The idea in this thread is to point out examples of people's stupidity that could have cost them their lives.

I will start us off.

http://tinyurl.com/bw3my

Quote :

"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man drank too much, wet his bed and set fire to his apartment while trying to dry his bedding, police in the western town of Muelheim said Monday. "He was too drunk to go to the toilet," said a police spokesman. "The next morning he put a switched-on hairdryer on the bed to dry it and left the apartment." When the 60-year-old returned, his home and belongings were in flames. Firemen eventually put out the blaze."

11/23/2005 10:56:30 AM

How is that Social Darwinism?

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 11:19 AM. Reason : nevermind, i somehow misread that the dude died in the blaze.]

11/23/2005 11:09:20 AM

It IS social darwinism. It's a perfect example! People that dumb get weeded out. That's the way it should be too.

11/23/2005 11:14:16 AM

like the poo black folk who didn't leave N.O before hurricane katrina

11/23/2005 11:15:53 AM

wow

the university should monitor tww to revoke/deny degrees instead of busting people for drinking

11/23/2005 11:20:21 AM

i'm with BobbyDigital here.

as i understand it, social darwinism is a theory that says how well-off (socially/economically) a person becomes is related to his genetics.

that story wouldn't've even been granted a darwin award because he didn't even hurt himself, much less kill himself, with his stupidity

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 11:21 AM. Reason : ^ain't that the truth]

11/23/2005 11:20:52 AM

This is more like the darwin awards, like this one from 2004:

Quote :

"All Reggie Barnnett wanted to do was cut down a tree behind his girlfriend's house. It was the kind of good deed that might be expected of the 47-year-old associate pastor at Hines Memorial Church, who also helped out with the church's youth group. Instead, the uncooperative tree crushed him and started a fire that burned him beyond recognition. Reggie had borrowed his father's pickup truck, apparently in the belief that he could yank out the bottom of the tree, which would then fall away from the truck. He tied the truck to the tree and floored the accelerator. The tree toppled onto the truck, crushing the cab and trapping Reggie. The still-running engine eventually overheated, starting a grass fire. The flames ignited the truck's gas tank, turning the truck into a fireball. Police said Reggie was probably dead before the truck caught fire. "

http://www.darwinawards.com/

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 11:46 AM. Reason : ]

11/23/2005 11:44:03 AM

I thought social darwinism referenced how a person betters himself in life by the decisions he or she makes.

what you are talking about is actual darwinsim, whereby a person is killed because of traits he or she posseses. In this case stupidity.

11/23/2005 11:50:22 AM

This certainly qualifies:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/specialcoverage/stories/MYSA092705.01A.golden_triangle.ce6657d.html

Quote :

"BEAUMONT — Five people, including three children, were found dead inside an apartment Monday, pushing the death toll in Texas from Hurricane Rita to at least eight. Authorities blamed the deaths on carbon monoxide poisoning from a portable generator being used to provide electrical power. ... About 1:30 or 2 a.m., Yarbrough said, the noise from the generator became muffled. That's when he suspects the family moved it inside the house. The generator continued running throughout the night. A relative discovered the bodies about 10:45 a.m."

11/23/2005 11:53:13 AM

Um... Unless the definition changed, when I was in school they tought us social darwinism was basically a justification for free markets. It's about the survival of fit businesses and individuals in the marketplace.

11/23/2005 11:55:55 AM

From the Oxford Dictionary:

Quote :

"Social Darwinism noun: the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform."

Under the first part of the definition (humans are subject to natural selection) being fatally stupid counts.

11/23/2005 11:58:38 AM

Yeah, my original post was wrong. I thought the dude died.

Basically anything stupid someone does that fucks their life up without killing them counts.

Such as burning your house down.

11/23/2005 12:08:31 PM

^ Yes.

11/23/2005 12:10:07 PM

A fire trifecta this morning!

http://www.news10.net/storyfull3.aspx?storyid=14443

Quote :

"A cement worker marking the holiday set up a propane fryer inside the new house's garage. Workers took turns watching the kettle. Unfortunately for the workers, the fryer's thermometer was broken. Workers said oil inside the kettle overheated, spilled onto the burner and caught fire. The flames spread from the garage up the front of the house to the second floor."

AND

http://www.tempo.com.ph/news.php?aid=18539

Quote :

"Police Super-intendent Jerry Sum-bad, chief of police, identified the two victims as Gener Inez, a gasoline boy and a resident of Barangay Nagbunga, San Marce-lino, and Isabelita Fer-rerra, a gasoline cashier and a resident of Barangay Burgos, San Antonio, this province. Reports gathered that two gasoline boys were joking with each other when one of them, identified as Benedict Manzano, used a cigarette lighter to ignite the liquid inside the pale he was holding to test if it was gasoline."

AND

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1620950.html

Quote :

"A strip club owner burned his club to the ground while trying to prove it was fire-proof to health and safety inspectors. Benedict Frank, owner of the Cabaret Club in Kienberg, Switzerland, started the blaze to show how fire-proof it was when he was visited by safety inspectors. They had questioned whether his decorations were in accordance with fire safety rules, and he used his lighter to set fire to the paper ornaments in a bid to prove there was nothing to worry about. But the fire quickly took off and spread throughout the club and the neighbouring restaurant - burning both establishments to the ground."

[Edited on November 25, 2005 at 9:51 AM. Reason : 3 of them!]

11/25/2005 9:36:16 AM

This one has pictures.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1129052burglar1.html#2005

11/30/2005 9:49:21 AM

even more!

http://tinyurl.com/cs8en

Quote :

"Man claims to be bullet proof, gets shot dead"

k.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051130-051113-3153r

Quote :

"MOSCOW, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A car thief was arrested in Moscow after the brakes of the car he stole from a repair shop failed and he rear-ended a sport utility vehicle. Police believe he may have stolen the car to pay a fine from a previous car theft conviction, The Moscow Times reported Wednesday."

Stealing a car from a repair shop probubly isn't the smartest thing ...

11/30/2005 11:33:55 AM

http://www.dictionary.com

Quote :

"social Darwinism n. The application of Darwinism to the study of human society, specifically a theory in sociology that individuals or groups achieve advantage over others as the result of genetic or biological superiority."

http://www.m-w.com

Quote :

" an extension of Darwinism to social phenomena; specifically : a theory in sociology: sociocultural advance is the product of intergroup conflict and competition and the socially elite classes (as those possessing wealth and power) possess biological superiority in the struggle for existence"

Quote :

" Under the first part of the definition (humans are subject to natural selection) being fatally stupid counts. "

Thats just Darwinism. Social Darwinism was a theory used to classify certain races as more advanced or evolved. Alot of early criminologist used this theory as evidence against minorities because apparently their entire race was not as intelligent or advanced as whites.
This was a great theory for things like slavery, the Holocaust, the destruction of Native American people, etc.
A lot of hate groups still use this theory to push the idea that their racial group is far superior to others because they have evolved better to the social structures of today.

Survival of the fittest, the stupid will die, leave the smart; Thats all Darwinism, just plain old Darwinism.

Plus the initial story doesnt even count, cuz the guy is still alive.

[Edited on November 30, 2005 at 11:36 AM. Reason : ]

11/30/2005 11:34:53 AM

ADD TO MY TOPICS

11/30/2005 11:59:00 AM

^^ Can we please not haggle further over the definition, but rather just share and enjoy stories that remind us that our intelligence is a wonderful thing?

11/30/2005 12:04:16 PM

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/NEWS03/512080323/1141/NEWS

FYI: Swallowing Coacain might be bad for you.

Just so you know.

12/9/2005 11:16:43 AM

Anyone have that darwin story of the military guy who straped a jet engine to his car?

That was the best ever

12/9/2005 9:12:01 PM

http://www.darwinawards.com

Quote :

"(31 May 2005, Seattle, Washington) Strength and endurance are two of the most important characteristics that can be passed on to improve the species, so physical challenges between males are frequent. In this case, two drinking buddies found themselves on an overpass 40 feet above a busy freeway in downtown Seattle at 2:45 a.m. It turned out to be the perfect place to determine who had more strength and endurance. Whoever could dangle from the overpass the longest would win! Unfortunately, the winner was too tired from his victory to climb back up, despite help from his 31-year-old friend. The unidentified champion fell smack into the front of a semi-truck barreling down the highway at 60 mph and bounced onto the pavement, where he was hit by a car. The car did not stop. Authorities did not identify the winner of the competition. "

Another example of how much smarter you are when you drink.

12/10/2005 1:21:51 PM

http://tinyurl.com/adyxl

Quote :

"Lake Worth · A 16-year-old boy who found a bullet in his back yard on Friday ended up shooting himself, Lake Worth police said. Jose Delgado played with the .45-caliber bullet shortly before noon at his house in the 1400 block of Tropical Drive in Lake Worth before using a hammer and screwdriver to hit the back of the bullet. The bullet fired and hit him in the abdomen, police said."

12/10/2005 7:48:14 PM

I'm not quite sure how social darwinism has been discredited

12/10/2005 7:55:24 PM

sounds like it's time for a trip to the library!

12/10/2005 8:02:12 PM

and don't forget the guy who died from a perferated colon after having buttsex with a horse.

12/10/2005 8:50:23 PM

Quote :

"An 11-year-old Horsham boy died over the weekend while playing a high-risk game in which children and teenagers cut off the flow of oxygen to the brain as a way to get high."

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-12132005-583459.html

12/14/2005 9:34:18 AM

I always thought it was more of "if someone is poor, it's their own fault"

that's why it's called social darwinism, as in if you can survive socially

12/14/2005 11:55:31 AM

Quote :

"By some standards, 9 inches of ice is enough to support a car or small pickup truck, but there are several other factors to consider, including the manner in which the ice was formed. A better standard would be 12 inches, but ice can be a foot thick and still be unsafe. Fishermen have driven on Lake Butte des Morts in recent days. Those with smaller vehicles got away with it. On Monday, one driver did not. "One guy thought he could take his big diesel truck out there, and he didn't make it," said Don Herman of Oshkosh. It was one of those big extended cab trucks, Herman said, and 9 inches of ice just wasn't enough to support it. It broke through and the nose fell until it hit lake bottom, 7 or 8 feet down. The driver was not hurt."

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051229/APC0101/512290527/1003/APC01

If you didn't already know, you shouldn't drive large trucks on a frozen lake...

12/29/2005 9:33:11 AM

This is not social darwinism, and

Quote :

"if someone is poor, it's their own fault"

is not social darwinism, either.


damn.


It's the notion that poor people are poor because they're genetically inferior members of the human race, and that any kind of aide in the form of gov't welfare or charity only serves to perpetuate inferior members of the species. It's advocating letting natural selection kill off (genetically inferior) poor people by letting them starve/die/reproduce less.

12/29/2005 9:53:05 AM

Social Darwinism is also related to colonialism and the "white man's burden" to conquer African countries etc. in the 19th century because they are so backward

12/29/2005 12:19:28 PM

^^yea, not at all what I said

12/29/2005 12:38:30 PM

It's actually the exact opposite of what you said.

12/29/2005 2:22:32 PM

Holy balls lets let this one go, you all understand the concept of what we're looking for. Do so and shut the fuck up about the whether or not its officially "Darwinism," "Social Darwinism," or "Buttsecks with Darwin."

12/29/2005 6:13:38 PM

I was expecting a thread about how being white and middle-class makes me better than all the dumb minorities.

12/29/2005 6:27:12 PM

this thread should be a "darwin awards" thread. "social darwinism" makes me think of the Libertarian Party.

12/29/2005 6:32:00 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=367343

Quote :

"The idea in this thread is to point out examples of people's stupidity that could have cost them their lives. I will start us off. http://tinyurl.com/bw3my Quote : "BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man drank too much, wet his bed and set fire to his apartment while trying to dry his bedding, police in the western town of Muelheim said Monday. "He was too drunk to go to the toilet," said a police spokesman. "The next morning he put a switched-on hairdryer on the bed to dry it and left the apartment." When the 60-year-old returned, his home and belongings were in flames. Firemen eventually put out the blaze." "

12/29/2005 9:15:17 PM

i got lost and thought i was in chit chat again

12/29/2005 9:15:51 PM

WHY CANT WE TEACH SOCIAL INTELLIGENT DESIGNERISM?????? JESUS THIS COUNTRY IS SO BIASED

12/29/2005 9:25:30 PM