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Let’s be honest. At some point in our lives, we’ve all likely done or said something that didn’t make us feel like the sharpest tool in the shed.

Though, it’s safe to assume that those things couldn’t have been as bad as the ones on today’s list. Below you will find stories shared by members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community, after one user asked them about the moments that made them go “Wow, people really are this stupid”. Covering all sorts of cases of “Error 404: Brain Not Found,” they ought to make you feel better about the times you were being stoopid yourself. So scroll down to browse them, and feel free to share your own “Wow, people really are this stupid” stories in the comments section.

#1

40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions The 2024 presidential election.

In 2016, I thought "There's no way people are stupid enough to vote for THAT guy..."

In 2024, I thought "There's no way people are stupid enough to vote for THAT guy AGAIN..."

cparksrun , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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Al Fun
Community Member
1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, there are that many stupid people. And there is a line between people believing the lies and people who are “in on it”. When I look at the GOP politicians I don’t know who is what.

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    #2

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions The pandemic. I used to really have trouble suspending disbelief watching apocalypse movies or shows. I used to say people aren't that dumb. People aren't going to behave like that.

    I guess in a way I was right. It's actually much worse.

    draeth1013 , Marek Studzinski/unsplash Report

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    Rosecrucian Roeth
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yup, just take a gander at the good ole US of A or should that be US of eh??

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    #3

    Man in office looking frustrated at computer screens, illustrating moments of people not knowing someone could be so stupid. I work in info security. That should be reason alone, but here is a good one. My company is very large, maybe 150,000 employees in the healthcare sector. So security is tight. We stick to HIPAA, ISO, NIST, CISA, every abbreviated standards and governance body you can think of.

    We routinely send out fake phishing emails to everyone. Some are terrible: Misspelling the company name, nothing but a link and some gibberish, 3rd grade grammar, and so on. The links usually bring you to a website we host that says "You clicked on a phishing link! If this were a real phish, you would have potentially infected our organization, put patient information at risk, cost us millions, and DEFINITELY lost your job. Please visit the HR training page and retake the security training program" or something along those lines.

    Sometimes, after they click, people with reply to the original phishing email "I think the webpage is broken. Here is my user name and password so I can sign up for the raffle to meet Taylor Swift."

    One of them was my boss's boss.

    MrRemoto , Toa Heftiba/unsplash Report

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    #4

    Woman in green jacket looking shocked at foldable phone, showing a reaction of disbelief at stupidity moments outdoors. There have been so many recently, but the one that stands out the most to me is people actually believing that some schools are providing litter boxes for students who identify as cats SO MUCH SO that there is actual legislation being proposed to ban the practice...that isn't actually happening.

    Berylldama , Daniele La Rosa Messina/unsplash Report

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    OSA
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This has to be a joke, surely!!! But, then again, let me guess which country?????

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    #5

    Two people observing a large waterfall in a forested area, showcasing natural beauty and outdoor scenery. There’s a tweet from a national park talking about people complaining how hard the trash cans are to open that read:

    “there is considerable overlap between our parks smartest bears and our parks dumbest tourists”.

    Final-Tutor3631 , Joe Han/unsplash Report

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    #6

    Woman browsing books in a bookstore, illustrating moments when people didn’t know someone could be so stupid. Lots of great answers, here's my anecdotal story...

    I used to work in a bookstore. A woman comes ina asking about the "true story" of Lord of the Rings. I assumed she meant a biography of J.R.R. Tolkein or a book about how the books/movies were made. No. She goes on to explain that she is looking for history books about the Middle Ages that talk about the elves and dwarves. She is specifically interested in elves because her whole family is tall and she thinks she might be descended from elves. I very politely explained to her that the book is fictional (aka not true) and that it calls it Middle Earth not Middle Ages. The books are shelved in the fantasy section because they aren't true. She was visibly taken aback and had tears in her eyes as she left the store. I'm not sure if she was sad that it wasn't true or because she wasn't an elf.

    That person *drove* to my store. Someone gave her a driver's license and a job and money.

    FiendishCurry , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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    Tucker Cahooter
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    At least give that person some credit for not insisting that LotR is true and demanding to speak to the manager

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    #7

    Commuters exiting a train at a station during daylight, an example of people unaware of others' surprising actions. Any time someone tries to board public transport without letting people off first, then acting indignant that they can't get on.

    Militant_Worm , Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra/unsplash Report

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    Lauren K
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Happens constantly in my apartment building elevator. Drives me insane.

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    #8

    Three children holding hands and playing indoors on a bed, illustrating moments of unexpected behavior and foolishness. When i see moms posting about hosting “measles parties” so all the kids can purposely get measles and then become immune. They believe the measles vaccine is dangerous so the obvious answer is then give your kids measles on purpose?

    orangestar17 , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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    Lauren K
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well, when I was a kid there were chicken pox parties. It was the 80s and there wasn’t a vaccine yet. It was sometimes easier to just get it over with.

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    #9

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions One time, I was in Rome and stopped by a cafe outside the Pantheon for a bite and some coffee. It was early, so I was the only one at the restaurant at this point.

    A young woman (like, 25 years old) stopped to eat and she was in a hurry, asking if anything could be prepared to-go. The server declined and said (as an alternative) she could order something easy to prepare, like a salad, to expedite her meal.

    The woman agreed, sat down, and asked a series of questions:
    - “Can you make a sandwich?” (“yes”)
    - “Can I take it to go?” (No, I already said that”)
    - “How long will it take” (“a few minutes”)
    - “Hmmmmm”
    - “What’s a caprese salad?”
    - “What’s arugula?”
    - “What’s mozzarella?”
    - “How long does it take to cook?” (the server started huffing at this point - “it takes NO time to cook, it’s a salad!”)
    - “Are you sure it will be fast?” (“Yes, the ingredients just need to be assembled”)
    - “How long will it take?” (“Under two minutes”)
    - I’m vegetarian, is there any meat?” (“No...”)

    The exchange went on for well over 5 minutes as the server described each of the 3 ingredients in the caprese salad and constantly reassured her that it’s quick to make. I was eating a caprese salad, so I tried to interject by showing her what it looked like. The woman kept asking the same questions on a loop, yet she was acting like she was about to miss the bus.

    Eventually, the server takes her order (the caprese salad), goes to the kitchen, walks out and tells her she won’t be able to make the salad because the kitchen isn’t open yet.

    The young woman perks her head up and cheerily says, “oh! Really? No problem!” and walks off.

    I was crying laughing. I was literally eating a caprese salad right next to her, so obviously the kitchen wasn’t closed. I had even showed her the salad a few moments ago. After she walked off, the server turned to me and said, “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t deal with her anymore.”.

    _Redversion_ , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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    Ariom Dahl
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh I FELT for that poor server. No wonder he or she told the idiot customer the kitchen was not open.

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    #10

    Pregnant woman talking to doctor in a medical office, illustrating times people didn’t know someone could be so stupid. I had a client i was working with. she was on her 3rd pregnancy, we were on our way to a doctor's appointment and out of nowhere, she says " i didn't know having s*x could get you pregnant till my 2nd baby" i had to fight for my life to control my expressions. because WHATTTTTT.

    JadeBlueAfterBurn , CDC /unsplash Report

    #11

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions I used to say conspiracy theories were my guilty pleasure. I got a kick out of how silly they were… that was until they became mainstream “common knowledge.” Jeezzus mf’s… those are just supposed to be funny stories for the cover of National Enquirer, not s**t we actually believe. I am no longer tickled by conspiracy theories.

    Fisher-__- , Tarik Haiga/unsplash Report

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    #12

    Apple charger with tangled cable on a white surface illustrating times people didn’t know how to handle simple tasks My hobby is electronics. I often repair stuff for friends.

    I went to college in San Diego, Ca and used to know a "hot rich girl" crew that I hung out with on occasion. 

    Well, one day, a girl from that group reached out asking if I did laptop repair. I said yes, and that I would have some time to look at it in a few days.

    Well, I went to her house and the machine in question was an Apple MacbookAir Pro2.

    She said that she had already *thrown the previous laptop in the garbage* and this was the replacement they sent, which was also broken. She also said if I couldn't fix it *I was welcome to keep it*. Keep in mind, this was when that model had just come out. Not an inexpensive trash item.

    I said we should take a look at what is going on before we make those decisions. I go to turn it on and it's dead, so I ask for the charging cable.

    I swear to god yall it was the meme of the lady doing calculus in her head. This girl deada*s told me it doesn't have a charger. I said it should have come with one. She was ADAMANT that laptops do not need to charge. 

    Apparently, she had gone on a trip somewhere but didn't bring a charger. Her ex had set up the computer and it had, I guess, never moved or been unplugged from its place on the desk until then. She assumed it was "broken" when the battery died.

    I desperately tried, and failed, to explain that the laptop needs to charge, just like her phone. She insisted that was wrong because, obviously, "phones and computers are different".

    Long story short, she refused to charge it, gave it to me, and went through another 2 "replacement" laptops before her dad put his foot down.

    SpyderDust , Homemade Media/unsplash Report

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    #13

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions Three instances actually...

    1. I had woman knock on my door one day and ask if I can "turn off my wifi for a bit" She is parked out in front of my house waiting for someone and my signal is so strong it is "making her sick." She was enraged when I told her that's not a thing nor is it my problem. This is one of those things I had even seen on the internet before and thought it was fake. Turns out...nope...these people are real.

    2. The whole flat-earth thing. I thought it was a joke at first, but people really are this stupid.

    3. I work in EMS/Public Safety. I lost a lot of faith in humanity and the intelligence of people during the COVID Pandemic. My wife and I (who also works in healthcare) went from hero's to "Clearly part of a giant scheme that is here to k**l us all.".

    geek_fit , Loz Pycock/flickr Report

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    Mreoww
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I genuinely can’t comprehend that there are people who worship the flat earth theory.

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    #14

    Person holding a card and pressing buttons on a credit ATM, illustrating moments of unexpected stupidity. Coworker had maxed out her credit card and didn’t know how to be able to use it again. I asked her if she was just making the minimum payment, and she said, “What payment?”

    She DIDNT KNOW she had to pay back the money she used on the card!!! Just thought it was “free money”!

    lylalexie , Giovanni Gagliardi/unsplash Report

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    ManBlob
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yes, credit card companies absolutely love to give people absolutely free money all the time!

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    #15

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions I think COVID really opened the floodgates for science/medical disinformation. It's honestly really disheartening as a scientist (toxicologist) working in the biomedical field. I think the disinfo currently circulating that's making me heavy sigh the most is the people who are convinced that the ~chemicals~ in sunscreen is what causes cancer, not the UV rays from the sun. There's absolutely nothing you can say to convince these people otherwise. They heard it from a wellness grifter on TikTok, so it's obviously true.

    dr_eels , Kindel Media/pexels Report

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    Lauren K
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And now Trump wants to make one of those grifters the Surgeon General. She isn’t even a licensed doctor!

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    #16

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions Every time I read about someone backing up off the edge of a cliff while taking a selfie.

    Oh_No_Its_Dudder , Gabor Kozmon/unsplash Report

    #17

    Couple in therapy session with female counselor, illustrating moments of people being unaware of others’ stupidity. The church my now ex was attending started a collection for a married couple that was having problems conceiving, and they thought it was time to consult a fertility doctor.
    Turn out this couple in their late 20's were not having s*x. When this was discovered, no one at that church thought it was ridiculous. My sexually active girlfriend's reaction was that "It could happen to anyone.".

    FosterIssuesJones , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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    Tucker Cahooter
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I think they should ban all those children's books talking about the stork delivering babies, it seems to be causing too much confusion

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    #18

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions Before the internet, I used to work in a bookstore. A college age student came in and asked for a book called "Raft of Mice". I looked it up on the inventory system. Nope. I asked her what class was requiring this title. She didn't remember. I asked her if she had a syllabus. No such luck. But...she had written it down and had her notebook with her. Great. I looked at the note and it said "The Wrath" and "Many Mice". Aha! I asked if the author was John Steinbeck. Maybe.

    I explained to her that while there were no books with any of the three titles, she had given me, there were two books called "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men" and both books were by John Steinbeck.

    She insisted I was wrong. O.k. She left without purchasing the books. She returned two hours later all huffy and rolled her eyes at me when she purchased the two Steinbeck books. I rang her up, giving her my best smile.

    Ringaround_therosie , Pixabay/pexels Report

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    #19

    Lawn sprinkler spraying water over green grass with sunlight creating sparkling water droplets outdoors. Years ago, someone posted a video of a water spraying from a sprinkler system. She said "What are THEY putting in our water?". She didn't understand why it made a rainbow.

    Fun_in_Space , Maxim Tolchinskiy/unsplash Report

    #20

    Close-up of a map of Australia with a red pin marking a location, illustrating moments of unexpected stupidity. I was trying to tell *anyone* a fun fact I learned about Australia so I started with “you know how the seasons in the southern hemisphere are opposite from ours?” And it took me like 6 people before someone already knew that. THAT WAS NOT THE FUN FACT THATS JUST COMMON KNOWLEDGE. (or so I thought).

    drinkwhatyouthink , Joey Csunyo/unsplash Report

    #21

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions The Earth is only six thousand years old...

    Beatnik_Soiree , Daniel Olah/unsplash Report

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    Kira Okah
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    No, it's 2025 years old, look at the date! /s I have seen people say this though.

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    #22

    A hand pressing the start button on a printer control panel, illustrating moments of unexpected stupidity. Working IT and a guy comes up to me and says that the color printer is not making color copies. I asked to see the original. It was black and white. I asked the guy what color he'd like to show up on the color copy.

    abramN , Stanislav Staritsyn/unsplash Report

    #23

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions I work in healthcare. One very commonly prescribed cough syrup and anti nausea medicine is called phenergan, chemical name promethazine. The number of times a patient or their family member has accused us of giving them m**h because it had m**h in the name is way too d**n high. They insisted the reason they felt sleepy after taking a medication known for causing drowsiness was because we gave them m**h.
    Yeah, because m**h is known for making people sleepy /s.

    Original-Dot4853 , Godknee/reddit Report

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    #24

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions Freshman year in college, I took an astronomy class. The professor gave a "free" funny question at the end of our final. It asked how many moons does Earth have, and one of my friends after class was dead serious saying that was the hardest test ever and asked me what I put down for the last question. I had to reason with her , like how many moons do you see at night girl???

    Mediocre_Koala3778 , Tim Schmidbauer/unsplash Report

    #25

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions Coworker refused to vaccinate against COVID because of the microchips in the vaccine... AFTER she had almost died after spending six weeks in the hospital with COVID.

    My mental definition of "average intelligence" took a nosedive that day.

    Sharqua , RDNE Stock project /pexels Report

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    Fabulous chocolate cookie
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh believe me. There are still people 5 years later shaming others for taking the vaccine. And people who die because of natural causes all first gets shamed for "being a sheep" by people online.

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    #26

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions I was like 16 in High School French Class.

    I can’t recall the exact specifics but someone must’ve asked something along the lines of why certain French words appear to be spelled the same but have slightly different sounds. Anyway, the teacher tells us this is the case with a lot of English words too but we may not realize it. She then writes “See” and “Sea” on the chalkboard.

    She tells us that, if we listen closely, when we say the word “sea”, we’ll notice that we’re actually saying “See-ah”. She then had the entire class say “see” and “see-ah” repeatedly to demonstrate this. A lot of my classmates were like “omgggg how have I never realized this!!! That’s so cRaZY!”

    This was very much a “everyone is stupid except me” moment. I could not believe what I was witnessing. The teacher was dead serious by the way.

    I was like “has this b***h never heard of homophone as a language teacher???”.

    50YearSword , Pixabay/pexels Report

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    #27

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions I've told this before, but I was training a guy (mid 20's) at work. I was explaining how anycast works, where we'd advertise an IP from multiple locations, and the traffic would typically go to the closest site. We had DCs in Amsterdam, Singapore, San Jose, and Virginia.

    So, if the traffic was coming out of Russia, where would it likely go?

    "Well, I haven't travelled very much.... I don't know where Russia is."

    Ummm, ok, how about if it was coming out of China?

    "Like I said, I really haven't travelled very much.... I don't know where China is"

    I mean, I've never been to Russia or China, but I can pick them out on a map....

    "I just haven't travelled, so I don't know where those are."

    Ok.... this is your homework for tonight. You need to be able to name all of the continents by tomorrow.

    I will give the guy credit, though. he knew them the next day. And then we started working on countries. :~).

    gogozrx , Ofspace LLC/unsplash Report

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    Stephanie Did It
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Even if one travels a lot (or a little), getting onto a plane and off again doesn't tell you where you are located on the planet. At some point you must become acquainted with our friend, Mr Map.

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    #28

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions The moment that really made me say, "Wow, people really are this stupid," was when people started eating Tide Pods for internet fame.

    Nickississ , gifendark/reddit Report

    #29

    Various medical and pain relief bottles on a store shelf, highlighting moments of people’s unexpected stupidity. Seeing an Instagram influencer promoting turpentine as an all natural, true & trusted way to detox and get rid of parasites and encouraging people to drink a shot of turpentine every two weeks. I guffawed until I saw the like count. Over 250k likes, thousands of shares and hundreds of “natural is best, why did we ever stop doing this?!” comments. I can tell you why; we finally figured out that while turpentine is great for varnishing or uses as a solvent, it really isn’t ideal to ingest.

    lovelyb1ch66 , DigDug1169/reddit Report

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    Al Fun
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This stuff is toxic to ingest, look it up. Bleeding in the lungs, kidney inflammation, nothing to joke about.

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    #30

    Tall communication tower standing above green trees under clear blue sky, illustrating moments of unexpected stupidity. I was working at a dark sky park and a woman asked me if the statues on the self guided nature hike had RFID. I said no and she started gushing about how nice it was to find a place she wasn’t exposed to cell service or power lines because she is allergic to them. They give her migraines apparently. She needs to be really far away from cell towers or power stations or she suffers miserably.

    I didn’t have the heart to tell her we were about a quarter mile from a small power station, she just couldn’t see it because it was behind the tree line.

    Hunterofshadows , Nathan Anderson/unsplash Report

    #31

    People who don't believe that bacteria/viruses exist.

    Living_Watercress Report

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    #32

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions People online passing around AI images as legitimate photographs when they should be obviously AI to anyone with eyes and a brain.

    mspolytheist , Philip Oroni/unsplash Report

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    Bob Brooce
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I got fooled one even though it should have been obvious. The problem was that I had put my 6th finger right over the extra head.

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    #33

    I was donating blood. The nurse asked if I had been out of the country during the 80’s. I told her I had been to Egypt with the military, but had not left the military base. She then asked if I had ever been to Africa. I said,”Only Egypt.” She said, “No, Africa!” We went back and forth a couple of times before another nurse cut in an told her that Egypt was a country in Africa. She said no, Africa was its own country.

    bknight63 Report

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    Rali Meyer
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Worse: South Africa. Which is considered being a continent, like South America. It IS a bad choice of country name. Well, correct would be Republic of South Africa. But everybody knows where Cape Town is!

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    #34

    Worked at a garden center and had multiple people come in asking for their plant to be repotted for whatever reason, prettier pot, “outgrowing its pot” and I had to break the news that their plant was fake. First time I thought I was being pranked.

    Wise_Composer_2661 Report

    #35

    Whenever people on the internet believe something was intended specifically for THEM, as though there were roughly 3 dozen people on earth and their existence matters as part of every happening and solution. Sometimes this takes the form of "Keanu Reeves" personally trusting them to borrow their money, sometimes that they won 3 million dollars randomly in a lottery they didn't even enter, sometimes that a politician is depending on them personally to share copy pasta or some kind, or drawing some kind of "connection" (ie, looked at 2 different websites) that is supposed to solve a crime hundreds of people have been investigating for decades, or "asking chatGPT" on behalf of another poster as though chatGPT is their own personal secret weapon ... people's inflated sense of personal importance and exceptionality despite living in places where they have first hand knowledge every single day of how many people inhabit the earth. Certainly this cannot just be a survival mechanism, because it certainly isn't promoting survival? How do people believe they are this important ALL the time?

    Adventurous-Sir-6962 Report

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    oktopus
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "asking chatGPT" - yeah, if I wanted mansplained half-baked suppositions from the hallucination machine, I'd "ask" chatGPT myself.

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    #36

    Two hippos standing near muddy water surrounded by other hippos, illustrating moments people didn’t know someone could be so stupid. I had to explain to multiple grown adults on separate occasions that no, hippos aren't just female rhinos.

    Heroic-Forger , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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    Annik Perrot
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Why, do they think the males wear their pénis on their nose? In that case, the mating must be very interesting indeed /j

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    #37

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions Realizing why most products have warning labels like not to stick a curling iron into any orifice.

    thatworkaccount108 , BlorfMonger/reddit Report

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    Rosecrucian Roeth
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Just think for a second.................things like Donald Trump are being elected far too frequently these days.

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    #38

    Hand using a pizza cutter on a pepperoni pizza, illustrating moments of people being surprisingly stupid. I used to work at a pizza shop.

    People would REGULARLY gauge a pizzas size by the number of slices.

    They wouldnt ask its diameter.

    How many slices.

    "Hello, could you tell me how many times you cut a pizza? Thats how I determine how big of a pizza it is".

    DigDizzler , Rosalind Chang/unsplash Report

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    Kelly Von Tee
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Like the old joke, "Do you want me to cut this pizza into 6 or 8 slices?" "Oh, 6 please, I couldn't eat 8!"

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    #39

    4th Yr at uni. I'm on the top floor of the library and the fire alarm goes off. I'm sure it's just another unwelcome drill, but you have to react as if it's not, right? So I head to the nearest visible fire escape - it turns out to be the main stairwell - and start heading down.

    By chance I look down the stairwell at the lower floors and see that a long queue is forming - but the queue of students is trying to leave by the usual entrance/exit, and NONE of them are heading to the actual fire escape, which is in easy line-of-sight of the usual entrance/exit, and down half a flight of stairs. Literally, it is a straight line and a short distance from the entrance/exit on the ground floor of the stairwell to the actual fire escape.

    So what do I do? I start heading downstairs to the f*****g fire escape, as you're supposed to. There were at LEAST 40 students in that stairwell, and ALL of them were forming an orderly queue to go back out of the building the same way they came in, and NONE of them were actually heading to the fire escape at the bottom of the stairwell, just a few steps further down from the usual entrance/exit.

    To this day I remember getting disapproving looks as I passed the long line of students that was backing up on that stairwell, as if I was "skipping the queue". To this day I remember some of them turning to companions and saying something in their ear - if the alarm hadn't been blaring I'm sure it would have been some withering comments about me. I was so looking forward to Sparta-kicking that fire escape open and shouting "get the Hell out!" at their gormless faces; in a savage twist, a librarian beat me to it by about five seconds, and she ended up chastising not just the hapless queue of students, but also me as well as I walked past her.

    Folks, when the fire alarm goes off - or if there really is a fire - don't stop thinking, and don't just look at what everyone else is doing. That library was full of paper and carpeted floors and flammable ceiling panels, and it would just have taken one burst of toxic smoke going into that stairwell and about 50 students would have been found by firefighters stacked up like cordwood, and their exit would have been blocked by the bodies of people who had been struggling to get out, when an actual fire escape was in easy line of sight if they had just turned their head to the right 90 degrees, or if they had cared to read the actual f*****g sign on the wall, which consisted of the words "FIRE ESCAPE" and an arrow pointing in the relevant direction.

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    Ejteh
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Crowd surges. What a horrible rabbithole to dive into. I have never been the same since. And I've never stopped looking for emergency exits in an unknown building since.

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    #40

    Woman in a gray plaid blazer wearing headset, looking frustrated at computer, illustrating moments of people being so stupid. Someone asked why teamviewer didn't work when their pc is off, I guess some people think pc's are magical.

    Wahrlenar , Getty Images/unsplash Report

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    The Darkest Timeline
    Community Member
    1 month ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Considering how little most people know about how things work, it might as well be magic as far as they’re concerned

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    #41

    Vintage tabloid cover showing a fake bat child creature with wide open mouth and large eyes illustrating extreme stupidity moments. Came relatively early for me.

    An woman probably in her 60s at the time was my Sunday School teacher. She was one of the nicest people you would ever know.

    However, when I was about 10 years old (circa 1987), she was telling the class about having read a newspaper article about "Volkswagen sized bugs invading the southern United States." We were doubtful, so she pulled the newspaper out of her purse.

    It was the Weekly World News.

    Fluffing_Satan , YandereFangirl20xx/reddit Report

    #42

    40 Times People Saw Others Act So Dumb They Had To Fight To Control Their Reactions 06’ when I started delivering for the post office.

    You have no idea how many currently residing customers think they aren’t the “current resident”….


    They would even say “my name isn’t current resident”…..

    No_Aerie_7962 , Getty Images/unsplash Report

    #43

    I worked as a temp in a data-processing complex that offered seasonal work. It was a hot summer and they workplace had put on cold drinks and frozen lollies for us, among other little perks. And one of the things it had organised for the communal break room/lounge was five or six portable, plug-in air conditioners.

    Well, one roasting hot day I walk into the communal break area and am met with a wall of heat. The room is full of people - I estimate about 70 of them - and they are sitting around, eating lunch, chatting and so on. And on this blazing hot day, all of the windows are open because it's so hot - and all of the portable air-conditioners are plugged in, set to "max power" - but the air-con units' hot-air vents aren't hanging out of the windows, they're just laying on the floor. So all that was happening when these machines were switched on full power was that the air in the room was only getting HOTTER, not colder.

    I got some funny looks as I made a point of moving the air con units closer to the windows and hung the hot-air vent hoses out. People just looked on bemused as I went to all this trouble to make sure the hot air got vented out the windows while the cold air coming out of the machines was what got distributed into the room. I s**t you not, there were 70 people in the room that must have thought air-con units were magical boxes that only produced cold air, so if the room was hot the units should be turned on full-power and left to do their thing. 70 people seemed to have no idea that all they were doing by keeping the exhausted air in the room they were only making a hot room even hotter.

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    Rali Meyer
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I worked as an energy efficiency consultant in a very hot country. Note: past tense. It was futile. Most air-con (AC) heater combos had only two settings: 30°C in winter and 16°C in summer. Doors open.

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    #44

    Sign in the bathroom warning people not to put their HANDS in the toilet--- this is a public restroom just blek...

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    Al Fun
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We had a store Fry’s that had the most bizarre things prohibited on signs in the restrooms, such as washing your shoes in the urinal, standing on the toilet bowl and doing your business… I was wondering about the hygiene standards of other customers and employees…

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    #45

    I was having lunch outside on my break, and the account storms outside and looks straight up, then turns to me with a look of pure rage on her face--like the sort of look where she could start balling or she could start swinging--and goes "Disgusting! F*****g disgusting! Would you look at that! Ugh!"

    When she sees the utter confusion on my face after looking up at a beautiful summer sky, she goes, "Chem trails... Chem trails!" Stairs at me for another second, then goes back inside.

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    #46

    Customer insisted that he bought the product from our store when we don't sell the product. Took him over an hour of arguing even with his wife and over the phone and in person and still couldn't admit until he actually read the receipt and realize he'd bought it from down the street... 🤦.

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    Little Bit
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When I worked in a department store, for a few weeks I worked in the lighting department. One day a man phoned to say that he was having difficulties in operating the lights he had recently bought. I asked him to tell me what the problem was and said I would contact the supplier to find a solution. He said, "Oh I didn't buy the lights from you, I bought them from....."

    #47

    I work in a s*xshop. People sometimes try to return or exchange their *used* toys 🥲

    There is a warranty for broken products. But we can't take back a toy simply because you don't like it, Karen.

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    #48

    A client try to purchase a gift card for his wife and then tried to slide in a coupon so that he'd be able to get the GC cheaper. I told him we couldn't do that, but his wife can stack the GC and the coupon once she books an appt. He proceeds to tell me he's worked in retail for x amount of years...bro, if you worked in retail, then you would know that little to no POS systems physically allow discounts on a gift card.


    He insists that he speak with a manager or owner bc he says I'm "trying to be difficult". Owner was still working on a client and manager was working from home, called manager to which she told me exactly what I already told him. He gets in a puff and leaves taking the coupon back and buying nothing for his wife.


    Fast forward about 2 weeks later, he comes back in with his wife (who is a sweetheart) watching him to make sure he buys it for her without complication. D*****s cheapskate MFs, I tell you.

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    #49

    An exercise instructor at the senior center told me she couldn’t have an Echo device because they emit gamma rays and gamma rays gave her fibromyalgia ..
    So much to unpack there….

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    #50

    Creationists asking me to consider God's feelings on my atheism.

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    Ace
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Love it! But it's really not that far removed from the many christians who will cite stuff out of the bible when trying to argue that god exists. They honestly don't see the problem with that line of argument.

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    #51

    Lived on an island for a few years, got lots of tourists during summer and the only way on or off was a small ferry that ran hourly. 


    I was waiting for my dad, just people watching and eating ice cream on the docks. The ferry line up extended all the way up the hill and to the gas station, clearly too many to fit on a single trip. 


    The red light turned on, the ferry worker waved a stop sign and blew a whistle. D*****t kept driving anyway in the wrong belief that if they could cram their car onto the ferry, they wouldn't make them get off. 


    The person behind them assumed they must know something the lights, signs and workers didn't, and also drove on. Then the next person did the same, and the next. I watched the ferry, dock, and hill get completely blocked, unable to back up an inch, no room to turn. They were still stuck when my dad and I walked back home. I wonder how long it took to unjam that mess. .

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    Rali Meyer
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    2 days, it took 2 days of waiting in/near my car for the ferry to get me to Hvar in August 1987

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    #52

    It was when my classmate legit thought the moon landing was fake and started arguing with the teacher about it, like what ? I was just sitting there like, “Wow, people are this dumb?”.

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    #53

    The few months I worked at one of those fuel centers outside of a popular retail chain

    Didn't even know there were that many ways to f**k up the process of pumping gas that I thought was pretty simple and straightforward

    Almost everyday someone surprised me by doing something wrong in a whole different way.

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    #54

    Working at Wendy’s, had a lady ask whats the difference between a chocolate and vanilla frosty….

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    Shark Lady
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Vanilla comes from white cows and chocolate comes from brown cows.

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    #55

    In the Navy on deployment out in the middle of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean. We were having some of the roughest seas and the topside of the ship was secured to everyone except for lookouts who were required to have life jackets and glow sticks and man overboard indicators.

    I was transitioning from my lookout watch at around 3am and there was a Marine who thought it was a great idea to be outside in the dark curled in a ball in his workout clothes in the corner by the life rails.

    He told nobody he was outside and was one heavy wave from being missing and nobody would have known he was gone till next day. He didn’t seem to see a problem with it because he said that being closer to the waves helped his sea sickness….

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    Rika
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    In his defense, sea sickness can get so bad that it causes you to not think clearly. The real question here is, how did a guy who suffered from severe sea sickness ever became a Marine ?

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    #56

    Orange sign on street stating crossing not in use, showcasing an example of surprising moments of people being so stupid. I work in traffic lights. When we install a new site, the push buttons will be covered with a bag or sticker that says, 'crossing not in use', with temporary crossing lights put in place. The amount of people that press the wrong button, and then complain that it's not clear which one is working has k**led my faith in human intelligence.

    Interesting-Mud-3665 , Dave Stone/flickr Report

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    Rali Meyer
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I once stood in a lift which had only one button. There was only one level up

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    #57

    There are a ton of porch pirate shenanigans happening in my neighborhood these days, and I’m baffled because every to every other house has a Ring or Nest or Google Home type of camera.

    Stupid enough to steal and assume there is no way to be seen, but THEN the still or video gets blasted on the neighborhood group and these people have no face covering, are easily identifiable, or caught on surrounding cameras.

    Is it a lack of awareness or intelligence? Idk. I mean I’m glad they’re not the brightest crayons in the box because they can be seen/caught, they just look stupid in the process.

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    Damned_Cat
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's because they know that there's little chance of getting caught even with video evidence. In my town, if you report porch pirate theft, the police just tell you to file a report online, but you rarely hear anything back from them. A few weeks ago, my neighbor had a package stolen and the thief flipped her off on camera and then started making a bunch of ugly faces right up close to the camera view. They really just don't care.

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    #58

    I was working as a newspaper reporter and a local company's employees were going on strike. I wanted to cover the employee's demands and explain why they were going on strike. I spoke to the person in charge and he basically told me to F-off and hung up on me. I then went on to write the story from the company's POV and the strike ended 3 days after the article was published.

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    #59

    Watching an adult resorting to bigotry because someone with a disability was trying to get up the stairs with a wheelchair.

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    Rali Meyer
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I saw a sign on the airport disability bathroom which said "keys upstairs". But there was no lift, only stairs. Granted it was an admin building. Same place?

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    #60

    When I worked retail and people would get mad at me that their total wouldn’t match the sale price listed… they always forgot about tax. Every time.

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    Rali Meyer
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    which other countries don't include tax in the price displayed. Honest question

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    #61

    A lady came into a pet store I worked at and wanted to know why her eat kept getting pregnant and how to prevent it. She was in a cage with 4 male rats.

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    #62

    Back when I worked in banking, I had flagged an account that made a deposit into an ATM. The check deposited into the same account it was drawn on. This was an occasional problem because banking laws when someone deposits a check they have to have the first hundred available to them. So people would do this on weekends when they were broke. I had my boss come in and tell me to remove the flag, I was dumfounded how could it be anything but..... Well I guess our account holder (early 30's) had a friend that owed her money but said friend had run out of checks. So being the generous person our client was she said that's ok just borrow one of mine. Yes, she scratched her name off and put her friends name in and the check was signed by her friend.

    Someone got a few lessons in banking that day.

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    Lauren K
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I used to be a bank teller years ago. Sometimes I’d have to tell the customer that I had to put a hold on the large personal check they were depositing, and that they couldn’t have access to any of that money until the check came back as a good check. Wayyy too many people would say “you can’t put a hold on that! I’ve already written checks on it!”

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    #63

    I got in trouble at a job once because I kept on pointing out how everyone picks and chooses what rules to follow. Then, I got fired from that job after telling my supervisor's supervisor that I didn't trust my supervisor due to a conversation I had with her in which she stated she wouldn't email me the instructions she just gave me verbally in writing for record because she didn't want to "incriminate herself." I experienced a lot of moments at that place that taught me how stupid people could be and was made to be the bad guy for being one of the only non stupid ones. Literally cried angry tears in a meeting once because I realized I was always going to be the one at fault because they had already decided I was, then I was fired on the phone with no explanation.

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    #64

    I chalk this up more to "18 year olds acting like adults for the first time" but I was a travel agent, girl from Kansas called for a Caribbean cruise- so, you know, typically out of FL. She asked me how she was going to get to the cruise "well, typically you'd fly" she asked if she had to drive to FL to catch her flight to....FL.....

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    #65

    Saw a lady get mad at bath and body works because they wouldn't take and replace her bottle of suave shampoo.

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    #66

    Had a patient that had chronic wounds and skin issues and they asked me of washing their skin with bleach would help prevent infections...

    Miserable-Row4381 Report

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    Lauren K
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I’ve packed gauze soaked in Dakins solution into deep wounds like bedsores. Dakins is basically a diluted bleach solution, so……yeah, it can help prevent infection. Smells AWFUL, too.

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