From Santa (sorry…) to Bigfoot, there are hoaxes, lies, and old stories that don’t seem to die off, despite most people not believing them. Maybe they are comforting, interesting or so ingrained that a small portion of the population still clings on to these beliefs.
Someone asked, “What is the biggest hoax that people still believe?” and people shared all the delusions they had encountered. So get ready to possibly have your worldview shattered, make sure you are comfortable as you read through and upvote your favorite examples. Comment your thoughts and arguments below.
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All that detox health science bs. Your body already has a detox system. It's called your liver.
The privatized American “healthcare” system.
It takes billions of American taxpayer money to “operate” while *also* charging Americans billions on insurance premiums and fees.
Americans should either pay taxes that cover universal healthcare *or* pay insurance premiums and/or fees, NOT BOTH.
Lol. How do you make 50% of Americans lose their minds? Prefix any word with 'social'.
The Wakefield Paper. A deliberate hoax commissioned by a crooked law firm seeing to profit from legal judgments based upon the entirely falsified “results” of the “study”. This single act of entirely knowing and intentional fraud precipitated the greatest public health catastrophe of the antibiotic era: the modern antivaxx movement.
Personally, I love anti-vaxxers because they remind me that no matter how bad my day gets I’ll never be that selfish, stupid, or misinformed.
"Be loyal to your company and they'll reward you"
Bull f*****g s**t... Only thing they'll do is exploit you more.
That wealth trickles down
Yup. Let's try 'trickle-up' economics. Poor people spend their money. Wealthy people hoard it.
That cutting taxes for the rich is good for workers.
Pfffft.
Cutting taxes on the rich gives them cash to buy out their competition, merge the companies, and then lay workers off. We've only seen that happen a couple of thousand times.
“You can lose 25 pounds in three weeks and never feel hungry while eating all the delicious foods you want. Just call this 800 number…”
Homeopathy
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Germany, the birthplace of this movement, still allows people to study ‘MD Homeopathy’ despite the EU largely being opposed to it. In India one can get certified as a “Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery”. Most countries, while not recognising homeopathy doctors as legitimate, still allow sale of their “remedies” because they don’t see the harm in what are essentially sugar tablets and diluted alcohol.
I've met more than one person who turned down a raise because they thought they'd end up making less money because of taxes.
Nahhhh, son. Nah.
that blood is blue when inside your body. I remember getting into it with a gym teacher he insisted “blood is blue inside your body but turns red when it’s exposed to the oxygen in the air like when you get a cut” but bloods whole purpose is to carry oxygen INSIDE the body, therefore it’s always red, and not turned red because the oxygen in the air.
apparently i’m still heated about that lmao
Healing Crystals.
"Oh, if I put this inert rock next to my wrist, it'll help with my arthritis?"
Crystals can definitely repel negative people. You just have to throw them hard enough.
Some rocks do have auras! They are called uranium and the aura is cancer.
sometimes its nice to belive in it tho,like how it helps with beliving in yourself,or having strength to do something
Yup, but like any belief it can become harmful when taken to extremes. Nah, forget chemotherapy, I'm just going to pray, rub myself with essential oils, and buy some crystals...
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Have crystal for fancy medical reasons : nnnnno Having crystals because shiny rock : akxksajfjsospvjdbba yes
That reminds me of the stereotype of strippers taking gemstone related stage names and working their way through nursing school.
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But they're pretty so I have a shelf full of crystals :)
Holding a pretty crystal makes me feel good and helps my mental health (but I still take my citalopram too) ^^
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As a witch who uses crystals for luck and other stuff, I hate when people do this
I think the crystal industry would shut down in a hurry if people were shown the consequences and the human cost of their lovely shiny bits of rock. Most Lapis lazuli comes from Afghanistan, where it has been an essential source of income for the Taliban for decades. Other stones are painstakingly mined by hand in blazing heat or searing cold by slaves.
Depends on what you expect it to do. There is...I don't know the word for it in english - it is a "salty rock" that helps to stop bleeding from cuts - my grandpa used it for shaving cuts and I have it because I have dermatilomania.
Not a crystal, but I have a copper ring I keep for when my broken finger starts playing up. I feel like a bit of a hippy nutjob when I explain why I have this copper around my finger but it works!
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A cat purring while laying on you can help heal you and that is scientific fact. so yeah this isn't all that crazy. ever heard of piezon electricity? crystals can do some amazing s**t.
Oh, Jared. Piezoelectricity is the electrical potential that develops in a material when it is struck or squeezed. It has absolutely nothing to do with healing.
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exactly! i try to placebo myself into believing that this rock or crystal will make you more confident/focused/happy/whatever, but i mostly just like that they're shiny rocks that have different colors and textures. they should NEVER be used in place of actual medicine!
Nothing is inert. The atoms in a stone or mineral are moving, just as those in your table, wall, shoe, etc. are moving.
no one really believes this do they? I thought those crystal people were just kind of in on the joke.
I know a lady who runs a gift shop. She keeps a crystal in the cash drawer of the register, to help bring in money. She's dead serious.
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I could imagine something like that working but not for the reasons the "crystal people" think. If for example the crystal was composed of something that was skin penetrating and by coincidence that chemical worked to alleviate pain. That said I'm pretty sure quartz (which seems to be the most common "healing" crystal) isn't going to do that. And I'm not aware of any crystals that would.
But that says nothing about crystals. That sort of thinking applies to absolutely anything. You could replace the word "crystal" with any other physical material, and your comment would be valid.
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Having said that, I thought the same about amber for babies teething. Tried all the powders and potions to no avail, once my daughter was wearing her amber beads everything was much easier! The beads were the only thing I used for my son. I have no idea how or why, but if it helps, don't knock it!
Or your daughter just started having a less difficult time with teething (the same way one of mine did). Your son might not have had a difficult time with teething (I had one of those too, he had no pain, just the drool). Amber is absolutely not proven to be safe or effective in helping with teething-the opposite actually. People believe it's the succinic acid present in baltic amber. There is literally no evidence suggesting any teething beads contain this (they're treated , any acid is stripped), most aren't real baltic amber anyway. But, children will have varying amounts of pain and difficulty with teething. Most children's hospitals have put out warnings about teething necklaces because despite what people think, they are ALWAYS a safety hazard (doesn't matter the type). They can break, they can be put in mouths easier than people think, they can literally strangle your child. It's a bad idea all around. Please don't do this.
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Does this mean that the goop stone I inserted to unleash the healing power of crystals doesn't work? But it was researched and sold by an A list actor.
I have personally felt the influence of crystals. No, they can't cure your problems, but they can help you through them.
You didn't feel the influence of crystals, you felt the influence of your own beliefs. We could test this. Imagine if we put small black rocks in a bag, and crystals in another bag, and had a you hold them both and tell us which has the healing crystals. If we swapped the bags randomly and had you try to pick out the crystals a hundred times, you would select the actual crystals about 50 percent of the time.
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It would be literally impossible for a stone to radiate energy. Like, imagine if granite were radioactive. Impossible. Plus, there are zero other kinds of energy in the world that impact humans.
I have a booth at a farmers market every Saturday. Everything I sell I make, including the tufted rugs. I feel I charge a good price based on my time and materials. However, the same people who went to the booth next to mine and spent $50 or more will constantly complain about my prices. It kills me every time.
I saw a bunch of crystals glued to a woman's steering wheel, you know where the airbag is? Can you say Claymore mine?
Some people believe that if you walk around with a pebble in your pockets you'll become more spiritual.
Placebo. It's all what you believe. In 200 years people might be using crystals and laughing at our modern medicine as toxic.
It absolutely NOT "all what you believe". If that were the case, we could use crystals to cure a cancer patient, as long as they believed. But we can't. Saying "it's all what you believe" is an insult to the thousands of people who have dedicated their careers to medical progress and changed everyone's lives for the better.
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yeah! tell us women! we need men to lead us in the way, for we are feeble and also all the same. all women, all the time, always, the same.
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Alkaline water is pseudoscience, any chemist or doctor will confirm this
Humans only use 10% of their brain (well lately I guess some do)
Im a police officer, and Ive had people tell me that ALL police officers MUST by law say they are cops if/when they are asked, including cops that are undercover. I tried to explain this would defeat the purpose of being undercover because the criminals would just simply ask "Are you a cop?" to everyone they were committing crimes with and invest is over. There is no such law but i can never win the argument.
The hysteria over GMO food. It is demonstrably fine. We have been genetically modifying food in an uncontrolled way since before the written word. The idea that it's *more* haphazard and dangerous when done with precision by scientists with advanced technology is completely absurd.
Also, trees and plants can't run away from predators, they have to protect themselves with chemistry. Pesticides are naturally occuring and omnipresent. In fact, food we consider inedible is mostly that due to the presence of said pesticides, compounds in them which make them unpalatable or dangerous for us to eat.
People are mostly freaked out about TRANSGENIC food that has other genes from other species inserted. First the majority of GMO foods are simply bred that way. Gene insertion has also been rigorously tested by FDA and USDA. BTW, my degree is in FOOD SCIENCE. These modified foods allow us to grow hardier crops that need less pesticide and fungicide and keep people from STARVING TO DEATH.
One big lie that some people still believe is that cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. It's been debunked, but it's amazing how many still believe it!
its just air that has been built up is all,it dosnt harm you or anything
The food pyramid.
I think the amount of people that continue to fall for hustle culture and the snake oil salesmen push it. There is huge emphasis in modern society on not only being rich but being rich young by the simplest/fast means necessary. Its honestly depressing how many people continue to purchase master classes/work shops that all filled with surface level near useless information.
Chiropractic adjustments, getting your vertabrae popped and ground on a frequent basis is good for you.
Drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Gluten being bad for you if you don’t have celiacs.
The problem is the lack of education on food in general and not knowing about food safety in combination with companies cutting corners left and right with cheap mass production. Humans can't properly digest raw flour. If you try it, you'll get horrible stomach pains. From badly cooked yeast you'll get bloated and gassy. But companies nowaday bake cheap bread on roll through ovens. The flour and yeast doesn't cook completely through. So if you have problems after eating wheat bread, try toasting the bread before eating. If that helps, you have neither celiac disease nor gluten intolerance. Either change the brand of bread you buy or keep toasting it if you can't afford different bread. Now, I'm sure now some people will whine: BuT iF I EaT GlUtEn FrEe I dOn'T hAvE pRoBleMs... Yes, of course, that's because most gluten free alternatives either don't have wheat or the gluten is removed and you only eat the starch which means that the wheat was processed and often has no yeast.
Don’t go swimming after eating
Carrots improve your eyesight. This was English propaganda during WW2. They didn't want Germany to know that they had radar which spotted their bombers. It was those sharp eyes of Brit's pilots.
Cheerio mate, fancy a spot of carrots so we can spot them German jets? I’ll go right ahead and fetch them old chap.
That going to sleep with or going out with wet hair causes a cold.
I used to walk to school with wet hair in the winter. Which would freeze. I would be brushing ice out of my hair for a half hour. Never got sick.
Milk for strong bones.
Dairy industry advertising campaign that isn't supported by evidence and in fact we have a good amount of evidence to the contrary.
Recycling is saving the environment
I've never heard anyone say "recycling is saving the environment". Recycling makes sense, reduces some raw material requirements, and is beneficial to the environment, though "saving", nope.
Hey, BP: Can we stop with the 'popular hoaxes' threads until you hear of some new ones? Because 1. these are tired, and 2. it makes you look very lazy.
Fantastic list! I can't wait to read it again in a week and then again the week after that.
One that's not being said: you won't grow 3 inches in a month, and i'm not talking about height.
These are not all hoaxes - check facts people. And yes, I'm aware I'm gonna get downvoted
I upvoted you. Some of the comments were very confusing, people contradicting each other until you don't know what to believe. Back where I started on a lot of issues.
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With the entire internet at their disposal, BP reaches into the recycle bin once again.
I have one: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That phrase is not necessarily true, since it was made to sell Grape-Nuts of all things!
College education. A person that learns a skilled trade can earn $100,000/year or more and not have a $200,000 debt to pay.
Ladies, Gentlemen and Gentlethem, we got a transphobe... Again.
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Hey, BP: Can we stop with the 'popular hoaxes' threads until you hear of some new ones? Because 1. these are tired, and 2. it makes you look very lazy.
Fantastic list! I can't wait to read it again in a week and then again the week after that.
One that's not being said: you won't grow 3 inches in a month, and i'm not talking about height.
These are not all hoaxes - check facts people. And yes, I'm aware I'm gonna get downvoted
I upvoted you. Some of the comments were very confusing, people contradicting each other until you don't know what to believe. Back where I started on a lot of issues.
Load More Replies... With the entire internet at their disposal, BP reaches into the recycle bin once again.
I have one: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That phrase is not necessarily true, since it was made to sell Grape-Nuts of all things!
College education. A person that learns a skilled trade can earn $100,000/year or more and not have a $200,000 debt to pay.
Ladies, Gentlemen and Gentlethem, we got a transphobe... Again.
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