“This Person Is Out Of Touch With Reality”: 40 Delusional People Who Proved They Don’t Understand A Thing In This World
As we experience our surroundings, we come to have questions about them and usually go above and beyond to seek answers. After all, learning about our world and understanding how it works propels humanity forward. At the same time, there are people who decide to put on rose-tinted glasses and create their own tiny naive bubbles to glide through life without a care in the world.
But even if ignorance may be bliss, it won’t get them very far at the end of the day. So jonallenmaking decided to ask Reddit users to open up about the moments somebody said something so ridiculous that it made them think, “This person is out of touch with reality.” Over 18.6K comments later, we get to be reminded there are plenty of folks out there leading very different lives from most of us.
From hilariously delusional to painfully upsetting, these stories serve as proof that no amount of logic will make these people realize what’s right in front of them. Bored Panda has collected some of the most perplexing answers from the thread, so keep scrolling and upvote as you go. And if you have any similar encounters to share, be sure to tell us about them in the comments!
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A guy at a party was talking about how great technology was. I agreed. He then proceeded to talk about how there are people made of computer chips walking among us and we don't know who they are. I took the opportunity to say, "I know. You could be one of them." And walked away. I stared at him from across the room off and on the rest of the night. Good times.
An American tourist I met (I live in South America), when I asked her how it felt to be so far from home, told me that she really isn't that far because these "so-called foreign countries" are actually located within the United States and they just fly the plane in circles for hours and hours to convince you that you're in another country.
A friend's uncle, who is a spiritual healer of some sort, claimed one day he would be known as the first man to cure cancer with "spiritual healing techniques" whatever that mean.
The woman he "treated" stopped her treatments because she was "cured" and died inside six months. Apparently no one saw fit to bring that guy to justice.
His explanation was : "She died from a different cancer that was at the same place with the same symptoms at the same time and the first cancer was hiding the second one so he couldn't treat her properly because, you know, I couldn't feel the second one...."
I wish he would go to prison.
Overheard from a girl at college freshman orientation in 2008:
"I'm definitely worried! The economy is SO bad my parents had to sell our vacation home! Well you know the second one we don't visit as often...."
Yeeeeeeaaahhh.... don't mind me with my flat of ramen...
I watched my grandmother shove a load of books off of a shelf at the bookstore the other day because she wanted one that wouldn't come out. When she walked away and left a pile of them on the ground, she looked at me and said "It's okay, it's their job to pick that stuff up." Speaking from a retail experience, no it's not. You're just adding extra work.
I would have started picking them up and saying loudly, "I hope none of them are damaged, or we could end up getting arrested for damage to private property. I hope they will still sell us the book you wanted, since they don't have to". Because it's true.
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Surprisingly this will get you banned and escorted from the premises in about every other country. The US just took "the customer is always right" too far.
Because some idiots forget that it starts with "in matters of taste".
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My SO's mother did this to us one time. Although, she pulled a ton of books out of a discount bin and left them all over the floor as she was going through them. She started walking away and when my SO asked his mom if she was going to pick up the books she also said that it was ok to leave them because it was "their job to pick them up." My SO and I stayed and started picking up the books because that wasn't cool with us. She was shamed into helping, but complained the whole time.
I work in retail now- pet store... worst things customers do: -grab a can from the middle. Do they know I have to take all the cans out to re-face? ALL THE CANS ARE FRESH -grab a bag from one aisle and leave it in another cuz you found something better. sigh -leave your Starbucks on a shelf along with your candy wrappers -pull all the toys off the wall and just leave them on the floor. -pull out all the clothes and randomly put them back on the wrong hangers
I used to work in a national chain grocery store and my biggest pet peeve is when someone places a refrigerated or frozen item on a dry goods shelf. The first thing early shift employees do is make their rounds checking all the shelves... I've seen them sometimes with 2-3 shopping carts full of ruined products. My husband would roll his eyes at me for taking cold products I'd found sitting on a shelf back to the right department, I'd do that for years after I started working elsewhere. Now that I am disabled I unfortunately don't do it as often.
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I’ve publicly called out people for this s**t, especially in places like Walmart where the treatment of employees should be considered illegal. When it comes from a fellow customer, and one who is well spoken and older, you should see how much they flounder and try to backpeddle when they’re chastised. They know they’re in the wrong, but businesses have been letting them slide for it way too long. I worked jobs like that when I was young, and had to take bad treatment from customers, so I know whereof I speak. I let them know it is NOT the employees’ job to to clean up after their laziness, and to just push the cart the extra three feet to the cart rack, or put stuff they decide not to buy back where they found it! I swear it’s like teaching badly brought up children how to act properly and think of someone else besides themselves.
This is why "respecting your elders" is complete bs. Reminds me of when old people say racist s**t and everyone just lets it go just because they're old.
Where you loudly apologize to the workers for her being so rude as you help them pick them up. No blood relationship is worth not doing the right thing.
Wow. My grandmother insisted we clean and stack everything neatly on a restaurant table before we left. And any hotel room we stayed in was spotless when we checked out. I still do those things to this day.
This. I volunteer a) providing guidance and answers on a technical forum and b) at an older persons mental health ward (think dementia and the like). Getting nothing back is fine... but when people do completely unreasonable things and say "its your job".... No, f**k you, its not my f*****g job
If you take one out always put it back in the correct spot. They're placed in a certain order and if someone is looking for a certain book the staff won't be able to find it for them if it's misplaced. That being said, if there was an accident like I had where a shelf collapsed on me (the staff even said they warned the managers that the shelves weren't sturdy and this would happen) I was offering to help put the books back but the clerk was adamant that she can do it herself. Thinking back to when I worked in a bookstore in my teens I recall that she needed to make sure they were in the right order.
My mother recently said this to me while we were out shopping last week. I forget which store we were at buy she was making a mess getting to something and I proceeded to at least put the items that landed on the floor back on a shelf and she said it wasn't my job to do that. I've worked retail for almost 20 years. Yeah, it's our job, but it's one that can be avoided that takes away from a job that was already being done, putting that person behind. I decided to make her behind schedule by putting away everything properly.
I hope, you said soemthing! Jesus, what incredibly childish behaviour!
If my grandmother had done that, I'd have blocked the door and told her to start picking them up. What an entitled b&*(h!
Retail employees have many and varied tasks. I don't believe intentionally shoving books off the shelves is expected, though.
Grandmother needs a TIME OUT in the mean corner. Don't ever take her to a computer store!!!.
My Grandma would have belted me if I EVER did anything like that. Other Grandmom trashed a Sears and Roebuck, but that's because they called her a "dirty.indian" who should "know better than shop there. Mom's family was living in Mackinaw while he worked on the bridge, and since his worker lived on the Res, so did he and the family. So Mom and Grandmom walked out, trashed every display they passed and ran for the movie were the Elvis movie banned by the Catholic Church. Grandmom just told Mom, "It's all right, God will forgive us" Miss them both.
This is what is wrong with the world. People teaching their kids and grandkids its OK to be a shitty douche of a person
Yeah,, me and Grandma would have had words in the store. I don't care how old she is.
So... if someone punch her teeth out it's OK because it's the dentist's job to fix it???
I am a waitress and someone wrote “get a real job” on the line for my tip. It was a $150 tab with an incredibly demanding table. I work another job and I go to school full time, but whatever floats your boat.
"If you're depressed, just cheer up!"
Woah, if you're drowning, just drink the water! Duh!
I was struggling to pay bills and a friend was like, "Don't worry, your mom and dad care about you, they'll pay them for you". I told her I wanted to be a self-sufficient adult and my parents didn't have the money to cover my bills anyway. Her mind was blown.
A family friends son has autism.
I overheard my grandfather say, “when’s the kid gonna snap out of it and get a job?”
Eff that S****. with a broomstick in a cornfield under the full July moon...
My grandmother tried to get me to participate in a self-exorcism. She said I was posessed by "socialist demons".... because I visited Canada.
Well, we do have Universal Health Care and a lot of other social programs so... Not sure about the demons tho.
Someone seriously asked me“Wow, howd you get your baby so tan?” My Native American wife holding the baby. I always avoid this person when i can...how can you be so dumb.
ikr the answer is sooo obvious, doesn't everybody use johnson and johnsons baby tan?
I work as a psychologist at a school. One student had missed nearly 30 days of school in one term (55 days), so I was asked to investigate. The mother straight faced told me that she didn't want to drive the 2 minutes from their house because they had to cross a train track, and she thought having to wait for a train to pass was simply unacceptable. I thought she was joking. She was not.
My assh*le of an uncle once told my grandmother that it was her fault my grandfather got Alzheimers because she didn't take care of him well enough.
My dad retired last November. After being out of work for a few months he decided he needed a simple job to keep him busy. He applied at Total Wine as a cashier and asked for $20 an hour because that’s what he thought minimum wage was up to.
My mum. She once told my husband - a guy that's been working to help support his struggling parents since he was 13 - that we should just have kids and God will provide for us. Her rationale was that she had seven kids and never once struggled.
Thanks mum, we can't all just quit college to marry a multi millionaire a decade older than we are.
I grew up in a rich town not being rich. I will never forget this one girl saw me with my iPhone 3G in highschool (and I was super lucky to have it), and the iPhone 4 had come out the weekend before. She then asked me 100% seriously "Why don't you have the new iPhone?". She didn't really understand not everyone could afford the new iPhone every time one came out...
A colleague and I both had our laptops out at work. He had some movies on his that he was offering to share onto mine for later viewing. I suggested an ad-hoc wifi network as a means of quickly and painlessly transferring the files.
"Oh no I don't believe in Wi-fi".
Sorry what?
"You know, if a baby is born underwater, it can live it's whole life underwater!"
I laughed a bit because it's a fairly well known dark joke, but then told her not to joke about that stuff because our coworker was pregananant. She was confused when I told her not to joke.
"It's not a joke, it's a fact!"
After some debate, I learned she genuinely believes if a baby is born underwater, it will grow gills and learn how to breathe underwater.
Same lady, 6mo later.
"Yeah, I'm saving up right now to buy a car. I have my eyes on this great 2007 Holden"
Her: "Why don't you just buy a new one?"
Me: "I don't have a lot of money, I wouldn't be able to afford a new car. I'm stretching the limit with this one as it is."
Her: "Ugh, it's not even that hard to afford things. Just budget!"
We were on the same salary, but she sold drugs on the side, her grandpa paid her $200/month phone bill, and her mom gave her a $250 a week allowance.
She was also GIVEN her car, by her parents, and was constantly complaining about how old it was and she wanted them to buy her a new one.
My grandmother (who doesn't live with us) told my out of work brother that he needs to "stop doing work around the house" because I, being female, should be the one doing it all. Never mind I'm the only one with any sort of income, lemme do all the housework too, k thx. We had a good laugh at that one.
A girl from my town thought the average income in America was 500k and that she was lower middle class.
“All it took was a small loan of a million dollars.”
“Why can’t poor people just get better jobs?”
“Everybody who get shot by police must have been a criminal.”
“Just go in there with your resume and don’t leave until you have a job!”
Disclaimer - these were said by different people.
The Guatemalan lady who lives near me who said she supports Trump and thinks that because she voted for him he won't have her illegal relatives deported.
My rich friend complaining that "the cleaner broke her back so I had to do the hoovering myself and feed the dogs! ". It was actually comical to listen to his hysterics, no regard whatsoever for the poor cleaner's well being!
"Having" dogs and not care about them yourself is a red flag in a person.
Used to have a friend who was really into crystals. She dropped 300 dollars on a thumb-sized piece of rose-quartz because it "is totally aligned with [her] body's natural frequency". I didn't even try to tell her she had been scammed.
I have a few health conditions that my parents and grandmother never allowed me to disclose to my family or friends because "it would be difficult to get me married".
Worked with a guy that was a major conspiracy theorist.
He said Zip codes are used in the case that the government wants to drop bombs on US soil.
Yeah. Because they wouldn't ever use coordinates, right Matt?
My sister’s mother-in-law told her that my niece can’t naturally be left handed and that if she is that it is part of my sisters job as a parent to teach her the “correct” way.
I wonder how many lefties, were screwed up over the years, by people that had / have a similar mind set?
“I get a lot of info from dr. Phil and dr. Oz, they are a great resource without having to do more than turn the TV on”
A very close friend “my money is my money but my partner’s money is also my money”.
To clarify she wasn’t going to accept her partner having access to her money but only her to his.
Also she’s single.
I worked at a little all-local, all-organic grocery store for a bit.
A lady comes in with a friend, they are looking at the eggs. She goes "Are these eggs organic?"
"Well, they're not certified, but these are grown here in town by someone who feeds them a non-soy, non-gmo supplemental feed. But they're on pasture most of the time."
"So they eat bugs."
"Well, yes, quite a few of them, it's good for organic pest control in the gar..."
(to her friend) "Those bugs could come from anywhere. This is why you have to ask the hard questions about your food, and really know what you're putting in your body. King Soopers has actual organic eggs."
My mum once said that the sun couldn’t be a star because ‘stars only come out at night’. She hasn’t lived that one down haha
Former friend. He was the stereotypical "nice guy." Always going off on how he couldn't understand how girls weren't flocking to him cause he was so nice and intelligent. So one night a bunch of us are at a restaurant getting dinner and he proceeds to tell us how if he can't get a girlfriend, his backup plan is buying a mail order bride from Ukraine. Says he has it all planned out.
When we all try explaining that mail order brides are essentially human trafficking, he was devastated. His whole plan for getting a girl was ruined, lol.
Eventually he blocked us all from his social media and stopped talking to us, but that was more because he couldn't stand that we wouldn't bend over backwards for his every whim
The grandparent of the child I nanny says things that make me think this all the time.
My nanny family doesn’t use any physical punishment at all. Well she said if we don’t start spanking the kids a (3 and 1 year old) they’ll become unruly demons.
Despite the no spanking policy she still spanks the 3 year old. We stop letting her babysit after that. She still wants to babysit and after a lot of begging we finally let her have the 3 year old for the weekend.
Well the 3 year old came back and was obviously spanked. Also despite her being potty trained she came back in a diaper too. Somehow she managed to undo days of potty training in a weekend. Now the 3 year old is back in diapers full time because she refuses to use the potty now.
Most older generations are so out of touch with reality when it comes to childcare.
I worked at a vet clinic, and a woman came in with her dog who had a horrible skin problem stemming from a flea infestation. Before I could even say anything, she claimed someone was after her, and had been stabbing her and her dog in their sleep with tree bark. It took me a few seconds to process that one.
She also told me that she knew we hadn’t actually euthanized her old dog (that she had YEARS ago) but that we had sold her to Hollywood. Apparently she saw her in a commercial and that was her proof. The dog would have been like 20 by that point so no, we didn’t “sell her to Hollywood.”
Honestly kind of sad, but the only person I have ever directly interacted with who was truly out of touch with reality.
My Aunt is a really nice woman, and very giving to everyone, but she once said, "I don't know how anyone survives on $100k per year." This was probably 15 years ago. For reference she lives in a $10MM house.
A woman I work with once said "I'm convinced I'm immune to cancer because neither my mom nor my grandmother had it."
Said lady has smoked more than a pack a day for 30 years but uses the above "evidence" as a reason why she's never had her lungs checked.
This girl I went to middle school with wouldn't wear a tampon because that counted as losing her virginity.
Tbh I feel bad for her she was probably taught that by someone :(
When the new store manager was introducing themselves to our team she started off with "i love retail, the reason I started my career in retail is because at the age of 14 I wanted a second horse".
One of the worst managers ive every met. Incredibly out of touch and just a bit racist.
“I mean, it’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, 10 dollars?”
Note: this post originally had 80 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Here is a pretty good example of textbook "delusional": I taught junior college for 7 years. One semester I had a waitress sign up for a night class. She asked if I would work with her since her schedule would present special problems for her to take the class. I agreed with the provision that she do all the work anyway and learn all the material. Sure enough, she only attended three times during a 16-week semester class. I emailed her the assignments and mid-semester test which I never got back. I even sent her the final exam to take as a homework type assignment for a final grade. She took 3 weeks to send this back to me. She did not bother to complete the final exam and earned an "F" on it. How can you fail an open-book, take-home final???? So she earned a very failing grade for the class. She was outraged. Her position was that she had attended three whole times while breathing, and therefore deserved at least a "D" for a passing grade. I said no, she didn't do the work, and she didn't learn the material. She complained to three levels of management to these professional educators. They supported me and agreed she should fail the class. She never took a class in that college again because she was so offended at how unreasonable everyone (especially me) was in their treatment of her.
Years ago, I had one class which conflicted with my work schedule. Since I had the same professor for different classes, he was willing to let me just read the coursework at home, do the coursework at home, etc, even if I couldn't physically attend the class. If I had any questions about that night's work, I'd ask him about it when I saw the prof in class the next morning. I passed all my classes with flying colors, and it never once occurred to me that my grade for the class I couldn't phyiscally attend should be a "gimme" out of the goodness of my professor's heart. I, you know, actually did all the relevant coursework and took all the relevant exams. What a concept!
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I mentioned how fast the clouds were moving while walking to class with a room mate in college. She said, "Its not the clouds that are moving, its the Earth that is moving so fast today"..I didn't say anything back.
I also thought I could see the Earth spinning! But in my defense, I was 5 years old and sat on the edge of the sandbox looking at the clouds.
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We've survived a lot of ignorance before, it's just easier to see now because of the internet. We're not actually more ignorant than before, it just looks worse.
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My mother's brother told me that the reason my mother was unhappy with my physically and mentally abusive father was because she reads too many romance books. My grandpa (Mom's dad) told me that the reason so many couples are getting divorced is because women are allowed to drive. I told him that women will not leave a good husband simply because she has the ability to get away from him. My sister told me that I shouldn't keep a family member ,who is a suspected child molester, from having alone time with my 2 year old daughter because even if he did molest her, it wouldn't kill her.
…You and your child need to run far, far away from this toxicity
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"Being homosexual is a mental illness" "Only n***as and illegal foreigners are criminals" "The covid vaccine is not safe because they made it so quickly. All the other vaccines were made over decades, so they're safe" "What's the point of being a woman if you don't have kids?" All things said by my aunt at one point or another.
I guess she never heard of the polio vaccine and how quickly that was made in top of the lack of rigorous testing. I’m so sorry you had to hear all of that.
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When I was in high school, gas was getting extremely expensive. A girl in my 9th grade history class said one day "I don't understand why someone doesn't just charge 50 cents per gallon for gas." When we told her they would lose money she said "no because they would get a lot of customers so eventually they would make a profit." It took twenty minutes to get her to understand that the business has to pay for the gas before the customer and more customers would mean more money lost than gained.
I need more information about how you got God to pay your medical bills.
I invited my soon to be mother-in-law to travel with us. She pointed to her shoulders and said she couldn't go because humans don't have wings and aren't meant to fly.
That's probably just fear of flying with a easy excuse.
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Number 34 made me mad. You knew about abuse and gave the kid to this person again? F**k you.
Here is a pretty good example of textbook "delusional": I taught junior college for 7 years. One semester I had a waitress sign up for a night class. She asked if I would work with her since her schedule would present special problems for her to take the class. I agreed with the provision that she do all the work anyway and learn all the material. Sure enough, she only attended three times during a 16-week semester class. I emailed her the assignments and mid-semester test which I never got back. I even sent her the final exam to take as a homework type assignment for a final grade. She took 3 weeks to send this back to me. She did not bother to complete the final exam and earned an "F" on it. How can you fail an open-book, take-home final???? So she earned a very failing grade for the class. She was outraged. Her position was that she had attended three whole times while breathing, and therefore deserved at least a "D" for a passing grade. I said no, she didn't do the work, and she didn't learn the material. She complained to three levels of management to these professional educators. They supported me and agreed she should fail the class. She never took a class in that college again because she was so offended at how unreasonable everyone (especially me) was in their treatment of her.
Years ago, I had one class which conflicted with my work schedule. Since I had the same professor for different classes, he was willing to let me just read the coursework at home, do the coursework at home, etc, even if I couldn't physically attend the class. If I had any questions about that night's work, I'd ask him about it when I saw the prof in class the next morning. I passed all my classes with flying colors, and it never once occurred to me that my grade for the class I couldn't phyiscally attend should be a "gimme" out of the goodness of my professor's heart. I, you know, actually did all the relevant coursework and took all the relevant exams. What a concept!
Load More Replies... I mentioned how fast the clouds were moving while walking to class with a room mate in college. She said, "Its not the clouds that are moving, its the Earth that is moving so fast today"..I didn't say anything back.
I also thought I could see the Earth spinning! But in my defense, I was 5 years old and sat on the edge of the sandbox looking at the clouds.
Load More Replies... We've survived a lot of ignorance before, it's just easier to see now because of the internet. We're not actually more ignorant than before, it just looks worse.
Load More Replies... My mother's brother told me that the reason my mother was unhappy with my physically and mentally abusive father was because she reads too many romance books. My grandpa (Mom's dad) told me that the reason so many couples are getting divorced is because women are allowed to drive. I told him that women will not leave a good husband simply because she has the ability to get away from him. My sister told me that I shouldn't keep a family member ,who is a suspected child molester, from having alone time with my 2 year old daughter because even if he did molest her, it wouldn't kill her.
…You and your child need to run far, far away from this toxicity
Load More Replies... "Being homosexual is a mental illness" "Only n***as and illegal foreigners are criminals" "The covid vaccine is not safe because they made it so quickly. All the other vaccines were made over decades, so they're safe" "What's the point of being a woman if you don't have kids?" All things said by my aunt at one point or another.
I guess she never heard of the polio vaccine and how quickly that was made in top of the lack of rigorous testing. I’m so sorry you had to hear all of that.
Load More Replies... When I was in high school, gas was getting extremely expensive. A girl in my 9th grade history class said one day "I don't understand why someone doesn't just charge 50 cents per gallon for gas." When we told her they would lose money she said "no because they would get a lot of customers so eventually they would make a profit." It took twenty minutes to get her to understand that the business has to pay for the gas before the customer and more customers would mean more money lost than gained.
I need more information about how you got God to pay your medical bills.
I invited my soon to be mother-in-law to travel with us. She pointed to her shoulders and said she couldn't go because humans don't have wings and aren't meant to fly.
That's probably just fear of flying with a easy excuse.
Load More Replies... Number 34 made me mad. You knew about abuse and gave the kid to this person again? F**k you.
