40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards
Interview
You’ve probably been there—you’re talking to your friends and then you say something that makes everyone go quiet. You thought you were being incredibly smart, but it later turns out that what you said was so ridiculously wrong that you’ll be facepalming and cringing for weeks when you remember your mistake.
The good news is that you’re not alone: practically everyone’s embarrassed themselves with their knowledge gaps. Even better, the odds are that what you said was nowhere near as wrong as the stuff that the people in this viral r/AskReddit thread heard from their friends and acquaintances. If you want to feel better about yourself, scroll down to check out the dumbest things people have heard, and upvote the worst of the bunch.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the viral thread, redditor u/PagalScientist, and they were kind enough to shed some light on the inspiration behind the question, and shared their thoughts on how to react when someone says something that is massively incorrect. You'll find our full interview with the OP as you scroll down below.
This post may include affiliate links.
“Why don’t you go back to where you came from” - racist guy at the grocery store checkout
“I’m Native American, this is literally where I came from.” - me
Bored Panda was very interested to find out what the inspiration for the OP's viral thread was. According to the redditor, they drew inspiration from their own life. "I heard one of my friends say something extremely dumb, and had a thought in mind about how much dumber people can get, so I didn't really give too much thought to it and just asked it on the subreddit," u/PagalScientist shared.
According to the redditor, they were taken completely by surprise by how the thread took off. "I absolutely didn't expect to get this much attention from my fellow redditors. Maybe when I think about it now, it makes sense why this happened," they said.
"Perhaps because everyone almost certainly had something dumb being said to them, and it's also a fairly common occurrence," u/PagalScientist pointed out that many people probably have a ton of examples to choose from, so they were happy to share their experiences on Reddit.
That we don’t need farmers because we have grocery stores.(i live in a rural area)
I'm American of Mexican descent. Someone asked me where I'm from. I said California. He then asked where my parents were from. I said Michigan and Texas. Looking at me rather upset he said no where are your people from. I said dude I can trace my family back to within the United States to 1817. Where the hell are you from? He just walked away after that.
For the OP, there are two types of dumb things that people say. "One is the dumb things you say when you are having fun with friends or family and want to make everyone laugh, just those casual things," they noted that in this case, it's best to have fun with these comments because they're meant to be taken in jest.
"But if there is some serious topic going on, and someone says something dumb, I usually try to correct them with logic or with facts," u/PagalScientist told Bored Panda. They added that their approach also differs on whether or not they're talking to that person privately or in public.
"If we are privately talking, then I prefer telling them straight that, 'Whatever you said isn't correct' or just straight up 'dumb.' But if we are in a group, then I prefer not to possibly embarrass them in front of others, and tell them about their mistake in private. And I would be lying if I didn't say that there are also those moments when you straight up laugh at them, that's what the whole post was about."
“You shouldn’t drink carbonated water, it’s full of carbs!”
I’m rarely at a loss for words but I almost lost brain cells when I heard that
Used to work in Yellowstone. The amount of stupid coming through the park is unimaginable. Had a bison come and lay down close to the boardwalk at old faithful. A woman holding a toddler started running up to it. Luckily I had grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her down.
She kept screaming she was going to sue me and the lodge for ruining her perfect vacation photo.
Then watching a 20 something walking out of the lodge in a swimming suit to go soak in the pots.
Telling another tourist that he could not walk off the boardwalk. He became angry and demanded to be allowed to do this. When this happens we are on higher alert.
We always had to watch tourists, like they had IQs of 10.
Maybe the US National Park Service should entice the undereducated with "Best of Yellowstone" zones near the entrances to the actual park, where everything is fake and safe. Pools and geyser water are lukewarm, Bison are cows wearing full-body wigs, the boardwalks lead to hot tubs next to burger and ice cream shops, and little nozzles spritz the smell of sulphur if people get too close to the real park.
My husbands mom is very ignorant and known to say really stupid things. Most recently we were in Italy and she asked why they don’t just tear down the colosseum because it looked so old…
Edit to clarify: She wasn’t physically there just seeing it on social media. She doesn’t believe in leaving the US because she thinks it is the best place, so she doesn’t need to see any other places. Honestly probably better she stays where she is at!
Now, to be fair, you can’t expect everyone to know, well, everything there is to know in life. We’re all human beings with limited time. We all make mistakes. We all embarrass ourselves in silly ways. And we might have in-depth knowledge in a bunch of subjects but may be oblivious to even the basics of other topics.
That being said… there are some common sense things that everyone ought to know. Like how food is grown on farms and does not magically appear in grocery stores. Or that when you get on an airplane, you don’t actually fly above the stars. Or that eggs are neither fruits nor veggies. One thing’s for sure—common sense isn’t all that common.
Redditor u/PagalScientist’s thread went viral and got over 36.6k upvotes. The topic hit very close to home for many internet users. And they had a lot of fun spilling the tea about the very worst offenders to common sense and science that they had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting in their lives.
From a family member, years ago, "My husband and I are having problems, so we're trying for another baby,. That should make things better. "
I smiled inanely and walked away, stunned.
That the Golden Gate Bridge connects North-America and Europe.
Yeh.. don't even ask
Elementary school, we were learning about local Native American cultures and legends.
One legend had all the men go off to war except one boy or something, and it was left to him to continue the tribe's existance, or something like that.
Got in a debate with a girl who loudly asked why didnt he just go and die too, the women can keep the tribe alive.
Me, being worldly and having had The Talk already, tried to explain that there would be no more tribe without at least one guy present.
She yelled back 'Thats not true! We know how to fish!'
I had to be told to sit outside because I couldnt stop laughing.
There are a few potential reasons why so many people might not have (what many would consider to be) basic knowledge. For one, their education might have been limited or very chaotic, whether due to the low-quality teachers they encountered or because they put very little effort into their lessons and homework.
Meanwhile, these people might have grown up in families that didn’t prioritize education or didn’t help their kids understand the importance of independently verifying information. Moreover, these individuals might simply not be curious about how the world works or may have focused on other subjects at the expense of common sense knowledge.
At the end of the day, no matter our individual circumstances, the responsibility for doing better and learning new things rests with each and every single one of us. Though life may be easier if you can afford a good education, there are plenty of free resources out there just waiting to be used. If you have access to the internet and have a public library in your local area, then all you need is the drive, discipline, and perseverance to tackle new subjects.
I’m a skydiver. I once had a woman ask me if the plane stops for us to get out.
Yeah, it parallel parks next to the 747.
A friend of mine asked me why we didn’t see stars when we flew over them. She truly believed that when you were flying on an airplane , you flew over the stars. I was speechless.
You could start off by delving deeper into a subject you’ve always liked but never found the time to analyze, whether that’s physics, programming, psychology, or personal finances. Or you could start off with a topic where you’ve embarrassed yourself before because all you’re relying on is hearsay and random tidbits of information that you’ve picked up from social media.
In the meantime, if you realize that your lack of education is having a negative effect on your job, daily life, and relationships, you may want to consider signing up for some classes. You could go to night classes, apply for a crash course, or even go to college. But that’s always easier said than done if you have responsibilities like work and taking care of your family. So a bit of planning is in need here. But it’s sure to pay off in the long run.
Someone once said that they couldn’t wait for Halloween to fall on Friday the 13th.
Some guy on a discord server insisted Pakistan is in Africa, i told him that Pakistan is in Asia and he called me racist and had a little rant.
My old roommate pointed an laser thermometer at a pencil on a table, inside our house.
The laser thermometer read “68F”
He exclaimed “this thing is broken!”
I asked why he thought it was broken?
“This is a pencil. It doesn’t produce any heat. This thermometer should say 0”
I stared at him for a few seconds, unable to collect my jaw off the floor…
“Well 0F would mean it is frozen, or well beyond frozen, so I think 68 is the temperature of the air in the room”
This man was 26… his two adult brothers were sitting in this room. I was the only one who understood why the thermometer was correct.
Specific heat only mentioned by one person below! The specific heat of a substance is the number of calories required to raise its temperature by one degree Celsius. The specific heat of (?most) metals is higher than that of wood. Assuming both the metal and wood have acclimatised to room temperature, the number of calories required to raise the metal to the temperature of your skin is greater than for the wood, so it extracts more heat from your skin and feels colder. If you held one in each hand, once they had risen to body temperature they would both feel the same.
“Tigers are girl lions!” Said by my 40 year old ex boyfriend who is a nuclear engineer.
My mom, to me one time, “you son-of-a-b***h!”
We both laughed quite heartily about it later :)
Last month a coworker asked if I'll run out of blood eventually because donate very couple months. He's 34 years old.
“Isn’t it amazing how dogs just come out knowing commands like sit and lay down?”
The man was *stone cold serious*.
When I was in 5th grade in Mississippi, a girl asked me if I saw everything "flat" because because of the shape of my eyes (I am Asian).
Apparently what was causing my mother's computer problems was "Mercury in retrograde".
A supervisor told me “You can only get sick, if you want to be sick”.
I’m from New Mexico and was once told that my English is excellent. Have also been asked for my green card once.
*my boss after I had to leave work to save my suicidal mother-in-law*:
“When you leave like that, it’s not fair to us because you just leave us hanging”
EDIT: Thank you all for sharing your experiences and kind words. My MIL is okay and has recovered greatly. I promptly quit that job and have been living the freelance life.
I have a "friend" who doesn't believe many things if he hasn't experienced them himself.
Ex: He told me he doesn't believe allergies are real. I asked why not? He replied, "Well *I've* never had them. It's all in people's minds."
Ah yes so the large number of allergies I have, including some that are literally LIFE THREATENING, don't actually exist so I really CAN eat a peanut or something if I want to because it will be FINE and I won't actually die if I don't want to because it is all in my MIND? And I don't have to carry around multiple forms of expensive medicine including an emergency needle with me at all times just in case? Wow, I am learning so much today! /s. In all seriousness though, if someone said this to me I would quite possibly punch them in the face.
“I don’t mean to stereotype, but you look too white to speak Spanish” after I told my college suitemate that I was taking Spanish courses. Coming from a girl that always denounces stereotyping.
Not me, but my brother, his wife is a pharmacist. A friend introduced him to his fiancé and upon hearing my brothers wife was a pharmacist, she went with "Oh cool I've never known anyone who worked on a farm before" he tried to correct her but she doubled down with "I think I know what someone who works on a farm is called"
IT work a few years back. Had a director blow up after day two of trying to resolve a complex firewall issue that was affecting the finance department receiving invoices.
And I quote: “STOP trying to figure out what the problem is and JUST FIX IT !!!”
"I'm never going to quit smoking [cigarettes]. My aunt was healthy until she quit. Then she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer."
This was said to me by my manager at a Domino's Pizza (Pennsylvania, USA). I didn't have the time or energy to explain to a man 3 decades my senior that she probably had cancer for a long time, but didn't go to the doctor until she was feeling withdrawal from the nicotine.
So we finished our cigs and went back to slingin' pizzas.
I quit smoking and delivering pizza not long after.
That 100lbs of metal weighs more than 100lb of feathers
I’m sure this has happened to a few people.
Edit: I should have just used metric…
When I was doing tech support:
"How do I type the upside down i?"
"Ma'am, that's an exclamation mark."
Was talking to the cashier at a 24 hour Tesco's at about 1 in the morning and he said
"I don't mind working nights because I'm a necrophile"
Me "do you mean nocturnal?"
Plot twist: The supermarket was next to a funeral home (parlor).
"I thought windmills cool down the earth to stop global warming".
"You can only get AIDs from butt stuff."
This is from a guy who thinks pulling out is a good method of contraception and never uses condoms.
Had a guy I was working construction with say “I hope the sun comes up on that side today” pointing west “because yesterday it came up on this side and it was so hot” with us being on the east side of the building, ya bud that’s not how the sun works lol
Duck is seafood because it swims.
I was told that if I did some breathing exercises for six months and then checked my blood sugar my T1 diabetes would just disappear.
Not me, but a friend of mine travelled to the US with her family when she was younger. Upon hearing her family’s accent, an American asked “where are you guys from?” the answer was Australia, and that person confidently responded with “ah, which state is that?”
Hopefully they respond "New South Wales" or whichever state/territory they were from.
"Was it difficult for your husband to learn English? Is there a language barrier for you guys?"
My husband is Scottish, born and raised.
ETA: Wow this really blew up. So I'm going to add some additional info, especially for those saying this is totally valid. The people asking me this question were supposed to be well educated teachers. They had never met my husband so they didn't even have the excuse of hearing his accent. But had they met him they would have been more surprised at how diluted his accent was due to having left Scotland at 18 to live in London for 7 years and by the time I met him he had been in the states for 14 years. He had an accent but was very easy to understand and had adopted a more American style of speaking so people could understand him (so he said things like pants instead of trousers).
Coworker overheard another coworker and I discussing how awful it would be for bees to become extinct, and interjected with a “Who cares?!”
When I started to explain what that mean for crops and plants, he cut me off to vow that he would be perfectly fine eating only meat. When I asked him what would happen to livestock when there aren’t enough plants to feed them, I swear I could see through his eyes into the back of his skull.
Side note, the same gentleman once asked if I appreciated art and then took me aside to show me a tattoo on his calf of a blue humanoid female in Star Trek TOS uniform lifting the back of her skirt to reveal that she was not wearing her standard issue space panties.
Edit: [what if bees dead yo](https://www.britannica.com/story/what-would-happen-if-all-the-bees-died)
For everyone thinking I’m being unreasonable. It’s been a few years since biology, chemistry, sustainable development etc. but I will endeavor to find an even better source. But until my needy children and pets leave me alone I hope this will provide some food for thought
Edit again: don’t get too caught up on just feeding grass eating livestock, the overall drop in biodiversity resulting from worldwide decline in pollinator populations will mean significantly less produce choice and will negatively impact nutrition on a global scale.
“We’re all out of cheeseburgers, but I guess I could put some cheese on a hamburger for you”
Former boss told me his "girlfriend" at the time, who lived in the US, couldn't Facetime him because "they don't have that over there yet"
A work colleague once asked whether any of those ancient prophecies about the end of the world actually came true..
My son was 2 years old. He has always been very tall and spoke clearly in complete sentences early. This lady in a grocery store asked how old he was and I replied. She proceeded to tell me I was wrong and that she worked with kids and he was clearly at least 3 or 4. I ignored her and she kept pushing. So I replied she was probably right and I just didn't know the age of my son.
How dare the parent think they know how old their child is.
I was a p**s-broke 22 year old. Had just moved to DC, got a new job, and was starting to get my s**t together. My brother and his girlfriend were asking why I wasn’t going out more and taking advantage of being young in a city. I explained money was tight, I had rent, my car payment, etc. and needed some more time to save up some cash.
Brother’s girlfriend looks at me like I sprouted a second head and says “A car payment? Everyone knows you should never pay interest on a depreciating asset.”
Gee. Thanks, Becky. Not all of us grew up on a freakin horse farm in a family that made its money two generations before. Some of us have to borrow money from banks like peasants instead of requesting a distribution from the family trust.
"Do they have a Bible in Spain?"
Said during the third year of a Spanish class by a girl taking religious studies as well.
Oh boy, wait'll they find out about the Spanish Inquisition. They definitely won't be expecting that!
My grandma's friend and her daughter said they could hear the International Space Station fly overhead. It sound like "wooosh" lol.
Was on a very windy hike and I passively mentioned that it would be better once we were protected by the trees. A friend of a friend who was with us stops and says “wait, don’t the trees make the wind?” This human being got to 23 years old believing that trees activity flapped their leaves to generate wind. They felt the wind on their skin, saw the leaves moving and their brain went yup, I accept that this is the way the world is and never questioned it.
I had an acquaintance claim that the earth must be flat because nobody's talking about the white landmass around the map and how it's a cover-up. He was pointing at the white rectangular border of the paper.
If the earth was flat, the cats would have knocked everything over the side by now.
My American cousin said I should speak proper English while visiting me in LONDON and had the audacity to correct "Pavement" to sidewalk
Like who cares enough to correct me you know what I meant so was there any need
Can think of two off the top of my head:
When asked which way was north, I witnessed someone point up at the sky.
One time someone rang my phone asking for John (not me) and when I said he had the wrong number he asked 'if I was sure?' OH MY MISTAKE BUDDY TURNS OUT I AM JOHN AFTER ALL!
"Ok lemme check *HEY JOHN, AM I YOU?* - he says I'm not". Then hang up.
Me, the IT person, walking past a user in the office, that was at her desk. Her computer was slow that day. No one ever realized that having open 12 programs at once and 15 tabs in internet explorer would slow down the junky PCs we had. I said it over and over, but what would the IT guy know about computer performance? She yells out, My computer is connected with a blue network cable and the rest of yours are all yellow. Mine must connect somewhere else and that's the reason why it runs so slow.
I mentioned Martin Luther King to my mixed race friend, she said 'is he a boxer?'
"I'm studying Physics at Uni."
"Oh cool! Like Esp, Mind over Matter stuff?"
He seemed disappointed when I said no.
I have 2 tied for me, both from the same person.
"9 out of 10 children die from vaccines every year but the government covers it up".
"If you turn a gyroscope, like found in an airplane, upside down, then it'll break. Therefore the world is flat"
I was recently chatting with a woman I like, there's a bit of mutual attraction but she started about the Plandemic and how Bill Gates Vaccines have kill half of the population of India. That broke the moment.
I had a classmate in high school bio once say she wanted to move to Australia. When asked why, she replied, “I want to look out my window and see giraffes in my yard.” No amount of convincing or documentation would convince her that giraffes were in Africa and not Australia.
Similar vein, but less stupid because he admitted he was wrong…my high school physics teacher thought I made up narwhals. In his defense I absolutely had a penchant for drawing weird, made-up creatures whenever the moment presented itself. We had to do a sock puppet show to explain some thing I don’t remember and I chose to make narwhals for my puppets because it was 2010 and I thought it was the funniest s**t. He asked me if the creatures in my presentation were creatures I made up, or if they were from mythology. I’ll never forget the projector pulled up to the Wikipedia page on narwhals, and my teacher scrolling through it going “this is crazy! I thought you made them up!”
So ThunderDash was the creator of the fake page on Wikipedia all about Narwhalsthat has fooled the world for so long
After she asked me for suggestions for electives, and I suggested logic: "Um, well, you see, I'm more in tune with my emotional side, and I prefer to feel rather than to think, so I don't agree with a lot of logic."
When in a meeting of a Humanistic church and talking about a famine in Africa (yes, I am old) one of the older women said that black people just don't feel hunger and pain as white people do.
I was really at a loss for words
I once jokingly told someone I could move faster than the speed of water(I’m a swimmer). They genuinely said something along the lines of “no way! The speed of water is super fast!” They seriously believed there was a speed of water.
Their logic was that there’s a speed of light, sound, so there’s a speed of water too.
"What? Maryland doesn't have any hospitals."
My old friend (hands down the stupidest man I've ever met. Heart of gold, though) once call me while he was in Maryland(we're from ohio) and asked me to call 911 for him because he was having a panic attack and was genuinely worried that he was going to have a heart attack. I proceeded to explain that instead of calling me he should call 911 himself or go to the hospital. He then started arguing with me that Maryland doesn't have hospitals. He legit thought hospitals only existed in ohio. It took like 5 minutes to get him to understand that hospitals are literally EVERYWHERE. Still absolutely dumbfounded by that conversation 5 years later.
Although a few parts of Maryland have few hospitals, areas of Maryland close to high population areas have dozens and dozens of hospitals which are affiliated with different commercial networks such as Medstar, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Mercy, and Lifebridge. Where I live, there are three hospitals equally close, and it is not uncommon fot people to go to the hospital or emergency department of their choice. Doctors affiliated with each of the medical networks.corporations typically have acres and acres of multistory buildings where they conduct their practices.
My friends girlfriend thought JFK was OJ Simpson's Dad
I was 16 and my stepmother was Green goblin to my Spiderman. Anyway one day my sits us both down and says "Can you two get a long if for no other reason than for me?" My stepmother says refering to me "I'm just following his lead." I burst out laughing. They immediately tell me to be respectful and I said "I'm sorry but did the 44 year old adult just say that she was following the behaviour example of a 16 year old?"
My dad who never backed me up actually said that was a good point. My stepmother huffed and stormed off. It was great. She left for her sisters for about 6 weeks and it was the best 6 weeks of living with my dad.
A homeschool friend I bumped into in college said he was getting an aerospace engineering degree because, and I quote, "it doesn't have as much science in it."
How do you think we know how to make things fly?
"we standardize on a case by case basis"
I was at the mall when this girl approached me and try to pressure sell me iPhone screen protectors. I told her that I already have one on (which I installed myself), she replied “No, you don’t”
Had this happen. Guy pressuring me to get a protector for my iphone. I told him I had a flip phone and kept walking. Look on his face? Priceless
“Go back across the border, monkey”.
I’m Puerto Rican and live in the states. Yikes.
That genes go with gender, if the father has blue eyes, and the mother brown eyes, the kid will have blue eyes if male, and brown eyes if female.
She said this as in all genes, not just eyecolor, and i know there is a bigger probability for some colors but that was just an example
When I was in Georgia I was asked where I was from due to my ‘thick accent’. Once I shared with them that one’s from Canada, I was then asked if we have snow all year round and if I live in a igloo.
Ignorance is bliss
Some woman argued with me that limes were just lemons at an earlier stage of ripeness.
Probably not the dumbest, but my cousin used to think Alaska was an island since it’s shown on the bottom of a lot of maps with Hawaii.
I was asked my biological name.. biological
Clearly they meant biodegradable name...you know the name that breaks down over time before you're given an 'old person name' at 60.
I'm not the most well off person. I work for slightly less than minimum wage, pay cheque to pay cheque and I used to have a friend that was very well off, her parents owned an extremely popular restaurant in the downtown area of my city and they made her co-owner when her mom decided that position was to stressful for herself. She went from making minimum wage to making at least 80,000/year (and that would be on a bad year). She also lived at home with her parents who paid her phone bill and didn't charge her rent. Basically her only expense was her car (and even then her dad would pay for everything but the gas).
So one day I'm with this friend at a fast food place and I check my bank account to make sure I have the money for food. Apparently a few hours before a bill had come out and I was now -45$, so I told her I couldn't afford my food. She bought me mine but right infront of everyone goes "you're NEGATIVE 45 dollars?? What?? Can you even go negative in a bank account??" She demanded go see my bank account and I showed it to her and she goes "wow. I mean.. I ALWAYS have at least a thousand in my bank account for a rainy day fund. I can't even imagine being THAT poor"
At a local restaurant for lunch. To waitress, "I'll have the ham sandwich."
"Would you like cheese with that?"
"Yes, what type of cheese do you have?"
"Sliced."
Took all we had not to fall out of the booth laughing.
"If Dolphins are so smart why haven't they invented a bomb?"
Friend: " So what is the name of this podcast that has music and news updates? "
Me: " A..... Radio... "
"Mike Tyson? Isn't he the guy who made the chicken nuggets?"
When I was in high school a girl told me she thought that Mt Rushmore was only in Phineas and Ferb
Oh you’re studying Computer Science, you must be playin a lot of games. Oh lucky youu!
Also heard many times: "Oh, you play computer games? You should study computer science, or become a game developer!"
"Just because you cheat on your spouse, doesn't mean you have a bad marriage"
Friend of mine, bemoaning the demise of his marriage. O.o
I asked an aquaintance why she didn't think there could be life on other planets. She said "Because there's no air in space". I know I've heard dumber things than that but its the one that really stuck in my mind.
About 20 years ago I was working at Domino’s and I told a girl who I was working with that my gf was going to Australia and she asked “oh, so is she going to see Kurt??”
Kurt was a man we’d worked with who moved to Brazil. This girl thought that was near Australia.
This is tied for dumbest with another incident that involved a different girl.
Girl #2 suspected these kids of stealing cans of soda from a display in our lobby when they were waiting for their pizza. They came in every Wednesday after school. So after they left she went to the display and replaced the missing cans but shook them up and said, “that way when they steal them next week, the cans will explode all over them!”
She was very proud of her plan. I just spent the rest of my day laughing.
I work in the restaurant industry. I was refilling items on the breakfast buffet, And this lady walks up to me and blurts out "I want some of that" and points. Keep in mind this is during covid and I don't want to directly be placing food onto peoples plates. And we don't usually do this anyway. So I give her a polite response like oh yeah its really good today. And she then asks me "how do I get the stuff over there." I just look at her dead faced and say "walk around the buffet". You really see the dumbest people in the services industry.
Asked if America was in Europe.
Sure it is, it's a small village in the Netherlands, which is in Europe. (Fact)
How do I wash the cheese grater without grating the sponge?
"Why have we not landed on the sun yet? If we leave during winter at night, we should be alright"
yeah, slight movement of a big, burning ball of fire makes it possible to land on a big, burning ball of fire.
I had a guy tell me, "The Earth is flat and there is no such thing as outer space, it's all a giant screen that God has projected over the Earth." When I asked him about all the astronauts and probes that we have sent to the moon and other planets, he answered, "All lies by demon possessed people to deceive people."
When I asked him about how satellite TV could work if satellites in space didn't exist, which was my business at the time, "antennas up on mountains," was his answer.
I know this sounds like a troll, but this guy was completely serious. I have never seen anyone so nuts in all my life.
Unfortunately there are thousands like him, and their number increases day by day
“If you knew what you were talking about you’d have more than 30 followers” The issue was on citizenship rights, I had literally been through the system for 12 years and then worked on it as a lawyer for a couple more years. The guy was serious and earning about 3 times more than I was as a political aide… He is my benchmark of what to expect from a certain kind of privileged person
The closer you get to being a politician the more IQ points you lose.
My older brother (m20): you know why they call it a lucid dream?
Me: yeah it's when you're awake/aware that you are in a dream and can usually control it.
My older brother: No a lucid dream is a lewd dream, why do you think they call it that.
I wish I was making this up but no, my brother is just this dumb
Recently talking to this one girl I knew from high school she told me she didn't grow up privileged. Her father owns the only pizza restaurant in town meaning he's a very wealthy person because everyone buys pizza from them. He's also from Sicily. He owns a home in Italy so they go on a yearly trip for one month in the summer to Italy she gets whatever she asks for, her ex-fiance who cheated on her is currently being blackmailed by her because He works for her father and He doesn't want to lose his job. So she is paying none of her bills she just bought a house and her father just handed her a house and she tells me she's not privileged. In that moment I decided to stop talking to her because I like people who are based in reality.
I know she's turned out spoiled but well done him for making such a profitable pizza business.
During a long spell of no rain a coworker at the time told me they need to send the space shuttle up because everytime they send it up it penetrates the atmosphere and makes it rain 🙃
A friend’s girlfriend said when she first heard about oral sex she thought it meant talking about it.
Got asked if I rode horses to school cause I lived in Texas
I was with my friend chillin during winter. His cousin comes to his house and says dude My car got stuck in the snow. We grab the only shovel at his house and start walking to his car. Dude slid through an intersection and blasted a stop sign. We try to clear some snow from around it and push as he’s gassing it. Nothin. My friends cousin gets out grabs the shovel and for whatever reason thought smashing under the car with the shovel was the answer. He broke the absolute s**t out of it. My friends like bro that’s my moms you need to replace it. His cousin looks him straight in the eyes and says “you act like I broke the shovel”
edit:spelling
This feels like a very long list of people who don't know they're being trolled /s
I was at army back then. I asked if our sarge wanted some milk to his coffee. And he blurted out "Coffee is like people, you shouldn't mix black and white together"
This is not "being stupid" this is "actively being a racist a$$hole on purpose". Not a fit for this topic.
"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, (Helena) Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" - Hamlet (Shakespeare) We all perceive our existence differently.
Load More Replies...
Was stargazing on A clear night with a date and I said our sun is also a star, she went on to ask me which of the stars our sun was. I was suddenly worried about my potential future offspring(s)
For a very long time, I didn't understand how it was possible that there was a side of the moon not visible from earth. I just didn't understand the mechanics of the moon's orbit around the earth until one very patient person showed me using a grapefruit and an orange. The best teachers are patient and don't ridicule the student.
I think the fact the the Earth and Moon are rotationally locked so that the same side of the Moon faces the Earth is actually pretty weird! As is that the Sun and Moon are the effectively the same diameter from the viewpoint of the Earth. And the ratio of size between Moon and Earth is far greater than any other planet/satellite pair we know of. Face it, our Moon is WEIRD!
Load More Replies...
From a person who had their bachelor of science in nursing: "You can't get Covid that way (:snot/fluids:)! The lights kill it. Just keep lights on." _______ Fortunately, she quit nursing over "political reasons". What I really want to know is, who the heck gave her a passing grade in science at *any point in her life*.
Leo Domitrix: Thanks for describing this common problem about teaching/learning science. Either the wrong questions were asked on tests, or, the right questions weren't weighted enough in order to clue this person into the fact that a science/technology/nature-study career might not be for them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I'd go a step further though. Part of the solution to the problem you described is to stop calling everything science (even if it "science-adjacent"). For example, the "science", classes in nursing school should be called 'technology' classes. These classes involve learning a lot of step-by-step procedures. It's common for people to have the ability be trained how to do technology, but fail at thinking of their own hypothesis or designing experiments to test them -- and most importantly -- *Changing Their Minds* when results don't match expectations (aka: Science). Also, people should stop referring to memorizing the names of things as 'science' -- call it, "Basic Nature Study".
Load More Replies...
My uncle was upset that a mouse was spotted in the basement because what if it laid eggs. My cousins ex husband asked me and my husband if it was weird flying over the international dateline. We'd flown to the states from Japan. He thought that as soon as you passed over this imaginary line it went from dark to light as if you flipped a switch.
I find this very depressing as a science high school teacher. My subjects and so many other all try to teach critical thinking - but it just doesn't seem to work. I wish I could see the memories and thought processes that lead people to believe stuff stupid stuff.
Read up on history and the previous "critical thinkers" whose theories were widely accepted until proven false. René Descartes comes to mind as he attempted to ascend the ranks as a critical thinker only to retract his theories because he was afraid of excommunication. If only he had melded his 2 different philosophies into one coherence, it would have been the game changer for western science.
Load More Replies...
Fortunately many of them do it on a scratch-off ticket
Load More Replies...
When my son was ten I took a business trip from the USA to Australia. When I came home he asked me what it was like there. I told him it was a beautiful place but very tiring because you had to constantly hold on with your toes so you did not fall off. He quickly said, "Oh, you're making that up!" A moment later he added, "But how do you stay on down there?"
Somebody once told me that Indonesia is in Bali. Another time, other people do not know Indonesia but know Bali, and they thought Indonesia and Bali are different countries.
Helping two different college students in our math tutoring lab take a ratio of two numbers that was in decimal form and they were to interpret its meaning as a percentage. Me: PerCENT means per what? Student: I don't know, I'm bad at math. Me: Ok, it has the base CENT as the word, so how many cents in a dollar? Student: like 25 cents? Me:...Student and friend: They didn't teach us this stuff in school. Our state standards have percentages in 5th grade, so you've made it through 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, encounter advertisements with %'s in the real world, got into college, went to lecture for this class, no idea what percentage means? They may have partially been playing dumb to get me to just tell them the answer, at least that is what I hope. I did go over how to convert a decimal to a % with them but at some point they have to want to learn it.
Colleague also had a student who missed a conversion question that involved time. Teacher: Ok, here is your mistake you put that there are 100 seconds in a minute. Student:??? Teacher: How many seconds are in a minute? Student: You know, I've always wondered that. Colleague said she had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing at the clock on the wall and telling her to count the ticks. Student was an adult woman.
Load More Replies...
I'm into mountaineering, and I understand a lot of the questions people generally ask (like, "why do you have a rope?"). But someone asked me if there was a lot of snow on the glacier. Ma'am, what do you think a glacier is?
I was wearing a mask at work when an unmasked coworker asked why I wore one. Her concern was that I'd "just breath the covid back in". I was so dumbfounded, I could not respond.
Eugenics is a commonly used method that's been empiracal proven in the breeding of horses, cattle, dogs, and cats, so why not humans? This is the question we should be asking: why is it ethical to use this method on other mammals but not humans?
Load More Replies...
Yet another post about dumb Americans saying dumb things. This site should rename itself to Dumb Panda.
"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, (Helena) Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" - Hamlet (Shakespeare) We all perceive our existence differently.
Load More Replies... Was stargazing on A clear night with a date and I said our sun is also a star, she went on to ask me which of the stars our sun was. I was suddenly worried about my potential future offspring(s)
For a very long time, I didn't understand how it was possible that there was a side of the moon not visible from earth. I just didn't understand the mechanics of the moon's orbit around the earth until one very patient person showed me using a grapefruit and an orange. The best teachers are patient and don't ridicule the student.
I think the fact the the Earth and Moon are rotationally locked so that the same side of the Moon faces the Earth is actually pretty weird! As is that the Sun and Moon are the effectively the same diameter from the viewpoint of the Earth. And the ratio of size between Moon and Earth is far greater than any other planet/satellite pair we know of. Face it, our Moon is WEIRD!
Load More Replies... From a person who had their bachelor of science in nursing: "You can't get Covid that way (:snot/fluids:)! The lights kill it. Just keep lights on." _______ Fortunately, she quit nursing over "political reasons". What I really want to know is, who the heck gave her a passing grade in science at *any point in her life*.
Leo Domitrix: Thanks for describing this common problem about teaching/learning science. Either the wrong questions were asked on tests, or, the right questions weren't weighted enough in order to clue this person into the fact that a science/technology/nature-study career might not be for them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I'd go a step further though. Part of the solution to the problem you described is to stop calling everything science (even if it "science-adjacent"). For example, the "science", classes in nursing school should be called 'technology' classes. These classes involve learning a lot of step-by-step procedures. It's common for people to have the ability be trained how to do technology, but fail at thinking of their own hypothesis or designing experiments to test them -- and most importantly -- *Changing Their Minds* when results don't match expectations (aka: Science). Also, people should stop referring to memorizing the names of things as 'science' -- call it, "Basic Nature Study".
Load More Replies... My uncle was upset that a mouse was spotted in the basement because what if it laid eggs. My cousins ex husband asked me and my husband if it was weird flying over the international dateline. We'd flown to the states from Japan. He thought that as soon as you passed over this imaginary line it went from dark to light as if you flipped a switch.
I find this very depressing as a science high school teacher. My subjects and so many other all try to teach critical thinking - but it just doesn't seem to work. I wish I could see the memories and thought processes that lead people to believe stuff stupid stuff.
Read up on history and the previous "critical thinkers" whose theories were widely accepted until proven false. René Descartes comes to mind as he attempted to ascend the ranks as a critical thinker only to retract his theories because he was afraid of excommunication. If only he had melded his 2 different philosophies into one coherence, it would have been the game changer for western science.
Load More Replies... Fortunately many of them do it on a scratch-off ticket
Load More Replies... When my son was ten I took a business trip from the USA to Australia. When I came home he asked me what it was like there. I told him it was a beautiful place but very tiring because you had to constantly hold on with your toes so you did not fall off. He quickly said, "Oh, you're making that up!" A moment later he added, "But how do you stay on down there?"
Somebody once told me that Indonesia is in Bali. Another time, other people do not know Indonesia but know Bali, and they thought Indonesia and Bali are different countries.
Helping two different college students in our math tutoring lab take a ratio of two numbers that was in decimal form and they were to interpret its meaning as a percentage. Me: PerCENT means per what? Student: I don't know, I'm bad at math. Me: Ok, it has the base CENT as the word, so how many cents in a dollar? Student: like 25 cents? Me:...Student and friend: They didn't teach us this stuff in school. Our state standards have percentages in 5th grade, so you've made it through 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, encounter advertisements with %'s in the real world, got into college, went to lecture for this class, no idea what percentage means? They may have partially been playing dumb to get me to just tell them the answer, at least that is what I hope. I did go over how to convert a decimal to a % with them but at some point they have to want to learn it.
Colleague also had a student who missed a conversion question that involved time. Teacher: Ok, here is your mistake you put that there are 100 seconds in a minute. Student:??? Teacher: How many seconds are in a minute? Student: You know, I've always wondered that. Colleague said she had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing at the clock on the wall and telling her to count the ticks. Student was an adult woman.
Load More Replies... I'm into mountaineering, and I understand a lot of the questions people generally ask (like, "why do you have a rope?"). But someone asked me if there was a lot of snow on the glacier. Ma'am, what do you think a glacier is?
I was wearing a mask at work when an unmasked coworker asked why I wore one. Her concern was that I'd "just breath the covid back in". I was so dumbfounded, I could not respond.
Eugenics is a commonly used method that's been empiracal proven in the breeding of horses, cattle, dogs, and cats, so why not humans? This is the question we should be asking: why is it ethical to use this method on other mammals but not humans?
Load More Replies... Yet another post about dumb Americans saying dumb things. This site should rename itself to Dumb Panda.
