give two fucks about the cacophony. also have a staffie that will try to dig through the linoleum in the basement trying to get away from the cacophony. fucking bullshit rah rah patriotism, and some poor kid is gonna get third degree burns or lose most of a hand, whoopee 'merika
Fireworks are generally not allowed near airports, so getting a room at an airport hotel might be a good way to g give you and your pup some peace and quiet. Just a tip.
haha I live miles from Boeing field and SeaTac. Nope.
Fireworks apparently cancelled at SeaTac?
https://jetmagazine.co.uk/seatac-fourth-of-july-celebrations-canceled-what-happened/
I’m a lot less irritated by the pro displays because they happen on the holiday.
It’s the endless boom of assholes setting off mortars that shake the windows for weeks before and weeks after.
Launching fireworks had been banned in Kyiv for the last few years, for hopefully obvious reasons.
At least one good thing has come from it.
14th of July is the day in France for fireworks, there’s the fireworks set by the city for 30min and after that everyone goes back home, dont have people setting them off all night 🤷
Celebrating america’s freedom by triggering all of our traumatized veterans with inescapable rapid-fire explosions for three weeks straight!
Who the fuck even thought of this?
It makes more sense when you realize that Americans don’t actually give a shit about their veterans, they just like virtue signalling like they do. The VA would be in much better shape if they actually cared.
Oh, trust me, I know. Especially republicans…
Who the fuck even thought of this?
No one has ever accused Americans of being smart.
This is america, everyone here either doesn’t care about or actively hates our own veterans. You got the right (red) who only likes them while they’re overseas killing middle easterners, you got the right (blue) who doesn’t think about them at all, and you have the left who think we’re the villains in every armed conflict since WWII (“Kuwait? What’s that?”)
Caring about veterans makes you a tiny minority in this country
Nothing to celebrate anymore.
Every year for a dozen years our dog would get so traumatized by fireworks that you could literally hear her teeth chattering. We’d turn up loud music in the house, and make her a bed in a closet, but she’d still bolt out and look for anywhere where it was less noisy or safer (there wasn’t such a place, but we couldn’t convince her of that). She’d jump into the bathtub or claw her way into a different closet, only to bolt away to find a better spot at the next explosion. And neighbors would light off the occasional firework until like 2 or 3 in the morning. We couldn’t go off and leave her. I grew to really hate the 4th.
She died a couple months ago, so I guess that’s no longer a problem for us personally, but I know we aren’t the only ones with sensitive pets.
Xanax. It’s a good thing.
Benadryl if you can’t get none. Plus the other stuff you mentioned.
Benadryl, or diphenhydramine hcl, doesn’t really help much for stress. It’s true that it can make dogs sleepy, and if given soon enough before the fireworks they may sleep through them. The problem is that some dogs have the opposite reaction and become hyperactive. Hyperactive and stressed will just make for a bad evening for everyone.
It is best to talk to your vet in the days before the fireworks start. A prescription is likely to be a better option for your pet. Talking to your vet first will also help to make sure you get the dosing right for your dog.
Tried Benadryl and it didn’t help. Didn’t want to do anything to strong, but maybe should have. Doesn’t matter any longer.
well, should it come up again for some reason, talk to the vet about xanax. And either way it’s just part of the whole package, which also includes sound isolation and comforting peoples around, as you were already doing. (In case anyone is reading this like a pill will fix it - not as such, no)
I know someone who used to literally move and go on vacation with their dog to a quieter place during fireworks season… Poor things
I can understand that. We had two dogs, three cats, and two birds - so that was harder to do.
This sounds like a grumpy old man ranting about “kids these days” lol let people have their fun.
Let people have their peace and quiet.
How often do you get disturbed by fireworks?
I usually only hear them at halloween or at new years eve
In my area it’s multiple days before and after most holidays, at times ranging from 6pm to 2am. Hell, this past year someone set off fireworks at midnight Christmas eve.
I’ve been having to deal with fireworks since Friday and it won’t stop until after next weekend with the most absurd taking place Friday and Saturday this week. I don’t removed but it does kind of suck I can’t just sit out on my front porch in the evenings/night with my dog throwing him his ball for a couple weeks every summer. He seems accustomed to the smaller stuff but I’m not going to risk him running off so our routine just has to shift a little but it’s too hot to be doing that with him before it gets late right now. I guess I feel like it would be entitled behavior to expect so many other people to behave differently just because it’s not something I really care about anymore. I used to think they were cool as a kid.
it’s the 4th of July weekend my dude.
also, it was just Juneteenth
and in the UK they have the 5th of November
I’m not British or American, I’m just wondering how often that’s an occurrence.
apologies, your post read as a rhetorical question- but also, Diwali, Eid… there are plenty of celebrations around the globe throughout the year
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If you want that deeply to be away from people, go live deep in the woods for something.
But I don’t want to be away from people? I just don’t want bombs going off outside my house, which is generally considered normal 364 days out of the year
Living around other people involves them doing things you don’t want them to sometimes.
Living around other people also involves a certain level of respect for them and their presence. This goes both ways. If you want to lit up bombs you are free to go out deep in the woods for it (…well, except you’ll also freak put the poor wildlife there)
Careful dude. The folk on here really don’t like being told that
I think you have the crux of it, it’s normal 364 days of the year. Lots of folks like fireworks and they mostly limit it to one day annually.
Honestly at this point in my life when I think about fireworks I mostly just have a hard time getting over how expensive they are. But also, they are noisy and sometimes I get dragged out in crap weather to not enjoy them. I’m not a huge fan.
I also was also a kid once though and remember a time when they were the coolest shit on earth.
I can put up with the rare day and let others have their fun 🤷 just my take.
If I punch you in the face once a year for my own amusement, you wouldn’t be saying “it’s ok because he doesn’t punches me in the face 364 days a year”
I’m sorry, but are you trying to compare the sound of fireworks to getting punched in the face?
I suspect the point they were trying to make is that “only one day a year” doesn’t automatically excuse behavior. They used a rhetorical device to help illustrate that point by highlighting a scenario that is clearly not acceptable even one day a year.
Is this seriously the level of reading comprehension we’re working right now for real?
Let children lose fingers and get blinded.
Usually agreed, but July 5th I’ll be shopping for some discounted boomies.
They will be on stand by to celebrate a long overdue deposition when the day finally fucking comes.
What if it happens on the 4th? America 250 indeed.
Fireworks start early then I guess
Then we’ll all celebrate together.
Just because society is okay with it, doesn’t make all the issues miraculously go away.
Air quality is shit for a long while after displays, especially if you live within view of multiple displays.
Plastic waste and other garbage leaving just from the display alone, to say nothing of the crowds that gather for them.
Animal life around the displays get to deal with the sounds and percussion types that literally gave ww1 soldiers ptsd. They are also animals and have no idea what’s happening. Wildlife nearby gets screwed over every 4th. Not to mention animals with sensitive hearing like dogs. Hell, I live many miles and hills away from the closest display I could find with my drone last year, yet my dog was still terrified.
Sorry if that’s being a party popper, but at one point in time, public executions were considered entertainment and I’m sure there were a few party poopers who pointed out how barbaric it was. It didn’t make them wrong to point it out.
My MIL…
