Rumors are usually not smart to begin with. Making up a story about someone and then spreading that juicy bit of gossip-people can only get so creative with lies.
Sometimes it's straight up so dumb that why bother to correct them? Surely anybody with half a brain could see through these.
And yet...
u/coolkitty1654 asked:
What was the dumbest rumour spread about you?
Here were those stories.
Life Saved
That I was dead. Was late getting back to uni so my 'buddies' decided it'd be funny to tell people I'd been killed in Europe. The story started with 'killed in an accident' and blossomed to 'got a girl pregnant, wouldn't marry her, decided to marry her, killed in an accident'.
One girl I knew actually believed it and cried when we bumped into each other. Had no idea she cared.
At Least The Principal Didn't Believe It
That my parents were drug dealers, and they involved me in selling drugs at my elementary school.
What actually happened was that I gave my friends a dollar each from my lunch money so we could all buy cookies. Somehow the rumor spread all the way to the principal, so he dragged me to his office and lectured me about not giving my money away in front of other people.
Now Maybe They'd Believe It
I was once sick for an entire week of 9th grade. Somehow it spread that I went to Hawaii. Even a teacher made a comment. I have no idea how the heck that started and nobody would tell me why they thought it because they thought i was just being cheeky by denying it
I Was Always Scottish
I moved from Scotland to England at like 13, I had a thick accent and I got a lot of flack for it so almost subconsciously I slowly started to like fake an English accent, was really stupid as I'd flip back to Scottish as soon as I got home..
After I left school I dropped the accent but by that time the majority of people I knew in the small town I was in, had met me as English Spliffwizard so when I'd see people they'd be like wtf happened to you!? Why are you suddenly Scottish!? I used to just make things up like "I had a voice transplant an' this is all they had" but eventually it stopped.
Roll on a few years and I'm back in town havin' a drink with some mates, I get talking to 2 guys and when I mention my name one is like "oh you're that guy who pretends to be Scottish" and so now apparently there's a fable around the town of some English kid who one day was just like I'm Scottish now.... and the kid is me. Class
Pure Evil, Perhaps?
This was spread by an adult in a volunteer organization I was part of. Me, happily married, running for a leadership position. Her, many years married to someone running for one of the other positions. Apparently she didn't want me on the leadership team because she told people I had the hots for her husband? Who was, bless his heart, a nice guy, but homely.
I respected what he'd done to achieve leadership in the organization, but could not have been more uninterested in that aspect of him if he had been a cow pattie. I didn't know anything about this until after I lost the election. She also started a rumor about two other adults who were friendly, but not doing anything untoward.
Unfortunately the wife of the man believed that rumor and it totally ruined a number of relationships and events because she wouldn't permit them to attend the same meeting or event. I never understood what motivated that person to spread those types of rumors.
Whoopsie
When I was in grade one some girls thought it would be funny to tell everyone I had 'boy private parts' which upset me greatly. I don't remember this but my mother has told me that during an assembly I was talking with the people around me and it was brought up and I felt the need to stand up and pull down my pants and undies in front of everyone. I cringe every time I think about it.
Community Service
When I was 21 and in college, I worked with a boy who was a senior in high school. His girlfriend broke up with him about two weeks before prom for another guy. I offered to go with him. The girl was dumped by her new boyfriend a few days before prom and wanted my coworker to take her to prom, but he said no, as he was going with an 'older woman.'
At prom, I was quite the topic of conversation. This girl had come by our store when I was working, and she and her friend told everyone I was a wench who had multiple children with multiple baby daddies.
I don't even go here! Anyway, prom was nice, dinner before was great, and after the dance I went home (alone) and had many legal drinks in my child free house.
I'm Here, Though
In middle school some sub that no one knew that looked like a narc pulled me from class because of a family issue, walked me out of the school to my mom. Somehow this turned into the sub being a cop, and it being a cop car, and I was in trouble for something. One rumor a few weeks later was that I had gotten in trouble for bringing tons of huge guns to school or something. I was like guys, I'm still at school, I told you what happened....
This Is What We Call Attempted Murder
It wasn't mine, but my friend is allergic to peanuts and someone started a rumor that he was lying. So, someone waved a peanut butter sandwich in front of him. That started a allergic reaction. We were in 5th grade.
Ah, We Love Racism
In middle school someone started a rumour that I was a voodoo priestess (stereotypical Hollywood voodoo, nothing like the real thing). I'm white and live in Canada. People believed it, they'd shriek and run when they saw me, at the end of one year a girl who had been nothing but awful to me asked if she could sign my yearbook and her signature was basically her pleading with me not to curse her.
Even in my first year of high school I had a few people who didn't go to my middle school walk up and ask me if it was true that I did voodoo. Thankfully it died down after that.
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run