35 People Share Encounters With Someone That Made Them Think “Are You Really That Stupid?”
No matter how different and unique we might think we are, there is one experience that truly unites us as human beings: that awful sinking feeling we get when we remember doing something incredibly dumb in the past.
It can sometimes keep us awake at night. It can make us cringe when we’re shampooing our hair. And it can make us zone out when we’re supposed to be working but we’re remembering the time we made utter fools of ourselves in front of everyone a few years back. Your cheeks get flushed, you start sweating, and all you want to do is hide in a dark corner somewhere. Odds are, however, that whatever embarrassing thing you’ve done doesn’t even compare to what others have experienced.
We've turned to the wisdom of the crowd of the internet and collected some of the most intriguing stories of human stupidity, as shared by people on the r/AskReddit subreddit in this thread here. Scroll down to read about the silly, bizarre, and downright dumb things these folks have said and done, and, hopefully, you’ll realize that we’re all in the same boat: imperfect, full of blind spots, and prone to random weirdness.
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Happened just this last Sunday actually as me and my wife were having thanksgiving early with her family. My wife’s cousins husband said that vaccines were bad, sandy hook didn’t really happen, and that we didn’t really land on the moon. He said this all in the same conversation. I thought he was just joking but he assured me he wasn’t. I’m usually a pretty passive person but I f*cking lost it, the rest of the family had to separate us for a bit. The most aggravating thing was it didn’t matter what I said he was just like “you need to do more research.” Like mothercucker you just told me you learned this from watching a few YouTube videos. Oh my god I need a drink just thinking about it again.
Sharing stories about other people's stupidity is actually a very popular and old topic on r/AskReddit. One that always gathers a crowd of eager readers! The topic also tends to go viral pretty quickly, no matter when it's broached: stupidity is always en vogue. And it says a little something about the cyclical nature of content on the internet; there's nothing new under the sun! Some redditors inspire others with their posts, meanwhile, some internet users come up with nearly identical posts independently of one another.
For instance, I got in touch with redditor u/neolioli who went viral with their question about stupid people and even got featured on Reddit's front page! They have probably the oldest popular question on this topic of stupid people doing stupid things on r/AskReddit, having started up the thread a whopping 4 years ago. Despite this, they remember making the thread as though it was just yesterday.
The redditor was more than happy to answer my questions about their thread all those years ago, as well as share their thoughts about dealing with major embarrassment and why it's important to be authentic. "Even before I had a Reddit account, I loved reading other people's stories on AskReddit. I think I just wanted to ask a question that was goofy enough to inspire people to joke and be silly but also encourage them to tell a story instead of leaving a short comment," they told Bored Panda. "I didn't expect it to get so much attention. When I got a message that it made it to Reddit's front page I was very surprised. But I loved how much interaction it got. People had some great stories to tell."
The following exchange is offered verbatim (or as near to it as I can remember):
HER: That suit would look great on you.
ME: (Checking the price) Too bad I don't have nine hundred dollars.
HER: Just use your credit card.
ME: I still wouldn't have nine hundred dollars.
HER: What are you talking about?
ME: I try to pay off my balance in full when I use my credit card. That's more than I can afford right now.
HER: (Irritated) That makes zero sense. Nobody pays for credit cards! They give them to you!
ME: Not the card; the balance. The bill.
HER: What "bill?"
ME: ... The credit card bill? The one you have to pay every month?
HER: No, you don't.
ME: Okay, well, I guess you can make minimum payments, but...
HER: (Interrupting) What are you talking about?! You are making zero sense. If you don't like the suit, just say so!
ME: I do like the suit, I just can't afford it. Using my credit card wouldn't magically make it so I wouldn't have to pay.
HER: You don't pay for credit cards. God, what is wrong with you?
ME: Wait. Do you mean that you've never paid your credit card bill?
HER: There's no such thing! Credit cards are so you don't have to pay.
It eventually came to light that the young woman had been given her credit card by her parents, who paid the balance for her whenever they received a bill. This revelation only occurred after I'd been accused of trying to make her feel guilty for buying sweatshop clothing, though I never did figure out where that connection occurred.
TL;DR: Credit cards are not the equivalent of free money.
I knew a couple in my hometown. They were both out drinking and he decided to drive them home. Both drunk. He gets pulled over and they impound the car and take him to jail for a DUI and the officers decide to drive the girl home. She gets home..... gets in her car.... and drives to the police station to pick her boyfriend up. The officers notice its the same girl they just drove home and they arrested her for drinking and driving.
I was very interested to get u/neolioli's take on how we can learn to live with all the dumb and silly mistakes we've all made in life. According to the redditor, that's actually the key: realizing that these are shared experiences that bind us.
"One thing you always have to keep in the back of your head is that we are all going through the same thing. I think that is why the thread connected with people, because it is a reminder that we are not alone in our most awkward and embarrassing moments. Everything is temporary, and things can always get better. Our worst flubs are only small specs in the grand scheme of our lives, and they don't define us. Sure they may suck in the moment, but one day they'll be just another funny story to tell," they shared with Bored Panda their wholesome way of looking at things.
In u/neolioli's opinion, it's definitely best not to hide our embarrassment when we mess up in front of the people whom we look up to. It's far from easy but worth it. "It's a hard thing to do, but owning your embarrassing moments can create a lot of levity. And moreover, I think people always appreciate someone who is honest and can admit their own faults or failures. Authenticity and not taking yourself too seriously can go a long way."
British environmental psychologist and well-being consultant Lee Chambers explained to me some time ago that it’s vital that we find a way to deal with embarrassment, whatever its source.
"While embarrassment can be a challenging feeling that is fleeting or overwhelming, being able to find a response that assists rather than a reaction that is unhealthy is a skill to build," he told Bored Panda. According to Lee, humor can help fight our overwhelming sense of embarrassment during difficult moments.
Former co worker of mine and I were walking through a department store during the holidays. There's an area dedicated to ugly sweaters and one had the Star of David all over it. My co-worker points to it and says "oh, isn't that sweater for that Jewish holiday? What's it called? Holocaust?"
I wish her the best.
You wonder sometimes how people found their way out of the birth canal!!!!!!!!!
Someone once asked me and my twin sister if we don't mistake ourselves for the other one. I like to think she was joking but I don't think she was.
In my communications class in high school, it came to my teachers attention that a few people in the class (which had about 15 students) didn’t have a basic grasp of world geography, so he pulled up an interactive world map on his computer and connected it to the projector. “Okay, so this is where we are. This is?” Class responds with “North America” “Okay, and down here?” (Cursor is hovering over South America) Two girls expressed confusion over what it was, so he told them it was South America. Next, he moved the cursor over Africa.
And both of these girls, in unison, with full confidence blurted out “East America!” Later in the “lesson” one of the girls said that she thought North Korea was in the center of the US, and that’s why we have so many problems with them. My main concern was that I was in the same school district as them for all 12 years, and I wondered how the same system that worked for me had completely failed to work for them.
"If it's something that isn't particularly serious, laughter can be a great response that instantly makes you feel better," he said.
"If the feelings are intense, try taking a few slow, deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth, calming your nervous system and physiological response. In a similar way to laughter, smiling can be effective in shifting your state to the positive. There are times when playing down or even ignoring the feelings can be helpful in the moment, taking the edge off, but it is important that you accept them and express them if it's something significant,” the expert detailed to Bored Panda.
Biological mom of our former foster son, talking to his court-appointed lawyer (guardian ad litem): He doesn't need to go to the doctor. All babies get ear infections.
She had 0 idea that he could suffer from hearing loss if she ignored them enough times, not to mention how miserable he felt.
I work at an animal shelter and a woman asked me if we had any dogs that didn't poop. I told her no, all dogs poop. So she asked about cats.
Explaining to coworker that africa is a huge continent with dozens of countries. And no, you can't drive there from America.
"Because the feelings of embarrassment are generated from a past event, anything that brings you into the present moment can bring relief. Try to avoid saying sorry, as it will keep taking you back to the moment. You can even keep your biggest embarrassing moments top of mind, having reflected and realized that in hindsight, they weren't as big an issue as you felt at the time," the psychologist explained.
"We can even reflect back on our blunders from the past, and with the emotion dampened, take some of the lessons and observations forward for next time we feel like we've messed up. By doing this, you will feel more courage even when the fear of embarrassment strikes, and sharing these stories will elicit others to share, quickly realizing we are not alone, and that nobody is perfect," Lee told Bored Panda.
My family and I were watching a program on TLC about cavemen. There were actors dressed up like Cavemen, doing cavemen things, as the narrator explained the scientific theory around what they thought their lives were like.
My Sister was just in awe watching this. Mouth slightly open, eyes open wide. During a commercial break she asked the room, "How did they get the cameras back there?"
We will never let her forget that she said that.
Blowing balloons up with my own air (no gas etc) with my wife prior to a party.
Wife: “No no no. Don’t blow the balloons that fall to the floor, blow up the floating balloons”
Me >Look of disbelief< “What? You need to use helium for that?”
Wife: “No, you’re just not bothering, that’s what it is”
My grandpa's cleaning lady was making fun of me for believing that the ozone layer exists. She laughed out loud at me and said, " Then how do the rockets take off from Earth without crashing into it?" And continue to laugh and make fun of me for it for a good 10 minutes straight. I was so baffled that I just let her go on.
A while back, I also spoke to the community running r/IAmVerySmart, an online group that pokes fun at anyone and everyone boasting about how superior their intellect is… only to have things backfire on them in the most dramatic and ironic way possible.
One community member told Bored Panda that they don’t feel as bad making fun of internet users who are being pretentious, as compared to anyone else. In short, they believe that arrogance deserves to be called out.
The redditor told Bored Panda that some people are “super insecure” about their intelligence and think that being smart is the absolute most important thing in life. They’re willing to sacrifice friends, family, emotional connections, and, well, pretty much anything, to get the respect they think they deserve.
"It’s okay that they don’t have friends, or talents, or accomplishments, as long as they just keep telling people they’re super smart. And of course, some humans are just smug [jerks],” they said.
A few years ago I was traveling in Kenya and a few of us shelled out for a safari. Our guide was great and at one point said all the names for the animals in Swahili- simba is lion, for example.
An American then asked “did you always call them that, or did you decide to change it after The Lion King came out?” I really wanted to apologize to the tour guide in that moment who had to respond with respect to that guy.
I was explaining to my mother in law that the reason why my hubby and I were having fertility issues was that I don't ovulate properly aka don't release an egg. She thought about it for a moment and asked with all seriousness why we couldn't just use one of my husband's eggs. I just looked at my husband trying not to laugh and stated that only women have eggs and men have sperm.
That is pretty basic biology.
This middle-aged woman I work with at a fast food place was drinking a glass of superrrrr sweet tea when these words came out of her mouth:
"My doctor said that I may have diabetes. I don't understand how, I never eat sugar"
Sugar or honey does not cause diabetes - you don't know how many people - back in the olden days thought this and it's a real problem trying to convince them otherwise!
When I worked at a call centre and someone said "Q for cucumber" to me.
I love one of my really good friends so much, she is so kind, but she's very...conservative(?) She doesn't know I'm gay, I'm single and I can't pin point how she would feel about me if I told her. The other day she made a joke about a gay bar and I said "Yes girl let's go" and she said "No, I'm really scared if I go I will turn into a lesbian, isn't that what happens?" Essentially gay people have just simply been around gay people and they turn gay. And I'm like...oh honey, you've known me for 4 years now nearly. And I felt bad, but "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard" did slip out of my mouth.
There are so many people that think this. It's appalling and you can't tell them gay people are born to this it is not catching or a decision!
I own a diner and we do a healthy to go business. So one day I’m taking an order and the lady asked for the soups of the day. The conversation went like this. Customer: what’s the soup of the day. Me: Beef Barley and Chicken noodle. Customer: Does the beef barley have meat in it. Me: yea it’s beef barley. Customer: Oh forget it. I can’t eat pork. I’ll have a BLT instead. Me: (quietly weep for society)
My friend's daughter was happy to tell me that she could invite me to her birthday dinner at the steakhouse where she worked, because it was vegan. I told her I would usually just order vegetable sides and it was no problem. She told me no, I could have the steak as well. I said no, the steak is meat. No it's not. Yes, it is. What meat is it then? Steak is meat from cows, like beef. She was absolutely stunned. She was in her mid 20s.
World History class in high school. This girl really asked how we won the American revolution when the Germans had airplanes.
I had to remember to breathe.
As a History teacher, I can empathize... I was asked once if Napoleon had won so many battles because he had invented gunpowder..
I don't even know how to begin, here we go:
I was a camp counselor for many years and periodically during the winter we would meet up for drinks/dinner to catch up. So I'm out to dinner with two girls I used to be on staff with and it's raining pretty hard outside (relevant info). And one of the girls who is staring outside, looks back at us, and says "isn't it amazing that it's raining around the world right now... I mean like, it's raining in Rome right now." Or something along those lines. It's important to note, that we were nowhere f*cking near Rome. And no way she somehow checked the weather in Rome before she came to meet us. My other friend probed her for more info in order to try to grasp what was happening and it became apparent.
She literally thought that when it rained in one place, it rained around the globe simultaneously. It's mind-boggling. Local weather stations?: Nope never heard of it. Different climates?: Hell naw.
I lost contact with the weather-goddess a few years ago but I still see my other friend a couple times a year. No matter what the weather is, we reference this quote.
During a color war trivia game at summer camp, we were asked to name places the Olympics has been held. Someone mentioned Athens and the girl next to me started to lose her mind laughing. I asked her why and she responded "Isn't Athens that place from Harry Potter?"
10/10
I wish! I live in Athens and being in Harry Potter universe would be awesome (apart from the war with You-know-who of course!)
A coworker was trying to convince me that Nova Scotia was in Eastern Europe, I kindly pulled up a map on the internet. He quickly got embarrassed and confessed he isn't good with geology.
Phone Customer: Can I pay with cash over the phone?
Me:...
Sure just give me all your banking info so I can scam you later! And they wonder why people get scammed all the time!
In Wales, we get the option to use an ATM machine in either Welsh or English. Myself, a Welsh friend and an English friend were at an ATM.
My English friend asked my Welsh friend why he always used the ATM in Welsh. His response was "Less people can understand Welsh, so less people can read my pin number".
Girl at uni didn't know chips were made from potatoes. When asked if the huge potatoes on the bags didn't give it away she said she thought it's only for design and she never reads the ingredients list, she doesn't have time for that.
My partner is very picky about food and especially raw stuff, since we've been together her 'courage' to eat anything out of her comfort zone has like multiplied by 10 (yay)! We have a dish in Holland which is actually literally raw fish, like as raw as you can get.Very healthy and awesome. As she doesn't eat anything raw (can't even get her to eat sushi for example, which be honest, is devine) she somehow is still convinced that it is treated in some way, smoked, preserved or whatever, which it's definitely not, IT'S RAW. I don't have the guts to tell her as I love to see the twinkle in her eyes of pure deliciousness when she eats it.
I asked a friend what her favourite country was.. She replied Europe.. I said that's a continent and then she said London..
Most people seem to be geographically challenged. Most don't know the cardinal directions. The majority can't tell what time it is by where the sun or stars are. It's always been baffling to me how people function without being able to do these mundane things and just how do they see the world???
A surprising amount of people in my life have thought that ham came from its own animal and had nothing to do with pigs. At least 2 of those people had this conversation while eating a ham sandwich after claiming not to eat pork.
I had a friend like that. I told her it came from hamsters. She believed me for about 5 years
my ex in highschool and her friends. we were all standing around bullsh*tting and one of her friends brought up how north is up, like into the sky. She was 16. I said uh,no that's not how that works. Her, my ex, and their friend all argued with me for over 20 minutes how I was wrong and how south was down, into the ground and north was up into the sky.
I ended up just leaving mid conversation, I couldn't handle it.
Oh dear god. Still, lots of amusement to be had by telling them to meet you on the south corner.
When I worked at a chemical facility, we had a genius production supervisor who figured out that you could increase the RPMs of the mixer without overheating the batch if you just remove the mixing blade, so it's just a shaft rotating inside a drum of viscous liquid. Then he blamed the guy running the QA testing (me) when the batch failed badly.
People who work at such sensitive areas, and who display this level of *saying it politely* "carelessness", really scare me.
Okay, so there was this mother that I once met, I'll call her Karen. So Karen is your typical MLM mom, she's in like 3 of them, including an Essential Oil one. One day, her son gets sick. Instead of getting cold medicine or whatever, she feeds him Essential Oils. Of course, he gets sicker, so the school he goes to treats him right. After hearing about this, his mom said, and I quote, "Don't give him that! The big pharma chemicals will make him immune to the Essential Oils!"
I had a customer yell at me that their donuts were supposed to be buy-one-get-one-free instead of half price. I had to explain how 1/2 + 1/2 was 1. Never understood it and just sneered ‘whatever’ at me and had me cancel their order
Me while watching a semi-friend do 10 seperate ATM transactions- "Why are you taking out $200.00 from the ATM in $20.00 increments? you are just adding up the $2.50 fee?"
Semi-Friend - "It all adds up in the long run"
Me - "No sh*t, it adds up to you wasting money"
Semi-Friend- "No, trust me, it adds up."
This is the way my hubby thinks about money - I tell him sometimes you have to spend a little more money to save some - I purchased a huge bottle of dish detergent- got hell for it. Took him home and figured out per liter cost and that we would not have to purchase it as much!
My friend thought due to time zone differences between the US and the UK you could place a bet in the UK on an NFL game that had happened in the US and cheat the system because it hadn’t happened yet in the UK.
Employee looking in box where we kept the nametags. "Which one is my nametag?"
While in a really long car trip with my parents, we were discussing countries we'd like to visit. My mother said she'd like to visit Japan to see the Great Wall of China.
My dad and I don't let her forget.
Someone in my freshman year college class: "Professor, do you think dinosaurs existed?"
Professor: "There seems to be a lot of evidence in favor of that conclusion. What do you think?"
Someone: "I don't think they did. I mean, how do we know they were called dinosaurs? They could have been called anything."
I remember sitting in a World Civ class in high school and a girl in my class asked how people outside of the US lived, since they were in a desert. The teacher tried to have her clarify, which desert(s) to which the girl responded with, the one outside the US.
She was convinced that every single nation outside of the US was comprised solely of deserts and that any major cities she had heard of (i.e. London, Paris, etc.) were actually US cities...
In high school when this girl found out prisoners used to be sent to Australia she said “that’s stupid, they could just swim back to Europe”
My sisters friend, who is 22, believes that why you fly in an airplane, once you are in the air you just levitate there and the earth rotates under you. When the plane is over the destination the plane lowers again and that’s what happens.
She wants to be a teacher.
My wife was telling her sorority sisters about how she was allergic to wheat. One of the girls responded with "why don't you just eat white bread instead then?"
umm... what do you think it's made of? White??
I was on a school trip to Germany and we visited the casino in Baden Baden. One kid asked “do the Native Americans run the casinos here too?”
I almost fell over.
I was wondering why they asked specifically 'Native Americans'. A quick google search and... TIL about Native American Gaming and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
During my senior seminar for an anthropology degree, a fellow student asked if married people started to look like each other as they grew old together because the genetic material they were exchanging during sex was becoming part of the other person's genome.
Co-worker once asked, “Wait is Kentucky a real place or is it just the name of the chicken?”
Guy at my high school asked a biology teacher if humans photosynthesize. When told that we don't he responded "But how come when I go in the sun my skin turns brown?" He was 18.
Well we do use sunlight to create vitamin D and we do change color from the sun to protect us from said sun, so we do some crazy s**t with that light, even though it is not photosynthesis. If it was a question from a 7 year old it would probably be a smart question
A woman once asked me if Antarctica was really hot, because Mexico is south of us and it's really hot, and other countries are south of us and they're really hot too. This woman was 40 years old.
Teacher in middle school was playing a cassette tape for the class that was a bit distorted, so she attempted to improve the audio by...
...adjusting the antenna.
Hopefully that was just a quick reflex that took over her mind for a sec or two
Guy heard about the drought going on in South Africa. He proceeded to scoff and tell me that it’s all a hoax, and to “tell that to the oceans which cover most of the planet with water”
Guy didn’t know we do not and cannot use the oceans as a source of drinking water.
Desalinization plants say otherwise. If only we could do that inexpensively and pipe desalinated water to areas where it's needed.
While discussing taking a girls trip and going on a cruise my friend once said "I think it would be pretty easy, we could just get a cruise out of Dallas" everyone paused. Her husband then broke the silence with "that is our marriage summed up into one sentence"
My brother dated a girl who planned on driving to Hawaii. When we questioned what she meant, she said, "Don't they have a bridge built yet?" I would never have believed anyone could say that, but I was there - and she said it.
At an airport on a school trip to fly out to Berlin, teacher said throw away all liquids before going through security......and one of the other students said “Miss, is water a liquid...?” Single handedly one of the most stupid things I’ve heard someone say...
I'm late but my mother once years ago said "Cats are cold blooded because they like to lay in the sun." We immediately said...what? No did you go to school?
4 or 5 months ago she doubled down on this stating the exact thing for the exact reason. I told her "Are you cold blooded because you like to sun bathe?"
She still thinks cats are cold blooded.
Someone in my science class had suddenly realized that we don’t live inside the earth but on the surface. She’s 16.
From a customer "How do you type a capital 4?"
I was driving with my mother on a pitch black night. My mother said the stars weren't out because there was no moon for them to reflect off of.
Love you mom!
Was once at a 7/11 with a propane display outside, dumb redneck gets out of beat to sh*t pickup and flicks a cigarette right into the bone dry mulch infront of said propane (we were in a heat wave too, past 3 days had been 90+ with 0 humidity). 20 seconds later the mulch starts smoking cause it caught fire, i jump out of the car and stomp it out then go inside and start cussing out the guy for being that stupid "its no big deal" was his reply, 7/11 guy kicked him out and i got a big gulp comped to me. Just can't believe someone was that stupid, if i wasnt there the entire propane display could have exploded.
In replying to a student's question:
Student: "No, there's only like...maybe sixteen hours in a day."
Me: "I can assure you, there are twenty four hours in a day."
Student was a junior in high school.
Maybe he was refering to a "day" as sunlit hours, as opossed to "night"?
So no joke, I was at a resturaunt bar the other week. These 2 very hammered couples are sitting there trying to order more drinks and the bartender has a waiter bring them free bread to help sober them up. This one dumb bitch goes,"I'm a vegan. Whats in this bread?". The bartender tells her that theres eggs and butter in the bread and the chick goes, "Are eggs vegan?". I had to stop myself from face palming.
Really. I'm going to bet the drinks weren't vegan, depending on what they were drinking.
Knew a girl who started becoming worried that her birds were gay, and eventually realized that they are...she said she was going to love them anyway and do her best to care for them despite their homosexuality
When I was in high school history class, this dumb as a brick girl asked our teacher (who was from the south, but we weren't even remotely close to the south, still no excuse) If she'd ever owned a slave.
Some good teaching opportunities there. There is modern slavery, and slave owning is shameful.
Unfortunately, it came from my mouth as a teenager ...
Me: *Looking at construction site* I wonder what's going in there?
Mom: It's going to be a Meijer - like a Wal-Mart. It will take 150 people to open the doors.
Me: *Amazed*
Me: *Still amazed*
Me: *Amazed and now confused*
Me: ... H-how big are the doors?
A girl in my high school French class asked what was on French currency, "like how we have the presidents" and then said "wait, is the president the president of the whole world, or just the United States? Like does Africa have their own president?"
Me: "With all due respect, but we DID evolve from some kind of primates"
Uncle: "Then why don't monkeys do the same now?"
"theres always a 50% chance of rain. Think about it, it will either rain or it wont so thats gotta always be 50%."
The false belief that opposite opinions are equally valid. Flat earther, round earther. Mythology and science are not equal opinions
Girl I used to date was convinced that used cars came with insurance.
We went out to look at cars for her one weekend and on the way to the first lot, it came up in conversation. She absolutely did not believe me to the point that it was almost an argument. Salesman told her the same thing, so she demanded we go to another dealership.
We visited 4 dealerships that day and all of them told her the same thing.
Relationship didn't last much longer, but earlier this year she was pulled over and arrested for a litany of offenses including a DUI, but surprise! She had no auto insurance.
I once heard a girl say that she doesn't believe in miscarriages. Edit: Another good one is that if she asks is something's gluten free she asks "is that gluten?". Meaning the exact opposite. She also said she is going to become a navy seal, she is not in the navy. We were out of state and she said "oh wow, wild cows". They were not wild cows.
I knew who a girl who said the following...
In a room filled with cigarette smoke, she flipped out when my friend pulled out chewing tobacco, saying she was allergic. When we told her the room we've all been smoking tobacco around her for the past 2 hours, she said, "I'm not allergic to smoke, just tobacco."
When asked by a coworker about her religion, just to get to know her, she replied that she was a Scientologist. My friend, intrigued, asked how she got into Scientology. She said, "I just believe in Science and technology and stuff and we need to use our brains more, so I'm a Scientologist."
She said, "My favorite band is Nickelback."
Watching "Dynasties" (British Attenborough documentary featuring chimps). Attenborough introduces the alpha male chimp on screen as David. Friend asks how they know he's called David.
Worked with someone who would say "It's Friday somewhere!" unironically on Tuesdays.
"Where's Saudi Arabia on this map (map of Africa)?" "Where's Jamaica then (still the map of Africa)?"
We were collecting food for homeless people, and someone donated a fajita kit. So really all the homeless person needs now is chicken, vegetables, utensils, and an appliance to cook it on.
It makes sense if the organizer just donate these resources to local homeless shelters.
A previous coworker of mine thought that when looking at images of hurricanes, what she was seeing was the ocean swirling and not clouds.
She had a bachelors degree.
A phone conversion with my now ex:
Her: "I found a piece of candy on the floor" (in a wildly disgusting house mind you)
Me: "Don't eat it"
Her: "But it's still in the packaging"
Me: "Do not eat it"
Her: "I'm gonna eat it"
crunch
Her: various sounds of disgust
Me: "I told you!"
Her: "I don't think that was candy"
Me: "Send me a pic of it"
Cue a picture of definitely NOT candy, but a ceramic wall decoration with bible quotes on it labeled "Christmas decorations" with the top left chunk in pieces, still laying on the floor
BITCH WAS ALMOST 18 YEARS OLD
Ever hear of those sh*tty free online IQ tests? My friend took one of these - but the one she took was even worse than the regular ones. It was obviously not a valid IQ test and probably made by either a 12 year old, a drunk person, or a drunk 12 year old. Anyways, one question was "what is your favorite food out of these four," which was already a really bad question. I didn't think it would get worse until I saw "What do you think of the iPhone?" I don't remember the fourth option, but out of "I love the iPhone," "It's good technology," and "What's an iPhone?" The smartest choice was what's an iPhone. Ridiculous, your IQ is higher by being ignorant of the world around you. Anyways, to the main point, she got a high score and put it on her resume. I unfortunately can't find the IQ test.
TL;DR: Girl takes sh*tty inaccurate online IQ test, gets a high score, puts it on her resume.
I once watched a girl's mechanical pencil run out of lead. Instead of changing it out, she throws it away. Because it was out of lead.
I work in a door factory. I put doors on a router, set them somewhere, and my coworker puts glass in it and sends it off.
I usually get ahead of my coworker, so I had multiple piles with different orders. My coworker asks which pile to start on, and I tell him the far right one.
He goes for the one on the far left and I’m yelling at him not that pile, the far right.
He proceeds to go farther left and look for doors that aren’t there.
Comes to find out that this dude doesn’t know his lefts or rights. I had to teach him the differences twice now. I showed him that trick you do with your left hand to make an L last time though, and he hasn’t messed up since.
When I was in 2nd grade, my PE teacher noticed I had trouble remembering left from right, and taught me that L trick. I'm now 55 yrs old, have 2 college degrees and graduated with honors for both, and I STILL occasionally get confused and have to use the L to remember which way is left. But not when I'm driving. I never have trouble remembering left from right when I'm driving. ??
"What time does the 9:30 am class start at?"
"I'm sorry?"
"The 9:30 am class, does that start at like 9:45? or?"
At German universities, that would actually be correct. We have the "ST" (Sine Tempore"), "CT" (Cum Tempore), and rarely even "CCT" (Cum Cum Tempore) classes. Meaning that a 09:00 ST class starts at precisely 09:00, a 09:00 CT class at 09:15, and a 09:00 CCT class at 09:30. This is to make for a nice hourly schedule, but still have enough time to move between classes, get snacks, etc. Lessons obviously END at the exact time as on the schedule.
Teacher during math class discusses scientific notation with distance from the Sun to the Earth as an example and draws a diagram.
Girl in class shouts out, "Wait isn't the sun a planet?"
The teacher explains to her the concept of what stars are and this girl says "So all those other dots in the sky at night aren't planets?"
At 17 years old I assumed this girl couldn't be that dumb, but honestly the sh*t she said made me think she should be watered once a day. Some of the best included:
"Solar panels wont work in space cause theres no sun light out there"
"Copper smells like a wet muffin"
"If you stood under a really strong waterfall would you erode or would the water just move out of the way"
Well, the space thing is pretty dense, but smells are subjective, and I've seen what a waterfall/rocks combo can do to a body, and she pretty much nails that one.
I heard it come out of my mouth and I honestly don’t even know how it happened. I asked my friend which animal turkey (the meat) comes from...ya I know. Idk where my head was.
Ok, flashback to my chemistry class, 10th grade. my teacher had just explained how it takes 750 liters of water to make one liter of orange juice or something like that, and this girl in my class, I'll never forget her name (Genesis, everyone hated her because of how stupid she was/probably still is), but anyways, a little more than FIVE MINUTES after my teacher said that she asks out loud, for the entire class to hear; "If the clean and drinkable water is running out, than why doesn't everyone just drink juice?" OMFG she got FLAMED by the entire class, we devolved into animals. Everyone was SCREAMING at her and she still didn't get what she had said.
I play basketball and this one day we got talking about shooting percentages. So this one kid would try to convince us all that when you would shoot 0 shots and obviously make 0, you shot 100% because you didn't miss. He started this like 2 years ago and still when people bring it up he says he's right.
"Why do I have to clean the oven if it just gets dirty again?"
This woman that said this is fairly educated, which is why I could not get my head around that she was serious. She said she loves thunderstorms because it's amazing that water filled clouds that collide can make such a noise. I was like "what?" She then proceeded to explain to me how thunder happens from all the water particles in the clouds colliding. She was dead serious.
This is scientific fact about lightning and thunder. Water particles (ice crystals, to be precisely) get electric charges when the collide with each other, and electric discharge between group of particles (or particles and ground) forms lightning, and gas particles will instantly gain huge kinetic energy from lightning and make huge sound wave. So what she said is technically correct. BTW, the visible flash in a cloud-to-ground lightning is actually from ground up to sky. Or did you want to believe it's some supernature beings getting mad on human ?
an older man i work with refuses to get the covid vaccine because even if he gets it, its "not a big deal, i'll just be sick". weeks ago he asked his secretary when the flu shot vouchers for employees will be out. he has to be sure to get his flu shot cause "at my age, the flu could kill me!" i'm furious whenever i think about it.
I am from Alaska and I moved to Washington state. A girl I worked with asked me how I got my car down here and I told her I drove. She did not believe me that the main part of Alaska is not an island, then had the absolute audacity to get mad at me when I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of Alaska connected to Canada rather than being next to Hawaii. She accused me of making her look stupid. She got even more angry when someone else at the table told her "no, you made yourself look stupid."
So as a kid I'd only ever saw either the Untied States with Alaska as an island off by itself in the bottom corner or maps of Canada with the USA unmarked so until I was ~10 I had no idea where Alaska was and was really frustrated until I saw a map of North America and finally had my question answered.
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Yes, it's best to give these folks the benefit of the doubt.
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I spent a good 20 minutes and several bar napkins worth of visual aids trying to explain the concept of miles per hour to an acquaintance. Me: If you travel at 60mph to a place that's 60 miles away, how long will it take you to get there? Her (looking uncertain): 3 hours? Me: Your speed is 60mph. That means that you travel 60 miles in 1 hour, and your destination is 60 miles away. Her (looking more confident): 2 hours, right? I had to give up.
It's not just stupidity, it's PROUD stupidity (ex. the Ozone layer). Dunning-Kruger stupidity that's CONFIDENT in its ignorance to feel like they already know everything, therefore they can't be corrected and too proud to think otherwise even after the s**t hits the fan.
A family member was in a car accident and her car was written off, it was probably 2 years old at that time. The bank paid off the loan and she was left to go find a new car. She could not wrap her head around why the insurance company didn't also get her a new car. I explained so many times about them paying the balance, that's the insurance part. She just kept saying "but when you write off a car, you get a new car" ...noooo they give you money for the damaged car, that's it. "I just don't get the point insurance if they aren't going to buy me a new car" ...so you want a free car and a loan paid off? "What???"
So many of those stories... a got into an argument with an ex because she got angry when I said her mom was stupid. The mom in question was looking for a gas leak on a bottle's rubber hose with a lighter. Same girl also argued with me that the brain was a muscle. But since the Covid era started I have collected so many more of these events that I don't believe in equality anymore.
The mom was "this" close to winning a Darwin Award with the lighter incident.
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I may have been a clueless person……………but this…………… really concerns our future
Ignorance may be bliss, but it's also EXTREMELY dangerous.
Load More Replies... After all this I don't know if I'm thinking properly! Too many adults are being educated by social media they choose to believe what they want to believe not the true facts. Quite frankly I'm glad I'm old and probably will not see the outcome of some of these thinkers. Glad I never had kids who will have to face the coming world!
I remember a cult specialist basically saying that the people dumb enough to believe in Qanon have *always* existed, there's just easier access to that information these days.
Load More Replies...
My friend in high school and I agreed on most things except one: Religion. I was at that time firmly atheist, and she was christian and attend Elim church (intense, youth pastor type church). She came to school one morning bursting to tell me that "Your 'science' has proven Jesus was real!". I of course said "How?". She said they had found and carbon dated some ancient bible and proven it was as old as when it said it was written etc, and so if it was written when Jesus was around it means it's proof he's real. Now I was a bit gleeful in my rebuttal, regretfully so due to my teenage overconfidence too perhaps, but replied with a basic "1- Carbon dating is unreliable. 2- Let's say it's accurate. Tonight if I wrote in my diary about the Unicorn I rode down at the stables, as they are flourishing as a species worldwide, and then centuries later my diary was found and read: that doesn't mean there really were unicorns". She didn't not get what I meant. So I left it at that.
In a pandemic, hearing a medical doctor advise Vitamin D against the pandemic disease. Yeah, sure. That's why people in sunny countries aren't dying, oh wait, they *are*.
This is more complex: vitamin D needs to undergo a specific metabolism to be used and fructose disrupts it. So pretty much all food in the US disrupts it since it's loaded with corn syrup. Also being fat means you can't rely on natural synthesis anymore and need supplementation. A low level of vitamin D is linked with a higher mortality of ANY chase. It's not really a vitamin but more a hormone and its really critical if you want to age well and go better through most diseases.
Load More Replies... 
My mother still thinks that the blood in our body is blue and when it hits the oxygen in the air it turns red. This is the same woman that told me "you won't get a man if you're smarter than him."
Back in 2009 I was with some friends in the audience for the Jeff Wayne musical production of "War of the Worlds". In the row behind us, a guy was giving his buddy a quick rundown of the history of the original H.G. Wells novel. Buddyboy then asks "Oh, is he gonna be here too?" There was a pause then the guy patiently said, "No. He died in 1946..." with the words 'you idiot' hanging unspoken in the air.
Worked in a story floor office building. Asked my boss where the smoke detectors were located so I could change the batteries. “We don’t have any” he said. We have a security system with audio. I asked how the security company would know if we had a fire. He replied, “Oh, they’ll just hear the fire through the audio”. I just walked away.
Imho, we all have dumb moments but some of these made me feel like a freaking genius.
Knew a girl in high school who genuinely believed that Japan was several decades behind the US with technology. J a p a n. Another was a coworker who was looking up the bar where her friends were gathering to watch the game, and she was complaining about it being busy or whatever. She pulls up the google maps satellite view and says to the other guy, "well, it doesn't look that busy now." ...it's not a live feed, girl.
I find it quite interesting that so many people are here complaining about something stupid being said or done, yet the grammar they use in writing these complaints out is on the level of the person they are complaining about.
Get off your high horse. Good grammar does not equate to intelligence. Perhaps to education. Also, they might be foreigners.
Load More Replies... an older man i work with refuses to get the covid vaccine because even if he gets it, its "not a big deal, i'll just be sick". weeks ago he asked his secretary when the flu shot vouchers for employees will be out. he has to be sure to get his flu shot cause "at my age, the flu could kill me!" i'm furious whenever i think about it.
I am from Alaska and I moved to Washington state. A girl I worked with asked me how I got my car down here and I told her I drove. She did not believe me that the main part of Alaska is not an island, then had the absolute audacity to get mad at me when I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of Alaska connected to Canada rather than being next to Hawaii. She accused me of making her look stupid. She got even more angry when someone else at the table told her "no, you made yourself look stupid."
So as a kid I'd only ever saw either the Untied States with Alaska as an island off by itself in the bottom corner or maps of Canada with the USA unmarked so until I was ~10 I had no idea where Alaska was and was really frustrated until I saw a map of North America and finally had my question answered.
Load More Replies... Yes, it's best to give these folks the benefit of the doubt.
Load More Replies... I spent a good 20 minutes and several bar napkins worth of visual aids trying to explain the concept of miles per hour to an acquaintance. Me: If you travel at 60mph to a place that's 60 miles away, how long will it take you to get there? Her (looking uncertain): 3 hours? Me: Your speed is 60mph. That means that you travel 60 miles in 1 hour, and your destination is 60 miles away. Her (looking more confident): 2 hours, right? I had to give up.
It's not just stupidity, it's PROUD stupidity (ex. the Ozone layer). Dunning-Kruger stupidity that's CONFIDENT in its ignorance to feel like they already know everything, therefore they can't be corrected and too proud to think otherwise even after the s**t hits the fan.
A family member was in a car accident and her car was written off, it was probably 2 years old at that time. The bank paid off the loan and she was left to go find a new car. She could not wrap her head around why the insurance company didn't also get her a new car. I explained so many times about them paying the balance, that's the insurance part. She just kept saying "but when you write off a car, you get a new car" ...noooo they give you money for the damaged car, that's it. "I just don't get the point insurance if they aren't going to buy me a new car" ...so you want a free car and a loan paid off? "What???"
So many of those stories... a got into an argument with an ex because she got angry when I said her mom was stupid. The mom in question was looking for a gas leak on a bottle's rubber hose with a lighter. Same girl also argued with me that the brain was a muscle. But since the Covid era started I have collected so many more of these events that I don't believe in equality anymore.
The mom was "this" close to winning a Darwin Award with the lighter incident.
Load More Replies... I may have been a clueless person……………but this…………… really concerns our future
Ignorance may be bliss, but it's also EXTREMELY dangerous.
Load More Replies... After all this I don't know if I'm thinking properly! Too many adults are being educated by social media they choose to believe what they want to believe not the true facts. Quite frankly I'm glad I'm old and probably will not see the outcome of some of these thinkers. Glad I never had kids who will have to face the coming world!
I remember a cult specialist basically saying that the people dumb enough to believe in Qanon have *always* existed, there's just easier access to that information these days.
Load More Replies... My friend in high school and I agreed on most things except one: Religion. I was at that time firmly atheist, and she was christian and attend Elim church (intense, youth pastor type church). She came to school one morning bursting to tell me that "Your 'science' has proven Jesus was real!". I of course said "How?". She said they had found and carbon dated some ancient bible and proven it was as old as when it said it was written etc, and so if it was written when Jesus was around it means it's proof he's real. Now I was a bit gleeful in my rebuttal, regretfully so due to my teenage overconfidence too perhaps, but replied with a basic "1- Carbon dating is unreliable. 2- Let's say it's accurate. Tonight if I wrote in my diary about the Unicorn I rode down at the stables, as they are flourishing as a species worldwide, and then centuries later my diary was found and read: that doesn't mean there really were unicorns". She didn't not get what I meant. So I left it at that.
In a pandemic, hearing a medical doctor advise Vitamin D against the pandemic disease. Yeah, sure. That's why people in sunny countries aren't dying, oh wait, they *are*.
This is more complex: vitamin D needs to undergo a specific metabolism to be used and fructose disrupts it. So pretty much all food in the US disrupts it since it's loaded with corn syrup. Also being fat means you can't rely on natural synthesis anymore and need supplementation. A low level of vitamin D is linked with a higher mortality of ANY chase. It's not really a vitamin but more a hormone and its really critical if you want to age well and go better through most diseases.
Load More Replies... My mother still thinks that the blood in our body is blue and when it hits the oxygen in the air it turns red. This is the same woman that told me "you won't get a man if you're smarter than him."
Back in 2009 I was with some friends in the audience for the Jeff Wayne musical production of "War of the Worlds". In the row behind us, a guy was giving his buddy a quick rundown of the history of the original H.G. Wells novel. Buddyboy then asks "Oh, is he gonna be here too?" There was a pause then the guy patiently said, "No. He died in 1946..." with the words 'you idiot' hanging unspoken in the air.
Worked in a story floor office building. Asked my boss where the smoke detectors were located so I could change the batteries. “We don’t have any” he said. We have a security system with audio. I asked how the security company would know if we had a fire. He replied, “Oh, they’ll just hear the fire through the audio”. I just walked away.
Imho, we all have dumb moments but some of these made me feel like a freaking genius.
Knew a girl in high school who genuinely believed that Japan was several decades behind the US with technology. J a p a n. Another was a coworker who was looking up the bar where her friends were gathering to watch the game, and she was complaining about it being busy or whatever. She pulls up the google maps satellite view and says to the other guy, "well, it doesn't look that busy now." ...it's not a live feed, girl.
I find it quite interesting that so many people are here complaining about something stupid being said or done, yet the grammar they use in writing these complaints out is on the level of the person they are complaining about.
Get off your high horse. Good grammar does not equate to intelligence. Perhaps to education. Also, they might be foreigners.
Load More Replies...