Obviously untrustworthy person: “Hey, kids whom I’ve never met before. Wanna go do something obviously stupid and not in your own interest? Something transparently harmful to you with no stated benefit? For no other reason than because I said to do it?”
Kids: “Do we?! C’mon, let’s go already!”
Narrator: “The alien commie nazis were so clever and subtle that nobody could see through their devious ploy!”
I was once a teen. My favorite pastime was accepting terrible advice from practically strangers. When some rando I’d met mere hours before would suggest, “hey! Let’s go try this stupid, but fun-sounding, thing,” my answer was usually “yes!”
I think anyone who says they were otherwise has forgetten just how unbearably boring most of our teenage years were.
For millions of years, human teenagers were actually unable to decline any invitations from strangers. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Nancy Reagan made the most shocking discovery in the entire history of human psychology. Teenagers could, in fact, just say “no”.
Ah, comic book subtlety.
Obviously untrustworthy person: “Hey, kids whom I’ve never met before. Wanna go do something obviously stupid and not in your own interest? Something transparently harmful to you with no stated benefit? For no other reason than because I said to do it?”
Kids: “Do we?! C’mon, let’s go already!”
Narrator: “The alien commie nazis were so clever and subtle that nobody could see through their devious ploy!”
I was once a teen. My favorite pastime was accepting terrible advice from practically strangers. When some rando I’d met mere hours before would suggest, “hey! Let’s go try this stupid, but fun-sounding, thing,” my answer was usually “yes!”
I think anyone who says they were otherwise has forgetten just how unbearably boring most of our teenage years were.
My new friend wants me to ride on a freight train, what an amazing day!
… and that’s the story of when we climbed the tallest building in town.
What did we get from it? I dunno, yelled at by the town cop? Perhaps an increase in upper body strength?
For millions of years, human teenagers were actually unable to decline any invitations from strangers. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Nancy Reagan made the most shocking discovery in the entire history of human psychology. Teenagers could, in fact, just say “no”.