• Water Bowl Slime
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    7 months ago

    I don’t know why you keep insisting that children know how to swim instinctively. No they don’t. In the US, drowning is the leading cause of death for kids age 1-4 and the #2 leading cause for kids age 5-14 (#1 is car crashes). I don’t know what else to say so I’ll just leave it at that.

    • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      “keep insisting”? It’s the first time I’ve written it.
      And again I AM NOT SAYING SWIMMING FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME.
      But instead of linking to stats of drowning, which does not answer my question, but instead leads out onto another tangent of discussing how many of those drownings were from people who swam, got tired and drowned, hiw many were from peoples body experiencing cold shock and thus drowning and how many were from immediately sinking which is what you are implying, you could have linked me to this https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130814100212.htm or something akin to it, which DOES approach an answer to my question. What I was hoping for was people being able to explain their own experiences to add to this kind of thing, so I could get a less academic understanding, but I guess instead we have to discuss semantics and “how long do you have to swim for it to count” instead.

      I’m happy I learned my assumption of instinctuality was wrong, but I still don’t get how adults cannot swim, which is what I’ve been trying to understand. I’ve seen plenty of children work it out on their own, I worked it out on my own. Just like we work out how to climb on our own. Which is why I explained the whole climbing thing. Instead we’re in a discussion of “no it’s actually more like whistling no it’s actually more like eating ass not it’s” what the fuck?

      • Water Bowl Slime
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        7 months ago

        Oh fair, that is the first time you mentioned kids specifically. You’ve said/implied that it was simple and natural in every comment though so it was that attitude that I wanted to address.

        If you want anecdotal evidence then here’s this: I cannot swim and neither can anyone in my family. I don’t mean we can’t swim long distances or that we can’t swim skillfully, I mean that we cannot swim or float whatsoever. I nearly died one time when we visited the community pools because I didn’t expect the slide to plunge me downwards into the water. I got out by aimlessly flailing forward and getting lucky. And no that wasn’t really swimming, it was more like walking on the floor while holding my breath as best I could. Also the lifeguard didn’t notice.

        At the pools, we always stay in the shallow areas that’s waist deep. And the few times we’ve gone to the beach, we don’t go further into the water than to get our feet wet. There are no other opportunities for us to swim here and even those 2 cost money. I hope you understand why it’s unlikely for people in our situation to learn how to swim. Like, why take time out of my schedule to pay for something that I can’t do, that my friends and family can’t do, and that can potentially kill me?

        For the record I brought up whistling because it’s a skill that many people don’t have. I’ve been able to whistle since I could speak and so could my parents, but it would be stupid for me to conclude that whistling is an innate human skill that all people know how to do. Likewise, some people just can’t figure out swimming by themselves. The proper movement of their bodies does not come naturally and that’s that.

        • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          I’m not gonna read all that. I got to “if you want anecdotal evidence” and I knew you for some reason still don’t get it.
          I’m not asking for evidence. I’m not trying to debate wether or not people can’t swim. I get that they cant, I understand that. I feel like I’ve said that in so many ways now. I’m not trying to trash on it either. I feel like I keep repeating myself. I’m just asking “hey what’s up with people not being able to swim?” Not as a joke or derision or anything, just as an honest question because I can’t relate and I’d like to. I’d like to understand how a person who can walk and talk and read and write and think and do normal physical stuff, cannot keep their head above water and give themselves forward momentum.

          I understand that they exist, I’m not some sort of swimming truther. I really do not understand how this is such a hard question to grasp, I feel like I’ve made myself incredibly clear. I’m not asking “why do people get tired from swimming?” I’m not asking “why can’t people do crawl for 600 meters?” I’m asking about the very basic act of swimming and when I asked initially I thought it was implicit it was about adults. I don’t know why I brought children or dogs into it, I guess I just got frustrated because it seems like you keep making this into a discussion of something I’m not trying or wanting to discuss. I’m not trying to debate anything, I’m not in doubt about how physical activity can be tiring, I’m not asking about why people don’t know how to swim Butterfly style, I’m not asking for evidence in some strange debate. I don’t get how I could have made myself any clearer.