To be called a person of principle is typically a feather in one's cap. Staunch, unwavering convictions about ideals are a wonderful expression of humanity, right?
Not if those convictions land you with an injury or a room of people laughing at you.
Redditor's gathered to discuss the absolute dumbest things they've ever done to get the upper hand on a an argument. To shut any debate down and deliver the ultimate persuasion, they opted for the pragmatic approach: do the thing they say you can't or won't.
Prepare for stupidity and 20/20 hindsight.
CherryCola32 asked, "What is the stupidest thing you've done just to show you could do it?"
Explosion on the Wrong End
"In grade school, maybe age 11 or 12, I had these cheap jeans. I figured out that I could flex my belly and pop the button open, found this funny and guy friends in class got a laugh too. One of them turns to a girl, hey girl checkout what OP can do."
"I flex my belly and let out a huge fart while the button popped open. She turned away, my buddy laughed, and i never did this trick again."
Biohazard
"A buddy bet I couldn't finish the spiciest chicken sandwich at this joint known for insanely spicy chicken in under 30 minutes. I knew I f***ed up when they gave me gloves to eat the sandwich so the sauce couldn't touch my skin and made me sign a waiver. Won the bet, but really I lost in the end."
The Dunk of No Return
"In 2001, my sister got me a Sony phone, a tiny little thing with a flip down front. She worked in a phone shop and got discount. On the box, it said the phone was waterproof and there were tiny rubber seals in places."
"I believed them."
"At the pub where I worked, this aspect came up in conversation. Some guy said the phone couldn't be waterproof, and that shower proof was probably more accurate. Remembering the box, I argued the point . . . And dropped my phone into a pint of beer in an effort to prove it."
"I was wrong. Brutal but well-earned life lesson."
THWACK
"Cliff diving, saw a old man do a front flip off a 40 foot cliff. I said if he can do it, so can I. I did the flip alright, followed by a belly flop that Zeus could hear. Knocked the air out of me, but luckily people were floating near by to save my dumb a**." -- Skarface08
"I bruised my a** by jumping off a similar height rock and landing in a seated position" -- theknightmanager
Another Dunk, a Little Warmer
"When I was around 12, I was neglecting to flush my piss. Too busy playing armored core. So my dear mother brings me into the bathroom, and tells me if I don't flush next time, she's going to dip my hands in the piss. I looked at her, made a hammer fist, smashed it in the toilet, covered myself in piss, only a little on her(thank god.)"
"I wasn't even a malicious child, just salivated at the opportunity to show I could withstand the punishment and was thus unafraid."
A Big Ol' Swig
"I was about 4 years old and my grandfather was making something with buttermilk. I saw it in his hand, and I cried and screamed and begged to have some. He kept saying 'No, you won't like it!' but I persisted. He finally poured me an entire glass."
"I took one swig and I'm sure he could see the disgust on my face, because he looked like he had won."
"I stared at him right in his eyeballs as I chugged the entire glass."
The Bait and Switch
"My partner was a heavy smoker, and at the time, I'd never touched a cigarette. I would subtly—and sometimes not-so-subtly, but always lovingly—urge her to quit. She told me I had no idea how hard it was. I decided to take up smoking for about a month and then quit just to show her I could do it."
"That was ten years ago. I'm on a pack a day. She no longer smokes."
Reclaiming the Clock
"Parents put a curfew on the computer when I was ~12 during summer break. No gaming from 10pm-6am."
"A reasonable person would go to bed at 10-10:30 and wake up at 7 to play, right? 12 year old me just stood stayed up until 6am, woke up my parents, and played until noon. Then died until dinner."
"Rinse and repeat for a few days until my parents got sick of waking up at 6am. Then I went back to gaming until like 2am."
-- Hailene2092
Technically, You Did Do It
"Walked through the brush of our treeline to get a football to prove it wasn't poison ivy. I did it. I got the football."
"It was poison ivy." -- Hellboy32607
"I once did something similar, but it turns out I'm immune to poison ivy."
"The rest of my friends? Not so much." -- aetherwaves
Lingering Defeat After a Victory
"I stabbed my leg with a pencil in elementary school. I told people I couldn't really feel much pain (which, at the time, was true). There was a spot on my leg from the lead for years." -- movealongnowpeople
"Lol, I still have a piece of graphite in my left hand from getting stabbed with a pencil 33 years ago." -- Dyolf_Knip
Not How That Works
"I told my 6th grade friends I could just jump off a two story roof and not get hurt. Guess who only got a scraped knee that day? Not me. I broke my leg." -- DemiDork231
"There's always that kid in elementary that thinks he can fly." -- Obyson
Tase (Tease)
"Let a friend tase me in the butt for 1000 pesos (about 30 US cents lmao)" -- uhhvet
"When you get tased in the ass for 30 cents, you're doing it for the kink, not the money" -- __xor__
'My best friend's husband took my tazer and tazed me through my jeans and the material of the back pocket. The pain was something else. I also had a red mark on my booty for days."
"I will get him back one of these days. I am certian of that...'" -- fr332B3M3
Extraordinary Gut Health?
"Chugged way too much Apple cider vinegar.....huge mistake." -- dhensonjazz
"The implication that there's an appropriate amount of apple cider vinegar that one could chug is excellent." -- FoldupRabbit1
"I just got sympathetic heartburn from this." -- buff_history
Dumb, Horrifying Children
"As a kid I told my friends I could hold my breath for a long time, long enough to pass out, in fact. And that's exactly what I proceeded to do." -- hellbentforleisure
"My friends and used to have those breathing contests in the pool where you'd go underwater and see who could hold in their breath the longest. I'm a really competitive person so of course I won."
"I passed out in the pool when I was 9 doing this. The lifeguard was too busy flirting to care and he thought I was faking it." -- slightlylessright
Faster, Faster, FASTER!!
"Played that stupid f***ing 5 finger filet game with a compass back when I was in school. As I got more confidence I obviously got faster and inevitably the point went right into the side of my finger tip. F***ing idiot." -- Borodave88
"I played that stupid game at scout camp... I stopped after one of the younger scouts got to cocky because he could go faster than us older guys and sliced about 1/2 inch into the webbing between his fingers.. I can still see the blood." -- xdrakennx
All Claims to Iron Hands Died Then and There
"when i was 6 I stapled my fingers because i had convinced all of my friends that i had iron hands" -- ShelikeMykicks
"I was around that age too and I was fiddling around with a stapler and stapled my pointer fingers together. It was the skin just next to the nails so it barely hurt."
"I went downstairs to tell my mom who was doing laundry that I stapled my fingers together. I still remember the look on her face to this day." -- Frankfertt
The Feeding Approach of an Anaconda
"Won a doughnut eating contest. In 10 minutes I ate about 17 doughnuts, and seconds before the time was up and I had all my thoughts set on having a hearty cleansing puke a motherf***er who wasn't even taking part yelled that throwing up afterwards should disqualify you."
"Somebody counted that I took in a few days worth of calories. My appetite came back two days after."
-- _citizenzero
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
- Laser Tag Employees Share The Weirdest Things They Have Ever ... ›
- People Describe The Most Useless Inventions They've Ever Seen ... ›
- People Share The Stupidest Things They've Ever Argued With ... ›
- People Break Down The Craziest Thing They've Ever Done While ... ›
- People Break Down The Stupidest Thing Anyone Has Ever Said To Them - George Takei ›
- People Break Down The Stupidest Thing They Ever Did As A Kid - George Takei ›
Have you ever been arrested for something and thought... "well this is just silly?"
Yes we need laws and rules, but let's be honest a lot of "crimes" need to be re-examined.
Or maybe I just want to be naughty.
All kidding aside, too many people are sitting in jails for crimes that make no sense.
It's not right.
One Redditor wanted to hear about what illegal activities we'd love to indulge in. They asked:
"If you had to legalize a crime, what would it be?"
Shoplifting and weed. Let's start there.
Fishy
"Being able to walk with a salmon suspiciously."
YorkshireCat
"The Salmon Act of 1986 made it illegal in England, Wales, and Scotland to 'handle salmon in suspicious circumstances.'”
water_fountain_
Exercise
"I’d legalize putting bikes in pools in California."
Wolfiye11
"Honestly, water biking is a great exercise and should totally be legal everywhere."
TheTrueGoldenboy
"Ding ding ding! you win!"
alemini_
Hey Spud
"Selling Unlicensed potatoes."
williamfvirgil
"As a potato myself, I agree."
CaliforniaPotato
B4TTLESNAKE
Speak Loud!
"The UK government has effectively banned protests so I'm gonna go for that."
YumYumFunTown
"here’s an article that explains it a bit. basically over here the police will now have more power to control protests. they can impose more measures, make sure people are ‘not being loud’ etc."
scseven
"Yeah super glad America doesn't have that. Right to protest is in our DNA. No matter how annoying, it’s necessary."
MRmandato
by death
"Executing politicians for treason for any crimes or abuses of power while in office. Iirc treason and sabotage are both punishable by death according to the constitution."
moldyhotdogs
Salmon? Really? Can I carry tuna or a nice cut of mahi?
Cheers all Day
"The ability to purchase alcohol at any hour of day, on any day of the week. How many of you have gone out late at night to buy beer only to be turned away because the alcohol section is closed, or not being able to buy any at all on Sunday? (in some places)."
isabellemwilliams
It's Food
"Feeding homeless people."
Breadflat17
"I am guessing it is to discourage some psychos from feeding them sh*t (both metaphorical and literal). Reddit taught me about a cop, who gave a homeless guy a literal crap sandwich."
Sandybat
"It keeps people from poisoning them."
derpygamer2142
Incredible
"Magic mushrooms."
ReallyDontWant2Argue
"I was enrolled in a clinical trial using psilocybin as a treatment for depression. After decades of treatment resistant depression, I'm depression-free. Even if it's temporary, I'm so grateful and I can't wait until everyone has access to this incredible drug."
Torontopup6
"I am hoping that weed legalization can open the doors for mushrooms."
MusicianMadness
Bringing the End
"I know it's controversial, but I would say Euthanasia (for very bad illnesses and elderly, if they're miserable and don't want to go on anymore). Afaik it is legal in some countries, such as Switzerland. Just wanted to add I'm not American and therefore can't relate to all the comments telling me about situations in US states, but don't get me wrong, it's interesting nonetheless. :) "
wurzlsep
Sex
"Sex work. I'm not interested in it, but it appears to be an arbitrary law that would be a waste of time to enforce."
"Adults can have sex for money in front of the camera for all to see, but once the camera is removed, it becomes illegal? It doesn't make much sense. The only reason it's illegal, I believe, is that the government hasn't found a method to tax it."
corneliatdyer
Sex work is real work. Let these people be.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
It's another ordinary day in America.
So of course that means we've already had a mass shooting or two before brunch.
And aside from the mass shootings, the number of single gunshot wounds or deaths is too high to count.
So let's discuss the aftermath.
Let's hear from the people who have faced the barrel of a loaded gun, or were just a casualty going about their day.
What happens after the bullet lands?
***CAUTION - SENSITIVE MATERIAL AHEAD - TRIGGER WARNING***
Redditor notaninterestingacc wanted to hear from the people who have lived the nightmare. They asked:
"Gunshot survivors of Reddit - What does it feel like to get shot?"
Guns are not a joke. Please educate yourself before you purchase.
Then the pin hit...
"I took a 7.62 to the stomach in Afghanistan. Felt like somebody had smacked with like, I dunno, a flyswatter or something. A short sharp smack. Didn’t feel much until I tried to come out of cover and I just... couldn’t. Couldn’t make my body listen to me. Then the pain hit. I’d put it at like, I dunno, an 11/10. Bullet blew off half my liver."
eyeCinfinitee
Thank you EMS...
"Chest, .357 magnum, through sternum, lung, ricochet off of rib, through scapula. Still have half under my shouldblade. Felt like I was stabbed in the chest with a hot fire poker mounted to the bottom of someone's foot when they drop kicked me. Was not expected to survive (severe blood loss), of course. Very good EMS team kept the liquids where they were supposed to and great doctors and nurses kept me going."
mndyerf**kinbusiness
Knocked Back
"I didn't really feel either of mine until about 10 minutes later. Took a grazing shot off my left arm and one in the right hip that went out my back thankfully missing my kidney. The arm felt like a bee sting the hip knocked me back a step the adrenalin at the time masked the pain."
richwith9
The Masked Men
"I was shot during a home robbery. I’m probably one of The luckiest people alive. The bullet no joke scratched my cheek and then went through the top of my ear and also a bullet grazed my wrist and opened it up. I didn’t feel anything but just liquid running down my face and my wrist was burning."
"Scariest night of my life and RIP Christian. Miss you so much buddy. Here is proof. We... https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/crime-courts/article/Man-charged-in-attempted-burglary-apartment-6236325.php Authorities said Burke and Brandon Fries, 21, fought the suspects for their guns, which were fired during the struggle."
"The two masked men fled, and investigators initially did not have any information about which direction they went or whether they escaped from the scene by car. Both Burke and Fries had been shot and were transported to Hermann Memorial Hospital in Katy. Burke was pronounced dead upon arrival at the emergency room, less than four miles away.”
Brandonfries28
Like a Rock
"I got shot in the ankle when I was 10. Honestly I thought a rock hit me. Just a slight stinging feeling. Didn't really hurt, I even kept running with my bike. Later at the hospital was a different story. The doctor tried to remove the bullet without putting me under."
"He said the pain medicine would make me forget everything. He gave up after a few minutes of hell. And, whatever he gave me didn't work as described, but it did oddly make everyone look purple from what I remember. So maybe it half worked? lol."
adamchilders
People really? How in the world do y'all get firearms?
Fleshed Off...
"Right thigh, 9mm, grazing shot across the front of the leg about 4 inches above the knee. It plowed a channel of skin and some flesh off the front. It felt searing hot like someone had laid a hot piece of metal on my leg for a second. Then, the pain went away for a while until the adrenaline wore off. It honestly hurt worse 6 hours later than it did when it happened."
morgen_benner
A slight pinch...
"I was randomly shot while walking down the street with my girlfriend in 2013. I didn't fall to the ground or anything like that. Walked into a store and told them to call the cops. It didn't hurt too bad at first. A slight pinch. The heat builds up and the pain comes in. Some throbbing as the blood pumps out. I was extremely lucky as the bullet lodged between my lower right ribs in the back just above my kidney."
"The aftermath was a really achey back. What I remember most was how everyone around me except for my girlfriend just walked around us like nothing happened. I was suffering and potentially dying and everyone just ignored it. 'Not my problem' I suppose. I lost a lot of faith in people that day."
SoggyPastaPants
Not the Head
"I accidentally discharged my 9 and I was hit in the head. While it was going on I honestly did not feel any pain but everything slowed way down. Healing and recooperating was the hardest. My mouth and jaw was wired shut for several months. Had to have complete facial reconstruction surgery."
"Had to take a piece of bone from my skull and graph it to my nose just so I could have a nose. I also had to have a feeding tube for almost a whole year. I've recovered fully and I'm very lucky. I remember mostly everything. Something's from the incident I don't remember, but for the most part, I have my memories in tact."
No-Kick1632
It Burns...
"My gf was shot, not me, but she said it felt hot and like impact but not particularly painful until much later. She was in shock and went to the hospital, after hours she said it started to hurt."
DntShadowBanMeDaddy
"This was my response too. It feels incredibly hot. It's like getting hit with a bee that's on fire. It burns like hell. But then, and only later, does is f**king hurt. The part two is that you might think you understand pressure, but get shot. It doesn't just hurt, it mashes into you."
trebuchetfight
Ricochet
"A good friend of mine got hit with a ricochet from a 9mm that hit his calf, there was drive by about a block down. He was outside of the bar smoking a cig when it happened, ran inside and felt his leg burning but decided to keep drinking. He had about 3 more drinks before someone mentioned he was bleeding… went to the ER absolutely hammered and was fine after surgery."
PM_Me_UrRightNipple
Please stay sober when handling a weapon. Please be careful in general.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
It's never attractive to gloat.
Nor does superiority ever come off as a particularly attractive attribute.
But, consciously or not, some people speak or behave in a way that immediately suggests that they think they deserve to be treated differently, i.e better than others.
Or that they believe they simply are better than other people.
A recent Redditor was curious what sort of behavior struck other people as elitist or arrogant behavior by asking:
"What screams "I am entitled"?"
Where's the fire?
"Impatience in situations where it should be just universally understood that you need patience".- c7hu1hu.
Positions of power.
"I will have you fired!"- Vergo27.
"Generally just leaving something for someone else to deal with."- Splatty_boi_420.
Sorry, but I was here first.
"People who cut in line."- Chad_Farthousse.
"People who ignore lines and cut in the front, like their time is more important than every other person patiently queueing."- ofsquire.
No one loves a tattletale.
“I’ll call my dad and tell him what you did!”- ROAM300.
Ever heard of quid pro quo?
"When they do something to you and think it’s fine but when you do it in return and they freak out."- Silvero129.
Name your price.
"I work as a ticket seller for a ski resort."
"My favorite entitled person is the guy who, upon finding out that the kid's ski lesson was sold out, offered to pay extra if I would kick someone else's kid out so his kid could have a spot."- Floranagirl.
Perhaps one of the most obvious ways to unwittingly show off your entitlement?
By being oblivious to how entitled you are.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
There's something about the woods that creeps me out. Listen here, people: I'm a city guy. The idea of getting lost out there freaks me out. No thank you. I wasn't made for that. The rest of you who like to go camping and stuff? You do you. I'll stick with my running water.
But maybe I've seen too many horror movies. After all, if I saw some creepy stuff in the woods I'd definitely run in the other direction. And so would you, right? Right?
People shared their best stories with us after Redditor shantics asked the online community,
"What have you seen in the woods that you can’t explain?"
"I stepped on what I thought was a small rock but it turned out to be weird and gelatinous. I've also seen tombstones in the woods."
his_eminence56
You just suprised it. Rocks are soft and squishy, they just tense up when you touch them! /s
"I was hiking through the remnants..."
"I was hiking through the remnants of a remote, long-abandoned town and the surrounding area. To get to as far into the woods as I was, you had to cross fallen trees over a creek three times. I had just crossed the third "bridge" and was about five miles in and something blue caught my eye just ahead of me."
"There was a man, in his sixties at least, wearing blue satin pajamas, sitting in a tree. The closer I got to him the louder he laughed; it wasn't a maniacal laugh, but it set off all the alarms in my head nevertheless. He also wasn't wearing any shoes and looked well-groomed/cleaned."
"I gave him a friendly nod as I passed and he just kept laughing. Then it stopped. I turned and he was gone. There was no branch cracking, plants rustling, nothing... He was just gone."
"Still rubs me the wrong way. The area I was in was a pretty rough hike, very secluded. Not very many people venture as deep as I was that day. No idea what was going on there."
mrwitch
“Over the Third Bridge” would be a great title for a spooky book or movie.
"Neat as a pin..."
"Fully decorated Xmas tree. Middle of summer. Neat as a pin it was, as if it had just been finished. Who ever did it came back at some point and cleaned it up, because it wasn't there next I did that trail a week or so later."
OldWomanintheWoods
This one’s not that uncommon actually. Lots of folks will decorate a tree in remembrance of someone out in the woods. Sucks when they don’t clean them up though.
"It's an interesting..."
"In Japan. A hotel was abandoned before it was ever finished being built. It only became a cement skeleton, about 5 stories high. It was left that way to eventually mold back into the forest around it."
It’s an interesting small building to explore. There are halls that are unlevel to the point of hitting your head on the ceiling (think: Willy Wonka)."
"There are stairwells that lead to nothing and one that leads to an unintentional hole in a cement wall. And on the top floor (but “inside” - as in, under the “roof”), is an old car - all smashed up - with seemingly no reason or method to have been up there."
[deleted]
This reminds me of those old abandoned amusement parks that pretty much exist to destroy me mentally.
"I once walked..."
"I once walked through the undergrowth (i.e. off the trail) with my then-girlfriend when we came across this spot where a few empty plastic bags were lying on the ground (strange because the woods are otherwise super clean), a pair of gloves and, most confusingly, the official ID card (= passport) of a young woman."
Minister_of_Joy
I would freak out and call the cops. That sounds like a murder scene.
"Many plastic bags..."
"Many plastic bags with nothing really in them but random odd things tied to trees. Sure, it could have been a homeless person but us kids att (like 12+) of us lived in those small woods behind the church every single day. We never saw anyone like that, ever. Passing through I guess, but why so many bags...still wonder."
WiseOwlBear
Do we want to know what was in them? Probably not.
"When I was a teenager..."
"When I was a teenager, I worked at a fireworks stand that was run by my friend's family. It was in a rural area: they owned a few acres of land, had the fireworks tent at the front of the property and the house towards the back, but no lights in between. My friend's mother would prepare dinner for all the workers and we'd take turns going back to the house for dinner."
"One night, I was going to the house for dinner by myself. I felt something on my arm. I thought a bug might have landed on me, but it was really dark so I couldn't see anything. I stopped walking for a second. Then I started hearing this low, raspy breathing right next to me."
"There weren't any people around me and it didn't sound anything like a bug. It was like a slow, asthmatic wheeze."
"I started getting really freaked out. I reached my hand down to my arm and felt... something larger than I expected. I furiously rubbed my hands all across my body to try and dislodge whatever this thing was, then ran as fast as I could to the house. When I finally got to the safety of the house, I could see a small red mark on my arm, but that was it."
"To this day, it's probably the most freaked out I've ever been."
[deleted]
Chills reading this! Nooo thank you!
"Several very large holes..."
"Really big holes. Several very large holes, fairly close to each other, that seem to serve no purpose. Ten feet wide, deep enough that if you jumped in you’d have to have help getting out. Was someone preparing to bury a bunch of people? Was someone punishing their kid by making them dig holes? Did they hear there was buried treasure out there?"
"We’ve never figured it out."
theyarnilama
How far apart? How neat were the holes? In a plantation or natural wood? Accessible by a small excavator?
"I once saw a huge pile of cat and dog skulls and bones about 100m from my cabin so we sold the cabin as soon as we could. It was creepy."
[deleted]
This definitely sounds like the beginning of a horror film. Did the ghosts follow you? Please report back.
"There's a small patch..."
"There's a small patch of woods where I live. You could walk across it in less than an hour. It's entirely safe and has marked trails. People somehow manage to get lost in there and I can't explain that."
ThadisJones
Did they stumble across the bounds of time and space? That might explain it. But you might be underestimating how many people lack a sense of direction.
None of this makes you want to go out into the woods, huh? Yeah, we thought so. We'll pass the next time we get an offer to go camping somewhere.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.