this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- The entire showerthought must be in the title
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- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
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Does this mean that human trafficking is always illegal, whereas slavery may or may not be illegal depending on which century and country we’re talking about?
No, human trafficking was very much legal when slavery was the norm. Not all human trafficking, but the one that specifically was about trafficking slaves.
Just recently looked it up
Trafficking = the act of buying or selling usually illegal goods
Source
I guess you’re using that loophole created by the word “usually”. Even though trafficking is usually illegal by definition, it doesn’t always have to be. Building upon that, you can actually use that word for legal activities too, even though most people will misunderstand you as they are automatically thinking of illegal activities.
Well, by definition, to traffick something is to illegally buy or sell something.
Buying, selling, and owning people has not always been illegal, so it's more that humans couldn't be trafficked, depending on if it was allowed.
Oh, that’s a good point.
This means that if there’s a restriction on something such as beer and cigarettes, you can legally trade them as long as you follow the rules. That wouldn’t be trafficking.
However, if you’re trying to cross the border with an absurd quantity of cigarettes hidden inside the chassis of your lorry, that could be considered cigarette trafficking.
If you hide heroin in there instead, it’s always drug trafficking, no matter what.
On the other hand, if you’re working for the East India Company and you’re shipping opium to China in the 1800s, it’s perfectly legal according to the Brits. The Chinese would have probably called that drug trafficking though.
non english native here wouldnt the trafficking of beer, cigarrettes and drugs over a border be smuggeling as well? and if so, could one smuggel a person as well?
Yeah, smuggling is moving the illegal goods. Trafficking is buying or selling illegal goods.
A lot of times, they're done together by the same person, but they can also be separately by different people.
I buy some heroin, I'm trafficking. I give it to you to take to my buddy across the border, you're smuggling. He takes it from you and sells it to others, he's trafficking.
And if the goods being illegally moved are people, then they are indeed smuggling people. That's what mules do.
Yep! So there is definitely a very real difference between the concept of slavery and human trafficking. They often go hand in hand, but they're distinct processes.
To have even more fun, there's also smuggling, which is moving the goods illegally, and that is different than the buying and selling, and that is different than owning.