Anybody want to commiserate on something that sucks?

  • uralsolo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The metric system is fucking bullshit. Craftspeople in every part of the world, building things with their actual hands, had derived useful units of measurement based on their real world experiences - and then a bunch of Fr*nch intellectuals who had never done real labor in their lives decide to derive completely arbitrary units of measurement from universal constants, and we’re all supposed to just go along with it!?

    Fuck the metric system, fuck Europe’s colonial ass exporting its lame bullshit to every corner of the world. My rifle should be measured in Arshin, god damnit.

      • uralsolo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        My problem isn’t the arbitrariness of the unit, it’s the applicability of the unit to real life. Meters make more sense on paper, but I think that the traditional units of measure being based on things we interact with every day made more sense in practice.

        • huf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          that argument is nonense.

          in a sane country that went metric like 200 years ago, you interact with meter long things all the time. 1m is also very much in the human body range of lengths.

          a foot or an inch arent really more body-centric than a meter and a centimeter. so you get absolutely nothing in real world application but at least it’s very stupid on paper.

          • uralsolo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Really? A foot isn’t more body-centric? I realize people’s feet vary in size but please enlighten me as to which body part corresponds to a meter.

            • huf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              my foot is like 27 cm, what’s that got to do with the US/UK foot? i know how tall i am, i know how much less that is than 2m, so i know what a meter is at that scale. for smaller scales? you know how you know what 4inches is? we know what 10cm is like. we know what 1cm is like (little finger or so, but everyone can find their own comparison on their body).

              bonus: one of my knuckles happens to be exactly 4cm long.

              • uralsolo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                We’re talking about different things. Anyone could get used to any measurement system if they were immersed in it and interacted with it every day.

                • huf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  this is exactly my point. you think a foot is the size of a foot cos you grew up with it. it aint.

                  if we’re dropped to some random country as a child, we’re clever enough to learn the language, absorb the culture and grow to use its system of measurement intuitively. this is true for any time in history.

                  so there’s no difference in ease of use here, you’re just making the math worse.