• Idea@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    298·
    1 day ago

    In a traditional German toilet, the hole into which shit disappears after we flush is right at the front, so that shit is first laid out for us to sniff and inspect for traces of illness. In the typical French toilet, on the contrary, the hole is at the back, i.e. shit is supposed to disappear as quickly as possible. Finally, the American (Anglo-Saxon) toilet presents a synthesis, a mediation between these opposites: the toilet basin is full of water, so that the shit floats in it, visible, but not to be inspected. […] It is clear that none of these versions can be accounted for in purely utilitarian terms: each involves a certain ideological perception of how the subject should relate to excrement. Hegel was among the first to see in the geographical triad of Germany, France and England an expression of three different existential attitudes: reflective thoroughness (German), revolutionary hastiness (French), utilitarian pragmatism (English). In political terms, this triad can be read as German conservatism, French revolutionary radicalism and English liberalism. […] The point about toilets is that they enable us not only to discern this triad in the most intimate domain, but also to identify its underlying mechanism in the three different attitudes towards excremental excess: an ambiguous contemplative fascination; a wish to get rid of it as fast as possible; a pragmatic decision to treat it as ordinary and dispose of it in an appropriate way. It is easy for an academic at a round table to claim that we live in a post-ideological universe, but the moment he visits the lavatory after the heated discussion, he is again knee-deep in ideology.

    • Slavoj Žižek
  • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
    147·
    1 day ago

    They used to need to check for parasites, in the shattered state of misery that existed after the war. (Edit! This is wrong. TIL.) It’s disgusting, but so is having parasites and not knowing it.

    Pro tip for US people: Get ready! The world is not inherently a safe and stable place, and if you knock out the supports that are keeping it safe and stable for you, all kinds of really bad shit can happen.

        • lars@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          Omg tho did Zuck himself not ban Trump from Meta properties before Biden even became president??! Isn’t Zuck

          fully knowing the consequences of Trump

          in a way that even stay-home-on-Election-Day Swing Staters don’t?!

    • waigl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      53·
      1 day ago

      Remember the whole “Ivermectin, the dewormer, helps against Covid” thing in the US? Researchers did look at those claims and came to the completely unsurprising conclusion that, unless you have gut parasites, Ivermectin does not help with anything, including Covid. However, if you do have parasites, the Ivermectin can remove a comorbidity, which is obviously going to help with just about anything, including Covid. (Unless you have the wrong kind of parasite, and the sudden presence of rotting worm corpses throughout your body leads to septic shock…)

      My takeaway from that is, modern day Americans probably have a lot more gut parasites than we used to think before Covid.

      • Chronographs@lemmy.zipEnglish
        29·
        1 day ago

        We Americans don’t actually have an obesity epidemic, we’re just completely full of parasites

        • Themadbeagle@lemm.eeEnglish
          28·
          1 day ago

          You fail to mention that studies of the antiviral properties of Ivermectin showed that the dosage requirements were proported to be higher dosage than what was considered safe and was likely to be toxic. Sure, maybe it can act as an antiviral medicine, but the other thing a medicine must do is, you know, not kill the person using it.

          As an edit upon further reading, not only were some of the early studies suggesting dangerous dosage being required to see the affects, laterore rigorous studies showed little evidence it made a difference at all.

          The worse part, that only too 2 minutes to google to see dones of papers on the subject, so maybe look into things before you parrot randos on the internet

        • Death_Equity@lemmy.worldEnglish
          16·
          1 day ago

          Ivermectin is a treatment, the vaccine is a defense. You can’t compare them like they do the same thing.

    • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.spaceEnglish
      28·
      1 day ago

      IIRC, this design predates 1945, and is not specifically about parasites but digestive health in general. (There were a lot of health fads in late 19th/early 20th-century Germany, some more quackish than others.)

      • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        1 day ago

        In a way, this is a tribute to longevity of bathroom porcelain. Even in Germany, this is far from modern. If you look e.g. into the bathroom department of German DIY stores, you won’t find this design anymore.

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
        8·
        1 day ago

        TIL. That’s wild. I always had just been aware of the rumor that it was from after the war, but yes, it looks like you’re right.

    • TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      9·
      1 day ago

      war

      I had worms once and I found out only because of this type of toilet. I must have gotten them from a park where I was sitting down on the grass, without a blanket.

        • PrincessTardigrade@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          Hookworms can be acquired by bare skin against contaminated soil, so it’s theoretically possible, especially if TheBrideWoreCrimson wore their birthday suit

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      So you’re saying that Americans may need to develop or start using German toilets in 20-30-40 years time?

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    1 day ago

    That’s known as a Dutch toilet. It’s designed to allow you to inspect your movements for health concerns more easily than the standard toilet.

    If you’re concerned with leaving evidence, just toss a couple pieces of tp on top of the water before you go so it’ll slide down easily when you flush.

    • Nounka@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      12 hours ago

      For kindergarten it is used often in Belgium. Teachers can controle who did buisness. If a lot off worms are on there you see it and parents are informed. Some places not only parents of the one xith the worms but the entite klass by the usual ‘they are seen’ letter. Plx take care off your child.

      Btw No bowing down needed or sniffing. Good lord who would do that…

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
      18·
      1 day ago

      I would have loved to have one of these a few years ago. I have a wilderness cottage and on the lake we’re on, it was affected by a family of beavers who cause beaver fever, Giardiasis. It’s a small lake so it was a problem and I got infected with it. Nothing serious or long lasting but when I went to the doctor, he asked for a series of stool samples to confirm diagnosis.

      The dutch toilet would have been great for that. Instead I had to perform acrobatics and weird positions and use plastic wrap and cardboard and paper to try to make a clean collection … and there were a few accidents along the way.

      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        12 hours ago

        You could have just put a small bucket in the toilet. And take it out before you have to pee.

        • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
          4·
          17 hours ago

          If you have a severe case of it and you swallowed several cups of it or you made tea or coffee with tainted water or boiled food with the water.

          I had a very mild case because I caught it from swimming and might have swallowed a bit of water. I can even remember the moment in happened … I was swimming and dove in the water and felt some water in my nose and mouth and when I came up, a beaver was slowly making its way past me 20 feet away. As cute and mild as these creatures seem, they use the lake as a toilet every time they go swimming.

          My infection only lasted about a week of mild diarrhea, maybe one bad day but that was it.

          I’m always careful in my part of the country and always watch where I get my water and how safe it all is. Swimming in my lake is never a problem. We just happened to have a family of beavers move in one summer. A local indigenous trapper manages the area and got rid of the beavers. And it’s not an inhumane thing about it either. I’m indigenous myself and I grew up eating the beaver that my dad trapped when I was young. Beaver are just managed now because of issues like giardia and places where people can get sick from it. The surrounding area where I’m from is filled with beaver everywhere else.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        I’m dreading this. I need to do the mail in your shit prostate test in the next couple years if not now. I’ve got hemorrhoids so I am very scared of anything going up my ass. Got any tips from what you learned?

        • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          Can’t say I enjoy these conversations but I know what it means to have to do it.

          If I had to do it again, I’d recommend doing your business in a large garbage bag that you place in a bucket or bowl (so that it doesn’t spill). The larger the garbage bag the better. Saving garbage bags doesn’t matter anyway because you won’t be doing this too often. Once everything is in the bag, then you can take out the bag and get in to more easily collect your sample. I know you only need a small bit but it is very hard to try to do stuff over a toilet bowl with plastic, containers or whatever and not contaminate things in the water, your hand or anything else. I tried four or five different ways and always made a mess. Better to just do it all in a garbage bag. Then once you are done, wrap up the whole bag, seal it and throw it in the dumpster outside your house.

        • medgremlin@midwest.socialEnglish
          2·
          22 hours ago

          Don’t bother with the mail-in test if you know you have hemorrhoids. It tests for DNA fragments from tumors and for microscopic traces of blood. If it comes back positive, they don’t tell you if it was positive for the tumor DNA or for blood, and you’ll have to get a colonoscopy anyways.

          Cologuards are only good for 3 years at most, and a colonoscopy is good for 10 years if it comes back clean. Just save your money and go straight to the colonoscopy because the hemorrhoids will likely pop a false positive on the mail-in test.

          Edit: Also! If you have a positive cologuard, the ensuing colonoscopy has to get billed as “diagnostic” instead of as “screening” and insurance pays for it differently.

    • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comEnglish
      37·
      1 day ago

      Living in germany for 30+ yrs. this WAS the norm everywhere but nowadays these are no longer built usually. So in fact only in badly maintained homes.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      1 day ago

      Basically, any house that had it’s bathrooms renovated in the last thirty years or so won’t have those any more

  • Micromot@feddit.orgEnglish
    21·
    1 day ago

    That is an absolute positive because it makes you able to see if you are eating healthy/if your gut is healthy

  • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    13·
    1 day ago

    I LOVE these because:

    1. No splash (aka Poseidons kiss)
    2. No chance of dangling genitalia to touch the bowl

    Toilets are hygiene facilities and this is the most hygienic design IMO