This week, I saw a tweet that perfectly encapsulates warning sign discourse. A millennial reposted a boomer meme that said the following:
"If you think you are smarter than the previous generation…50 years ago the owners manual of a car showed you how to adjust the valves. Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery."
In response to this take, the millennial captioned the meme with this.
"Counter point: it only says that because the previous generation kept drinking the contents of the battery."
It is quite silly that so many products have warning labels on them telling people not to do very common sense things. The only reason they exist is because companies want to protect themselves from a lawsuit if somebody decides to swallow or choke on their product. The next time you feel high and mighty about not eating laundry powder, think of all the sad sacks who weren't so lucky.