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People Share The Dumbest Thing Someone They Know Actually Believed

People Share The Dumbest Thing Someone They Know Actually Believed
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I'm always surprised to find myself surprised, even today. I know most humans are idiots but I can still be stunned by what will dribble out of the mouths of others; especially from those I thought were a tad... brighter?

I know we can be gullible but eventually, we catch on. Don't we? By a certain age, there is information we realize is just too bizarre to be real.

But I will say truth can often be stranger than fiction. So who knows why we think what we're thinking.

In this day and age of "alternative facts" I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But I am.

Redditoru/Roerbakgroentewas wondering what sort of "bizarre" facts and info people out there trust as true by asking:

What's the dumbest thing someone you know actually believed?

I know I'm never the smartest in the room, but I'm certainly not the lamest. But even I have dropped a few "bless you heart" moments from my mouth. So, I don't know everything. I'll live.

Me

What Is It Reaction GIF by Nebraska Humane SocietyGiphy

"That Eleanor Roosevelt was black. That someone was me."

- readthisresistor

Vegania

"When I was 16 I witnessed how a friend of mine convinced a dude that vegans came from a country called Vegania. He even doubled down claiming that his grandfather was half vegan and didn't tell him the truth until a week later. To be fair, the guy he was talking was the dumbest person I've met to this day, but still it was impressive."

- Pyrollusion

Gumped

"My old coworker believed that Forest Gump was a real person. Her older brother even went to the Navy to follow in his foot steps. I know he was in the army but he want to the Navy because he felt it would make him a better shrimp boat captain. (He really did join the Navy and I'm not sure why)."

- wheelchaircharlie

Smart Americans

"Back in secondary school, a guy (American) in my class honestly believed that the US colonised Britain and that Jamaica was one of the fifty states. The rest of us (international school, so many nationalities represented) had to correct him. I've met a lot of very smart Americans, but he was not one of them."

- Fluffybunny1988

Option 3

canadian wtf GIF by CBCGiphy

"While I was changing my son, my brother-in-law walked into the room and asked if he was born with his penis?!? I told him, no I picked the one I thought was gonna be the biggest..."

- rhonda1973

How in the world? Nevermind... there is no answer. There is only surprise. Some of us really need to spend more time googling the basics, when not in school.

Test Clear

Red Eyes Pink Eye GIF by OriginalsGiphy

"In high school, this guy I knew was getting drug tested (usually for weed). He believed that pouring eye drops in his cup would clear him. He ended up testing positive for meth."

- Luzuko219

Cows in VT

"I have a friend who holds a Masters' Degree. She is in her mid-30's. Two years ago, we were watching tv at my house and she was surprised that there were cows in Vermont. She thought that the farmers bought milk at the grocery store to make cheese."

- eatyourdamndinner

"Of all the places to be surprised to find cows… Vermont? Like, we a 3.8:1 person/cow ratio. The highest in the frakkin' country!"

- Kveldulfiii

They're watching...

"That every traffic light was monitored by people, and they would just add a couple of seconds at the crosswalk if you were crossing on foot and needed a little extra time. When I said that was not at all how crosswalks worked, she said that she'd been on a tour of a city facility and saw the traffic control area with their TVs and they were 100% monitoring pedestrian traffic in this way."

- nonagona

In the Hills

"I used to work for a guy who convinced one of the secretaries that naugahyde came from an animal called a Naugahog. He also told her about Hill Cows, that had legs that were shorter on one side so they could stand level on the side of a hill. She never questioned what would happen if they stood facing the other way."

KarizmaWithaK

Take a Chance

Giphy

"Everything has a 50/50 chance of happening because it either does happen or it doesn't. He would put his life on that. lmao"

Metradime

Huge Fans

"That windmills are huge fans and they produce winds which cools off the air and blow the wind to other European countries like Spain, Italy(coming from Germany)."

azryptas

"We convinced a gullible friend of mine back in high school that the windmills were smog fans built to blow the smog out of the LA basin down to Mexico."

plageiusdarth

Flyover

"My friend's sister thought that planes could only fly one way around the earth because when the plane takes off the earth would spin underneath it."

graeuk

"The funny thing is, rockets really do work this way. Well kinda the opposite actually. If they take off, and go the same direction as the planet spins, they already have a little more speed than they would have if they'd gone the other direction. So they need less fuel to actually get into orbit."

mineNombies

Rudolph?

"One of my brother's ex girlfriends believed reindeer were fake, like, fictional. She had met live reindeer."

cyfermax

"I spent an astonishingly large amount of my preteen and teenage years seriously thinking that reindeer had some ability to fly short distances and that this was a scientific fact. I thought the Santa myth is based on this scientific fact."

victoriaqian1234

Hands Away

couple love GIFGiphy

"I had a friend when I was 13 who believed children were made by holding hands with your partner and telling them you love them and I had to tell her what actually happens. She didn't believe me."

Jack_Kline_Is_Life

For the Boys

"I used to be friends with a guy who believed that gay men were people who really wanted to find a woman to settle down with but hadn't had any success and figured their only hope of a family life was to pretend to like men (I wasn't aware he believed this at the time!).

Lanskiiii

At Uni

"There was a guy at my Uni who would tell any freshman who asked that he was studying plant psychology. When asked for more info, he told them that his thesis had a focus on training cacti with light stimulus so they could be used as security. They all believed him :') He singlehandedly started a trend of convincing the first years that you were studying a crazy fake degree."

hydrogenie

Life Force

"My uncle thinks that Aliens are real (which I also believe but the next part is the dumb part) and that they live among us AS TREES! That trees are actually aliens that steal our life force which is why we can die of old age, he thinks trees are aliens stealing our life force, I will never understand that man."

UnicornWynx

eat the maggots...

"Went to high school with a girl who (in high school) believed that when you eat spoiled food, maggots would grow in your stomach. Treatment for stomach maggots? Doctors putting a gerbil up one’s anus so that the poor creature could crawl up the poop shoot, into the stomach, eat the maggots, and be removed by the doctor that inserted it. I had to explain how so many parts of this idea were impossible."

Next_Conclusion_9261

Breathing Fire

game of thrones fire GIFGiphy

"That dinosaurs lived on the middle ages, but that people called them dragons. 'You know, just like in Game of Thrones.'"

SlowerThanTurtleInPB

The GF

"My girlfriend, was told she can die putting her fingers in the mouth while yawning. She must be like 3-5 years old when her mom told her. I told her she cant die of that when she was like 27. She didn't believe me so i showed it to her. After that there was a joke between us for around a year putting finger in the mouth of each other when yawning (not in public)."

TheFlong

Lord help us all. And by all I mean the human race. I'm going to bet half of the people in these stories have political aspirations. Why not.

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People Break Down The Missing Person Cases That Just Don't Add Up

Reddit user yourlastnames asked: 'what missing persons case is the most confusing / doesn’t add up?'

Content warning: suicide.

There are truly some strange unsolved cases out there, but there's nothing quite like hearing of a person who has vanished as if out of thin air.

While some of these cases have been explained away or even solved, there are some that remain a mystery that truly does not add up, no matter how the puzzle pieces fall.

Curious about these cases, in particular, Redditor yourlastnames asked:

"What missing persons case is the most confusing [to you] or just doesn't add up?"

The Last Ride of Terrance Williams

"Terrance Williams disappeared in 2004. He's the subject of a fascinating podcast called 'The Last Ride.'"

"The short version is that he was taken into custody in Naples, Florida, after being pulled over in the early hours for traffic violations. He was never seen again."

"The deputy that pulled him over tried to conceal the traffic stop even from his own organization, but staff opening a local business saw the whole thing."

"When the sheriff's department finally looked into it, they discovered the deputy was involved in a similar disappearance of a man named Felipe Santos in 2003. To this day the deputy claims no knowledge of Williams's whereabouts, despite being caught out in a series of lies."

- AlanMercer

Paddy Moriarty and Kellie

"Paddy Moriarty and his dog, Kellie. They went missing in an outback town in Australia with a population of 12 people."

"They were last seen leaving the pub riding his quad bike the one-kilometer distance to his house. He or his dog have never been found and no one has been charged in relation to his disappearance."

- Bigred0762

Susan Powell and Family

"Susan Powell went missing from her home in West Valley, Utah, on December 6, 2009."

"She is presumably dead. Her husband, Josh, was the main suspect and just a real piece of work. No one knows what really happened to her."

"Sadly in 2012, Josh murdered their kids and committed suicide after Susan’s parents gained custody of the kids."

- AlexisVonTrappe

"This case is so frustrating since his brother and father are both dead too. We’ll never know what happened to Susan, but I’m positive she’s in an old mine shaft somewhere. F**k Josh Powell."

- burittosquirrel

​The Last Call from Brandon Swanson

"Brandon Swanson. He drove into a ditch and called his parents for help. They stayed on the phone with him for 47 minutes while they drove around looking for him."

"They heard him say, 'Oh s**t,' and then the phone went silent. They eventually found his car far away from where he said he was but he was never found."

- kittengoesrawr

"Reading this was absolutely chilling. It seems at first glance that it's most likely he drowned, but that really doesn't make sense because the water was only 10 feet deep and they would have found the body."

"He just suddenly said, 'OH S**T!' and the phone went silent, but he did not hang up. The phone call continued with total silence from his end. What the f**k happened to him?"

- angelposts

Babysitter Mar Lou Bostwick

"Mary Lou Bostwick. She disappeared July 18, 1972, from Waverly, New York. She was dropped off by her dad to babysit at a friend's house. This was also her 16th birthday. Her mom stopped by later with a cake and presents."

"The people in the apartment told her that Mary never showed up. However, her bag was in the residence. Nothing else was ever found."

"There was another girl around the same age, Sharon Coston, who was abducted and murdered in a nearby town about a year later. October 1983 in Sayre, Pennsylvania."

"There was a man convicted of that, but he always denied doing anything to Mary. One of the people who testified against him and was given immunity was a suspect in Mary's case. Mary's mom thinks there's a connection, but nothing was ever really found."

"I've sadly never seen anyone cover her disappearance on any of the podcasts or YouTube shows."

- Vamp459

Derek Seehausen of San Diego

​"Derek Seehausen. My friend was dating him at the time of his disappearance, and he was actively planning his future in medicine, and was last seen in San Diego."

"I saw him about two months before he disappeared. Please send any tips."

- Hereforit2022Y

The Beaumont Children

"The Beaumont Children. Three kids go to the beach, are seen with a mystery man, and never make it back home."

"Never found out who the man was or where they went. Their parents just recently died without ever getting any closure."

- snguyenx96

Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes

"Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes. The whole family (parents and four kids) went missing overnight in 2011."

"Employers, schools, and the extended family received weird letters informing of their absence or departure (one of them saying they are going into a witness protection program). Two weeks later they found the corpses of the mother, the kids, and the dog hidden behind the house."

"They investigated and retraced the father’s whereabouts in the south of France. He was last seen leaving a hotel a few days before. The region was thoroughly searched, but he was never to be found."

- z4zazym

Branson Perry of Skidmore

"Branson Perry, aged 20, disappeared from Skidmore, Missouri in April 2001."

"He was working on his house with a friend, went to the shed to grab some power cords, and was never seen again."

- AdamR91

The Incomplete Story of Marshall Iwassa

"Marshall Iwassa. Good guy."

"He came back to his hometown to visit his family and friends, and everything by all accounts was good. He left to take the two-hour drive to where he was living and never made it. Instead, it was recorded he spent the entire night trying to get into his storage unit and then nothing."

"A week or maybe more, his truck was found 12 hours away on a back road in the middle of the woods burnt to a crisp with belongings thrown about everywhere, no sign of Marshal."

"From what I remember, the family was adamant that some of the things inside the truck, burnt or not, were missing, things they knew he had. The truck was even missing parts."

"It's been four years and there's never been answers. It makes me sad and fearful of long travels. From what I know of him, he was a fantastic friend; I hope they get closure one day."

- devbot8

Out Shopping Asha Degree

"Asha Degree."

"She went missing at the age of nine from Shelby, North Carolina, United States. In the early morning hours of February 14, 2000, for reasons unknown, she packed her bookbag, left her family home north of the city, and began walking along nearby North Carolina Highway 18 despite heavy rain and wind."

"Several passing motorists saw her; when one turned around at a point 1.3 miles (2.1 km) from her home and began to approach her, she left the roadside and ran into a wooded area."

"In the morning, her parents discovered her missing from her bedroom. No one has seen her since."

- EstateWeary5789

The Vanishing Marion Barter

"Marion Barter here in Australia."

"She boarded a plane overseas in 1997 and changed her name beforehand (didn't tell family). She apparently came back to Australia for a few days (according to passenger records) and completely disappeared."

"It's an ongoing investigation at the moment, there is a podcast about it called, 'The Lady Vanishes,' featuring her daughter."

"It's so tragically fascinating."

- CuddlySubject

The Grieving Bryce Laspisa

"Bryce Laspisa."

"He was driving to his parents' house (three hours) after an argument with his girlfriend, apparently due to his alcohol and video game addiction and abuse of prescription medication."

"Partway through the drive, he pulled off the highway and just sat there… from 9:00 AM to 3:'00 PM."

"A roadside assistance guy checked on him twice and said he seemed fine and coherent, and Bryce told him he would be carrying on back to his parents shortly."

"Sometime later, his car was found only a few miles away, driven off the embankment, and he was nowhere to be found. They never found him."

- Just_Raisin1124

News Anchor Jodi Huisentruit

"Jodi Huisentruit was a news anchor who disappeared in the early morning in Mason City, Iowa."

"There were signs that she was abducted and the investigation is still ongoing with new leads nearly 30 years later."

- Have_you_eaten_yet

Three-Year-Old William Tyrrell

"William Tyrrell. In 2014, the three-year-old boy went missing from his foster grandmother's yard whilst playing with his sister. His foster mother and foster grandmother were apparently watching them play outside, and the foster mother went inside to make a cup of tea."

"They then noticed they hadn’t seen or heard him in a while and searched the house and yard."

"In 2021, police began searching national parkland near the grandmother's home for human remains. They also revealed that the foster mother and grandmother were persons of interest in his presumed death."

"Earlier today, the foster mother pled not guilty to assaulting another foster child that was in her care (a 10-year-old girl). She has also been charged with intimidating and stalking a minor. Her husband has also been charged with the same crimes, but plead not guilty to all counts. The foster grandmother is now dead."

"Basically, police believe that William died whilst in the care of the foster family, and they disposed of his body to cover it up. Police are recommending that the foster parents be charged with perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse."

"His photos went viral at the time of the 'disappearance,' and he went missing whilst in a Spiderman costume, and the photo that was distributed was taken minutes before."

- Red_bug91

These stories are truly haunting, and it's no wonder that Redditors have worried themselves with what might have happened to these missing people.

We can only hope that answers come for at least some of these cases and that their closest loved ones achieve some sense of closure eventually.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

Senior citizen using a camera
Tiago Muraro/Unsplash

The realization you're getting older can smack you in the face at any given time, and boy-howdy is it fun!

It can be in the morning when you get up out of bed, and your body makes crackling noises, or when you can't seem to keep up at the gym and you cut short your running time on the treadmill.

That's just the physical.

When you suddenly have the epiphany that you're suddenly the oldest one in a group setting, it's humbling.

Curious to hear from strangers online who are no longer the young whipper-snappers they imagined themselves to eternally be, Redditor redmambo_no6 asked:

"Redditors with younger coworkers, what was your 'I’m officially old' moment?"

These moments of realization never get old. But people do.

Senior Kitty

"My childhood cat lived to 21.5 so teaching (freshman biology lab, so students were ~18) became very weird when I realized my cat was older than my students."

– mollusck_magic

Aging In Reverse

"I'm a preschool teacher. It's been a TRIP to watch parents go from Soooo much older than me, to the same age as me, and now they're younger than me!?!?"

– Smart_Alex

The Shook Pediatrician

"My kids pediatrician was also my husband's pediatrician when he was a kid. He was the first kid she had to come back as a parent and she was SHOOK."

– trixtred

Older Together

"See, that's what really kinda drives it home for me."

"I'm not bothered that I'm 48. But that means my school friends are 48, and that's weird for some reason. Like, I went to school with a guy who was wild and crazy. That guy is 48 now, and has a new grandbaby. Somehow, he's old, and I'm just 'getting up there '."

– ThatWeirdTexan

Relics of the past don't just pertain to humans.

Dialing It In

"Had a co-worker ask me, 'Back before cell phones, did you just have to wait around at your house for a call?' Uh, yeah, pretty much."

– Status-Effort-9380

"Reminds me of having to explain the concept of collect calls to my kids. The whole speed speaking where you were for pick up during the recording so your Mama never accepted the collect call."

– DaraScot

Legendary Aircraft

"Various colleagues were debating whether the Concorde had been real. They couldn’t fathom that supersonic civilian aircraft used to exist and now they don’t anymore."

"The Concorde last flew in 2003, when these colleagues were toddlers."

– geckos_are_weirdos

Foreign References

"We were talking about where we were on 9/11, and my coworker went quiet. He wasn’t even born."

"We also had a band that was famous in the 90s stay at the hotel, and he had no idea who they were, meanwhile I was so star struck as they were my entire childhood!"

– Itsagabby

Gravity is not our friend, and not just because of its effect on our faces.

The Day It Went Downhill

"When i fell down the last couple of steps on a stairway. No one pointed and laughed like I expected, instead they helped me up and asked me if I was okay. That’s when I knew."

– day_of_duke

It's About The Recovery

"F'k. That has to be a bummer."

"You fall. You know you're fine. You feel like an idiot. You get ready to wave to the crowd as they laugh and clap. But then... a hand is placed on your arm and you hear 'that was a big fall, are you ok?' You stay in shock for a moment. Of course, you're fine. Everyone is looking at you. They all have concerned faces. Sh*t. Two weeks later, the soreness finally subsides."

– minimalfighting

Ice Slip, You Slip, We All Slip

"This happened to me as well....walking my dog the day after a huge snowstorm. There were some rowdy teenage boys having a snowball fight across the street (schools were closed that day, of course). I slipped on the ice, my feet flew over my head and I landed solidly on my backside. As I struggled to get up I braced myself for the laughter and catcalls, but all I heard was "Are you OK Ma'am??' 'Do you need help??' I was in my early 50s and had never felt 'old' until that moment."

– Ouisch

Conversations with younger coworkers can be fun.

You can quote lines from your favorite TV shows and talk about the latest CD you bought at Target and brag about your new digital camera that takes better pictures than a smartphone.

And then you can watch the blank expressions on your coworkers' faces because they haven't a clue about what you speak.

Yeah. This has never happened to me...

Old.

person getting a tattoo

Collins Lesulie on Unsplash

The art of tattooing has been practiced across the globe since at least Neolithic times, as evidenced by mummified skin, art and the archaeological artifacts.

The oldest tattooed human skin was found on the body of Ötzi the Iceman from between 3370 and 3100 BC.

Tattooed mummies were recovered in almost 50 archaeological digs across the Earth with locations in Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Mongolia, western China, Egypt, Sudan, the Philippines and the Andes.

But while advancements in tools and inks have opened up endless possibilities for body art, some designs have garnered a bad reputation.

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surgeons looking down at patient

National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

"I shall do by my patients as I would be done by; shall obtain consultation whenever I or they desire; shall include them to the extent they wish in all important decisions; and shall minimize suffering whenever a cure cannot be obtained, understanding that a dignified death is an important goal in everyone's life."

~ English translation of the modern abridged Hippocratic Oath

It is the hope of those seeking medical help that the medical professionals providing it will be just that—professional.

But no profession is immune to bad days, bad attitudes or bad apples.

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