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26 People Share Stories About “Professionals” Who Had Some Controversial Opinions
Article created by: Austėja Akavickaitė
It's one thing if your Uncle Dave said he doesn't believe in time. But it would be a completely different conversation if the same words came out of a clockmaker.
Inspired by a tweet where a microbiologist expressed his disappointment after learning that one of their colleagues was an anti-vaxxer, Reddit user u/MoniMokshith made a post on r/facepalm, saying "I had to teach a historical geology class because the geologist who was supposed to teach [it] was a Young Earth Creationist."
The post immediately blew up. As of this article, it has over 98K upvotes. And that's not even the most impressive part. The comment section got filled with similar stories, with people talking about "professionals" who made a career despite their controversial -- and often contradictory -- personal views. Here are some of them.
Image credits: foamtherunway
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#1
I’ve worked with an aerospace/aeronautical engineer once that believed the earth was flat. It was so weird because in order for the calculations to function properly, you have to take into account of the earth not being flat.
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#2
I’m an ICU nurse of about 10 years. I would occasionally float to our regular, non-icu and non-covid floors. Plenty of nurses who denied how serious covid was.
The cognitive dissonance is real. Of course none of them came up to help on our covid units
#3
Used to be a science teacher and I always got flack on the evolution chapter from parents that were doctors. Like babe I hope you at least believe in bacteria and viruses evolving...
I've also come across many nurses who don't think mental illness is real.
#4
Professional cook here. Near the beginning of the pandemic I heard about a Sous Chef I worked with in the past being an anti-masker. I asked through the grapevine why he washes his hands before and after handling food and the reply was “that’s common sense”. But somehow the scientific medical community saying that masks help prevent illnesses is just a big hoax. It’s beyond frustrating.
#5
My friends uncle is a '5G gives you cancer while the government controls your mind' conspiracy theorist. He's a 5G installer
#6
I worked with a former airline PILOT who was/is a flat earther. He has since went back to being a pilot but I am not sure if he still thinks Earth is flat. When I pressed him on being a former pilot and believing malarkey he claimed the schools indoctrination into round earth didn’t work on him and that the pilots windscreen was a very thick and curved glass that made everything appear to be curved.
#7
I remember a few Evangelists and one Catholic ( odd since most Catholics I know aren't creationists) in my major (geography) saying they knew the truth about the age of the earth, but had to lie on tests (classes like oil&gas, hydrology, geology,etc.) in order to get good grades.
How Christian are you when you break one of the 10 commandments and lie about your faith in order to get ahead?
#8
Last career I had, knew people who were flat earthers and moon landing deniers...we were all satellite communications engineers.
#9
I work with a medication aide that refuses to take medication and actively preaches god>medication. Apparently god isn’t paying her bills so she still keeps coming to work.
#10
I know someone who doesn’t believe in germ theory. We work for a company that builds water sterilization.
#11
I worked with a wildland firefighter who was a climate change denier. We fought more wild fires. We got way more OT over 3 years. Yet didnt believe it was true science and started to complain he couldnt enjoy his summers due to work....lol
#13
I work with someone who thinks bloodletting is a cure-all. I work in a children's cancer ward.
#14
I work with a locomotive engineer who is a flat earther and also said that gravity is a hoax. I can laugh at the flat earth part but not believing in gravity on a fright train in the mountains seems a little crazy to me.
#16
I used to work with a geologist who used to think minerals ("crystals") could heal you even from cancer.
#17
I work in defense. No one there believes government creates jobs. We only get paid by government.
#18
I work with a cancer biologist who fell for the alkaline diet hype. She got persuaded by somebody who is 1000x less educated in the matter than she is.
#20
My mom is a geologist and she worked with someone who was a young earth creationist. That person's excuse was "god created rocks that were 4.6 billion years old". I guess if it works it works, but that makes no sense to me
#21
One of my teachers (it wasn't a biology teacher) made me do a homework to prove that dinosaurs aren't mammals as, for him, mammals are animals with lungs.
#22
I worked with a guy who’s previous job had been designing missile launch systems who also thought the earth was flat, I’m not entirely sure how he slept at night
#23
I worked with someone who had a PhD in genetics but was young earth creationist. She couldn’t seem to comprehend phylogenetic diagrams, useless as supervisor to PhD students, seeing as she was incapable of discussing a number of highly relevant topics.
#25
I had to teach a historical geology class because the geologist who was supposed to teach is was a Young Earth Creationist.
#26
I've met a PhD in Chemistry from a top 5 university that was anti-vax. Their PhD work actually involved the analysis of heavy metals in an environment and how it impacted a childs likelihood to develop autism. I got into it with them, and they were able to reference a handful of scholarly papers to justify their stance.
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