People Describe The Strangest Thing They've Ever Witnessed That No One Ever Believes
Our memories are strange things. They can totally play tricks on us and make us believe we experienced something we never did, even if there is mounting evidence against what we recall.
Sometimes several memories become one memory, or else details become lost or embellished; sometimes we are told a story so many times that a false memory of the event starts to form.
But sometimes, something strange really did happen and our memories are actually serving us perfectly.
Redditor u/Tiny_Map5886 asked:
"What's something you can swear you saw but no one is believing you?"
Here were some of those answers.
Mr. Smiles
"I saw a dude standing next to my truck with an unnaturally wide smile. I was on highway 49 east right outside Greenwood, MS."
"I heard hail hit my truck a few times so I pulled over expecting a tornado. I was grabbing my backpack getting ready to bail out for the ditch".
"I turn back to the driver side window to check my mirror and this guy was just standing there. Smiling. It scared me so bad I just slammed the truck in drive and got out of there."-WhiteGravy747
It's My Party
"I threw a party at the condo I lived in with my sister and mom while they were on vacation when I was maybe 17?"
"After the party died down me and 4 of my close friend were the only ones still there and awake and while talking by the top of the basement stairs the handle of the door at the top that was closed moved like someone was struggling to open it."
"Thinking someone passed out in my basement and was too drunk to get the door open I opened it to an empty basement."
"All my friends saw this happen and we stayed up til the morning in my living room too freaked out to move. Everyone blows it off like we were just hammered but by then we were nearly sobered up."-lindsanity16
A Visit From Beyond
"Not something I saw, something I felt and heard. I was struggling to sleep one night, lying in bed feeling wired and irritable when I felt pressure lift from the bed on my partner's side."
"I assumed he'd got up to go to the bathroom (I was facing the opposite way so I didn't see him do this) a few minutes go by and I hear him come back into the room and feel him get back in bed, nothing strange about that."
"Lying there still frustrated the same thing happens again, a lift of pressure, some rustling sounds like a person trying to navigate a dark room, an absence of sound for a few moments and then the sensation of weight on the bed again."
"Still not thinking much of it, because it wasn't an obvious cause for concern, I continue trying to fall asleep. Then it happens again. And again. And again."
"I wasn't too into the idea of asking him if he was ok as we had a ridiculous argument that night and I was pretty pissed off with him, so I just ignored it."
"But then... Then it sounded like he had got up and was simply pacing around the room clumsily, I could hear things on the shelves being touched and slightly moved and hands gently brushing against walls, and then I felt the bed suddenly dip in a concentrated spot of the mattress as though he had stood on it."
"This carries on for I don't know how long, rustling, pressure on the bed and so on until I snap. I sit bolt upright, turn around and say 'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?' to see my partner waking up from a very deep sleep and looking confused."
"I told him what had happened and he said he'd been asleep next to me the whole time, which was pretty obvious to see him in his very sleepy state, plus he would have had mere seconds to jump into bed without me noticing in the time it took me to sit up and turn around."
"I somehow fell asleep that night feeling confused and as though eyes were on me. And in a typical cheesy haunted house fashion, I get a call from my mum the next morning telling me my uncle had died the night before."-JenikaSwoosh
These things most certainly affected each and every person who remembers seeing them.
Re-Spawn In Real Life
"I have never mentioned this before to anyone. Scene: EPCOT in Orlando, on the brick walkway between a walk-thru part with stores and such on either side and the part leading up to The Land."
"Date: June 2008. I was with my pregnant wife. Huge storm rolls in, black clouds, about to pour, when there was this unearthly deafening sound and bright light exploded."
"I opened my eyes and I was standing 30 feet or more away back under the covered walkway, unharmed. My wife said I had been standing right beside her, then I wasn't."
"It was too far to have run in the brief second of the explosion (I assume a lightning strike). Swear this happened as well as I could tell it."-acrossthreeparallels
People Who Work In Remote Places Share Creepiest Things They've Witnessed | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Chasing Zebras
"I live in a rural community in Canada. My sister came to see me once and swore up and down that she saw a zebra grazing in the fields."
"I made fun of her for a couple of years about how the zebra roam the north pole and how Santa has zebra instead of reindeer. She was really starting to doubt herself but stuck to her guns."
"Well, I was driving one day and lo and behold, a f**king zebra grazing in the field. Turns out a zoo sometimes lets them roam around there. When I told my sister she felt vindicated."-greybruce1980
Uhhhh....
"I stayed over a church friend's house when I was 8ish. He said he had a little sister but my parents and I never saw her at church or anything. My Mom said it was probably imaginary."
"At night I walked in the wrong room and saw a teenage girl in a crib, dressed like a baby."
"I told my Mom, I told my friends, I told whoever I could but no one believe me."-Bullydaddy
Oklahoma Moments
"I am going to share something my grandma told me that she saw, because it is so f**king weird and I have never heard anything like this before in my life."
"My grandma and her cousin were walking on a country road in Oklahoma, sometime in the 1940s. They saw a strange figure float up over a hill up ahead about half a football field away. She said it appeared 2 dimensional and it was roughly the size of a cow."
"It was white and was composed of geometric shapes. It had a rectangular body, with no legs (it floated). It had a square head at one end with two little triangle ears and little slit looking eyes. No nose or mouth that she could see."
"When the figure rose up over the hill, my grandma and her cousin froze in terror. The thing froze, too. They all just stood there staring at each other for a moment."
"Then its head floated to the opposite end of its body and it floated back in the direction it came from. Her cousin corroborates her story, but it's just very strange to me."
"I believe that they saw something weird, but I'm not sure I'm convinced that a weird two dimensional demon cow is out there floating around in Oklahoma somewhere."-Traditional_Self_658
These moments quite literally took the breath out of people.
My Brother The Flash
"When we were ten years old, all of my cousins and siblings were playing hide and seek in the dark in the middle of a park. When someone gets found, you join the seeker to look for people, but you can't tell them where they are."
"I was the seeker and I had just found one of my cousins, so we were walking around and looking for the rest. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone that looked exactly like my brother run past us at inhuman speed."
"I turned to look at my cousin and he had admitted that he saw the same thing. We found my brother later in the round, but he was at the other side of the park. Nobody believes either of us but both of us still remember it."-PainfullyQuietAnger
A Semi-Aquatic Struggle
"A few years back I saw a capybara in my front yard (in Alabama). NO ONE believed me because by the time I came back with my phone he was gone."
"The best I got was a, 'I guess it might have been a capybara' after a local man was found to have his own exotic animal collection less than three miles away."
"Other animals I saw in that yard: an emu and two bison. I must have lived pretty close to that dude's land."-itsJussaMe
He Was A Slime Zombie!
"When I was little, maybe 7, the son of a lady who babysat my brother and I, cut his leg on our swing set. Green goo came out of his leg."
"I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember the type of bolt it was, the cover is was missing to prevent cuts. I'm a dentist now (taken gross anatomy, dissected a human body, routinely in the OR for resections of crazy head and neck tumors)."
"With the exception of gross infections, I've never seen green goo come out of someone. Let alone a healthy leg. It will never make sense to me. Ever."-DrCJHenley
The moments that stop us in our tracks are the moments that we and we alone experience. Nobody can believe us--and in a way, perhaps nobody should. Perhaps, for some reason, we were meant to see and process these moments alone.
But then again, wouldn't it be nice to get confirmation that the world is as strange as you believe it to be?
Conspiracy Theories With A Surprising Amount Of Evidence To Back Them Up
Reddit user Specific_Shop_3975 asked: 'What’s a conspiracy with the most evidence to back it up?'
We've all heard our fair share of conspiracy theories, and whether or not we truly believe them, we can agree that they're fun to think about.
But there are some that are more sinister than others, and some that are far too applicable to simply ignore.
Redditor Specific_Shop_3975 asked:
"What's a conspiracy with the most evidence to back it up?"
The Sinking of RMS Lusitania
"The British government deliberately put the RMS Lusitania in harm's way to get her sunk to bring the USA into WW1. The fact the records have been resealed for another 100 years adds credence to this conspiracy."
- Blackmore_Vale
"Dude, it's not even a conspiracy theory. The German consulate took out a two-page ad in the New York Times telling people to not board because they were going to sink it."
"Also at the time Britain didn't have an option but to sell the ship because it was carrying so many munitions that they desperately needed. This isn't a conspiracy theory; it's just plain fact."
"Both governments knew the risks and they needed it to galvanize support."
- hagantic42
Not So Sweet Candy Stores
"In the UK, there was a recent boom in American sweet shops that sold grossly overpriced import candy. They were suddenly everywhere after the pandemic, they didn’t sell much, but they were everywhere."
"Someone on TikTok theorized that they were all money laundering fronts, so people started filming in the shops laughing at the prices, and staff always seemed to get really angry about it."
"Then it was announced last year that there was an HMRC (UK’s tax wing of government) investigation started because the theory held water, and suddenly they all shut down."
"The one in Leeds Centre near Trinity currently has a notice of abandonment in the window and you can see the shelves are still stocked: the owners just ran off and left it."
"Sounds like another successful case for the TikTok detectives."
- fearthe0cean
What's Behind the Price of a Piece of Art
"Modern art is just money laundering."
"Nobody pays 2.2 million for a blank canvas."
- Poultry_Master123
"The brilliance of modern art money laundering can't be understated."
"Alfred wants to pay Brad $100k for a bribe."
"Brad wants this money to be 'clean' to avoid authorities looking into him."
"Brad 'sells' a worthless modern art piece for $100k."
"Alfred has now successfully transferred the bribe to Alfred. However, Brad is now in possession of a painting that the 'market' says is worth $100k. Down the line, Alfred might be able to sell this now 'valuable' piece of art to a third party for $50k, $100k, or potentially at a profit!"
"It can get even more complex when the artist is basically a part of the money laundering ring. This makes it so that Brad can fictionally increase the cost of buying the art from the artist in the first place in order to make the money laundering less obvious."
- Zigxy
Why So Many Options?
"There is something fishy going on at Mattress Firm. How can they stay in business with a store in practically every plaza when the average person buys a new mattress every decade or so?"
- PWcrash
Quite the Distraction
"Might not be a 'conspiracy theory' per se. But I believe that the government works hard to cover up their own incompetence."
"Part of that is manufacturing insane conspiracy theories as a way to make anyone who asks questions look crazy. Or at least to serve as a distraction."
- ButtFarquad66
A Conspiracy Is a Conspiracy
"The meta-conspiracy to convince dumb people that the word 'conspiracy' means 'a crazy person’s imagination.'"
"Conspiracies happen every day. There’s a global conspiracy of adults to convince kids Santa is real. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a conspiracy."
"Somewhere along the line, the word got hijacked and it immediately discredits whoever says it. It’s practically a trap to use the word, so you have to dance around it if you want to describe people planning things in secret."
- Bob_the_peasant
Widely Discredited
"The government deliberately leaked false information to UFO investigators to discredit them because they were getting too close to the truth."
"(The truth being that Area 51 was a testing grounds for spy planes and stealth aircraft and was attracting too much attention for a secret weapons facility.)"
- 4thofeleven
"I think the government does this with conspiracy theories across the board. Promoting outlandish tinfoil hat-type theories helps discredit the ones that are actually real."
- QUINNFLORE
Another Money Laundering Front
"Benetton is a front for Italian mob money laundering."
"Probably wasn't at first back in the 80s but now... decent-sized stores in expensive real estate all over Europe, never anyone in the stores, never seen anyone wearing the clothes, don't know anyone that's bought anything from them, ever, and neither do those people."
- Bannedin_3_2_1
"I shop there all the time, in both Italy and Switzerland. It’s the highest quality for the most reasonable price that I can regularly find in Europe. I’m never the only one in there or checking out, either."
- AdultDisneyWoman
"Sounds like something a money launderer would say."
- kjm16216
Residential Monopoly
"Blackrock and Vanguard are buying up all the residential property they can in order to get the majority of Americans renting from them. Estimates say by 2030 they will own 60% of residential property."
- smartsapants
"I so wish we could all stop fighting about dumb sh*t for just a few weeks so both sides of the country could pass a law that bans any corporation or non-US citizen from owning residential property(with some provisions to account for things like bank loans obviously)."
"This would have such a massive effect on quality of life going into the future. Of course, it won’t happen."
- ternic69
People of Influence Parties
"The Bilderberg group. Every year in summer, they meet, and people keep track of who is there. Guest lists every year. Top politicians, royalty, corporate owners. Extreme security. No protocols."
"There is confirmation from a variety of these people that they were there."
"So, what do they talk about? Are they coordinated somehow after each meeting? How much influence do they have?"
"Well, given the extreme security, it's difficult to say. I am sure it's nothing, though. Why would those groups of people want to influence the world to suit their agendas, right?"
"Also note, anyone discussing this gets called a tin foil hat, or paranoid, or a conspiracy theorist who probably also believes in antivaxx reptilian....."
- Common-Wish-2227
Secret Climate Change
"The petroleum companies knew burning fossil fuels would lead to global climate change but hid the evidence of their own funded studies and did nothing to curb consumption, instead funded groups opposed to renewable, non-greenhouse gas generating energy to maximize shareholder value."
- 85_Draken
The Travels of Elvis Presley
"Elvis didn’t die in 1977. He was working with the government (DEA OR CIA? I can’t remember?). When he was compromised they had to fake his death."
"He actually moved to Argentina and lived the rest of his life down there."
"There were a lot of sightings. My favorite is when one of his house workers reported someone that looked just like him lying out by the pool at his own house the day after he died."
"It’s a fun theory that is pretty convincing the more you look into it."
- Affectionate-Win-788
Conspiracies All the Way Down
"People believe all the governments in the world have collaborated on keeping the shape of the Earth and our inability to visit the Moon a secret..."
- draculamilktoast
"But what about the turtle we are sitting on?"
- KAG25
"More importantly, what about the turtle THAT turtle is sitting on?"
- Hym3n
Intentionally Divisive
"That our governments are turning us all against each other to distract us from the blatant wealth manipulation, corrupt practices, nepotism, cronyism, among hundreds of other big issue things. Their plans working a treat and the people as a whole can't see what's happening and start working together against it."
"We are losing our privacy, our rights, and our sense of connection with one another. We drift away while they get more and more powerful. People hand away their rights like they're going to get them back and never question it when it's not."
"Our planet had to deal with another of the world power's attempts at control and that's the pandemic or should I say the reaction to it. I was always a believer it happened naturally but as time goes on it becomes more apparent it wasn't."
"We are bodies hanging from the roof being bled dry slowly but if this keeps up we aren't just f**ked like a world war or nuclear war, if we don't do anything we will lose whatever control we have and we will never get it back."
- Magic_Kushroom
From interesting and wowing to deeply troubling, there's truly no shortage of conspiracies and conspiracy theories out there for people to puzzle over and research.
The most troubling thing about them, honestly, has to be the stigma surrounding a person's interest in them. As soon as someone expresses interest in one of these theories, others are quick to discredit them.
Get Out The Tissues: People Break Down The All-Time Saddest Movie Scenes
As Nicole Kidman wisely tells patrons of AMC movie theatres that we go to the movies to "laugh, to cry, to cry, to care."
"Because we need that. All of us."
And the movies that really make an impression on us are the ones that do all of the above as she described.
When characters are well-developed and the actors portraying them really connect with the audiences, they stay with us forever.
There's nothing more heartbreaking than seeing our favorite heroes–whether supernatural or based on actual, real people–suffer loss or meet their own untimely demise.
Curious to hear from moviegoers, Redditor CallyB0225 asked:
"What is the saddest movie scene ever?"
Don't underestimate the power of animated films.
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
"The Fox and the Hound when the old woman has to leave Todd in the game preserve to save him and her tears as she drives away without him."
– snortybeagle
"Also the scene where Todd gets out and she’s running through the woods with a lantern calling for him. Reminds me of losing my cat."
– aaron_hoff
Baby Mine, Don't You Cry
"When Dumbo's mom rocked him from behind her cage 😭"
– LimpCauliflower8579
"Baby mine, don't you cry Baby mine, dry your eyes Rest your head close to my heart Never to part, baby of mine."
"F'k. I had to take a little baby possum to get euthanized because its mama had been hit by a car and killed along with its siblings. It was awful - you could see some of the babies had survived the impact and tried to crawl off, only to be hit themselves. This little one was the only one left when I got there, but it was too injured to make it. It sounds so dumb but I sang a bit of this song to it while I held it on my lap on the way to the vet. I know it's anthropomorphizing them too much, but possums seem like such good mamas."
– lizardingloudly
Dinosaurs Grieve Too
"The first movie in the Land Before Time. Broke my heart. Still does."
– HeelerDot18
"Littlefoot mistaking his shadow for his mother."
“Mother? Mother!”
– justputonsomemusic
"That scene KILLS me because I know that exact feeling. My mother died when I was 12, and for a long time after she died, I would see someone who looked like her and have this cruel, crazy stab of hope that my mom wasn’t really gone."
– captcha_trampstamp
A Cub Grows Up
"Simba begging Mufasa to wake up. That tiny little 'help.'"
– mossadspydolphin
"get up....we gotta go home...."
– imthe1nonlyD
Remember The Dead
"The scene in Coco where Miguel is trying to get mama Coco to remember her father. My daughters and I all cried at the theater. Mama Coco reminded us so much of my grandmother. At that point we had lost 3 of my grandparents. 1 each year. My grandmother was all we had left. She died a few years after the movie came out. My daughter hasn't watched it since because she knows she will cry even harder."
– thiswilltakeamiracle
When a character has an epiphany, we're right there with them.
Unsatisfied Hero
"The 'I could have saved more' scene where Schindler has an emotional breakdown after the workers gave him a ring engraved with the quotation: 'Whoever saves one life saves the world entire' and was then comforted by the workers in the movie Schindler's List."
– SuvenPan
The Gift Meant For Someone Else
"Emma Thompson in her bedroom after she receives the Joni Mitchell CD for Christmas."
– khendron
"Just phenomenal acting. I can’t remember who said it, but there’s a quote that watching someone trying not to cry is somehow sadder than watching someone cry and it’s so true."
– prunellazzz
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
The Last Bedtime Story
"When the mom tucks her kids in and the old couple go to bed together in Titanic knowing they’re going to die."
– enlenar
"The mother and children are Irish, and in that scene she’s telling them an old Irish story about going to a land of eternal youth and beauty. The only way she could attempt to comfort them knowing what is to come."
"As a mother I couldn’t imagine making that decision. To spend our last moments in utter chaos fighting for our lives, or going back to the quiet of the cabin and dying as a family there. Gut wrenching."
– SylviaKasen
The Most Loyal Dog Ever
"Hachiko waiting for his friend to come back every day at the train station."
– 33-9
"Omg, I think that would be number 1 on my list, I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder than at the end of Hachi."
– OP
A Soldier Dies
"When Giovanni Ribisi’s character dies in Saving Private Ryan, after telling the story about pretending to be asleep when his mom checked in on him."
– howdysteve
"His whole story about his mom and his final line "...I don't know why I did that..." really hits me hard, and I always shoot my mom a sloppy, cheesy text immediately after the scene."
– duskywindows
Meeting His Maker
"In the Green Mile when John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) gets executed. "Don't put me in the dark." Gets me every time..."
– Vivid-Voyage
"That was the first movie to make me sob, not get teary eyed, but painful sobbing."
"Also RIP Michael Clarke Duncan."
– shewy92
While we go through tissues blowing our noses and wiping away our tears (hopefully not in that order), "somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this."
Yes, Nicole Kidman. We love to ugly cry in movie theaters.
But we'll never look as stunning as you while doing so.
A breakup is never easy.
Even so, it is sometimes the only solution when one, or both, members of a couple realize that their relationship simply isn't meant to be.
Sometimes, pinpointing what went wrong in a relationship is difficult that and even years later you still can't find a single reason.
Other times, however, why a relationship came to an end is made abundantly clear by your former partner, sometimes letting you down easily, other times not mincing word one bit.
Redditor GreekRifle was curious to hear from the men of Reddit why their partners chose to end their relationships, leading them to ask:
"Men, why did your last girlfriend dump you?"
A Love That Will Never Die...
"She was in love with her gay best friend."- Lucius_Funk
Communication Is Key
"We didn’t really get each other communication-wise."- heyitsvonage
Too Close To Home...
"Because my mother died of a terminal illness and she had (unbeknownst to me) breast cancer."
"I think she knew it would have wrecked me all over again."- fdxfgyhers
To Love Another, You Must Also Love Yourself.
"I didn't take care of myself."
"I degraded to a state that made me boot worthy"- ToeKnail
Did You Hear That?
"Because I was a sh*tty listener."
"I immediately went and bought and read 4 books on listening."
"I won’t have that happen again."- awerwe4yuti
A Very Important Decision
"She wanted children, I did not."
"We kinda dumped each other for the best, but she took more initiative to see it through."- BrukaAllvar
Wasn't Meant To Last
"Both of us were busy with school and work and so we were spending less time together than usual."
"Around a month into this, she decided that the relationship had gone stale and we should break up."
"I'm not gonna pretend like it was only her fault, cus I only realized how stale our relationship had gotten when she texted me to ask for a breakup."
"I did offer to try and salvage it all, but she turned that idea down pretty quickly."
"Like half a year later she called me in a drunken state and asked if I want to hook up with her."- Phoenix_BFN
On To Better Things... Or Not...
"We were 19 (her) and 22 (me)."
"She decided she wanted to date her coworker."
"A 37 year old pizza delivery guy who lived with his mom and had 2 kids from a previous marriage that he admittedly screwed up."
"They ended up getting married, she was the primary/only breadwinner for awhile because he got fired and then just kinda never tried getting hired again."
"They eventually split up because I think he cheated on her and she tried reaching out to me on Facebook and through mutual friends."
"Yeah………no thanks."
"By then I was married to the love of my life, had 3 kids, a career, just bought a house and adopted a dipsh*t husky from the pound."
"I’m good."- Thebaldsasquatch
"The dude she'd liked for many many years who always told her no when she asked him out realized he could very well lose her to me and said If she wanted to date him he'd go for it now."
"She left me, 4 months later she married him, and now 13 years later is IIRC Divorced from him."
"Jokes on her though, 6 months after we broke up I started dating a friend of mine, we dated for 2 years (compared to 2 months with the ex) and then we got married, and we just had our 11th wedding anniversary in august."
"We have a 4 year old son and every aspect of our relationship is way way better than my relationship with the ex."-evileyeball
It's Complicated...
"She stated that we were headed in different directions."
"She said she still loved me but couldn’t do the relationship anymore as she was 'dragging me down'."
"She was dealing with something that she just couldn’t deal with while being in a relationship with me."
" All of these are reasons she gave me the day we broke up."
"I truly hadn’t seen this happening as we had been talking about marriage."
"She had brought it up and then a month later she asked to go on a two week break, then asked to end the break early because she didn’t want to loose me."
"Less than a week later we broke up because she 'just couldn’t do this anymore'."
"All in all I suppose I don’t know."
"I thought we would spend our lives together, and she had told me constantly that was what she wanted."
"Then one day I suppose she woke up and decided we were over."
"I don’t hold any resentment towards her, and I wouldn’t ask her to explain why."
"Sometimes you fall in love just to fall out of it."
"Other times you find the right person at the wrong time, it really doesn’t matter."
"I hope she finds the right person for her, and I know I’ll keep on moving forward til the day I can’t."- RansomTheTrees
There's No Place Like Home...
"She realized, that she stopped being happy to come home and found things to do to stay out."
"I wanted to end the relationship on the very same day or wanted to have a talk, so not too bad of a break up."- Resident-Worry-2403
Anyone's Guess
"Ask her."
"Really I don't know why she broke up with me."- frogmicky
Ironically, It's Wrong To Always Need To Be Right...
"Wasn’t mature enough to put her feelings before my position in an argument."
"Unfortunately had to learn to be a better person at the expense of an innocent person."- kitchensclosed
Everyone Deserves A Second Chance...
"Because I was a sh*tty person."
"And I wish I hadn't been, but I became a good one after that and regret it cost someone so much."- Skelegasm
It's hard to come to terms with ending things with someone you thought you loved.
Yet, better to have had that love then to never love at all.
Both the justice system and the rumor mill are known to run rampant at times. That's why a person can win their court case but still lose in the court of public opinion.
Sometimes, a person is falsely accused of a crime they did not commit, or are ridiculed for suing a person or company for what the public feels is unnecessary. Those people may win their case, but the public opinion of these people who did nothing wrong is ruined.
Other times, those who are clearly guilty are acquitted of a crime. They technically won their court case, but they never stop being ridiculed or harrassed for being let go after committing a crime.
Redditors know stories like these all too well and are ready to shed some light.
It all started when Redditor ibuiltyouarosegarden asked:
"Who won in court BUT lost in the “court of public opinion?"
Not As Sweet As Aunt Jemima
"Jennifer Connell was called the worst aunt ever and the “aunt from hell” for suing her nephew. Her nephew basically jumped into her arms and the extra physical affection broke her arm. Became a really big deal when it happened. Thing is, she needed to name a person at fault for her injury for her insurance and named her nephew with his parents’ permission. She wasn’t actually suing her nephew, just getting insurance money so she could be treated."
– BlackDwarfStar
Falsely Accused
"Richard Jewell, the man falsely accused of the Centennial Olympic Park Bombings in Atlanta in 1996. He was a security guard and saved dozens of lives by spotting the bomb and clearing spectators. The FBI noted him as a person of interest, and his name was dragged through the mud by local and national media. While the FBI stopped investigating Jewell by October of that year, it wasn’t until a couple of years later that his name was truly cleared when Eric Rudolph, the actual bomber, was caught."
"Jewell sued a number of media outlets and settled with a few of them for an undisclosed amount."
– Bepus
Awful City
"The city of New London in Kelo v City of New London. The city was using the eminent domain to remove a nice lady from her home to build shopping complex. Made its way to the supreme Court and a 5 v 4 decision won and Kelo lost her home to provide economic opportunities. High profile case where the public sided with Kelo but the courts sided with the city."
– 360gamefreak
Her Name Is Everywhere
"Monica Lewinsky. She "won" in court because she wasn't the person on trial. The power dynamics also weren't in her favor. He was her boss. But yet, we still call it "the Monica Lewinsky" scandal and her name is still brought up in derogatory ways after all these years."
– littleirishpixie
Lesson Never Learned
"The woman who won a damages settlement from McDonald’s for being burned by overly hot coffee. It was dangerously hot and they’d been warned before and paid medical bills by court order over other burns, but because she got a high payout over something as seemingly trivial as coffee, she’s labeled litigious and dramatic. The burns were awful. And by the way, McDonald’s still has coffee that’s dangerously hot; they were in the news a week or two ago for another burn case."
– ExplosiveRaddish
"Stella Liebeck. She won in the infamous Stella Liebeck v. McDonald’s. She suffered third-degree burns after accidentally spilling coffee on herself, resulting in over a week in the hospital, skin grafting, and two years of medical treatment."
"She only sought payment for the medical expenses from McDonald’s, but they refused, so she sued. Even though she won, the media made her incident out to be a simple coffee burn that was entirely due to her own negligence (eg. Some claimed she spilled it while driving; however, she was actually parked when it happened). She was 79-years-old at the time of the incident."
"She proceeded to receive death threats for the rest of her life due to people thinking she was “abusing the system”. Really sad stuff."
– SauceThatsGoated
Yikes!
"John Delorean, he was set up by the FBI and his case is the reason for the term entrapment. He was acquitted of all charges."
""DeLorean needed $17 million to save his company from collapse. To this end, he spent much of 1982 desperately seeking investors for his failing company."
"He was approached by one such investor named James Hoffman on June 28, 1982, who claimed to have a business opportunity to help save DeLorean’s company."
"Unknown to DeLorean, James Hoffman was actually a convicted drug smuggler, who, in exchange for leniency, struck a deal with federal authorities to become an informant.""
– ChippyVonMaker
Trial Of The Century
"O.J. Simpson. In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. However, many people believed that Simpson was guilty, and he was widely ostracized after the trial."
– Arisu_tanaka69
What Really Happened?
"Lizzie Borden."
"Legally innocent of axing her parents, but ostracized by her community as everyone knew her factually guilty."
– NerdNuncle
A Huge Upset
"George Zimmerman/"
"The jurors basically said he got away with murder."
– stealthkoopa
Extremely Disappointing
"Congressman Gary Condit who was wrongfully accused of killing his affair partner Chandra Levy. Her body was found a year after she went missing in Rock Creek Park in Washington DC. Condit was innocent but lost his bid for re-election because of the accusations."
– ninasymone44
Are there any we should add to the list? Let us know in the comment below.