Everyday sadists take pleasure in others' pain

[luke wilson]

I protest,

I'll be honest, I originally went with killing bugs... then before I started reading I changed to 'none of the above'.

I don't go out of my way to kill bugs, nor am I actually some bug 'murderer', I however will squash a mosquito to kingdom come if it dared landed on my skin or I will and I am sorry to say this, squash a spider to oblivion if it dared appear menacing and threatening. However, house flies, as annoying as they can be when buzzing around your ears, I try and direct them outside as they are just to darn quick.

Does the above make me a sadist? I protest against this experiment.

I would 100% not squash insects in some funny contraption just because some scientist gave me that option amongst others that were equally not good. I would say, "No thank you to all the above"!!!

If they pointed a gun at my head and said choose one, then does it really matter what I choose? I don't think so.

 

[Vulcan59]

I'd clean the toilets.

So do I.

Me too, ideally with that kind of attitude.

Add me too, to the list of toilet cleaners. :)

 

[1984]

I'd clean the toilets.

So do I.

Me too, ideally with that kind of attitude.

Add me too, to the list of toilet cleaners. :)

And me...

 

[Stoneboss]

I actually chose the cold shower. Not because I enjoy pain, but because I take cold showers almost everyday and I am used to them. But after reading the article, and taking those options in context, I also would of taken cleaning toilets.

 

[wmu9]

Has anyone considered your preference for not killing bugs AND cleaning toilets is part of your religious "purity" programming?

I won't spoil the surprise should you ever get tested, but I can think a few experiments already conducted where the "puritans" were the ones inflicting pain.

 

[Alcarohtare]

I'd clean toilets, although not sure would i do it if chemicals would be the means of cleansing.
In that case i'd rather choose enduring pain from ice water.

 

[Gertrudes]

Similarly to some of you, I felt a little lost before reading the article and with the need of a context. For me it wasn't a problem of over thinking, or even giving it some thought, I just felt that I had no idea what the questions related to.

The first thought that crossed my mind was "well, I kill mosquitos whenever they are in my bedroom and I'm trying to sleep". So that, to me, was the context, although I knew that there had to be something more to it than just slapping a mosquito that is bitting you, and that is what made it confusing to me, each possibility could have different meanings. For example, are we killing a bug that is bitting us, or are we killing it for pleasure?

On the other hand, the first image I had about cleaning toilets was my husband's description of how nauseatingly dirty the toilets in his pub can get, with people's vomit all over the place, tampons, poo on the walls, and you don't want to know what else.

So yes, I felt I lacked context, are we talking about toilets whose level of dirtiness can be so repulsive you can't even get near, or are we talking about a normal family's toilet? Between the vomit covered repulsive toilet, and killing a mosquito that is bitting me, I would kill the mosquito.

Having had the context, definitely toilets.

So do I.

Oooh, I like that one :D

 

[Rich]

I was more in the icy water camp. I quite enjoy testing myself and thought that would be the most challenging. I really don't like cold showers so it would take me out of my comfort zone more than the others.

 

[Beau]

I would choose toilets. I look at the icy water choice as taking pleasure in your own pain, kind of like masochism.

 

[cubbex]

killing bugs,
helping the experimenter kill bugs,
cleaning dirty toilets,
enduring pain from ice water

I was between killing bugs and enduring pain from ice water, first because I hate bugs, I feel completely paranoid when there's a spider or a mosquito flying in my room. But I remember the only bugs I usually kill is flies because they are annoying and spiders because they are scary , but once I sprayed a little spider with raid and that poor thing didn't want to die because it tried to keep walking and I felt horrible so I had to kill it with my foot. Though I know children and adults that have these likeness for killing bugs and you can notice the big smile on their faces after killing one single bug, and they usually enjoy hurting animals and playing jokes on others, and I know this sounds evil as hell but if there's the option of hurting these type of people, i'd do it without thinking.

So, nice question...

 

[cubbex]

Now giving a second thought what if we apply this question on a social scale?

If you chose to kill bugs, you may chose a profession like an american cop that believes is doing some good for others, just as I thought i'd kill a spider to save myself from danger, that's clearly a subjective assumption because there are other ways to do it but harder, so an american cop may think is doing good but at the end is just projecting himself/herself and just try to produce pain in others, as a way to vent their traumas or pain.

You chose to help the experimenter... well you may be a one of those authoritarian follower.

You chose to clean toilets, at the end you may be doing something real beneficial for others, you are doing a needed service.

Then the last option is quite funny, because I chose to endure pain because I didn't want to kill bugs mindlessly neither clean toilets because I'd puck, so I preferred to endure pain. In a social scale, this may be represented as you either chose to violently produce change (or believe you are changing something that is killing bugs), you are a follower (helping the experimenter), you do something beneficial for others (clean toilets), or you chose to endure the actual situation or the pain that the present social reality gives to you, that is enduring cold water.

 

[mimimari]

I chose cleaning toilets too. I used to have a job cleaning toilets at offices, it's not that bad.

I love this emoticon!

 

[loreta]

I remember the last time I killed a spider, some years ago. Since then I refuse to kill any spider even if I think they are repulsive and scary but I say to myself that they have the right to live, like me. The last time I killed a spider I felt a surge of hate while killing the spider. It was a very strong emotion that gave me an insight about myself. It was really a very disturbing emotion that made me think very seriously about the hate inside me, inside every human, an emotion that is there even if we are not aware of his presence and in part this hate is made also of fear and repulsion. So no more killing spiders, my teachers about this. And bees and wasps also, no more killing them and if they come inside the house I talk to them and say to them to go outside and they listen to me. ;).

Nazis considered Jews like cockroaches. They considered humanity like bugs. Psychopaths see us like bugs.

 

[Adaryn]

My answer to the question, even before I read the article, was "I'd rather clean toilets. At least that is making the world a better and cleaner place."

Before I read the article I couldn't honestly answer because I felt I needed more information. Like, could "killing bugs" have involved using a spray to kill a mosquito infestation for example? So I figured the list at the beginning needed to be more specific. But after reading what was involved, I would have chosen cleaning toilets!

I reacted the same - bugs can be pretty annoying, esp mosquitoes and flies in summer (not even talking about ant infestation!) but yeah, after reading the way they'd be killed, thanks but no thanks! Dirty toilets for me too.

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

On the other hand, the first image I had about cleaning toilets was my husband's description of how nauseatingly dirty the toilets in his pub can get, with people's vomit all over the place, tampons, poo on the walls, and you don't want to know what else.

Same here. I had chosen cleaning toilets as it's a job I usually don't mind but then I remembered the state of some horribly dirty toilets I have known in the past (believe or not, worse than what you Gertrudes described... ).
So, I would have to see how dirty the said toilets are first...
Ice cold shower for me, I guess. :D