Shut Up! If you want to be my friend

"Don't let your pets drink antifreeze. Ingesting antifreeze can lead to kidney failure, coma, and death."

"Don't let children remove hornet's nests. This is a dangerous job for adults only."

"Poor nutrition causes negative physical, mental, and emotional effects."

Are you offended by these statements? Do you find that the speaker is oppressing your freedom and spoiling your day with arbitrary rules that make no sense at all?

Do you think it's cruel to forbid dear Rover from enjoying a sweet beverage or intolerant of you to yell at the top of your lungs "STOP!" before your little one grasps a hornet's nest? 

Have you ever wondered why the statements above in italics are generally not a source of offense to most people? What is it about those statements that has us agreeing with them rather than mounting a loud and ugly protest to squelch such intolerant and controlling speech?

Though i have never tasted antifreeze, by all accounts it tastes sweet and it looks an awful lot like my favorite soda, Mountain Dew. I bet it tastes a lot like Mountain Dew, as well, except without the carbonation. What if someone just made up the story that drinking it can kill you? What if it was made up by someone who just wants to spoil everybody's fun?
I bet a tiny sip won't hurt anyone. And if my dog wants to drink some, who am i to stop him? I want him to be happy and telling him no would only make him sad and might make him think that i'm not his friend.

And I really can't stand it when my child's beautiful eyes well up with tears and her bottom lip quivers because I've shouted at her. I'm never, ever going to shout at my kid, no matter what. I will never do anything that would bring a tear to her eye. I want her always to think of me as someone who wants nothing but her happiness, all the time. "Go ahead dear and play with that hornet's nest to your little heart's content."

As for my best friend. Though it's true that he can't walk anymore and some know-it-all doctor thinks that he's probably going to die soon, I am sticking by my 400 Lb friend. I think it's really horrible of the doctor to tell him that he shouldn't be eating 3 pizzas a day and drinking all that soda. You cannot possibly imagine how important it is for my friend to start the day with a dozen doughnuts. No one understands that it causes him actual physical pain to not eat what he wants, when he wants it. I am proud to say that I have his favorite pizza place on speed dial and I would gladly bring him a pizza whenever he wants one, or three.

You may be thinking that i am just making matters worse instead of helping but you have no idea how upset people get when you try to tell them no. And above all else, i don't want to upset anyone!

More and more of us are ignoring, or worse, shouting down warnings because we don't know what we are talking about. We are rejecting the messages because we are ignorant. We have lost the plot and are unable to place the warnings into the proper context where the message would make sense and scare us straight if we caught a glimpse of the big picture. To make matters worse, we condemn the messengers and shame them into silence with taunts and mockery, while we continue to march ourselves and our loved ones the poisoned punchbowl, laughing all the way. 

We have threatened and belittled the truth-speakers into muzzling themselves if they intend to interact with us in any way. We have bullied them into accepting our perverted and twisted reality as right. Instead of considering for a moment that the poison we are ingesting and feeding to our children might be killing us, we point an accusing finger at the messengers and blame them for the death. The effects of the poison are plain to see, except to the one who is under its destructive influence. Just because the death is not instantaneous does not mean that it isn't doing its job just the same. 

Is it possible that the warnings, even when shouted at us sternly with alarm might be for our own good? Or have you made it clear to your friends that if they want to remain your friend, they better keep their stupid opinions to themselves?