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.
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.
It helps more that a-holes rolling coal and burning their garbage.
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That’s why Reduce and Reuse come before Recycle. Those are the two better options but if you can’t do either of the first two, do the last one.
Metals recycle forever, and metal suppliers have a vested interest in recycling because scrap is cheaper and better quality than ore. Also, refining bauxite into aluminium produces tons of toxic waste, so recycling lessens that impact too. So yeah, plastic recycling really doesn't work as advertisd, metal recycling works even better than people believe tho.
In Saskatchewan the province puts a deposit on every beverage container which you get back when you return it to a recycling centre. The centre's employ high functioning mentally disabled persons at a decent wage. Rarely do you see pop cans etc tossed on the side of the road. Abd many charity groups raise money by collecting the containers
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just about all recyclables were shipped to China, as it was far from cost effective to do it here. China is no longer taking it as it's too contaminated with garbage. Now that recycling frequently just winds up in a landfill. Only thing that's recyclable any more is aluminum cans.
Most recycling done by cities just sits in landfills , all separated but goes no where. There is NO secondary market except for glass which is too heavy and expensive to transport. there is a market for white bond paper but 90 percent of that is picked up from offices, not households. The best solution is a high efficiency incinerator such as those used by Copenhagen and the Shetland Islands, but activists stop that and politicians are wimps
BS, it's only advised because of the landfill situation,does nothing for the envi
And a landfill is somehow good/neutral for the environment? The real "falsehood" here isn't that recycling can't help the environment, it is that we can do it well enough to ignore the fact that they are using it as an excuse to create things in a way that isn't sustainable. Note that even if none of the plastic could be recycled (which isn't true), ALL of the aluminum can. And the more of that is recycled the less they have to dig up the Earth for.
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Most of what we put in the recycling bin goes in the garbage anyway.
What gets me is in America they tell you they can't use this plastic again and that paper product again and the rest of the world is using it all. If it's plastic or paper and it's not recyclable then they should've never made it. In this day in time, I can't think of any reason for making anything that can't be recycled in some way.
I remember when I was a kid and they introduced those "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" commercials and all the boomers patted themselves on the back for recycling SOME of the household garbage like George W Bush with a Mission Accomplished banner. The program emphasized over and over that it is most important to A: Reduce your consumption, B: Reuse as much as you can, and finally, C: Recycle what you can't reduce or reuse. Instead people continued to ignore the problem and here we are today
There's a news magazine show in the US called Sunday Morning that did a segment on where some of the western trash ends up. It ends up in developing countries, particularly Africa, where all the cell phones and other throw-away electronics are shipped. There are landfills piled high. So much for recycling.
Much of what you think is being recycled is in fact being sent to landfills.
Glass is the only product that is 100% recyclable, and there is an active market for it for making new glass.
Just one point in the hugh world of Recycling is our old cells, computers, and electrical components that we toss away are being shipped overseas to poor countries where their poorest citizens work in terrible environmental conditions to break apart and separate copper and other parts to earn a few bucks each day to live on. So when you feel you must get the newest version of your iPhone/Android every year because of the new button the ads talk about, think of ways to pass this phone along for another to use. Recycle that bad boy every few years should help our environment a bit.
If you rinse off your stuff to recycle, how does that get you ahead when you are using water
Michelle, the best way is to wash up your dishes and then rinse the stuff that has to be recycled, in the washing-up water. I admit I'm not very good at doing it myself, but still think it's worth recycling.
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Until we recognise that global over-population is the root cause of environmental disaster then nothing else will make any difference at all in the long term. When you're having to manufacture, recycle, remanufacture, feed, collect waste, provide power to billions upon billions of people, do you really think EV's wind turbines and vertical farming are going to make a single difference?
Are you volunteering to be one of the people given the chop? Who do you propose takes your place?
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95% of what we "recycle" is just bagged up and shipped to other countries. You are actually harming the environment if you take part in recycling. Not america's environment of course so we don't really give a flying f**k. As long as we don't have to see our garbage with all the garbage third world people am I right. Or am I right. Or are we all just f*****g disgusting and can someone please flip the f*****g board already.
Well...it has the potential to make it better, but absolutely no one does it. Only 10% of plastic produced ends up recycled, and most of that was done by shipping it off to China....but China has decided not to do that anymore. Plastic production is at 400 million tonnes, and 50% of that is SINGLE USE plastic that cannot be recycled even if people were so inclined. The problem isn't the companies producing this stuff, the problem is the consumers that continue to create demand, while pretending they don't play a role.
Many studies now show that recycling causes increased environmental problems. The process often uses large amounts of chemicals, water, and energy and releases harmful pollutants (especially where metals and plastics are concerned). Only about 32% of our trash actually gets recycled into useful objects. The rest goes to landfill (food-tainted paper/cardboard etc) or is shipped to Asia (plastic, etc). Multiple credible/peer-reviewed sources (including Greenpeace, The Guardian, Forbes, Time Magazine, Reuters, The Plastic Pollution Coalition, etc) suggest it's a myth that makes us feel better, but people just don't want to hear it.
Can't do anything to save the environment whilst the Chinese are doing everything they can to pollute the planet. Conspiracy theory....they are doing this to hold the world to ransom and control us all.
Little bit of a paradox here. Much of China’s CO2 output is actually ours (because they’re manufacturing cheap goods for us). Whilst they are undoubtedly the leading emitter of greenhouse gasses, they are also a major investor in green technologies and among the biggest producers of renewable energy. They have the largest electric vehicle market in the world, and almost all public transport is electric too. The vast majority of people ride electric scooters and they are firmly on track to phase out almost 80% of fossil-fuel consumption by 2060. So, yes, China is an undeniably a massive polluter, but they are also doing far better than the US or UK in terms of shifting towards renewable energy. The real problem nobody wants to address is that 100 companies/entities in the world are responsible for 75% of greenhouse gas emissions. The sooner we fix that, the better off we’ll all be. (source: Worldbank, Greenpeace, The Guardian, BBC).
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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.
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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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