People on Reddit were asked: “Which persistent misconception/myth annoys you the most?” These are some of the best answers.
I really hate the myth that the emergency oxygen masks on airplanes make you high, or docile so you don’t panic during a crash. That’s almost the exact opposite effect. If airlines really wanted their passengers to be docile they would just let them have hypoxia. Now that will make you calm.
Cessno
Sleeping with a fan on will kill you. Very popular myth in Asia.
tibsalot
I have a virus, therefore, I need antibiotics.
jdance1125
That an undercover cop has to tell you they’re a cop as long as you ask them 3 times. Who comes up with that.
1000korpses
As a diabetic, anything with sugar in it will KILL ME INSTANTLY. [Go away] and let me eat this snickers you idiots.
cephalopodcat
Because it happens to be cold today, there is no global warming.
inardtickler
When people think that if they earn too much money they will get put in a higher tax bracket which will cost them more then the extra money they made by working more.
Or when employees get cash awards at my job that are withheld at 40 percent and they believe that they are getting screwed by paying extra tax.
Joncat84
“There are 5 Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays this month and that only happens every 823 years and the Chinese call it moneybags! Share this Facebook post and you’ll be rich!”
Seriously, it happens, on average, once a year and most of the time, when people share it, it isn’t even true. This stupid thing is so easy to realise it’s wrong, I don’t know how anyone can believe it.
Waniou
The Vikings did not have horns on their helmets, damnit!
Asgardur
That Schrdinger’s cat is about the cat. It’s not, it’s about how weird quantum superposition is.
Also, the cat is not “alive or dead, but you don’t know which it is until you check”; it’s “alive and dead at the same time, which is complete nonsense – that’s why quantum superposition is weird.“
[deleted]
That hair that is shaved/trimmed will grow back thicker and longer. It won’t and doesn’t. It’s an illusion created by everything being neatly cut to the same length, giving it an effect of more volume.
Okarine
That someone’s ignorance is as valid at someone else’s knowledge.
Niriel
I absolutely hate the fitness industry/social media for popularizing the idea of a “tone body”. You see these people standing on medicine balls doing 100 bodyweight squats, or doing dumbbell curls with 5 lbs because they don’t want to “get too big”.
You aren’t going to lift heavy weights for a year and accidentally become Arnold. No, lots of reps with little weight are not going to get you “tone”. Tone is muscle mass + low body fat. To put on muscle you need to lift heavy weight and progress over time. To have low body fat, you need to eat at a caloric deficit. It’s really that simple.
RobLowesVoice
Any hoax that my family finds on Facebook. Recently I was warned to not eat bananas because they were being injected with HIV.
Loafie493
Gambler’s Fallacy. If something hasn’t happened for a while, it is more likely to happen the next time it can, or vice versa. It forgets that events are independent.
If I drink and drive 1000 times, it is more likely that I will get caught. However, if I don’t the first 1000, the probability of me being caught on the 1001st time is no different than the first.
GetTheLudes420
The idea that ancient people were stupid and backward. We are only where we are now because of their achievements.
JoeChristmasUSA
“I don’t eat chemicals!”
Ok, enjoy your nice tasty diet of photons and vacuum.
[deleted]
That all gay men want to have sex with all men. If you aren’t turning down women left and right you likely aren’t so good looking that we can’t control ourselves.
Crassusinyourases
The persistent myth that people before about 1600 (particularly in Europe) were a bunch of knuckle-dragging, unenlightened, superstitious idiots. The most annoying comment? That they thought the earth was flat.
The oldest universities in Europe were founded in the middle ages. Their education system laid out the foundations of formal and informal logic. Law and rhetoric were taught along with arts. This is why so many logical arguments/fallacies and legal concepts are still referred to by Latin phrases.
Scientifically, they followed the natural laws inherited from Aristotle. Not modern physics, or even early modern physics, but it was still an understanding of matter and motion according to a set of laws.
Also geocentric astronomy was still astronomy after all. It was still able to predict eclipses and the movement of the sun. They did this all without even a crude telescope, and simply watching the sun and moon with the naked eye. I do not know of any modern astronomers who can say they’ve done the same.
Jin-roh
That humans couldn’t have evolved from monkeys because today’s monkeys haven’t evolved into humans.
Irewst
That a father spending time alone with his child is “babysitting”.I would get so pissed whenever someone would say that to me.
TaedW
That there’s a hidden cure for cancer but pharmaceutical companies are not releasing it because they would lose profits.
To suggest that there is a SOLE cure for all types of cancer be it a solid tumor like breast cancer, or a haematologic malignancy like AML is just so absurd to me.
apoenzyme
That jellyfish are electric. They’re not. They sting you with nematocysts which stick in your skin and inject some toxins — THAT’S what stings. You’re not getting shocked you’re getting MICROSCOPICALLY STABBED
voidmountain
That if you find a baby bird on the ground and put it back in its nest, the parents will smell you and reject its baby.
1) Birds are some of the best parents in the animal kingdom
2) Birds have an underdeveloped sense of smell, and cannot smell you.
So what you should do is leave the bird alone. If it has feathers and is on the ground, its probably learning to fly and its parents are nearby.
If it doesn’t have feathers, and you put it back in the nest, and mom kicks it back out, it had absolutely nothing to do with you. I spend my summer banding birds. We open up every nest box at the nature center and band the chicks. Not one has ever been tossed from the nest because it smelled funny.
tyrannustyrannus
We will solve all our problems if we just elect the right President.
AnchovieProton
That OCD is an adjective, or a verb, or just a quirk, and not a potentially debilitating mental disorder that has driven many people to madness or suicide.
clinto1980
Nuclear reactors can explode like nuclear bombs. No, no they can’t. They can get really hot and melt stuff or maybe set something else on fire that can explode. They do not explode like nuclear ordinance.
danke1234
That vaginas become looser after sex.
klarinette
That we only use 10% of our brains. Yes because millions of years of evolution allowed us to keep a whole lot of space occupied FOR NO POSSIBLE USE OR FUNCTION? Spare me.
IGiveBagAdvice
Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis.
tibsalot