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45 Moments That Made People Realize Some Folks Are Living In A Completely Different World
By definition, reality should be the same for all of us. And if your social media feed is an echo chamber, you might feel confident that we're all experiencing the same world. But setting foot outside of your community might give you a stark reality check and remind you that some people out there are on a completely different wavelength.
Redditors have been recalling moments when they realized that we may all be living on the same planet, but some of us are in completely different worlds. Whether it's because of fake news running rampant on social media or conspiracy theories infiltrating certain communities, we are not all perceiving reality in the same way. So enjoy reading through these eye-opening stories, and be sure to upvote the ones that make you wonder what in the world happened to critical thinking!
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#1
The whole United Healthcare CEO a***ssination showed a clear divide between the upper and lower classes. No matter the politics, the rich couldn’t fathom why the middle and lower classes reacted the way we did. The media is controlled by the rich and was saying one thing meanwhile social media where the lower classes are given platform are saying something else. That time felt like I was in a dystopian novel.
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#2
My father telling me that “empathy” and “communication” are just buzz words for my generation.
#3
The breaking point is just that, -reality-.
Millions and millions and millions of Americans have been influenced to reject science, reject doctors, reject intellectualism, reject professionals, reject academia, reject research, etc… BUT to buy into endless insane conspiracy theories.
These influences are -the thing- tearing the USA apart.
#4
My dad believes that UFOs are real. But not aliens. No, they're metaphysical evidence of demons interacting with our plane of existence. He learned this on youtube.
#5
My wife and I are staunchly liberal. We are both activists and we do our best to be understanding and spread love. Somehow, this is all evil to her very Christian mother.
My MIL literally dropped the line "it's so hard to argue with you because you bring these 'facts' and numbers and I just need you to trust me. I know I'm right."
#6
Canadian here, who visited the US recently for work.
I was in an Uber and the driver picked me up from the airport. Once I told him I was Canadian visiting, he asks me how Canada is taking the 51st State stuff.
I say that we as a country are mad, and he tries to tell me I’m wrong bc some folks in Alberta support it and would separate. Plus, the 'president' would charge Canada to be in the Golden Dome.
I ended the conversation with saying that Texas has a bigger chance of seceding from the US than AB has with leaving Canada, and that maybe he’s not getting the full story.
#7
My dad who hated me joining the military, including once comparing a 15 month Iraq deployment to boyscout camp, telling me that it isn't fair I'm not worried about healthcare in retirement because I stayed in for 20 years (I was Guard) so I get tricare and free VA care due to getting bunged up in the process (who other story).
But is still against universal healthcare. Even though he is on Medicare and had to work until 70 so my mother would be old enough as well and they could drop his employer.
And he wonders why my family has never been within a 12 hour drive.
#8
I was doing bedside nursing during covid. All the people who’d never stepped foot inside a hospital in their lives telling me it was all a “hoax”.
#9
A cousin of mine thinks Muslims are inherently evil, and that the only solution is to e**cute them all. Even babies, as he says they are literally born evil.
The irony there is that wanting to m****r babies is kind of a textbook definition of being evil.
#10
The whole anti-vaccine movement out in the west. Especially for diseases like measles. I grew up in position of privilege in a third world country. One thing I noticed is that everyone clamoured to get their kids vaccinated. The rich, the poor, the destitute. I remember back when I was 4 there was a measles outbreak in my community. I remember kids mysteriously dropping out of my class and never returning. It wasnt until years later I learned that some of them d**d. Others suffered debilitating injuries so crippling they had to drop out of school.
Then I move to Canada and I quickly find out that im one of the few people in my age bracket who has the measles vaccine scar. Then I hear stupid parents saying they are not going to get the measles vaccine for their kids while we're in the middle of an outbreak and I want to beat their asses so much because of how their stupidity is endangering the lives of their children.
Edit: As several people pointed out, scar was the result of the smallpox vaccine rather then the measles vaccine. Still doesn't change the fact that people refusing to get their children vaccinated for any disease infuriates me.
#11
My immigrant family being on the side of the oppressor, simply because “we were the good kind of immigrant.” Like w*f does that mean?
Also my stepdad doesn’t believe in dinosaurs.
#12
Climate change. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that climate change is real, is happening, and is driven by human actions.
Differing opinions about how we should handle climate change (including to do nothing at all) is politics.
Denying that climate change exists in the face of the mountain of evidence that we have is delusion.
#13
In the late 1990s, I was clear to a conservative friend that Bill Clinton was a mostly s****y human, I just voted for him because he did things politically I liked. My conservative friend said couldn't get past the sleaze. Ok, whatever.
Now? She is skeptical that the current 'president' has ever cheated on a spouse, she believes in "locker room talk" and is skeptical he's a racist.
#14
The most extreme example, I think, was when my mom said she wondered if there really was a war in Ukraine because "you don't see any videos, just the after pictures." Like, Mom, there are a lot of videos, you're just not seeing them because of the websites you're on.
But the most consistent and ongoing example has to be COVID. I thought, when COVID hit, that here was something unshakeable, something real, that folks couldn't deny was happening. And then folks went out and denied it was happening. Several million d****s in America and there are still people who claim the whole thing was fake. I don't understand it.
#15
In 2003 22 years ago, the olympics stopped s*x testing athletes because it was widely understood that trans women don't have a significant advantage over cis women if they've been on hormones for long enough, and that s*x testing was invasive and harmful to the cis women subjected to it.
In 22 years, there has been one (1) trans Olympian -- Laurel Hubbard, a weight lifter in 2020 -- and she didn't perform particularly well.
There have, however, been a few cis (possibly intersex) women whose lives have been ruined by the anti trans panic of the past few years -- just as we knew would happen in 2003.
Meanwhile the face of the anti trans athlete movement is a woman who tied for 5th in a swimming competition with a trans woman. Lia Thomas lost to 4 cis women in that race.
From these facts, most of the planet is somehow convinced that the participation of trans women in female sports is an enormous problem, despite having been the norm for at least a decade before anyone even noticed.
#16
People who are strictly pro-life. You realize I begged for, pleaded with a God to save them, and continue to love those two babies with a soul-crushing mother’s love, right?
Abortion isn’t black and white.
#17
Israel is committing a g**ocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.
I don't know what to say to you if you don't think it's the case other than, look at the words the Israeli state has said.
#18
Once had a convo with republicans who, with sincerity, brought up schools letting kids identify as cats and having litter boxes in classrooms for them.
This is fake. It never happened. But they genuinely believe it is actively still happening.
#19
Conversation with my brother did it for me. Here in Australia the first I think it’s $18,000 you earn is tax exempt, he’s a low income so that threshold covers about a third of his wage. A fact he completely ignored as he tried to argue the tax exempt. Threshold should be scrapped in favour of a system where people earning over a certain amount, I think he said over $500,000 but this chat happened a couple of weeks back so I might not be remembering that correctly, shouldn’t have to pay taxes above that threshold. When you’ve reached a point where you are strongly arguing against policies like social welfare programs despite relying on them yourself that’s a significant amount of cognitive dissonance. It’s one thing to argue for policies which don’t directly benefit you but have a net positive in a broader sense, and another arguing in favour of policies which are directly harmful to yourself, people in similar positions to you, and stand only to benefit the wealthier members of Society. Edited my original statement because I realised it was unclear the point I was actually trying to make.
#20
I mean... how much time do you have?
DEI, CRT, Immigrants ruining the country, Trickle Down, Party of fiscal responsibility, Jan 6 was peaceful, anti-LGBT, Abortion rights, Pardoning violent criminals, supporting dictators, covid, climate crisis, against parts of the constitution, racism, sexism, r**e ffs... the list goes on.
I mean... it's so far beyond the pale now and the fact so many of them still think he's the man for the job... I'm shocked the country is holding together as well as it is.
And that's a low d**n bar.
So I still get very incensed when they have the audacity to wonder why I find support of him vile and unforgivable. The only thing I'll accept is renouncing him and saying supporting him was a mistake. Then we can start to move forward. There is no middle ground.
#21
My Dad maintained that there are no known incidents in all of American history of any Republican politician ever telling a lie or failing to keep a campaign promise. Except when they were forced too by a dirty liberal.
#22
I mean.... I'm gay. I came out early before coming out early was a thing. My entire teenage and adult life are punctuated by moments where it is made obvious to me that people don't "choose to make things political", people are politicized.
Luckily, I'm at the point in my life where any straight folks I associate with I do by choice. It's not that I don't like straight people, but every time I walk outside I can meet dozens. (Dear God reddit, please take this with the tongue-in-cheekness it was meant).
#23
Rural/City divide. Rural people don't want more rules, they just want to be left alone. City people want more rules because they just want to be left alone.
#24
I like the saying “Reality is that which remains AFTER you stop believing in it.”
A whole lotta MAGA disappears once you stop believing in it - bigotry, racism, fear, half of their worldview is imaginary b******t.
Healthcare, environment, human rights…still here even if you refuse to address it.
#25
A couple years ago my wife and I went to California. I was WFH at the time and she had an event so we made a long weekend of it. One of the people who came with us had a very specific opinion of California that came out every once in a while.
At some point we were on boardwalk enjoying a beautiful day and taking in the art. The guy was adamant about the "bums and crime" even though we were perfectly fine. In fact there were a number of homeless people around just hanging out some selling art. It was a very weird situation of me him pontificating and me just trying to get him to look around.
#26
Had a family friend who swore up and down that covid was simply a Democratic sham, made to control us. He got covid and d**d.
#28
Musk, not getting why the “left” was so mad at him, and him being confused and saying the left being the side of empathy.
#30
Latest Jubilee episode, the guy who was absolutely beaming, beyond proud, to admit he wasn't simply Republican - he verbatim considers himself a f*****t. Then he received a round of applause from a significant portion of the 19 other "Republicans" present.
#31
Anything about teachers, schools and education. Indoctrination, gender affirming care without parent permission, cat litter boxes, all of it. Public education is in trouble, but it’s largely the government and in turn the public that is causing it. As a special education teacher, I am so bound by law that it isn’t even funny. I’m not risking my career to bring my personal life into work.
#32
The reality is that MAGAts are mad are capitalism, but their politics have told them to blame the left and minorities.
#33
A very small and loud fraction of the population believe that me and the girls have systematically infiltrated every educational facility in order to turn children trans.
#34
I had a Tea Party retired SMSgt try to tell me that the US military is a private, for profit organization that receives not one penny from the US government.
He was arguing for 15% across the board budget cuts when I mentioned the military. He made the claim in his desperation to protect the military budget from his own argument. But it was so divorced from reality - especially coming from a retired SMSgt - that it rendered me totally speechless.
#35
when i said “everyone on this planet deserves shelter, heat, electricity, food and water,” i was called a communist. apparently socialism = communism to my family and that’s where i drew the line.
#37
So many things. The general state of politics in the USA is that we have a huge group of people who only believe what their leader tells them and what their media feeds them ignores objective reality.
#39
People who view the government as a peaceful and positive force for change instead of an entity with a monopoly on violence have been deluded by statist propaganda.
#40
Gaza. The most well documented g**ocide campaign in modern history and yet so many cannot see it.
#41
Society calling people who use government assistance like Snap, EBT, and medicare/medicaid freeloaders when the people I've met that use them often are the ones most informed about what they are purchasing and often have to cut things out of their lives to make sure each and every cent is spent on things they need to survive. The people that confuse this often complain about a 13 dollar burger and yet spend the money anyway. They simply don't know the true struggle of living dime to dime, or needing that type of assistance in the first place.
#42
Anyone who posted that Texans got what they deserved when 8 & 9 year old girls d**d in floodwaters is separated from reality.
#44
The last time I communicated with my dad, he was subscribed to the idea that the No Kings protestors were all paid. I know money wouldn't be an issue for a billionaire, but the logistics of it are mind boggling, especially considering how incompetent every big business and their c-suite zombies are at basic things like that. All I said to him was I wonder who it was.
#45
There was a nation wide discussion where women seemingly universally agreed that they would rather be in the woods alone with a bear than with a man because of how dangerous men could be.
However, there was an inability to reconcile that some of those same dangerous men could also find their way into women's prisons and restrooms under false pretenses if given the opportunity.
Lifelong Democrat here, but even daring to have a conversation about this got me hissed at and labeled all kinds of -ist and -phobe.
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