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?"
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.
Even if it was a legitimate form of medicine, there’s no way an infant could have had enough training to practice it.
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A GOOD chiropractor can actually help a lot. And most (??) these days use those point specific 'thunkers' instead of the old school 'smash and twist your back" method. I don't have room here but both me and a good friend have gotten help / relief from some specific issues. But I do agree with OP about "on a frequent basis". It is something I did when I needed it, not a routine thing I do.
In properly controlled scientific studies, a chiropractor performs barely above placebo, and is the most likely to cause harm, followed by osteopathy and finally physiotherapy as the safest and most effective.
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I have two herniated disks and two bulging disks and I've gone to the doctor for it...I've even had a lumbar epidural twice and it helped for like two weeks and then stopped working. Now I go to the chiropractor whenever my back starts to act up. Does he fix it permanently??? No...he doesn't but he does make the severe pain go away. People can deny they work....but they do....it's just that the pain comes back eventually. I'm not having surgery so I have no other choice but to use a chiropractor.
Your chiropractor probably uses naprapathy and massage to alleviate your pain. But cracking the airbubbles in your joints is not what is helping you.
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And, sorry to tack on after an earlier comments, but infant Chiroprathy is INSANE BS. That I hope we can all agree with.
Babies are often sent to a special chiropractor here in Germany to straighten them out after birth if they cry a lot. It’s absolute frigging madness in my opinion!
I have had relief from back pain by going to a chiropractor. Do t go all the time, but have hurt my back, hobbled an and walked out. There is something to it an$ while bad ones likely cause problems, so do bad medical drs. While I belief a lot of it is just nonsense, a good adjustment has helped me in the past.
I have been helped by (occasional) Chiropractic adjustments. The mystic around alignment is BS and the adjustments only provide a very short term help, but they do help. Strengthening core muscles and stretching probably help many times more than Chiropractic methods, but again, occasional adjustments help.
So one could go to a single physiotherapist instead of a doctor and chiro. My physio gives me exercises, massages, crunches, all kinds of things rolled into one.
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True. Nurse here, and I will never go to one based solely on how many credible colleagues are in constant pain due to a bad chiropractor.
Load More Replies... After a fall my shoulder was painful and mobility 40%. Though I'd go to a chiropractor......what an 8 month waste of money that was. The physiotherapist and my family Dr and a few friends advisef
advised I should stop as I would go for the rest of my life without any improvement. So I stopped going.....6 months later and I am at 95% mobility and no pain.
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Gah, physio ftw every time! They give you massages, exercises, and can give crunches if needed.
My mom is a radiologist specializing in spinal imagery and omw if she could purge any one thing from this earth it would be chiropractors
I work an office job, bent over a keyboard all day, with headphones on and I'm in meetings almost all day every day so my back gets out of whack and I go get adjusted. Does it cure anything, no and my chiro is 100% honest about that but until I can give up a good salary and health insurance to go get a job that offers a healthy lifestyle (for way less money and worse benefits) my chiro keeps me functional with minimal pain with 5 - 6 adjustments a year.
I'm sorry, but what are chiropracters? I always thought it is similar to physical therapy? Cause where I live it is quite common to have Infants checked by those (to see if they turn their head evenly to both sides, open eyes roughly the same, ...), but obviously they would NEVER "crack" an Infant, maybe ever so gently (!!!) stimulate some muscels. Also they are trained professionals with a multi-year education and doctors recommend going there, because they are trained in this very gentle stimulation in a way doctors are not.
From what I recall, chiropractic was founded on the belief that spinal subluxation cause all of your illness and disease, so manually manipulating the spine on the regular will stop your illnesses. It has failed studies on its effectiveness and has led to some deaths.
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Hmm I get it. I have a recurring work-related back ache situation. While being half-mad from pain before, I’ve considered going to a chiro but opt instead for massage (which works) . Acute pain can drive you to want to try all manner of remedies.
my camp counselor was trying to tell me to go to a chiropractor for my scoliosis..and she didn't understand why that would be an awful idea.
In the UK we have specialised colleges for chiropractic treatments. It's takes 5yrs to train, and covers a lot of medical training. It is a legitimate medical field, and (although not free), endorsed by the NHS.
I go to a chiropractor and it's helped me a lot. I'm going to disagree with you on this. The alignments on my spine and neck have helped me immeasurably. I don't use pain medication anymore, other than for headaches.
Say what you will, but there are animal chiropractors for horses and dogs. My geriatric (12 year old) Great Pyrenees dog moved much better after adjustments. She was having problems with her back legs collapsing under her. I thought it was silly when my husband found a dog chiropractor. But dogs can't be conned with smooth words. After an adjustment she was good for months and could once again roam her yard. She lived until 14 years, which is old for a Great Pyrenees. It's been 15 years and I still miss that dog.
My chiro vastly improved my quality of life. I will die on this hill. He restored the curve in my neck and I went from having 3-4 migraines a month to 1 every 4-5 months. He also identified why I had constant knee and hip pain, overstretched tendons in my feet. Custom insoles made a huge difference.
I know someone who gets them for free and even if they don’t help I bet it’s still nice cause the guy also gives her free massages 🤷.
I use a chiropractor all the time. I'm hyper-mobile so my joints pop out of place and need realigning. Only the dodgy ones do damage, not the good ones - do your research people!
I mean do your research for chiropractors, don't go to the first person you find
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Does not make much of a difference getting a spinal adjustment. It is the muscles and fascia tissue that holds the spine and posture in place. Any decent chiropractor gives the patient some exercises to do. It is the exercises that are what helps the spine. Yoga and stretching and Pilates exercises strengthen those back muscles and loosen the tight fascia. Physical therapists are the best to go to for back pain.
To everyone saying chiropractors are ok: they have no medical degree. It's all pseudo science. You need physical therapy and exercise.
Doctors need to find out why popping our joints feels so good and causes relief, their unwillingness to do so keeps chiros in business because THEY DO F*****G HELP PEOPLE
They do sometimes provide relief. The issue is that they often cause significant harm, and you can get better benefit from stretching and strengthening exercises.
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It may not be safe of benefitial but those videos look sooo satysfying
There are benefits, but not for chronic visits more than once a month.
I think it can be helpful if you have a pinched nerve and surgery is the only alternative
If you have nerve problems a fake doctor like a chiropractor is far likely to paralyze someone rather than help them.
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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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