Killer: actually, they're red-necked keelbacks, so they're both venomous AND poisonous!
this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2026
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Cute learning is the best kind of learning!
Feeding his poisonous snakes to you would be much more effective.
To be fair, the snakes could be poisonous, and the killer could be feeding you to them, but he's just telling you his plans for body disposal, not his method of killing you. He'll likely use a knife, that way he can give the snakes bite sized pieces. You will be alive for this at first.
Admit it, y’all couldn’t resist correcting them.
The killer almost had me, but I learned in self-defense class that "poisonous [organism]" only inherently means ingested in colloquial usage and that venoms are more properly a subset of toxins (naturally-occurring poisons) which are a subset of poisons. Consequently, it's like the killer showed me a square and called it a quadrilateral: I'm too pedantic to be affected.
If you're too pedantic, wouldn't you want to share this knowledge with the killer or at least confirm that he used the term with the proper knowledge and not because of a mistake?
Oh my god I thought I was the only one banging this drum
I don't have a strong opinion on this, since in my language we use the same word for both. I'm aware of the difference in English, but but I just don't have it internalised enough to care if someone makes a mistake.
It's not really a difference in English, either. "Venom" is a specific term, but "poison" is general, so too with poisonous.
I think it's specific in some scientific areas, but insisting on that is like insisting on calling a tomato a fruit, or a banana a berry.
Have we as a collective eaten every species of snake in the world to know that absolutely none of them are poisonous? Can we rule out genetically modified snakes that would make them so? Or maybe they are fed a diet of human flesh and a steadily increasing amount of some supplemental toxic substance such that they have become immune to the toxin as it slowly builds up in the snakes' flesh causing them to also become poisonous? Is it possible most snakes are actually poisonous but only if consumed in sufficient quantity on Thursday November 18th, 2084 at 6:30 p.m.?
I think some snakes are known to be poisonous. Snakes are prey to several animals.
Asking the very important and frankly, controversial questions.
Some men are born into greatness.
It it ok to eat raw venom glands?
I've read or heard that most types of snake venom are large, fragile proteins that are quickly broken down or neutralized by stomach acids and/or cooking. And most are only dangerous if they can enter the blood stream or are injected directly into body tissues.
In practice, there are lots of variables that come into play that might allow ingested venom to get into your bloodstream while still active, such as cuts/abrasions/sores in the mouth or ulcers in the lining of your digestive system.
So, in summary, it's terribly risky.
My even-more-pedantic take is that poisonous is correct, but imprecise. There's lots of ways to be poisoned. Ingestion, inhalation, dermal contact, and, yes, injection. But it's all poison.
A poison is a harmful substance. A toxin is a poison created by a living organism. A Venom is a toxin that's delivered subcutaneously.
Poison is the parrallelogram to venom's square.
"Joke's on you, venomous snakes won't recognize chopped up human meat chunks as food; you're just gonna have a mess to clean up."
Understanding the difference between things matters, dang it.
I initially missed out the "to" in the Killer's sentence, and I was like "but they're correct, though"
I'd be much more bothered by the fact that there is no venomous or poisonous snake in the world that could swallow a whole adult human. The only ones that could arguably get close to food of that size are all constrictors.
yet
I don’t think anyone owns a venomous snake strong enough venom to kill them.
Don't be so pendantic!
Its like the Rodger Rabbit shave-and-a-haircut bit, but for internet losers.