What are some topics that everyone should have a basic understanding of?

The use of apostrophes!

Vehicle engines. I’m into a lot of tech stuff, I used to love to play with legos, but the mechanics of car engines have always been pretty mysterious to me. I have a very rough idea of most of the components, but I have a hard time seeing how it all fits together.

As far as something everyone should know but doesn’t: logical fallacies. These should be taught in every elementary school, and getting caught using one should get a red circle on your paper, test, homework, etc. every time, with an explanation. If we could hone our critical thinking skills, then we wouldn’t put up with the shit politicians get away with, and we would demand more from our media.

Personal finances

Geography. If you start talking about the difference in climate between Indiana and Nebraska, my eyes glaze over, and forget anyplace in Europe or Africa.

I feel like I don’t know anything. There are so many things that I want to know about, and so many skills I would love to acquire. But it’s clear now that I have enough time to learn approximately .0000000001% of what I want to learn.

So, while I could list things that I nothing about, I would rather have a basic understanding of how to navigate this short life with wisdom, how to know what I want to know, and how to know how to know what it is that I want to know.

That. Or just everyone should have a basic understanding of how to make a decent grilled cheese sandwich.

I am shocked at peoples absolute clueless driving ability about sharing the road with transport trucks.
I wish I had a better understanding of how people got so engrained in their religious and political beliefs, like even when they know they are wrong they will deny it till they die type thing.

Domestic violence towards children,
Physical abuse towards children, especially at young age (before 4) has dramatic damage to its brain and may cause different shaping/ development of brain, which can lead to OCD, depression, PTSD and even dissociative identity disorder in adulthood.

Flower arranging
Interpretive dance
Fish tickling
Dwarf throwing

Where money comes from and how it is created.

Common courtesy, good manners.

@ucme Fish tickling?

The Muslim Brotherhood
Economics
The proper use of prepositions
The 10th Amendment
Cooking
Swimming

@sahID Yes, that’s where you stand in a shallow stream with your hands in the water & “tickle” the fish when they swim inside your cupped hands. This lulls them into a false sense of security & when the time is right, you grasp & throw them to the shore.
Works particularly well with salmon.

Science and the scientific method.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Evolution

Safe sex and parenting.

Critical thinking. With enough skepticism and cynicism to not be led around by assholes.

History

Safe motor vehicle driving. It is no wonder there are over 30K deaths on the U.S.A. roads each year (and no one cares much about it). People drive too close, too fast, are too distracted, are too drugged up, are too aggressive (unsafe lane changes, etc).

Hey @gondwanalon can you even imagine the things I have seen??
Coming from someone who makes their living on the road.

Reading.

Working understanding:
• Supply and demand
• Logic vs. morality
• Situational awareness

Topics or skill:
• Faith vs. religion
• Basic mechanical engineering
• Working knowledge of what pedophilia is
• Working understanding of toddlers

Waiting to hear both sides of a story without jumping to a conclusion after only hearing one side.

Customs and religious beliefs other than just their own.

the top 10 furry porn artists.

Basic hygiene
Fending for oneself

That everybody is born equal. Labeling people is just ridiculous.

Other countries, at least the basic stuff. My roomate told me she thought people in England speak French. She even argued with me about it. I was completely flabergasted, especially since she hates the english language so much. Could at least be bothered to know where it fucking comes from.

Like those YouTube vids where people in one country are asked questions about other counties. Some of the shit they say…Ok I guess my answer doesn’t count, as this would imply that I know everything about every country, which I don’t. But just say you don’t know, don’t guess.

Other funny shit I heard;

Nazis were from Russia. Scandinavia is a type of flower. China isn’t a country. Bamf is the coldest place on the planet. Chinese cartoons, as in anime. Scotland being nothing but plains, mountains and castle ruins.
Dude…

Oh and in case someone wants to instruct me, I know Scandinavia isn’t a country.

A bouquet of beautiful Scandinavias. LOL

@All, thank you so much for participating!

@janbb A furniture store has a sign out front that says, “Mirror’s and frames on sale.” Maybe the sign maker wasn’t sure where to put the apostrophe, so they went for a 50/50 chance of being correct.

Evolution: this seems like a no-brainer, but yet we still fight that battle.

@gorillapaws Dad taught us how to change a tire and check/refill the fluids before we were allowed to get our driver’s licence.

That Logical Fallacies poster is awesome, as is the idea of having a course created around it. I’d sign up.

@Cupcake Personal finances is definitely a “must”.

@filmfann Geographical knowledge of Americans is embarrassing. I now have an app on the iPad that helps me memorize geography. The scores are starting to improve.

@hominid That first part was pretty deep. The grilled cheese suggestion is a good one, especially if it represents basic cooking skills.

@SQUEEKY2 There is a plethora of reasons why people drive the way that they do. The more I travel to other countries, and even just around the US, I suspect that it is more culturally based than anything. But that’s a topic for another time. Same with the religion/politics comment.

@wsxwh111 There is a quote from the movie Parenthood: “Well, it depends on the man. I had a man around. He used to wake me up every morning by flicking lit cigarettes at my head. He’d say, “Hey, asshole, get up and make me breakfast.” You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, or drive a car. Hell, you need a license to catch a fish! But they’ll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father.”

@SquirrelEStuff Do you mean like a field trip to a national treasury?

@cazzie Yup! Did you see @gorillapaws’ post?

@flutherother History is taught in schools, but the missing factor for me was why it is important to know and understand it. Less focus on date memorization please.

@kritiper I find myself complimenting the children and their parents when witnessing good manners and behavior. The afterthought is, “Gee, it’s a shame that what should be acceptable behavior is now considered worthy of recognition because it is no longer the norm.”

@josie That’s an interesting list. Economics, cooking and swimming are understandable. The proper use of prepositions, along with @janbb‘s suggestion of apostrophes, fall under the basic grammar and punctuation umbrella…for any language. The 10th Amendment falls under the umbrella of basic government structure, laws, etc. for any country in which one resides. I have no clue what you mean by The Muslim Brotherhood. Care to expand on that?

@fluthernutter Definitely human reproduction. It would be the #1 item on my list. It’s applicable to anyone in any location.

@ragingloli Yes, yes, and why? Is there something people should know before visiting Disneyland?

@ARE_you_kidding_me Not only basic hygiene, but what can happen to the human body if it isn’t practiced. Yeah, definitely self-defense, be it verbal or physical.

@Mimishu1995 I adore you. I haven’t given up on that one yet.

@Symbeline Thankfully, the world is growing smaller as more people visit or move to other countries, the beauty of YouTube, etc. The more we connect with each other, the more we build the bridge of awareness.

@Pied_Pfeffer as a child I was often told not to befriend with certain people just because they had “lower status”. At some points in my life I myself was labeled and shunned by some people. They only looked at my status, my appearance, my background upbringing… instead of seeing who I was. That’s why I hate labeling people so much. I does nothing but separate us human.

And did I tell you I can’t stand injustice?

@Symbeline there are people in the United States that don’t know that New Mexico is a state. They think it’s part of the country of Mexico.

Some people in the United States think that Puerto Rico is a foreign nation, rather than part of the U.S. These same people tend to think that anyone from there, or subsequently, anyone from any Spanish speaking country, or who speaks Spanish (Puerto Rico is not a country, but a commonwealth of the U.S.) is a Mexican. That really irks my American-born friend of Peruvian ancestry.

It would be great if all cashiers learned how to count back change the old fashioned way, not by reading it off the cash register, which will be wrong, if they accidentally punched in the wrong amount that was given to them, like what happened to me at Del Taco last week. The proper way to count back change, if you’re not sure, is to first repeat the actual charge, then to repeat the denomination which was given, and then count the change back from the charge until you reach the denomination that was given. Example: “That comes to $3.95. And that was out of twenty. So here’s your change. (They first put a nickel in your hand) So that’s four, (then they put a dollar bill in your hand) and that’s five (and then they put a 5 dollar bill, or 5 more singles into your hand as they count) and that’s ten (then they put a 10 dollar bill in your hand, or 2 more 5’ves, or 10 more singles as they count back) and that’s 20. The cashier should leave the original denomination on the ledge of the register and count the money back before putting the money away. If there is a discrepancy and someones says they gave the cashier more, the money is still sitting there for both to see, that it was a 20 and not a hundred.

People should learn what turn signals are for and how to use them correctly. They should be made to affix a giant clown sticker to their vehicle if they fail to learn how to do this.

People that use public restrooms should learn how to flush the toilet after they’ve done filling it with toilet paper, and excrement. They should also be taught that those little trashcans next to the potty are there to collect used lady hygiene products not just gum. They should also learn to pick up their baby’s used diaper off the floor of the toilet stall and throw it into the trashcan instead of behind the toilet. And they should learn how not to piddle on the floor or to spray poo all over the back of the toilet and the wall.

To all of those (from the US) saying anything that has to do with geography, history, religion and culture, here is proof that you are right.

@Pied_Pfeffer I couldn’t watch all of that. It hurt my heart.

I couldn’t either.

@Mimishu1995 A friend who was called for jury duty just posted this: “Well, we were dismissed from the trial, it seems that there was a small technicality in the filing of the paperwork and blah, blah. But I must admit I found the process interesting especially when one of the attorneys came to the jury pool room afterwards to chat with us. What I found to be rather intriguing is that the jury pool consisted all of sorts of human beings, different in age, background, culture and all with a variety of history. Yet in the short time together, we talked, we laughed, we shared stories and we got along just fine – so why can’t the world be like this? So many good, average people out there, so many good people that care about what is going on in this world of ours and then,,,, there are the few that seem to create the havoc, the violence, the turmoil that we hear about daily on the 6:00 news. It seems rather disheartening to me. Back to work.”

@Pied_Pfeffer
I would say more like a trip to the Federal Reserve, since that is where our government borrows money from that is printed out of thin air and includes interest, aka Fractional Reserve Banking.
See Money As Debt
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

Henry Ford

I spelled Banff wrong. And there I go telling people to know shit lol.