Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Debate Which Traditions Should Have Never Existed

People Debate Which Traditions Should Have Never Existed
Andre Jackson on Unsplash

People like to say that there is nothing wrong with routine or tradition and generally there isn't... until there is, of course. The truth is there are myriad traditions out there actually inhumane and antithetical to human life.

Meanwhile, other traditions (like public proposals) are much more innocent but pretty annoying depending on who you ask.

Why not toss them all out and start over again, eh?


People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor bewarethechameleon asked the online community:

"What traditions should have never existed?"

"Those pricks..."

"Those pricks that slam a birthday cake in someone’s face."

Lumbers33

If I paid good money for a wedding cake, I'd be so, so annoyed if someone did this to me. Especially on a suit!

"Brilliant marketing..."

"Diamond engagement ring being X months' salary. Brilliant marketing, but utterly ridiculous. I say this as a girl who isn't inherently against sparkly rocks."

usuyukisou

Yeah... there's no reason why they should be expensive. Going in debt for an engagement and/or a wedding sounds absurd to me.

"Every bride..."

"Wedding industry. Every bride is a princess all of a sudden."

baloneycologne

Even those who aren't necessarily trying to be fancy find that it ends up costing a fortune anyway. Backyard weddings are the way to go.

"Removing..."

"Removing a woman's clitoris in some African countries."

PrimaryTry5326

Female genital humiliation is horrible. A horrendous practice that traumatizes young women the world over.

"Those ass backward cultures..."

"Those ass-backward cultures where it's 'tradition' for a bride-to-be's in-laws (usually male in-laws) check her for 'purity 'That needs to stop."

cullymama

A few years ago, the rapper T.I. revealed that he would go to gynecologist appointments with his then-18-year-old daughter to "check her hymen," an admission that exposed him to immediate criticism.

"Honor killings."

"Honor killings."

"The concept of honor killing doesn’t add up. Someone does something that smears your family name so you decide to off them. And this achieves…what? Now you’ve got a murderer in your family."

EveryStranger9696

The idea behind it is that if your family or family's name has been desecrated in any way, it is the honorable thing to do to defend your family in retaliation. If nobody in the family fought back, it is seen as being weak.

"Over the top..."

"Over the top public proposals."

Selinakyle91

I think I would be mortified. Putting someone on the spot like that is like giving them no other option BUT to say yes.

"Foot binding."

"Foot binding. One of the few things the Chinese communists did right was exterminating that practice."

tripwire7

When I was a child, I read Homesick: My Own Story, a memoir by the author Jean Fritz, who spent the first twelve years of her life in China. At multiple points, she spoke about her amah, a woman by the name Lin Nai-Nai.

The descriptions of Lin Nai-Nai's bound feet have stayed with me all these years later.

"No one on the internet..."

"Over-the-top baby gender reveals. No one on the internet cares about your baby's gender, so stop trying to overdo it to go viral."

JVHazard

I have never met anyone who has actually done one of these and I don't think I want to.

"I predict..."

"Influencers putting their kids on social media for entertainment's sake without their consent. I predict 10-15 years from now there will be a ton of court cases of grown up kids of influencers suing their parents."

carissadraws

Data privacy is going to be next major technological revolution, mark my words.

What a world we live in. While some traditions are humorous, even harmless, others are detrimental, even cruel to human life. What would it take to change them? The answer is undoubtedly complex.

Have some observations of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

hantavirus illustration
Joao Luiz Bulcao/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Infectious Diseases Expert Speaks Out After MAGA Makes Predictably Unfounded Claim About Hantavirus

For those unaware, ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic medication used to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms as well as external parasites like lice.

Parasites are organisms that depend on a host to both survive and spread. There are three main types of parasites that call humans home—the endoparasites protozoa and helminths (worms), which cause infection inside the body, and ectoparasites, which cause infection superficially within or on the skin.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hayden Panettiere
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Hayden Panettiere Just Publicly Came Out As Bisexual—And She Explained Why She Waited So Long

Scream and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is soon releasing her memoir This is Me: A Reckoning, and according to an interview with US Weekly, she almost didn't write it.

Despite many of her characters being confident, kind, and often bubbly in nature, Panettiere's life at home was riddled with dark moments, including tremendous public pressure, abuse, drug addiction, and tragic loss.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brian Niccol
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company

The CEO Of Starbucks Just Gave A Mind-Numbing Defense For Charging $9 For Coffee 'Experience'—And People Aren't Having It

What's the absolute most you'd ever agree to pay for a coffee? If you said the absurd amount of $9, you're apparently Starbucks' ideal customer.

The coffee chain's CEO Brian Niccol is getting dragged on the internet for insisting that $9 is a perfectly reasonable price for a cup of joe.

Keep ReadingShow less
Zohran Mamdani
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani Praised For His Post About Fashion Industry's Unsung Heroes After Skipping Met Gala

Each year, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—dubbed just The Met—hosts an invite-only fundraising gala in New York City, currently boasting a $100,000-a-ticket price tag.

The Met Gala has been called "fashion’s biggest night" with icons of fashion and entertainment rubbing elbows with the uber-wealthy in The Met's Fifth Avenue location on Manhattan's Upper East Side. This year's theme was "Fashion is Art."

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Massie; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Ilhan Omar
Heather Diehl/Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

'Satirical' MAGA Attack Ad Slammed For Using AI To Claim GOP Rep Is In 'Throuple' With AOC And Ilhan Omar

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie and his ex-colleague, former George Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticized a "satirical" attack ad running in Kentucky that claims Massie is in a "throuple" with New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar.

The ad opens with the line, “Thomas Massie caught in a throuple! In Washington, he’s cheating with the Squad on the America First movement,” before showing AI-generated images of Massie holding hands with Omar and sharing dinners with her and Ocasio-Cortez in staged scenes.

Keep ReadingShow less