Ah, denial what a lovely river. Isn't it?
But denial is a problem.
We can't keep turning blind eyes to the things we don't feel comfortable seeing.
So let's have an honest chat about the things we know are happening that we pretend are not.
Maybe once the initial shock dissipates we can move forward.
Redditor Spartan1694 wanted to compare notes on what people turn a blind eye to. They asked:
"[Serious] What are some of the most common dark realities people choose to live in denial about?"
Rude customer phone service. I'm tired. I know there are more important things, but we mustn't be complacent.
Not Forever
Truth Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
Giphy
"Just because something lasts a long time - like a marriage, or a job - doesn't mean it's any good at all. There are lots of reasons that things don't end, some are very bad."
legno
memories...
"That you can also alter your memories to believe your own lie if you think about it enough."
Kallyanna
"Had a girlfriend in L.A. who made this a habit. She said that there's no reason to not embrace your own reality; who wants to feel crappy about all kinds of memories? Just alter them. She went on to date a movie star."
Dripdry42
"I remember learning about this one case when I was in school about how researchers recruited people for a study who had never been in a hot air balloon, but then showed them fake pictures of themselves in the balloons and talked about it enough that at the end they believed they had been in a hot air balloon."
ideologyuniverse83
YOU
"Sometimes you’re the problem."
7sodab0sc0
"It’s pretty wild to me how many people can’t recognize this. For myself I remember as a young teen I would always play the victim with most problems in my life, but as more people called me out on it I realized that I needed to take more accountability for my mistakes. It’s pretty sad that a lot of times people will be too stubborn to question themselves and only blame others for any problems."
Such_Language_1588
The End
"Just because people aren’t suicidal don’t mean they don’t want to be dead."
bigjuju27
"The only reason I don't want to do it myself is that I have this philosophical thing: Everyone only gets to die once. Life is a resource everyone only has one of, and generally people don't want to give it up. That means that my life, or my willingness to give my life, has value. I don't want to live, but I also don't want to throw it away."
"I want to die pushing an old lady out of the road or saving a kid from a burning building or something. I want my utter detachment from my own mortality to create a net good in the world. For at least one person. So I have a death wish, but I'm not suicidal, because I'm saving that gift everyone can only give once for someone who needs it."
AsaTJ
Gone...
Giphy
"You will lose everyone you've ever known and cared about - either to the end of the relationship, your death, or theirs. We only borrow the people we love for a short time."
Frequent_Blueberry71
It all fades away. Including us, we'll fade as well. Just truth.
Where are you?
Tv Show Reaction GIF by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Giphy
"The memory of most people’s existence will be completely forgotten sooner than you think, even by their own families. I can’t even tell you the names of my great-great grandparents."
Detective-Slink
"too old to work"
"Gen X is in serious trouble when it comes to paying for retirement."
Bettiephile
"They won't retire. Simple. They keep raising the retirement age. Did you know it used to be 55? Now it's 67.5. I promise it will be 70 by the time millennials retire. If not even older. Oh and retirement benefits have been getting worse and worse too. So don't forget about that. There may not even be "retirement" when we are old. It might just be 'too old to work.'"
thedankbank1021
I will never be rich...
"That a majority of us are completely utterly ordinary people, and that’s okay."
YeeHawSid
"I am an accountant. I have a husband and 2 cats. I'm not having kids. I have a little apartment, and maybe one day a house with a garden. I will never achieve anything significant. I don't even want to have my own business. I will never be famous. I will never be rich."
"I will be forgotten by everyone within a couple of decades of my death. Nothing will be different because I was here. I am completely and utterly okay with that. I like being anonymous and unimportant. It's very freeing. I am very grateful for my life. I am very, very happy."
xenchik
Down the Road...
"There could be kidnapping victim suffering from extreme abuse right down the road from you and you’d never know. I work in daycare. There’s a lady I used to work with who discovered something like this. She said she went to babysit for a neighbor who she didn’t know had a baby. Was told not to go into the baby’s room. Did anyway. And discovered an abused child. Who had apparently been with this lady for years."
cleaning-meaning
Not Enough
Keep Going I Love It GIF
Giphy
"Love is not enough. Loving someone enough will not ensure your relationship will be successful. Loving your child enough will not ensure they love you back or that they live a good life."
Frequent_Blueberry71
Too Soon
"One thing wakes me up every night. The fear that I might lose everyone in blink of an eye. My friend lost his entire family in an accident and a year later he passed away from depression."
Twisted_37Banana
"Lost both my parents fairly young, not both at once but like a year apart for each other. Some times making jokes is the only thing that makes it hurt less. Some people get uncomfortable with the jokes but as Dan Soder says 'you know who hates dead dad jokes? People who don't have dead dad's.'"
InternationalChip646
Limitations
"The human body is actually pretty fragile when put in everyday situations like going 70 mph, or working around machinery, or even just falling backwards and hitting your head or your back. Such things can lead to injuries you won't recover from. And once you are disabled, you have to learn to live with limitations you never had before. For the rest of your life."
greenwoody2018
Horrors
"Horrible things happen everyday, and the ones we hear about are largely a reflection of self-interest."
kindle139
"You can easily pick and choose the horrible stories you tell to paint a picture of the world. You can tell 100% true stories and still lie."
Catctus
Just Once
"One Accident or tragedy can completely flip your life upside down."
the_lejhand
"Worked as a CNA for a few years and one patients story always stuck with me. He was an elderly man who had gotten paralyzed and was in rehab trying to get WHATEVER function he could get back."
"How did he get paralyzed? He went to pick up the newspaper in his driveway on a rainy day. Slipped while bending over and hit his head. That was it. Man got paralyzed just trying to grab the fucking newspaper. Life is horrifyingly fragile."
LostprophetFLCL
Good Things
"Good things can happen to bad people. They can live the best of lives and sleep soundly at night. They could live their entire lives and die without ever being held responsible for anything they’ve done. Millions of horrible people have lived and died and no one will ever know of the horrors they’ve been apart of. Meanwhile, horrible things can happen to good people. In the grand scheme of things there is no universal morality or justice. Most people don’t get what they deserve - except in movies."
1810v
Is it Real?
"That our memories are subjective, full of errors and patches in order to maintain a balance in our understanding of events. Some memories are even false and some memories are so different from other people present at the same events that actions, reactions and outcomes could be entirely opposite from each other. Humans assume that memories are correct all of the time, however they are prone to errors and even change over time."
AndroChromie
Bad Blood
bad blood GIF by Taylor Swift
Giphy
"Toxic relatives... Just because they have your blood doesn't mean they are good for you or that you have to stay there."
JitsuJake
Know your problem...
"Their alcoholism. It’s incredibly scary how many people go home after work and have 4+ drinks a night, every night. Then they deny that it’s a problem because they don’t feel buzzed or don’t drink past that. Nobody wants to face the reality that perhaps the drinking is a problem."
FormerStuff
Well this wasn't the humdinger I was hoping to read, but now we know. Eyes wide open.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
Giphy
"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Giphy
"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
Giphy
"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
Giphy
"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
Every now and then, a friend of ours might say something, or we might overhear a complete stranger say something that makes us stop in our tracks.
More often than not, what we can't believe we just heard is something so ridiculous, we can't help but put the person who said it in their place.
Other times, however, what we just heard might have stunned us silent because of how shockingly clever it was.
Resulting in our not wanting to scold or yell at someone, but rather give them a handshake.
Redditor SubmergingOriginal was curious to hear the sharpest and wittiest things they've ever heard, from friends and strangers alike, leading them to ask:
"Enough with the dumbest; what is the wittiest thing you've ever heard someone say?"
Don't Give Me So Much Credit...
'I was on a team at work that was on a project working insane overtime."
"One night after an 80-90 hour week, we were all sitting around the table trying to finish up so we could go home."
"Around 11, my buddy's wife called, dubious about the hours he'd been keeping."
"We heard her through the line - 'are you cheating on me?'"
"Exasperated, he looked at our boss, then replied 'honey, if I was cheating on you, I would have been home by now'."- lionbatcher
Eternal Optimism...
"Asked a blind guy if he'd been blind his whole life."
"He said 'Not yet'."- Feeling_Mode_6465
Free time Isn't The Only Thing He Has On His Hands...
"My brother got a vasectomy and when the doctor was releasing him and giving him instructions (with the nurse listening in), one of the orders was to 'come back and have a follow-up appointment after you’ve ejaculated 30 times'.”
"Without missing a beat my brother asked 'what time do you open tomorrow?'”
"The nurse couldn’t keep it together after hearing that."- UtahUtopia
Awkward Season 8 GIF by The Office
Giphy
Double Whammy!
"My pal uses the phrase 'he doesn’t look strong enough to carry information' and it cracks me up every time."
"Calling someone stupid and weak in one fell swoop."- JennyW93
Can't Hide Your DNA...
'Whenever I jokingly insult my mum, she says 'that must be where you get it from'."
"She cracked the code."
"I can never offend her without offending myself."- JennyW93
Self-Sufficient!
"My brother was a line cook at a New Orleans restaurant."
"My mom was in town, staying at a fancy hotel, and he stopped by after work, still wearing his kitchen whites."
"He was reading a newspaper in the lobby waiting for her to come down when the shocked lobby manager sputtered at him, 'MAY I HELP YOU!?!?'
"He answered, 'thanks, but I know how to read',” and went back to his paper."- jobrody
Morph Current Affairs GIF by Aardman Animations
Giphy
A Miracle!
"My brother-in-law’s comment."
"The entire family went out for my mother’s 80th birthday and after the meal we all went to a local park, largely occupied by the elderly, to rest."
"My mother needed crutches at this point, and they were resting against her bench."
"My 10-year-old niece, who looked like every starving waif image from Dickens, grabbed the crutches and started hobbling round the park."
"All the OAPs were following her progress with looks of pity until my brother ran up behind her, and kicked away the crutches."
"There was an audible gasp from round the park and then my niece picked the crutches back up and started chasing my brother, clearly intending to hit him."
"In the confused silence my brother-in-law’s voice rang out 'Praise be! She can walk again!'"
"We still think this was the highlight of the birthday celebrations."- DdraigGwyn
Still Legal, Whichever Way You Cut It...
"I picked up my pleasantly tipsy boyfriend from a nightclub."
"We were stopped by the Police for a random breath test."
"They asked me my age, and I said, 33."
"My bf blurted out '33? You told me you were 22'."
"Police just laughed and let me go."- Aggravating-Corgi379
Music Video Police GIF by Andrew W. K.
Giphy
A Bit Too On The Nose?
"Business law class in college years ago, talking about the issues that black Americans had before the Civil Rights."
"Amendment, trying to travel through the south with the discrimination so rampant, trying to find restaurants to serve them and decent lodgings."
"My instructor was posing a hypothetical: 'So you pull up out front of this place, you're exhausted from driving for hours, and you see the sign out front says 'Ku Klux Klan Motel'."
"'What would you expect to find there?'"
"Without missing a beat, from the back of the room came this gem: "'Extra sheets in every room?'"- NedsAtomicDB
Not Yet, Anyway...
"I was working with my friend and his dad."
"My friend (26) heard an ice cream truck near where we were working."
"He asked his dad if he could have a couple dollars."
"His dad asked, 'what for?'"
"My friend told his dad that there was an ice cream truck in the neighborhood, and that they were playing music."
"My friends dad told him "'They don't charge anything to listen to the music'."- tatersalad1234567890
Words Escape You In The Literal "Heat" Of The Moment...
"A friend of mine is a teacher and her husband is known for his wit."
"She told this story to him:"
"One day at school a kid took the hall pass and returned reeking like smoke."
"She asked the kid if he’d been smoking and he denied it over and over."
"She was about to send him to the office when she noticed smoke coming from somewhere."
"She told the kid and he realized that he didn’t put his cig out completely and it was burning in his pants pocket."
"The kid noticed and frantically tried to put it out and someone finally poured water on it."
"Her husband sat listening to this with a weird look on his face."
"She asked him what was wrong."
“'What’s wrong???'"
"'This was probably the only chance you’ll have in your life to say literally, ‘liar,liar, pants on fire’ and you missed your chance'."- Luder714
On Fire No GIF by PEEKASSO
Giphy
Amazing What You Might Say A Few Drinks In...
"When I went to a renaissance faire once, I went to a beer tent and ordered a Newcastle Brown Ale (seemed the most fitting for the surroundings)."
"The beer wench, without skipping a beat, said, 'Everyone wants a Newcastle - no one wants to remodel!'"- jayhof52
Read The Room People!
"My dad wiped out when skiing down a mountain and lost a ski."
"After a few minutes of hunting for it, he gives up, slings the one remaining ski over a shoulder and starts walking down the mountain in his ski boots."
"About half-way down, another skier stops and goes 'Gee! Did you lose a ski?'"
"My dad instantly replied 'No, I was out for a walk and found one!'"- PeterJoAl
There's a reason your mother always told you to "use your words".
As clever remarks can have a much more lasting effect on people than a push or shove.