It’s hard to know what’s real and what isn’t in this post-truth age. Which may explain some of the replies to a question set by The-Baron-Von-Marlon on r/AskUK, who wanted to hear the stupidest things people have been told as a “fact”.
To get the ball rolling, they even shared their own personal experience of blatant nonsense spouted with sincerity:
‘I had a personal trainer 20 years ago who looked at me earnestly and said “Back pain didn’t exist before chairs were invented”. I just nodded seriously and we moved on. I can loosely estimate that one sentence alone could lead to around 50 to 100 reasonable follow up questions but I was paying by the hour and unwilling to cross examine.’
Here are the top replies…
1.
‘We were on a boat trip that went along a river then turned around and went back to the start. We ended up discussing which way north was for some reason, a colleague insisted it was the direction we were going. I knew it wasn’t but it wasn’t worth arguing. Then the boat turned around and the colleague said “Now north is that way” and pointed in the direction we were going again. They seemed to believe north was whichever way they were going at the time.’
-missuseme
2.
‘I was once told by a pharmacist (in a social situation) that I should be careful doing too much exercise, because if my abs got too strong, they would crush my internal organs.
Compare and contrast with my nanna who believed women’s core muscles were not capable of holding the organs in, and a foundation garment (eg girdle) was essential. To be fair, she had 8 children and always wore a girdle, so it would have seem true by her experience.’
-kimba-the-tabby-lion
3.
‘Anyone who tells me vaccines cause autism. When I tell them about the “doctor” who claimed that lost his license and there’s no evidence to support his theory, they’re suddenly not interested in facts anymore. So I just started asking “so you’d rather my daughter die of polio than live with autism?” And it shuts them up.’
-Alittlelemonshark
4.
‘”Hayfever isn’t an allergy it’s just another way to say you have a cold.”’
-No_Psychology_8169
5.
‘That everyone born in the uk has their birth certificate sold on the black market as the government’s slaves…
But the government is soo good at it, that’s why there’s no proof or evidence of anything like it and they can just get away with it.
He was adamant that the government owns you legally from birth and you can somehow sell your own certificate for money for yourself.
I think he was just a bit of an idiot….. ’
-Royal_Detective_556
6.
‘From our PE teacher while trying to get us to shower “if you don’t clean down there you’ll get cervical cancer”
We were boys.’
-GrimQuim
7.
‘I met a guy who genuinely believed that not only was Covid fictional (as some funeral directors had told him they weren’t any more busy in the pandemic) but that it was made up by Nicola Sturgeon to make people stay home and order fish and chips delivered – she is getting a percentage of all fish and chip sales.’
-Novel-Structure-2359
8.
‘My uni housemate once scoffed at me very cuntily when I complained I had a mosquito bite because “we don’t get them in this country”.’
-LillyAtts
