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Things move fast these days — really fast. And with so much content constantly flooding the internet, it’s become incredibly easy for mis- and disinformation to spread unchecked.
So after Reddit user Plus_Vanilla_2802 asked others to share the false “facts” they wish would stop circulating online, people had plenty to say.
From outdated medical fantasies to myths about human behavior and society, these responses are a reminder that a little skepticism can go a long way. Especially when you’re discussing important topics.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
That if you and your partner are more than one year apart in age then obviously someone has been groomed.
Tropical Tarot 1 hour ago
Well my wife and I are 14 years apart I'm older. But is it grooming when she was 39 when we met. I've actually had people say that was gross and too far apart.
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#2
Based on your highly editorialized version of events specifically written to make you seem like the innocent aggrieved party, you’re not the jerk and you’re not overreacting.
#4
So much mental health misinformation on this site. I've lost count of the times I have to remind people that *having* a disorder and being and expert are two different things.
#5
You are always right, and all your friends, family, and significant others are toxic, narcissists, or both.
The best way to deal with this is to just go no-contact.
StrangeOne 4 hours ago
The encouragement to go no-contact over petty disputes and minor disagreements is rife. I'm not talking about extreme cases.
#6
If you are unconvinced that trans women should be allowed to compete athletically with cis women you are a transphobe.
#7
That every interpersonal conflict must be resolved with whatever outcome best suits your desires and with no consideration for how your behavior/decisions impact other people.
#9
If you even think for a second you have relationship issues, or they sneeze too often, dump him/her.
#10
The divorce advice the thirteen year old boys give to desperate husbands.
#13
You should instantly leave your spouse for the slightest thing.
Colleen Glim 4 hours ago
Marriage takes work. If you aren’t willing to put in that work, why bother. Till d***h do us part should be mean till d***h do us part. Not until I get bored and can’t be arsed anymore
#14
I don’t know that people are going around calling it a fact that we’re all human or anything, but I think a lot of Redditors would be surprised to find out the amount of posts and comments they read every day that were actually AI’s pretending to be human. Wild to think that they’ve already been influencing people’s opinions without their knowledge.
#15
Adults aged 18 to 25 aren't responsible or accountable for their actions because muh frontal lobe.
Elladine DesIsles 5 hours ago
I think there is an underlying truth here, that human beings don't magically become "adult" the moment they turn 18, or 21, or whatever other somewhat arbitrary age we might settle on. Maturing is a process that differs between individuals and circumstances, while growth and development are lifelong. That does not, however, mean that young adults, or teens for that matter, should not be held accountable in age- and developmentally-appropriate ways.
#16
That the drink delivery of choice for the Jonestown m******e was Flavor Aid, not Kool Aid. You see people correct this all the time when someone makes a Kool Aid reference.
It's not true.
They used both. You can even see both of them in documentaries. In fact, in one doc Jones himself said something like "here is my Kool Aid stash" and he literally points to boxes of Kool Aid.
The reason people think it's just Flavor Aid is because one of the most popular pictures of the incident had Flavor Aid (only) on a table.
But ya, both were used.
Tropical Tarot 1 hour ago
Yeah I remember seeing both. One of my worst memories as a kid watching that body count go up on the news.
#17
That having children will absolutely undoubtedly irrevocably destroy your life.
StrangeOne 4 hours ago
Alters your life, for sure. It's up to your perspective how kids will shape your life. Kids can enhance your life, or make you feel like living in a storm every day.
#18
Every relationship post could be "my partner left the milk out" and the comments are like "this is textbook narcissistic a***e. you need to leave tonight.".
#19
That gen z drinks so much less than every other generation.
The graph and study that gets posted every other day is from 2021 and there were only 3 years of gen z that could drink at that time, the oldest gen z was 23. It also ignores plenty of other facts. Gen z spends the same amount of their income on alcohol as every other generation. So they do drink slightly less because they have less money.
#20
"Urine is sterile."
Jeff White 4 hours ago
Many people used to promote urine as sterile. And UNLESS you have a UTI, Urine is primarily sterile. With about 6 "Howevers". However, due to the vast improvements of detection / measurement systems over the last 40(?) years, there has been repeatedly confirmed that urine definitely contains trace bacterial components. Down from "sterile" to 95% "sterile (which is NOT sterile). Also, however, urine is certainly contaminated by surface contact as it is passed out of the body, making it a LOT less sterile. At this point, it is certain that urine is a waste product and should not be "used".
#23
That grocery stores have charity donations at check out so they can use it for their own tax write-off.
They do it because charities have found it to be a great way to get donations and it can be good pr.
#25
People can act like an a*****e and be narcissistic without having narcissistic personality disorder. Its wild seeing Redditors diagnose everyone with it based on next to nothing. Personality disorders are not half as common as you'd think based on what people say here.
Edit: To rephrase to match the question better: that every, or at least the majority of unkind people, have narcissistic personality disorder.
#26
"It's 200% undoubtedly scientifically proven without doubt from super credible sources that playing Tetris fixes your trauma!"
"No one smiled in any old photos ever bc exposureeeee!!"
"The brain isn't fully developed until you're 25!!!"
God, stfu.
#27
“40% of police officers commit domestic violence”. Based on one significantly flawed study which has been disproven by every study since, including one by the original researchers attempting to reaffirm their case. Subsequent studies show police officers commit domestic violence at about the same rate as everyone else, which isn’t good, but isn’t 40%.
#28
People don't actually get paid $20k to climb a cell tower and change a lightbulb. I worked on towers for 6 years. You get hourly pay like any other job. Doesn't matter how high you climb.
#29
In ANY thread about the homeless and mentally ill, you will ALWAYS hear some numbskull blaming Reagan.
The de-institutionalization of the mentally ill may have been a mistake, but it was a long-building bipartisan mistake. .
Elladine DesIsles 4 hours ago
This is a massive issue here in Canada, too, and we certainly can't blame Reagan! There are, to be sure, individual political leaders who can be identified as having played a role in exacerbating problems with mental healthcare (here in Ontario, former premiere Mike Harris stands out, and current premiere Doug Ford certainly isn't helping), and harmful policy and funding changes do belong more to conservative-leaning governments. But it has been a developing issue over decades, not attributable to any one figure or administration.
#30
"If your date is rude with everyone else, they will be rude at you."
I don't say this is not entirely true but Reddit has turned it into gospel.
And from life experience, I've seen many a*****e a******s who treat waiters/waitresses, homeless people and other vurnerable group far nicer than their own spouse...
It's become a pet peeve of mine because I've seen many cases which this is not true...
#31
That Mark Wahlberg blinded a Vietnamese man. Wahlberg has a well documented past of committing hate crimes: see “Legal Issues”section on Wiki.
While committing his third racially motivated attack (for which he was originally charged with attempted m****r) he punched his victim, Johnny Trinh, in the eye. Wahlberg believed he blinded Trinh, but he had actually lost his eye in the Vietnam War.
#32
This place can be a massive echo chamber at times, but no time is worse than the American elections, right up until the last vote is counted Reddit is convinced its right no matter how far behind their chosen candidate was.
#33
Almost anything about the law in the US. No, common law marriage is borderline not a real thing anymore and you cannot accidentally end up in a common law marriage. Alimony is rarely ordered these days unless either you agree as part of your divorce settlement or one person left the workforce for a long time (which both people agreed to) and basically is not employable anymore. Basically everywhere defaults to shared custody these days and usually when one parent doesn't see the kids it's by choice or by some real nonsense. "Pleading not guilty" is a nonevent because for any felony charge everyone essentially has a not guilty plea by default, and it doesn't change until there's a plea deal, so there is nothing interesting about a defendant pleading not guilty at arraignment. (Also, the idea that it's easy to find an attorney to work for free and everyone does "free consultations". Unless you're charged with a crime or have a civil suit with a real possibility of winning money or some other contingency arrangement, you generally have to pay attorneys besides pubic service attorneys.)
These are the most common ones but people here are weirdly convinced that if you live with someone you will accidentally end up in a common law marriage and that's not how that works at all.
Also, legal advice subreddit actively gets rid of any actual attorneys so they have no idea what they're talking about.
#34
That studies show men are extremely likely to leave a sick female partner. That might be anecdotally true, but the study they are all referencing was retracted.
The_Nicest_Misanthrope 54 minutes ago
Retracted or not, I've seen this happen in real life multiple times to women who absolutely did not deserve it
#35
All rich people are a******s. All business owners are rich. All Republicans (not just the ones who hold office) are p****philes.
Many Redditors have zero nuance, and everything is black and white.
#36
That if you go to Gary Indiana you will be shot and k****d on sight. Gary's crime statistic is similar to Baltimore and St. Louis.
#38
90%+ of news and politics is articles are written as opinion pieces that don't actually mean anything or share new information. They just have anti Republican headlines so people share them.
#40
I need an overweight cartoon dad to explain this joke to me.
Lukas (he/him, it/its) 4 hours ago
Petaaah? What's the joke? (And for those who don't get it, there's a subreddit called r/PeterExplainsTheJoke, (as in Peter from Family Guy) where people ask what the joke is in memes, but usually, the joke is extremely obvious and the person asking would have to be incredibly dull not to understand said joke.)
#41
No, it was never: “The customer is always right in matters of taste.”
#42
People on reddit think that if you find a bat in your house you need rabies shots 100%. But actually even if you wake to a bat in your room the CDC recommends evaluation with your doctor to figure out if you were likely to sleep through a bat bite (for example kids and people using meds to sleep would both get shots, but a healthy light sleeper who woke up to a bat circling the room might not). The primary goal would be to test the bat if at all possible, and talk to public health. Touching an untested bat is a fast track to rabies shots though. Please don’t do that.
Edit: No one in the U.S. who was told by public health that they didn’t need shots has ever died of rabies.
Similarly everyone shares scary photos of spider bites but probably 1/1000 of these photos is actually a spider bite.
Jeff White 4 hours ago
My wife is a Pediatric Division Director at a high ranking well respected Medical School and extensive Hospital system. She would NEVER F*****G NEVER support this position. If you are ever asleep in a room with a bat you get Rabies prophylaxis. Unless you can test the bat. If you cannot test, get the shots. No one has EVER "lived" through an untreated rabies exposure. One person was frozen and didn't d*e but remained in a permanent vegetative state. DON'T F*****G delay getting rabies prophylaxis. They are many other "weird" stories with bat exposure (e.g., the bat was hiding in the toilet) , and all end with d***h. The only outcome of rabies is d***h.
#43
That vasectomies are totally reversible. I understand this is used more as a thought experiment along the lines of "you're willing to police women's bodies, what if it was the other way around" but the misinformation has very much grown beyond that.
The chances of getting pregnant after vasectomy reversal are:
* 75% if the reversal is within 3 years of the original vasectomy
* 50–55% if it’s been 3 to 8 years since your vasectomy
* 40–45% if it’s been 9 to 14 years
* 30% if it’s been 15 to 19 years
* less than 10% if your vasectomy was more than 20 years ago.
#45
The cylinder could have been harmed *a little*.
#47
That Mother Theresa was hurting people deliberately.
Hospice medicine did not exist in India in her time in a modern form. Even today in India palliative opiate medications are extremely hard to access.
And she did not withhold painkillers from the dying. A mischaracterization of a Lancet article by Dr Fox was presented by Christopher Hitchens in an imbalanced way to make it seem such.
> What Hitchens wouldn't talk about is the responses Dr. Fox got from other palliative care professionals. Three prominent palliative care professionals, Dr. David Jeffrey, Dr. Joseph O'Neill and Ms. Gilly Burn, founder of Cancer Relief India, responded to Fox on the Lancet.^([7]) *They note three main difficulties with respect to pain control in India:* "**1) lack of education of doctors and nurses, 2) few d***s, and 3) very strict state government legislation, which prohibits the use of strong analgesics even to patients dying of cancer**", with about "half a million cases of unrelieved cancer pain in India" at the time.
> They respond, "*If Fox were to visit the major institutions that are run by the medical profession in India he may only rarely see cleanliness, the tending of wounds and sores, or loving kindness. In addition, analgesia might not be available.*" They summarise their criticisms of Dr. Fox by stating that "*the western-style hospice care is not relevant to India,* The situation in India is so different from that in western countries that it requires sensitive, practical, and dynamic approaches to pain care that are relevant to the Indian perspective.”.
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