this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026
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I'd say high rise iron workers seem the coolest. Think back to that black and white picture everyone has seen of the two guys sitting on a beam hundreds of feet up eating lunch.

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[–] iamericandre@lemmy.world 73 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Deep sea welding is pretty badass

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I remember watching a documentary about someone who was welding under the ocean, and simultaneously inside of a empty undersea pipeline that they had to swim a ways down to reach the problem area. That's too damn extreme for me. I would sign up to be a doordash driver who only delivers to the worst Karens before I put on a single flipper. :D. Crazy hardcore.

[–] turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub 10 points 4 days ago (3 children)

And the accidents… Those documentaries are in a category of their own. If there’s a massive pressure difference between two sides of a wall, all sorts of horrible things can happen. Pure nightmare fuel.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Are those the ones that spend long lengths of time at extremely high pressure and need to essentially live in a pressure vessel for the duration of their work?

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Saturation divers. Something I didn't realize, they haul the pressure vessel to the surface at the end of every shift, they don't live at the bottom, but they're under pressure.

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[–] scytale@piefed.zip 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Not to mention the things drifting around you in the darkness that you can’t see but can probably feel.

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[–] night_petal@piefed.social 2 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Delta V is not your friend.

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[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I've been told fork lift drivers fuck

Almost exclusively by fork lift drivers but they seem really convincing

[–] insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

You're mishearing. They fork.

[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 8 points 3 days ago

Forklift operator here, it's all true.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 33 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I think glass makers are pretty cool. Casually risk 3rd degree burns every day.

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Hard to beat those pictures

Id give honorable mention to linemen. Casually handling thousands of volts from the top of a bucket truck while traffic whizzes past is pretty badass. Plus responding to emergencies like hurricanes, tornadoes etc. Its also usually a union job.

Im just a wireman myself, I like to keep my shocks under 277V

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I knew someone who did this kind of work. They don't wait until the weather improves. They climb poles in 70mph winds with sideways blowing hail and lightning if that's what needs to happen. That's crazy hardcore!

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

We had a lineman up here get attacked by a cougar. Fought off the cat with a 4-inch pocketknife, got himself out of the bush and to a highway before getting a ride to the hospital.

Absolute badass.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Years ago I ran a pub quiz and one of the categories was "Name the song from this description of the lyrics":

A low-level government employee abuses his access to national infrastructure to secretly spy on a woman he is obsessed with. He acknowledges that he has a unhealthy obsession and that he really should back off, but quickly managed to convince himself to carry on, assuring the audience that he is still spying on her.

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[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 20 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Firefighters are pretty cool.

[–] toynbee@piefed.social 4 points 3 days ago

I disagree; it seems like they'd often be quite warm.

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[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Traditional blacksmith by far

[–] FunStuffIsFun@eviltoast.org 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I build spacecraft and I think that's pretty cool.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That's why they have radiators.

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[–] jeffep@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] ChexMax@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Maybe just plain ol carpenter. Like part of "cool" is unaffected or aloof. A dude or chick who builds their own home and the furniture inside? That's just cool. A lot of the stuff listed here actually takes a decent amount of nerdiness or at least passion. While the jobs are awesome, idk that they're the coolest.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I approve of this.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 13 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Do you count movie crews as 'blue collar?'

F1 pit crews?

NASA mechanics?

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[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 12 points 3 days ago

I felt cool crushing garbage at a landfill. Gross as hell but garbage crusher feels like riding a boat on the ocean

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] RumorsOfLove@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Air Conditioning installation

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[–] Vandalismo@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

naval carpentry, it's something that differs a lot based in the country, and it's usually passed down from father to son

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So many traditional blue collar jobs have connotations associated with them that make the workers irredeemably uncool.

But, machinists. I just love machining.

[–] VirtigoMommy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, machinists don’t judge when you start talking about being real into cnc

[–] Hello_there@fedia.io 8 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Someone who operates giant fucking machinery.

[–] DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

You mean like a 40" vibrator, right?

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[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Tug boat captain.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 7 points 3 days ago

Driving one of those giant dump trucks you see at mining sites.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Machinist at NASA.

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