Look, being right is not going to make you popular all the time. It just isn't. If being right all the time was popular, we wouldn't have characters like Sheldon Cooper.
Rightness, aside from being pretty darn objective a lot of the time, isn't always well-received. Kindness, tact, timing and a whole lot of other variables factor in when it comes to whether that rightness gets you a standing ovation or glares and jeers.
Reddit user SlashFan18 asked:
What was your "Why are you booing me? I'm right" moment?
So in some cases there was a lack of tact, but a shocking number of responses came from people who were surrounded by folks who were just plain wrong. Yes, some fruits are green, snakes have spines, and then the engineer tells you to beef something up it's probably best to just beef it!
So this article is for you unsung heroes, brave warriors of rightness, who have gone ignored and mocked. We salute you.
Green Fruit
In kindergarten I drew a picture of grapes and colored them green and the other kids AND the teacher/caretaker were saying there are no green grapes, only purple.
I had the same problem in Kindergarten, but I colored an apple green and was told apples were red.
I was a polite kid so I was just all "No, they can be green too" every time the teacher tried to tell me they were red. My grandma had an apple tree that grew green apples. She used them in pies. I'd eaten those pies every single Thanksgiving and Christmas. When she picked apples, I was given them as an afternoon snack. In my kid mind, wasn't a matter of "Am I wrong? Are those not apples?", it was more of a "This teacher doesn't even know about grandma's apple tree!"
Who Bombed Pearl Harbor?
Grade 7 (Canada), we were learning about medieval Japan in Social Studies class (basically history class). I made a comment that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a kid said it was the Germans and some people backed him up. Teacher said she forgot who bombed Pearl Harbor but it wasn't the Japanese. If only smart phones existed back then.
Snake Spines
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In 2nd grade I joined the robotics club. One day we were learning about how an animals bones affect the way animals move, and the teacher asked "Give me examples about animals with spines" I said snakes. She said snakes are like worms and lack spines.
The whole thing is a spine. It's a spine with a head!
Lo And Behold
I was working on a team of people building a race car. I told them a particular part that was technically strong enough should still be built heavier to handle shock loads from bad track conditions.
I got told I was a moron and it would be fine; someone else ran the numbers to confirm and it would be fine. So I built the part as they specified, put them on the car, and lo and behold it broke and the car ended up on it's roof.
You'd think that would be validation of my opinion, and people would agree that I was right. Not how it happened. I was the a-hole because I built them, so it was my fault even though I warned them and fought to build them stronger.
No Dirt In The Hole
8th grade. Science class. Teacher was trying to be tricky or something, I guess. Gave us a word problem that was something like: "If you dig a hole 3 x 3 x 4 in the ground, how much dirt is in the hole?"
I raised my hand and said none, there was no dirt in the hole otherwise it wouldn't be a hole. Her SPECIFIC question was how much DIRT was in the hole, not how big the hole was or what was left. I gave the right answer, there was NO freaking dirt in the hole.
She told me I was wrong. I pondered her answer, decided it didn't make sense, then raised my hand again. I was a studious nerd back then, I actually wanted to impress the teacher. I gave the same answer and my reasoning: she said how much dirt.
No, she told me, I was wrong and stop putting my hand up. The answer? Air. There was air in the hole. Just air, which is why it's a hole. I'm still pissed. Its 30 years later but I've still not forgiven her for embarrassing me and being wrong.
- TimeAll
Cold Water Troll
I got downvoted like crazy for saying that a nurse told me that cold water and soap kills germs just as well as hot water when washing your hands. Linked some sources and everything. Then people started calling me a troll.
- Terriere
Hot water and soap just feel good man.
And this is the real answer. The mistake most people make when washing their hands isn't the temperature of the water, it's that they don't do it long enough. So the correct temperature to wash your hands at is whatever one makes you comfortable enough to not try to get it over with as quickly as possible.
Pastor-Cheetos
I was once in a chorus in my community college and they had interesting social dymanics. It was primarily older white women, who were the alphas of the group.
So we were doing a Latin american carol called "Vamos Pastorcitos" and there was debate between them about the pronunciation of the "c" I said the soft c is pronounced like an s, an old lady in the group said it was pronounced like the ch in cheese.
I said "you're thinking of Italian, in Spanish it's pronounced as an "s" or in many European Spanish dialects like a "th"" The choral conductor went with her churchy old lady friend and they all pronounced it like "Vamos pastorcheetos" it still haunts me to this day.
The Lean-To And The Stupid Trip Leader
I was on a canoe trip and had spent the first half of the day paddling down the river at a grueling pace. It was the mid afternoon and a lean-to site along the river was spotted and empty. Keep in mind, this was a fairly large canoe trip group (About 35 people). We had tents, but these tents could only accommodate about 20 people, so a lean-to was needed to accommodate the rest. Dark clouds were beginning to fill the sky, and I called out that it was a good idea to make camp at the lean-to sight.
But the cocky trip leader demanded we push on, and so did everyone else. I still tried to push my proposal, but it never got far. Everyone just talked over me and kept going.
The next lean to site was another 4 miles upriver - 4 very tough miles. A massive thunderstorm came down upon us, and we got drenched before collapsing at the lean-to site that evening. Unfed.
Surprise, surpise, the lean to site was already occupied by another camping group, unlike the empty one I suggested we stop at. And it was impossible to build a fire as all the wood was wet, unlike the dry site I suggested we stop at. So the entire group had to eat dehydrated spaghetti and meatballs cold and try to keep warm.
I was forced to sleep outside with about 14 others in the rain. Adding to the troubles, upon waking up one of the tents got crushed by a fallen tree limb and broke the leg of a group member. The pickup destination was still another 16 miles away, so the entire grueling day was spent paddling towards the pickup destination while it still rained and while my canoe leaked badly after crashing into some rocks.
All because of that stupid trip leader. And no, nobody ever acknowledged that I had been right.
Removed By A Mod
On a different subreddit, I made a comment that said "males and females react differently to different medicines/anesthesia" and I was downvoted and told I was wrong, that the only deciding factor for medication/anesthesia dose is body mass.
I produced a link to a medical journal proving I was right, that with anesthesia like morphine, males require 40% more since the opioid receptors in their brains are less sensitive to it.
My comment with the link was removed by a mod.
Sir Patrick Stewart
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Patrick Stewart being heterosexual (and married).
It was a stupid argument in the first place because who cares. It is Sir Professor Picard and how he spends his nights is his own business. I have zero issue with homosexuality and the whole thing had me sounding seriously homophobic, which pissed me off even more.
It began as an insult as well. A group discussion at work turned to a collective theme for Halloween costumes. The X-Men were tossed out with "Randy" as Professor X. Nothing against him. He is tall, a full beard, and full head of hair. I, on the other hand, am short, BALD, and wear a suit everyday. People already call me professor X (or Lex Luthor if I say something snarky). I slowly raise my hand and suggest I might be better suited. A woman I already detested says, with a snort of disgust and a face that looks like she's smelled her own shit,
"Oh my god no! Uh...no offense," she says obviously offensively, "he's my crush and I don't want that ruined thinking of you."
Ouch.
Prepared to drop it and drop participating with them at all, she goes on...
"I mean, he's gay so I have no chance but still..." and then she does a mock shudder and "yuck" sound.
Mega wench.
"You're right about not having a shot," I couldn't resist saying, "but that has nothing to do with his orientation. He's straight."
Eye rolling ensued with her lackies joining in about how "everyone" knows Patrick is gay. This included a gay man looking slightly uncomfortable.
This was a while back so I'm not sure which wife he was on. I pointed out he's had a few marriages with the age gap increasing between them. I figure maybe they were mixing him up with his best friend, Sir Ian McKellon. I think their cute bromance makes people wonder. I thought he was gay for a long time until I read an article about his wife.Then I read up on all of his wives.
Things got serious with me being accused of being bigoted and anti-gay. All I could say was "look it up."
She later complained to my boss how offensive I had been and tried to register a discrimination claim. After explaining to him who Patrick Stewart was he was genuinely puzzled. Trying not to offend her, he tried to get to how my saying an actor was not gay was somehow discriminatory to her.
She wouldn't drop it so there was a meeting...
- Rmanager
Bedicorns?
I once got into a conversation with a few other people about bed bugs, and then 2 of them turn to me and were like "bed bugs aren't real, they're fictional like unicorns" and I was fucking sure they were real. The other person there just wasn't sure and in the end figured they were made up. Smartphones weren't a thing yet so we couldn't just look it up. I looked it up later and was just elated that I was correct.
Now I work at a hotel and know for a fact they're real.
Ancient Egyptian Helicopters
During 3rd grade we were talking about the pyramids in Egypt and about how the bricks were huge and we don't know how they moved them. Some girl said "Maybe they used helicopters" and I said "Helicopters weren't a thing back then." and the teacher got mad at me.
- mmmmwhu
Height/Weight
Some kid at school was trying to tell me that your height doesn't affect your weight, and said that even really tall kids (me, I was about 5'8) should weigh the same as really short kids (him, about 4'2). Was in 5th grade and knew that this was stupid, because a taller kid means a kid with more mass.
This is a generalization, and other factors go into it, but this kid was trying to tell me that 2 kids with the same body shape, muscle mass, and frame size would weigh exactly the same, even if one was 2 feet taller. That's just wrong. What's worse is that the teacher agreed with him.
- LawlTHOR
Star Trek Is Fiction
My roommate had a friend over once and he tried telling me he used to be a physics major (I was in my last semester of my physics degree) but realized he was too smart for it and switched to engineering, and then tried explaining to me that physical objects can go faster than the speed of light like tachyons. I said I'd never heard of in my QM class, and he told me "It's how they did it in Star Trek."
- hedins
The Green Gets In Your Eyes
In science class. I was sick and didn't go to class one day. The next day I went to school and, in science class, they were doing a review of what they did the day before. And the teacher asks: "So, if a leaf is green, is the green light absorbed or reflected by the leaf?"
and suddenly everybody said, at the same time, "absorbed".
And I'm like: "Miss it's reflected."
and everyone screams at me, like if it was a fucking religion, "IT'S ABSORBED" .
And then I yell back "IF ITS ABSORBED, HOW THE F!@# IS THE COLOR GREEN GETTING TO YOUR EYES?"
Everybody got silent.
Sun And Stars
Told my friends the sun was a star, too.
They said no, apparently a sun cannot be a star but a star can be a sun?
- shinyrae
Vegan Adjustment
All I said on Facebook was that a vegan lifestyle would take time to adjust to and research for general families and that some people will backslide and a few people jumped all over my case. I even shared the articles which showed that people do in fact backslide. I guess everyone needs to he hardcore vegan right friggen now with no research into how you will maintain you protein, iron, calcium and B12. I also mentioned that its nearly impossible to be totally animal cruelty free as many crops use commercial bees for pollination.
Sunscreen
My colleagues after I said that sunscreen protects you from skin cancer.
I'm in medical school.
Resembles = Looks Like
I kept insisting that the correct phrasing was "until it resembles its mother," and the other people in my group insisted it was "until it resembles like its mother."
Resembles literally means "looks like" so they were trying to tell me that the correct phrasing should be "until it looks like like its mother."
No.
No Relation
When I was in first grade there was a boy in my class with the same last name as me and we kind of resembled each other. We weren't related at all. The boy was absent one day and the teacher wanted me to 'bring his homework home to him'. Told the teacher I wasn't related to him. Was told to stop lying. Still told her I wasn't related to him.
This escalated to the point I'm taken to the principal's office for lying. They call my mom. I then got the satisfaction of my mom yelling at the principal and teacher over the phone for calling her kid a liar and bothering her at work about a kid that wasn't hers.
I don't even remember much about first grade beyond that day. I guess I was a bit of a vindictive kid. lol
The Greatest Generation
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Saying that American soldiers were equally as cruel and evil as the Germans when it came to inhumane treatment of POWs during WWII.
Winners write the history books, so they love to omit all the starving and raping going on in Japan after the war, for example.
Boo me all you want, the greatest generation had some of the worst sets of values possible. They also pretty much perfected racism, misogyny and wage slavery.