Unpopular Opinions: The Thread

[Tai_MT]

"Home Owner's Association". It's a bunch of busybodies who get together to "collect dues" for living in their neighborhood under the guise of "keeping the place looking nice". Except, they just use it to bully everyone else around and demand that they do or don't do certain things with their own property. Can't have cars parked on the curb, have to get permission for guests, must keep grass trimmed to X amount and be Y species.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Unfortunately for most HOA's, they're a "contract only" type of deal. If you don't sign their contract when you move in, there's NOT MUCH they can do about it, since if you take it to court that you do not agree to abide by their rules, they can't do anything. Court will GENERALLY rule in your favor by saying, "they don't own that property, you bought it from the city, same as your house, and you can do whatever you like with it, provided it doesn't break a city ordinance".

Just assume anyone who runs a HOA is basically just an authoritarian a-hole who nobody likes in real life and wasn't liked in high school. So, you know, they gotta be childish and petty as adults to flex what little power they have.

If you get asked to join an HOA, just say "nope, that's okay, I'm good." They can't force you to sign a contract, after all. You can also turn around and sue them for fines if you haven't agreed to be in their group.

It's fun stuff.

 

[Kanori24]

Oh okay. Good to know, considering we just began our quest to purchase a house XD

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

@Kanori24 @Finnuval is right. Honestly, I had never heard of an HOA until more recently in the USA. Essentially, the HOA makes you pay dues, usually monthly and sometimes very high dues, to pay for common amenities in a neighborhood. Like a pool, gym and equipment, a playground, and common area landscaping and maintenance. My HOA dues are $50 a month. But I have seen HOA dues on properties that run $300+ per month.

An HOA is like a private entity with rule making and rule enforcing authority within a community. But wait you say! America! FREEDOM! Uh, huh. Sure.

They also usually establish rules that are intended to make living there more palatable and supposedly keeping people from doing things that might reduce property values. Some basic rules are things that good neighbors should do anyway. Others seem a bit more odd and invasive. But the key is that the homeowners themselves eventually control the HOA Board and the rules.

In my current HOA, your fence can only be certain colors. You can't park a boat or RV on your property or on the street. You can't park a motorcyle in your driveway (?). You can't leave a standing basketball net in your driveway overnight. Your property needs to be properly landscaped/maintained. You can't leave a car parked on the street for long periods of time, so no broken down vehicles that never move.

But yet our dumb#$% neighbors can park directly across from each other on the street so the road narrows to a point where it is difficult to drive between, let alone allow an emergency vehicle to get through.

I won't say that all HOA rules are stupid. And some actually stop people from allowing their property to get to a point where the home looks abandoned. But a LOT of the rules, depending on the HOA, just seem to be silly. We hope that our HOA eventually abandons most rules and just maintains enough budget to maintain the common amenities.

EDIT: If you are house hunting and HOAs are a thing in your area, I suggest doing some research and talking to your real estate agent. Some HOAs are voluntary and some are not. No one forces you to buy a place with a mandatory HOA. Everything boils down to what the documents actually say. Forming an HOA when one doesn't exist is an entirely different matter. However, many HOAs come into existence with new construction builders and you can't even buy initially if you don't sign the HOA contract.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Y’all, they can also foreclose on you even if your mortgage is 100% fine.

 

[Kanori24]

There were a few events at work last night that gave me another unpopular opinion:
You're not special. The rules and regs apply to you too. It's not that everyone else is in your way,
or screwing things up for you. It's you. You're the problem. Quit acting like you're so special and get back in line.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

@Kanori24 Ah, yes. Main character syndrome. The chosen one. With the power of friendship and imagination, they shall change the world to peruse all their motivations.

Rules and regs…man. So many times I wish I could just say, “just because you’re the customer does not make me a customer service representative.” “Hmm, yes sir, can you please confirm for me again on my recorded line? Do you want us to **tons of things ranging from shady to illegal** **citing codes** that can incur both of us several fines and possible license suspension? Thank you.”

 

[Kanori24]

Oh man... I don't have too many tales from retail, but I do have a couple of accounts of customers asking me to lower the price of some items, and another telling me they saw the same $500 item we were selling for $5 'online'. That one I told to run as fast as they could and make the cheaper online purchase. XD

 

[kirbwarrior]

But wait you say! America! FREEDOM! Uh, huh. Sure.

Is pointing out that the States of America are a lot less free than most people think an unpopular opinion?

 

[Kanori24]

@kirbwarrior the only thing we're free from is British rule, the way I see it. Comparing our labor hours and vacation time, and other other factors to pretty much every other established country is depressing as I'll get out. Yeah, we can get time off work after having a baby, but only if our employer allows it, and no it's not paid time. I noticed you truncated the 'United' from States of America. Well done XD

 

[kirbwarrior]

After having to explain to yet another person how meaningless IQ is, I guess I should put in this thread. On a related note, I get so annoyed when someone accuses of being smart, only for them to turn around and get angry that I don't know something they know because apparently being smarter than someone means knowing everything they know plus more. As it turns out, the more open I am with my stupidity the less often this happens but being an introvert means I generally talk less.

Because that felt pretty ranty, I'll give a lighter one; Player-made difficulty modes always seem better than developer-made ones. There are so many cool challenges people have come up with to play their favorite games in a way that is more difficult. But so often games that have 'difficulty sliders' are extremely bare-bones to the point that something it doesn't appreciably change anything other than waste your time.

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

You need a college degree to be successful. I find this one very humorous.

I am the youngest of 5. I am the only one without a degree. I have lots of credits, just nothing that fits into a degree and now I have no patience to finish by taking fluff, elective credits.

Yet, career wise, I am the most successful of my siblings. My wife (who also doesn’t have a degree) and I both make 6 figure salaries and have risen to the highest pay grade in our agency for those who are not the Senior Executive Service (SES).

We have been more successful than most people in our agency, we are both recognized as technical experts in our field, and we have trained hundreds of people who have degrees, including attorneys.
So it is funny to sit in meetings or hear people talking or even have people talking to us and someone dismisses people who don’t have degrees.

”Oh, it makes sense that that student isn’t doing well. They don’t have a degree.“ Or “they only have an Associates degree.“ Often said by people with advanced degrees.

The look of surprise on their faces when I usually just come out and say “well, I don’t have a degree either” is usually priceless. They pretty much always express shock and amazement. “I can’t believe you don’t have a degree!”

Don’t get me wrong. I encourage my children to get degrees. But hard work, intelligence, experience, and common sense can be more useful than a piece of paper. Of course, there are some occupations that absolutely require degrees.

So that is my other unpopular opinion. A degree should only require that you take classes that are essential to your degree. No, thank you, I don’t need to take those other 45 credits of take anything you want so we can ensure you are well rounded. Nope.

 

[TheoAllen]

Here is another one. Being "successful" is overrated

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

@TheoAllen I definitely agree. Happiness is far more important.

 

[Tai_MT]

@ZombieKidzRule I've been finding that unless your particular job absolutely requires a college degree (rocket science, engineering, etcetera), that the degree you get from college is largely pretty worthless.

I'm in the same boat you're in, in terms of that degree. I decided against college because after taking a year off of school to decide where I wanted to go, I went, "I was bored in school the whole time I was in it. Why would I pay someone else to be bored for another 4 years? Why not just get a job and have someone else pay me to be bored?"

That's what I did. I took the most bottom of the barrel, meaningless and pointless job I could, because all I wanted to do all day was come home and play video games instead.

The list of things my workplace now considers me an "expert" at is pretty staggering at this point. The amount of people I've trained (college graduates, mostly) in a variety of tasks and fields is pretty crazy (I stopped counting after 300).

I am constantly stunned how many people I've trained that were fresh out of college who know absolutely nothing and had trouble grasping very simple concepts. I'm still stunned when I run across people who have been doing their jobs for years where I work and still have no idea how to do them very well (and I end up fixing problems for them).

I think that the "college degree" is largely useless for getting a job, unless you're doing something highly technical and possibly dealing with life threatening events... but it's useful for getting promoted within a job field.

Lately, with the High School kids I've been interacting with at work, I tell them "Don't go to college, you're just going to go into debt and you'll still not have a very good paying job. No matter how educated you are, someone still has to scrub toilets and mop floors. Go to a Trade School instead. Learn something practical and useful immediately. Study construction, carpentry, metal working, mechanic work, or other stuff. Study things always highly in demand that will pay you well. You can always go to college for specialty skills later if you decide you want to do something different, and by then, you'll be an adult with great credit and your own money to throw at an education so you won't go in debt that easily."

Or, you know, I tell them something similar to that.

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

@Tai_MT Yes, I have worked all sorts of jobs. And even recently, although my wife and I both have very good jobs, we both also worked part-time. First at Walmart and then as mall security. Why? Because we wanted extra money to pay down debt, get ready for retirement, help our adult children, and buy a motorcycle that my wife really wanted without impacting our budget.

My wife and I have never been shy about working multiple jobs or jobs that are strikingly different from our full time careers. Unlike even our own children who wouldn't take a job in fast food if their lives depended on it. While we are like, been there, done that.

Which is another interesting interaction with people from our regular jobs. "You worked at Walmart?" Or "you worked at the mall?" Yeah, what of it?

Or, when we worked mall security, interacting with the public who would say something like "You're just a security guard." Well, I am at the moment. Don't judge a book by its cover.

I would never discourage someone from getting a degree if that is what they want. But I also don't tell people that getting a degree is mandatory. It all depends on what you want to do with your life and the limited amount of time you have on this Earth.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Yeah…I literally just want to fund my hobbies, give my two strays-turned-housecats the good life, and do things with my friends.

 

[Finnuval]

@ZombieKidzRule Amen to that!

 

[BubblegumPatty]

If I may share my list of Hot takes:

• Bacon is extremely overrated.
• Persona 3 is kind of overhyped
• Marie in p4 Golden is Okay.
• Anime fans need to stop complaining and watch anything besides the latest Shonen. Trust me, there are anime that isn't about high school and harems.
• Minimalism and flat design is bad.
• Dubsteb is terrible, and is an insult to Electronic music.
• Cartoons/movies/games/etc when you were a kid aren't better than anything out now. You were just 8.
• Putting milk first when eating cereal is a fine way to eat it. It keeps the cereal from getting gross and soggy too fast.
• Pessimism and a bleak "everything sucks forever" attitude doesn't make you or the piece of media better/deeper.
• Japanese audio isn't inherently better than any dub.

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

@BubblegumPatty GASP! You take that back about my beloved Bacon and my generation's better than your generation's cartoons! Actually the cartoons in my generation sucked. My kids' generation were better.

As for the cereal, just try a cereal like Grapenuts. Those things are like eating gravel that never gets soggy.

 

[Finnuval]

@ZombieKidzRule did your generation even have cartoons?