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Comment by esperent | Hacker News Reader

I kind of disagree with that. Everyone has "just started doing" a ton of things in history. For example:

* Brushing their teeth, about a hundred years ago

* Regularly washing their hands, maybe 150 years? Less?

Etc.

Of course you can find people who still don't/do all of these and any other examples you come up with. But the point is that society as a whole has changed their view of these things, and what was abnormal is now normal. Which I'm pretty is what the "if people would just" folk really mean. Nobody is dumb enough to expect 100% of people to change 100% of the time, and it's unfair to their intelligence to assume that's what they mean.

Edit: removed one example that was too emotional and distracted from the point.

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The core message of "everybody will not just" is that you need to think about why people haven't already just, and address that.

With tooth-brushing and hand-washing people actually didn't know it was that good for you. So massive public health education campaigns about how they prevent acute illnesses turned out to be enough to get significant adherence. That both are very low-cost / low-burden / low-effort activities are also reasons that education on the benefits was enough.

(And educating the next generation of children to instill proper tooth-brushing and hand-washing as habits remains a perpetual ongoing effort; kids do not "just" either, they need to be educated the same way.)

Compare this to many "why won't everyone just" issues where the information is already out - merely re-proclaiming stuff already known by the audience that-will-not-just, and expecting that to turn the needle, is nonsensical.

I don't do either of those things.

* I don't think there's actually any scientific studies proving brushing works, but the toothbrush definitely sheds microplastics into your body. Same with flossing.

* I don't see the need to completely obliterate all bacteria living on the surface of a part my body just because I touched my penis for a minute.

* I don't use shampoo either, it was brought from India just 200 years ago. Anti-dandruff shampoo isn't real and we don't even know exactly what causes it.

Outwardly I'm a pretty normal person.

Here's one that looked at caries in children who brushed compared to those who didn't brush: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20116887/

> but the toothbrush definitely sheds microplastics into your body

You can use miswak, which is a type of twig.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miswak

The goal isn't to nuke the bacteria. The goal is to deny them a growth medium which could let their population explode. Cleaning not disinfecting.

Alcogel for hands and alcoholic mouthwash are things to be sure but they aren't nearly as common.

Washing your hands is good hygienic practice. Maybe you aren't a dirty slob but others are.

Hey! Always so cool to meet the main character.

> I don't see the need to completely obliterate all bacteria living on the surface of a part my body just because I touched my penis for a minute.

It's not because you touched your penis, it's because you're going to touch things in the world that other people will also touch and you respect other people's preference not to touch your penis bacteria because you're not a sociopath. Right?

Does an otherwise clean penis have meaningfully more bacteria on it than other parts of the body? I suspect that when I touch my oenks I'm transferring more bacteria onto it from my hands than vice versa, considering my donger mostly stays in my pants while my hands manipulate objects all day long.

It's the sweat production. Imagine someone sticking their hand in their armpit, then shaking your hand.

Vs putting a hand on their bare hip, then shaking your hand.

Also, groin sweat smells different and probably has extra hormones/pheromones in it

I imagine that every time I shake hands with someone.

Maybe that didn't just remove their KFC-greased, butthole-stinky finger from their nose before we shook hands, or maybe they did.

Yes it does. Dark, dank places grow much more bacteria than other places. It also happens to be right near your poop hole.

It isn't that hard to make an agar plate and put it under a lamp for a few days. Why you try a swab of crotch juice and a swab of face juice and incubate them each and see what you get?

It's always been my assumption that we wash our hands when we go to the bathroom for two reasons: 1. Wiping your butt can lead to feces getting in your hand. A lot of diseases can come from feces. 2. It's a good frequency to wash off whatever else you've been touching that day.

Assuming you go to the bathroom 3-7 times a day, that's that many opportunities to wash off the dirt you were digging in, trash you picked up off the street or someone else's hand you shook.

Those are good reasons for yourself, sure. But other people existing is an important reason too.

Bathroom 3 to 7 times a day? I go like once a day

* because you're not a sociopath. Right?*

I think I spotted the flaw in your line of thinking.

Brushing your teeth is the opposite of an "if everyone would just" problem. You do it for yourself, you benefit from it, and you aren't affected much by whether everyone else is doing it or not.

Some people just don't do that.

Aren't you relying on the "recently" definition of just here rather than the "simply" definition?

"If everyone would just brush their teeth."

"If everyone would just wash their hands."

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