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Cake day: July 5th, 2024

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  • Because they generally die before they infect others.

    And as a result rabies within small mammals populations are non-existent, because there’s no spread vector.

    I could have worded it better, but the point still stands. Many years ago there was a squirrel in my back yard that was foaming at the mouth and I called it in to an official line that dealt with that kind of stuff. They told me flat out “it’s not rabies” and explained why. That’s when I did a deep dive into rabies and small animals. Every single source says “it can happen, but almost never does”.

    In my case with the squirrel, the person explained to me that in the part of the country I lived in there has never been a record of a squirrel or similar rodent with a case of rabies. And it wasn’t showing any other signs, and it’s “foamy” mouth went away after a bit.

    So yes, “near impossible” isn’t the same as “entirely impossible” and also considers more than just the biological possibility of the infection.









  • he’s saying you deserve it while hiding behind sarcasm.

    That’s still not wishing harm! This is basically “just desserts”. It implies the person gets what they deserve (good or bad). Depending on the context it can be benign or malicious, but it’s still not wishing harm.

    It’s basically like saying “you are going to get hurt, it’s your fault, it’s what was coming to you, and I have no sympathy”. We can debate about which interpretation makes him look worse, but I’m entirely firm on my “not wishing harm” stance. I can agree I’m maybe splitting hairs or not considering intent, but the meaning of the words spoken is not literally about wishing harm.





  • I agree that it was a blatantly out of line and wrong thing to say, but it’s not wishing harm. At least the phrasing isn’t.

    Look at it this way. Say someone has tires on their car which are practically falling apart. The conversation goes:

    Friend: “you really need to get new tires, they’re complete thread-bare”

    Owner: “nah, they’re fine”

    Friend: “you’re being negligent, I hope you don’t get into an accident”

    The way the CNN conversation reads to me is that the guy was implying “if we listen to you, then things might progress to the point where you might get attacked, and I hope your pager doesn’t go off”.

    Maybe that’s not what he meant, but generally that’s how such a statement is used.