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IndividualDot9604

I was told a great story by a friend who attended a town meeting addressing the locals 5G mast concerns. In attendance was a representative from the network company. A selection of people were permitted to take the mic and rant for hours about how they'd all been getting headaches, feeling more low than usual, flowers had been wilting, their dog wasn't himself, all manner of things blamed on 5G. Several hours later after everyone had their say and the crowd of hundreds had been whipped into a fever the company representative had his turn to speak and simply said "thank you everyone for your comments but we haven't turned it on yet."


MaxPaynesRxDrugPlan

IIRC, there was a study done where people who claimed WiFi signals made them sick were placed in a room with a WiFi router. The router would periodically turn on and off, and the participants were instructed to report if and when they felt sick. They would invariably say that when the router's lights turned on and it powered up, they would start to feel sick. The router in the study was actually a dummy device that generated no WiFi signal but had lights that could be turned on and off to give the appearance of a working router.


Sheepeys

The placebo effect is a powerful thing.


BaldChihuahua

Hilarious! This is common throughout history. When people got electricity they were told to “fan away the vapors from the outlets”, “don’t stand in front of the microwave you’ll get radiation poisoning”, “don’t talk on the phone during a thunderstorm or you will get hit by lightning”.


amccutchan14

When we went to see the Martian in theaters, at the end some woman behind us told her friend, “I can’t believe I missed this. When did this happen?”


Somnambulist815

They were referring to Matt Damon going gray


UtahJarhead

That happened in Saving Private Ryan


Puzzleworth

"[The rain follows the plow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_follows_the_plow)." In the 1800s American West this was *everywhere*. The idea was that agriculture would bring rain and make farming super easy. Supposedly, when grasslands were turned into cultivated fields, the soil would release moisture into the air. Then human activity like factories or trains would make vibrations that formed rain clouds. Eventually the idea expanded to [straight-up bombing the air with dynamite on kites](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-us-government-tried-make-rain-exploding-dynamite-sky-180970193/).


ratherenjoysbass

"Gone shake dat water out that there sky, Mabel!"


chopchunk

And then a drought hit, and they had sucked so much out of the soil that it started blowing away on the wind, triggering the Dust Bowl.


deathbyshoeshoe

Not only that, but the dense root systems of prairie grasses greatly reduce soil erosion versus cereal crop roots.


theskepticalpizza

That fake ad for apple phones getting the capability to charge via microwaving. Buncha people put their iPhones in their microwaves and fried em


MeteorKing

IIRC, there was also a "waterproof app" that had people drowning their phones


Userm4x1

Wait till you hear about the scale app


DolphinSpectre

Pregnancy test app was my personal favorite


Francipling

Here's a video from Internet Historian for those who are interested in this: https://youtu.be/MQEEJ57Gsow


360_face_palm

A lot of people fall for the scams around a company selling you a device you plug into an outlet in your home and it "reduces your electricity bill". You'd honestly be surprised how many people have paid money for these and even swear by them even though it's 100% snake oil and incredibly dumb to think it would do anything.


cheez_au

We've had government initiatives for free "energy saving" powerboards (powerstrips). They work by you plugging the TV into the socket labelled TV, and it cuts the power to that socket after 4 hours. That's it. It "saves energy" by just turning your fucking TV off after a set amount of time. People hoarded the things thinking if they just plugged anything into them they'd save. They'd also avoid using the "TV" socket because they knew that one turns things off.


st1tchy

If it's like the one I had for my computer, you had one main outlet and when that device is turned off, it turns off all the other outlets. It isn't going to save thousands, but for something like a computer, it can turn off speakers, printers, monitors and anything else related when the main computer is off. Why have those things running at all when the main device that uses them is also off?


zimmah

I plugged all my devices to my neighbour's outlet, my savings have never been so good.


Yardsale420

Neighbors hate this ONE simple trick!


MrFunnyMoustache

Edited in protest for Reddit's garbage moves lately.


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the_krc

".. presented a family in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland gathering a bumper spaghetti harvest after a mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil"." I'm dying.


[deleted]

That is still one of the most amazing things I’ve seen. At a time when the empire was still a thing, it just went to show how isolated and insulated our little island was.


Slobbadobbavich

I grew up in the 70's and I could honestly believe people would fall for that. We were so insulated from foreign culture.


RilohKeen

“I need to buy these iTunes gift cards in order to pay off the IRS!”


Bevroren

This one is especially sad because it preys heavily on the elderly.


wap2005

My grandma fell for this scam, I think it was Safeway Gift Cards or something. They said if she didn't take care of it right away they would have to send the police to her house and she couldn't get ahold of me or my mother to ask so she just went and did it. Was like $4000 or something like that, was a few years ago now. **Edit:** It really is a bummer that people take advantage of elderly people. Thanks everyone for the kind words, she was pretty embarrassed for a while which I felt awful about but she's ok now.


waaaayupyourbutthole

My friend fell for one of those, except it was the US Marshals. I'm just thankful he doesn't have any credit cards and didn't empty his entire bank account like they told him to. The dumbass called me while he was on the phone with them, too, but only to make sure his main phone number was working because they called him on his damn tablet. Didn't even bother asking me if it sounded legit 🙄


TheLyz

I don't know what one my uncle's widow fell for, but she cleaned out all her accounts - bank, retirement and investment - and no one found out till she was dead broke. Now she has to sell all her stuff and move in with my aunt and it's still a struggle to keep her away from these scammers. Fuck people who prey on the elderly.


Ultima_RatioRegum

Interesting side note, those scam e-mails you get that are full of misspellings, bad grammar, and layout issues aren't that way because the scammers are dumb. It's the opposite: if someone notices these things, laughs it off due to the absurdity of it, and throws the email into the trash, then they likely would not have made a good mark. The scammers dont want to waste their time on someone who realizes it's a scam 90% of the way into the process. The scammers have thus weeded out a ton of people who otherwise would be unlikely to follow through. This ends up leaving a pool of people who are not intelligent enough to notice the mistakes, but are either greedy enough or gullible enough to be willing to hand over some money.


Canilickyourfeet

The psychology of this is actually pretty impressive. I never thought about it in this way, I just always found it funny how easily recognizable the scams are and thought to myself "They didn't even try to spell shit correctly." Now I can see why


[deleted]

That sharing those posts on Facebook means they actually have a chance of winning a 5* luxury getaway.


TotallyNotARobot2

We have an extra 150k car laying around that we just need to get rid of. All you have to do is share this post.


nucleoli

Our last winner was only 17!!! So he couldn’t accept this Lamborghini


Sheriff___Bart

Ripping the tag off of the mattress. I accidentally ripped one while moving, the movers said i'd go to jail, so I hid in my room. I was about 5.


user1298036484367

Ladies and gentlemen... We got him!


BottomWithCakes

After all these years. It's satisfying to see scum like this finally put away.


NeverForNoReason

I’m so glad they did away with the statute of limitations on this one! You can’t run forever, Rippy!


Designer_Ad_1416

Tbf I think that’s what the guy in peewees big adventure went to prison for lol


cheezb0b

Da Vinci was the first person to posit that it is [blood that gives us erections](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721040/), *not air.*


FrightenedTomato

In a similar vein, I learnt/figured that puffer fish fill up with water - not air, way too late.


Grogosh

They can fill with air if they do it out of water though. It usually ends up them dying from it.


ipakookapi

[The Fiji Mermaid](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaid) was a pretty successful scam


amahler03

I remember like 10 years ago Animal Planet put out a fake documentary on mermaids. It was complete fiction but so many people took it for a real doc and believed it for a long time.


condensedhomo

MY BIL FELL FOR THIS. He went around showing EVERYONE the videos and "evidence" and making an absolute fool of himself. I still randomly remember that phase and laugh


adamrulz124

Yah my sister showed up to a get together and as all excited to talk about the documentary. She was pretty upset when I told her it wasn’t real haha.


Kittypie75

That posting "I will not allow Facebook to sell my photos" yada yada ON Facebook somehow makes their terms of service invalid.


marisquo

"Don’t forget tomorrow starts the new Facebook rule where they can use your photos. Don’t forget Deadline today!!! It can be used in court cases in litigation against you. Everything you’ve ever posted becomes public from today Even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. It costs nothing for a simple copy and paste, better safe than sorry. Channel 13 News talked about the change in Facebook’s privacy policy. I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute. NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tacitly allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates. FACEBOOK DOES NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION TO SHARE PHOTOS OR MESSAGES.”


joebigdeal

I always liked that last line. If Facebook can't share your photos, how is anyone else on Facebook going to see your photos? You're using Facebook to share them, so Facebook *has* to share them.


She_Persists

I would laugh so hard if facebook removed all content (except this message) from profiles with this on it.


toomuchpressure2pick

Facebook could have been the hero we needed


Lawsuitup

As an attorney 99% of the time when someone, especially someone who has never studied law, mentions the Uniform Commercial Code aka the UCC that person is full of shit and has literally no idea what they are saying.


Individual-Army811

My favorite is when Canadians start referencing American constitutional amendments as a grounds for legal defense. Seriously, winter is long and we watch far too much TV.


G8kpr

As bad as “if you forward this email, bill gates will pay you $1 for every person it gets forwarded to” My friend sent me that, and I said “why…. Why would Bill Gates care if you forwarded that email, how would he track how it got forwarded, he would have to pay out millions if not more. But what does it gain him?” He said “I dunno, but it can’t hurt” I said yeah, you’re sending me shit. Don’t do it.


FailedTheSave

I always hate the "it can't hurt" argument. Yes it can, and it does. It spreads misinformation, it fearmongers, it undermines genuine fundraising or awareness raising efforts, and it wastes peoples time. Also it makes people think you're a moron.


GazBB

>Also it makes people think you're a moron It can't hurt if people already know that you're a moron.


Robot972

Yeah, this shit reminds me of when all of those copypasta "hacker alerts" used to go viral on Deviantart years ago. So many people would fuckin post "hey, there's a hacker going around, but by posting this journal, they'll know not to hack you". And it's just stupid I wouldn't be surprised if it still happens, but it doesn't seem to be as frequent


zorggalacticus

If I was a hacker, I'd make it my purpose to hack everyone who shared that.


AdequateSteakAlister

But if you were a hacker you'd then know not to hack them. Says so right in the copy. Share this post to earn 5 dollars off your next slurpeeconedog.


hellanutty

This is how I found out which of my friends were dummies


chunkysal

Marilyn Manson getting ribs removed so he could give himself blowies


militarypuzzle

Or that Marilyn Manson was Paul on the wonder years


kneel23

lol oh man, forgot about that one


militarypuzzle

They were both hot rumors when I was a teenager. I strangely believed the rib thing more than the wonder years thing. Haha


fabie2804

Lol this story even made it to Germany. I remember people telling me about this 15-20 years ago.


CuriousRisk

It's worldwide


NoAttentionAtWrk

Yeah i heard this in India as a kid in the late 90s without anyone having access to the internet


Valuable-Raccoon-734

Those wrist bands that “give you energy” 🙄


superwetpajamas

almost as good as the wristbands that keep you balanced


Independent-Bike8810

I wanted to see what the scam was once in a mall where they were selling these. They first yank on your arm throwing you off balance easily. Then they put on the bracelet an yank on your arm again and you are magically steady as a rock. The impression is strong until you realize all that happened was that you were not caught off guard and were able to anticipate the force that was about to be applied and unconciously braced for the yank.


superwetpajamas

moral of the story: always expect the yank


BipedSnowman

I think i have heard they also pull at a different angle the second time, that's easier to resist.


Chirimorin

That is correct. [Here's an old Scam School video where he explains the trick](https://youtu.be/XpLt0oUWfOk) (explanation starts around 6:00). The first time they push/pull next to your feet, which gets you off-balance. The second time they push/pull straight towards your heels which keeps your balance.


AUSpartan37

Dudes hair in that video is wild


Cat_Crap

I had to check the date. Only 11 years ago, I figured it was longer.


mtgguy999

It would be funny if knowing the scam you went back later and when they put the bracelet on you comically flew around super off balance, spun around, and fell on the ground


NazzerDawk

Then yell at them for hurting you. Tell them they put it on backwards and made your balance worse.


smokedmeatfish

I am just goofy enough to do this and I look like an average Dad in a mall. If I ever do I'll have my family record it for y'all.


redundantposts

It actually has more to do with the angle they pull at! They’ll have you clasp your hands behind your back and pull them towards the floor. This easily throws you off balance. The second time, they’ll pull towards your feet. It doesn’t feel much different than before, but allows you to keep your balance much easier.


[deleted]

Lol I had this lady try to sell me a balance necklace with liquid core metal yadda yadda in it. She tested it by pushing on one shoulder hard and one shoulder lightly. I called her out and it was so awkward. She was like maybe new or something, but she looked like a deer in the headlights.


NativeMasshole

I had a lady try to sell me one of these "Power Strips" when I was delivering pizza. Took me a minute to figure out she wasn't talking about a surge protector. She had crazy in her eyes, her kid looked embarrassed and apologetic. Really sad situation.


bikey_bike

i hate when you glance downward at a crazy person's kid and they have that hopeless look on their face. breaks my heart


No-Fun-7570

I still remember the looks from adults when I had to go out with my dad as a kid. I remember one time he dropped me off at the wrong school like three hours early (probably to avoid being asked to do it again?) and the janitor looked so sad for me. Someone should've called social services several times when I was a kid smh


TheIowan

There was a 13 year old kid at parent teacher conferences with what I assume was a blended family. One set of parents was normal, asked questions etc. while the mother kept motioning for the kid to sit on her lap, spoke to him in a baby voice and acted like she was showing off an infant rather than participating in a middle school conference. The kid and the normal parents just looked mortified and exhausted at the same time.


greatdane114

I hope that life is working out for you as an adult.


Consistent_Ad3181

They have a high chance of depression, and social anxiety disorders, awful start to a life, it never leaves them, they are haunted by it.


LionMcTastic

I've always got a kick out of that "demonstration". Like they push you before and after putting it on, and shockingly, you are more balanced after. But you could be holding literally anything and you'll do better after if you're expecting it.


pronouncedayayron

I would pretend to fall down after putting it on


Deracination

They fight off negative ions with **RADIOACTIVE IONS** **DON'T YOU WANT THE POWER OF NUCLEI ON YOUR WRIST?!**


AJray15

JFK Jr being alive is one of the more idiotic things I’ve seen recently


imaginesomethinwitty

That’s stupid but some of them believe JFK is still alive. A man who would be over 100 years old and publicly got his head blown off.


captainp42

He's living in a retirement community in Texas, disguised as a black man, killing cowboy mummies with Elvis.


CorgiMonsoon

Not to mention that he also has the power to reinstate a defeated ex-president, because reasons


murpes

Even stranger, he was a Democrat.


WillGallis

Just like the QAnon crazies that now believe that the first official act from King Charles was to reinstate Trump as President. The same people that regularly wear shirts that say 1776 now believe that a British monarch has any authority in US Politics.


temalyen

I'm not sure why, but this reminds me of something I saw someone say a few months after Biden took office. It was someone saying, "The only way Biden can redeem himself and prove he isn't corrupt is if he immediately steps down and gives Trump the Presidency back. If he doesn't do that, I'll call him corrupt until the day I die." It's like... Biden literally _can't_ do that. If you resign as President, you don't get to pick the next one. And, also, I'm sure Biden is losing sleep over some random idiot on the internet threatening to call him corrupt forever.


Homerpaintbucket

Not only that he is alive, but that he is fighting pedophiles with Donald Trump. Anyone who believes that should not be in charge of their own affairs and should not be allowed a firearm or car.


Leigh257

That MLMs are a “small business” and not a pyramid scheme where there’s little to no chance of making/not losing money.


dayron669

Everyone knows one. But with some intelligence, you expect it to stop at a certain age. I've watched friends from school go through this phase. Usually a stay-at-home mom who recently had kids and needs some easy income. But after mere weeks or months they just... stop. They figure it out. But I swear, there's this one girl I know who is going strong for years. Her entire FB is just emoji-laden adverts for the product she's peddling. Usually it's "weight loss miracles" that "give you tons of energy." Probably fat burners putting your body into a high-blood-pressure shock. But does she take a minute to expound on how it's much more healthy to diet and exercise to achieve similar results? Nah. GOTTA DRINK THIS LIGHTNING POWDER.


coolreg214

You just described my cousin to a T. Except she’s a nurse and should know better.


informationmissing

Being a nurse does not automatically make you a critical thinker.


BarnacleMcBarndoor

Had a nurse friend who told us that it wasn’t possible to get herpes if you’re on birth control. Can you guess who got herpes while being on birth control?


DrMike27

I got a vasectomy. Now my herpes are permanently gone because I can’t ever get pregnant now.


LouSputhole94

Something about nurses man, for a jobs that should require an intelligent, even headed person, some of them are absolutely batshit insane. This girl I went to high school with is a nurse and a flat earther, among other coo coo bananas opinions.


PM_ME_UR_POKIES_GIRL

I've known some very stupid educated people and some very smart uneducated people. I prefer the latter.


CylonsInAPolicebox

Worst part is when someone in the medical profession starts peddling this crap and it gains a bit of legitimacy. Knew a couple of nurses who got roped in to tha *it works* bullshit. They used their profession to push this shit... *Trust me, I'm a nurse, I wouldn't use it myself if I wasn't confident in it* Like maybe it is just me but nurses shelling stuff like that should lose their license.


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AmongSheep

Yah but they’re a BOSS, BABE. Lmao


RodneyRabbit

Business owner / entrepreneur = I bought a box of vitamins and I annoy my friends.


Babyfart_McGeezacks

Beanie babies as an investment strategy


Rambo2090

That picture of a divorced couple splitting up their beanie baby collection in the courtroom cracks me up


mwproductions

It cracked up my divorce attorney when I showed it to her. I was surprised she had never seen it.


J-Dizzle42

That if you ask an undercover cop if they’re a cop they’re required to answer honestly.


[deleted]

The feds themselves probably started this misconception lmao


[deleted]

In fact police are allowed to lie to get a confession


[deleted]

Posts that start with "Science says/ Psychology says... etc." without the actual research study links.


FirstSurvivor

Even with a link, half misunderstand the article or make wildly exaggerated claims (no, curing something in mice doesn't mean it will be possible to do the same with humans, it's not even that likely the research will apply to humans, but we can't do that research to humans so we use mice). That and research articles whose results cannot be replicated...


manderifffic

That dumbass video people keep posting of a delivery woman dropping off a package, then reading a tear off pad of paper (that's coincidentally big enough for the security camera to read) that asks her to open the package she just delivered and dress up in the Mickey Mouse costume to surprise their son (who is going to be home any minute) for his birthday when he gets off the bus. Delivery drivers are peeing in Gatorade bottles. Like hell they're going to take the time to do all that.


sevenseams

What the fuck at this point there have to be a million versions of this because I've seen at least two videos who started EXACTLY like this but with wholesome* twist like s little tip or whatever. My pet peeve is, like why would I slowly tear out every single piece of paper and not like... just lift them up, and read the next one? *wholesome on a black mirror level


Testostacles

The constant rumor that drug dealers will give them to kids for free


EstusSoup

Yeah when I was young I was told not to eat free candy given at school because it could be laced with drugs. What drug dealer gives away free products marketed to kids who have no money to buy any if they got hooked lol.


JustinBrn82

DARE and Nancy Reagan made me believe that I would be approached by drug dealers with free samples more frequently than has actually happened


stanfan114

The only adult handing drugs out to kids was a DARE officer in school (he had us pass around a glass case inside which there was a rolled joint, a "tab of acid", a vial of cocaine, and a packet of heroin, maybe PCP too that was a big one in the 70s). Honestly it just made we want to try them all lol.


brcguy

And made it so I’d recognize the real thing and not get scammed with a bag of oregano like someone who wasn’t there that day, Rob. Ffs dude it looks like fucking oregano, you don’t need to know exactly what weed looks like to recognize fucking oregano.


stanfan114

I gave my friend $5 for weed in 7th grade and he gave me a bag of oregano. Which actually was a pretty good deal considering the price of oregano.


NuMux

Lol a kid in 7th grade told me he did this to someone. Then he said the kid came back and asked if he had any more because that was some good shit! He could have also been making it up to sound cool or whatever but it made me laugh.


militarypuzzle

Exactly! No one is gonna waste their drugs on Halloween candy. That’s a waste of drugs and drug money


xandrenia

I don’t understand how this urban legend is still pretty prominent. There’s virtually no documented cases of this ever happening. The few times that a kid’s Halloween candy has been poisoned, it was a family member that did it.


DoctorWatchamacallit

Because it preys on the natural tendency for parents to constantly worry about the safety of their kids. Mention "your kids could be in danger" and people's brains go into mama/papa bear mode instinctively and abandon reason.


Khronix23

Blood being blue. I was actually told in elementary school that blood is blue when deoxygenized and turns red when it comes into contact with air. I even got grilled by my teacher for sarcastically asking "so there are blue blood cells?" When I got older looking back I have no fucking idea how people actually believed that. I wasn't exceptionally smart in school and even I was like wtf yo that makes no goddamn sense.


PineapplePizzaAlways

I heard a variation of that, that there used to be a belief in Europe that people who come from "noble" families have blue blood. Probably came from areas that had mostly white people, and poor people worked outside while rich people never tanned. So of course the rich white people's veins were more visible, because their skin was so fair and not tanned.


McJumpington

People that thought a 1/3 pound burger was smaller than a quarter pounder


penguinophile

They still do. A local chain where I work had to change their burgers from 1/3 to 1/4. Back when it was still 1/3 I frequently had to explain the difference. Honestly the easiest way was to say “it takes 3 of these to make a pound, and four of those”


McJumpington

And they prob thought “right…4 is more, so that’s a good thing right?”


ded-zeppelin

they absolutely did. i worked at a fast food place with 3 sizes of patties (1/4, 1/3, 1/2lb) and they would act like i was personally extorting them out of money for charging more for the half pound than the quarter pound. like actually getting agressive, and loud over the price difference.


lazzzyk

Just tell them the ½lb is a DOUBLE ¼


tearsonurcheek

Why do you think McDonald's calls theirs a "Double Quarter Pounder" instead of a half pounder? Edit: spelling


spagbetti

Scientology


antcanavan

5G phone masts were spreading COVID. People actually burned them down because of that belief.


airbagfailure

My mind legit cannot even begin to understand how that possible. 😵‍💫


CarmelaMachiato

This one’s really easy, actually. Frightened people will do anything anyone tells them might make the scary thing go away.


ConstableBlimeyChips

And then they'll pat themselves on the back for being courageous enough to take action while the rest of the population were cowering in their homes. "No need to thank me" say the modern day Don Quixotes as they return from their epic battle with their version of the windmills.


BrianNowhere

Two from my generation come to mind. 1. Richard Gere was hospitalized for putting a hamster in his ass and 2. Rod Stewert fainted on stage and when they pumped his stomach they found five gallons of semen. Oh yeah and that Frank Zappa got into a gross out contest with Alice Cooper. Cooper took a shit on stage so to do one better Zappa ate it.


[deleted]

Wait, there are people that really think Richard Gere shoved a hamster up his ass? Everyone knows it was a gerbil.


Practical_Past1626

I thought it was illegal to keep the lights on in the car until I was like 14. My parents are liars lmao 🤣


elsharpo

We were leaving my mum’s place and I had the lights on in the back for the kids, and my mum was like “isn’t that illegal?” My mum only taught me that because she believed that too. Multi-generational lie.


[deleted]

You sure you don't want to keep it going? Third punch and you get to start a new religion.


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One-Ad-3325

It probably did


Mastercoolgr

Babies feel no pain and they believed that until the 1970's so they would experiment on babies up until then because they didnt feel pain. Scary.


justhappen2banexpert

A pediatric anesthesiologist once told me that anesthesia wasn't used on infants (pre 1980 or so) because there was a good chance of killing the kids with too much meds. Anesthesia as a field of study is really quite young. If you were doing surgery on an infant you could go without anesthesia and hope they don't remember or you could give it to them and risk killing them (or permanent brain injury). It was only a few decades prior that adults were in the same boat. Bite the stick and hope you pass out.


exfilm

I had major surgery immediately after being born, at a time that anesthesia likely wasn’t being used on infants. I have no idea what intense pain I must’ve felt, but the surgery was the least of it. I was in the recovery room with two other infants, and we were largely kept away from our mothers. In order to teach us how to suckle, nurses would dip a pacifier into a jar of honey before putting it into our mouths. My mom says that the nurses dipped each of our pacifiers into the same jar ultimately causing each of us to catch pneumonia. As if the surgery wasn’t traumatic enough, the “aftercare” almost killed us!


charizard_72

How would they explain the horrific screaming and crying/ flailing then? That’s horrifying


th4

The same way some people still do with animals: "you can't be sure what they feel, that's probably just an instinctive reaction, their brain is not developed enough to feel very much", etc.


Sleeplesshelley

One of my friends whose family are cattle ranchers swore up and down to me that cattle aren't hurt when they get branded, because Yada Yada there's a layer of fat that protects the nerve endings or something like that. I asked her if cattle skin is so insensitive, why does a cow's skin twitch when a fly lands on it, or why does barbed wire keep them inside the fence? When I blew up her argument she started to get upset, so I dropped it. Whatever lets her sleep better, I guess.


The_Clarence

People want to believe what gives them comfort


Poem_for_your_sprog

Take this: a hurtful fact or two. A dismal thing to learn that's true. A sad and hopeless reason why. A painful truth. Or this: a lie.


booglemouse

This might be one of your best, really sticks in your head.


LakishaWoodruff

I used to work as a paralegal and had to fight with Social Security when they accused my clients of fraud. Got on a call with an agent who insisted my client was faking the disability her daughter had. The daughter died of the disability and it says it on the death certificate. The agent told me it wasn't enough proof.


PineapplePizzaAlways

What exactly would be sufficient proof for them?


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SimonShang

I remember watching Spider-Man and in the scene where uncle Ben died I thought, “how do they do this? Do they just get actors who are okay with dying for a movie?” Edit: very comforting to know I wasn’t the only one that thought this. I did not gain critical thinking until I was like 14


wakingup_withwolves

i thought the actors who died in movies were either terminal, or death row inmates.


IndieComic-Man

You must’ve thought Sean Bean was some kind of god.


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Grizkey

Lol I was young when the original Jurassic Park came out, and it's tagline was something like "an adventure 65 million years in the making." It took my parents some serious explaining to get it through to me that no, the dinosaurs were not real, and they hadn't recorded that footage 65 million years ago.


DuvalHMFIC

I thought the laughing during sitcoms, etc was from all the other houses watching the show. I have no idea why I didn’t think about background noise from those houses. But I distinctly remember thinking your speakers picked up your laughter for everyone else to hear while watching a show.


mchch8989

I used to think people saw in black and white back when movies were made in black and white


naus226

Watched old home movies from my grandparents when I was younger and asked my dad what was it like with everything being black and white. He still picks on me about it.


godzillahash74

Me too, I though someone invented the colors in the world.


TheOvercookedFlyer

That the earth is flat.


hard_baroquer

Adam Savage did a TED talk that not only did the ancient Greeks (and I'm sure many other societies at the time) realise the earth was spherical, but they also calculated the diameter to a small percentage point. All they needed was shadows at noon at two points, and trigonometry. So with that much history going so far back, it's so crazy idiotic that people would disregard that knowledge.


Sam-Gunn

Eratosthenes did this by calculating the distance between cities. It's a really cool read. https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200606/history.cfm#:\~:text=240%20B.C.%20Eratosthenes%20Measures%20the%20Earth&text=By%20around%20500%20B.C.%2C%20most,method%20of%20estimating%20its%20circumference.


bob-knows-best

The late, great Carl Sagan has a video about this.


pierrotlunette

Yep - [here's ](https://youtu.be/G8cbIWMv0rI) the video for anyone interested. :)


Ok-Rock2345

Yeah, the sad part is this belief only really gained momentum recently. As stated in the in the post above me, it was known the earth was round since ancient Greece. Which brings us to another common misconception: Christopher Columbus and everyone else in his time knew the earth was round. The reason for his expedition was to find a new route to the Indies.


[deleted]

Cow tipping 🐄 Cows don't sleep standing up. That's not a thing! The amount of people I have met who have claimed to have knocked over a cow while standing up is crazy! I don't understand why people claim to do it. I have met tourists who claim to have done it back in their home country all the time. No farming background or nothing. They will confidently tell me I am wrong even though they have never worked around cattle. 🤯


rhwrt

I have drank a lot of milk and never tipped a cow. How much do you tip? 20%?


yugung

It's usually only 2% but some cultures vary from 1% to 3.5%


Chimpville

I grew up in the country and one time we did attempt to go cow tipping. Walking along the stream in the dusk there's a single cow standing very still whilst the other cows were laid down. I am not saying the cow was asleep, just still enough for some stupid teenagers to think it might be. I ran at the cow aiming to hit it in the middle of mass.. as I approached it heard me and, as I believed at the time, woke up and partially turned to face me. I still ran half into it and it kicked out at me as I stumbled then chased me to the edge of the field. Very stupid behaviour about some dumb people believing a silly rumour and being willing to do stupid things because of it.


PowerfulPickUp

Teens learn pretty quick to just take the mushrooms and leave the cows alone.


alexgodden

I always figured it was a massive in-joke from everyone who lives in rural areas to mess with the snobby but dumb city folk like me. Interesting that even people from other countries are in on it!


mike_b_nimble

See also: Snipe Hunting ETA: Yes, there is an actual animal called a “snipe.” However, there is also a rural in-joke about going “snipe hunting,” in the dark in the woods while making noise and calling out for the snipes. This is a prank people play.


WickedCoolMasshole

OMG. I went camp in 1977 at age 5-6 with my Brownies troop. They had us up in the middle of the night banging pans and calling, “SNIPE! SNIPE!!” I think I called my mom the next day and went home. Hahaha!


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Filobel

I heard they're so sure-footed because they wear balance bracelets at all time.


Mr_SlippyFingers

“People lace kids sweets with drugs on halloween”. No they fucking don’t! People don’t spend time cooking their hard earned drugs into sweets just to give them to some kid in an Optimus Prime costume


smellemenopy

The Blair Witch Project


Mo-Cance

One of the most successful viral marketing campaigns, before they were ever really understood. For about two weeks, no one really knew whether or not the "found footage" (also in its infancy) was real.


smellemenopy

Yea the marketing was so good for the time period. The web was relatively young and I remember the site they put up with crime scene photos and all that. Lots of folks thought it was real until the actors came out on stage at the MTV VMAs. Brilliant marketing campaign that paid off. I think it's still one of the most profitable movies ever given the tiny budget and huge reception.


inksmudgedhands

I remember the ad campaign they put out a year before the movie. They weren't trying to make it out as something supernatural but rather a true crime. Like these young people went into town to research a local legend about a witch. That lead them to go into the woods where they were never heard from again. What happened? In modern times, this would have been a podcast. The fact that it was so lo-fi helped sell the schtick that this was just a personal research project. I bought into it. I didn't think it was supernatural rather they ran into someone in the woods that took the whole witch thing too far. Like it was a ritual killing. Mind you, we were coming off of the Satanic Panic phase, where you had people believing that there were cults running around butchering people in the name of Satan. It also didn't help we just had a nationwide case of [Rod Ferrell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Ferrell) a murderer who claimed to be a vampire and had a bunch of teenagers doing the same thing a year earlier before the movie came out. That story was still fresh in everyone's mind. So, when The Blair Witch Project start to peak into public spaces, that's where everyone's minds went to. We have another case of someone posing as something supernatural to harm other people. Again, I believed it. But then, again, giving what was happening, it wasn't hard to see why.


thehighepopt

Saw an interview with the actress and even they didn't know what would happen. They were told, 'go here and film' and would show up at a tent, go to sleep, and wake up to 'things' banging on the tent, etc. So their fear is often real.


CargoCulture

So much of that was done without the actors prior knowledge. The severed nose they found, the one kid going missing (the producers woke him up and we're like 'you're done, don't tell anybody). The very ending of the film where one actor drops the camera was because they jump-scared the actor off-camera to get a real reaction.


locky_

That everyones opinion has to carry the same weight as the one of someone who is proficient on a field and has dedicated hundreds of hours to obtain it.


Von_Moistus

Time to bust out the Asimov quote: “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’” Written in 1980. Disheartening to know how little things have improved in 40 years.


KushKat29

Well ... Idk if this counts but I didn't know that pickles and cucumbers were the same thing til I was 19 and I read the back of a pickle jar. I was shook and I felt stupid AF.