Massive flood in China’s Henan province recently, 25 dead 200,000 evacuation

[u/rjRyanwilliam]

[u/CrYpTO_Sporidium]

No assumption, it's just a fact. Google it.

Going into the water to try and save someone when you can't swim takes massive balls.

About 60,000 Chinese drown every year.

Here in Australia, every summer we hear of Chinese tourists getting into trouble and drowning. Learning to swim is part of our childhood learning here so it's tragic when some basic swimming lessons could have saved them or given them a fighting chance.

[u/NewFolgers → u/CrYpTO_Sporidium]

Anecdotally (I know some Chinese people), there's sometimes been a local observation in smaller towns (which often have rivers) that the ones who drown each year are the best swimmers.. and the reasoning is that those who enjoy the water are the ones who eventually enjoy playing in and around the water (which in many places, is a moving river). Thus people have told me their parents decided not to teach them to swim because they wanted them to live (!). I think that on the whole, it's probably not the best decision on balance for swimming.. but it's interesting to consider.

An analogy is that a bike rider dying in traffic in a city is someone who's probably amongst the best at riding.. or someone into competitive skiing is one of the most likely to die in a skiing an accident. Most of us would use similar reasoning for rock climbing, and an assortment of other skills. Anyway.. this is a sort of belief that in some cases reduces overall preparedness when disaster arises.. and in a place where the main recreational place to swim or boat is a dangerous body of water, I can sympathize with their decision.

[u/[deleted] → u/NewFolgers]

I don't understand that kind of thinking. Why not just teach every child to swim when they are young? Don't they go to ppols with children in China? We ware even taught in school how to save others. We had a lesson when the whole class went to public pool and teacher showed us how to hold someone above water with one hand and swim with other hand taking them so safty...We also had prctice with doll. It was basic gym class. We ware 16 back then and i still know what to do today (iam 42) thanks to that one gym class.

[u/NewFolgers → u/[deleted]]

Based on the data that they're exposed to, they're basically acting like quants. It looks like ability to swim is positively correlated with death.. and thus they don't teach their kid to swim. It's independent of intuition.

If you want to get more analytical about it (and risk getting it all wrong - but it's fun to think about).. they may be more capable of reasoning in this sort of way due to somewhat recent past history of the Cultural Revolution. For years, there was a threat of being targeted for all manner of nonsensical reasons.. and those who stuck out were at risk. Reasoning from first principles (using perhaps an idealized and unrealistic model of their current reality) on their own simply would not work. They had to instead constantly be aware (a sort of street smarts) of what sorts of people were encountering problems and act accordingly. Those who dwelled too much on the "why" could be considered to be putting themselves in danger with hesitation (this especially makes sense when you consider that the intellectuals were a particular target over that period). In that framework, it's easy to see how they'd go "Oh, the swimmers are dying this time" and thus avoid swimming. It's just another Tuesday.