[Morromist]

I recently talked to a brit who expressed their fear of... knives. It blew my mind. The UK has one of the lowest murder rates in the world, 5 times less than the US, but they're so incredibly afraid.

They are just plain embracing a culture of paranoia, cowardice and extreme surveillance. I wouldn't care because I don't live there except the dystopian tech and business models they're developing ends up crossing the seas.

[jjgreen]

There is (seriously) agitation in the UK to ban pointy kitchen knives ... first hit on DDG for example https://theconversation.com/why-stopping-knife-crime-needs-t...

[bloak]

To be fair, pointy knives are unnecessary. At least I haven't found a use for them, though I stab myself with them occasionally when unloading the dishwasher.

Some people will tell you that they need a pointy knife for cutting tomatoes but they should try using a serrated knife instead: it's much better.

[jjgreen]

Getting the eyes out of potatoes, working with tough meat like beef or goat, ... knives are the most popular weapon, but that just because we're not allowed guns. If you take the point from knives then we can attack with the sharp side to the throat fairly effectively. Mandate blunt knives and we'll have to beat people around the head with bricks. Ban bricks and we'll ... and so on.

[trashb]

Because in the UK people believe, media enhances this, they can get stabbed for little to no reason or over a small argument due to mostly due to social tensions but also poverty. In the US it seems you have a high chance of not getting stabbed/shot if you don't agitate. So I think the paranoia about knives does not correlate with the likely hood of getting stabbed but with the unpredictability of it.

I agree that this is the wrong direction to develop into.

[adammarples]

Did you see the news from Belfast today?

[Morromist]

From what I could tell a man was stabbed, didn't die, a minor event that happens every day in cities everywhere and always has - and then the locals decided to have a pogrom.