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
Giphy"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
Giphy"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 sh*t"
"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
Giphy"We will not be booed!"
"Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below. 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."
We will not be booed!
Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.