Redditor 6FeetDownUnder was eager to learn which conspiracy theories and propaganda people continue to believe, despite it's being definitively proven false, leading them to ask:
"What is something debunked as propaganda that is still widely believed?"
The Muddled Meaning Of Propoganda
"That propaganda is necessarily misleading or false."
"Propaganda is simply a method of directional persuasion."
"Can it be false or misleading?"
"Without question."
"But it can also simultaneously be factually unimpeachable and rhetorically suggestive."- dreamrock
Who Was Really Responsible For 9/11
"That the 9/11 hijackers were sponsored by Iraq."
"In reality, 15 of the 19 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia and 11 of them received large amounts of money from members of the Saudi royal family shortly before the attack."
"In 2016 the Obama administration, under pressure from the families of the 9/11 victims, tried to investigate Saudi Arabia. In response to the JASTA act."
"Saudi Arabia threatened to sell $750 billion worth of American assets they own."
"This would destabilize the dollar."
"The 9/11 Commission’s final report stated that it found 'no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded' al-Qaida."
“'This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida'."- Ctheo27
It's All Lies!
"Lie detector tests."
"They are easily rigged/straight up false most of the time and were outlawed from being used in court as evidence back in the 70s."
"idk why when Youtubers or sh*tty reality TV shows use them many people treat their answers as factual."
"They aren’t."- Conscious_Day2425
The Truth About McDonald's Coffee
"Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's Coffee Case."
"In case you never heard of it, a woman sued McDonald's because the coffee was too hot and caused injury when she spilled some on herself by accident."
"McDonald's spent millions on smear campaigns trying to make her look like some sort of idiotic buffoon who filed a frivolous suit."
"Tons of corporate influence was applied in the media to villify her."
"Ask most people, they think she lost and McDonald's won."
"Only that's not what happened."
"The coffee was between 180-190F (88C), far higher than safe temperature and far higher than competition."
"She suffered major third degree burns resulting in an 8-day stay in the hospital and skin grafts."
"A jury awarded her $200,000 in medical injuries and $2.7 million in punitive damages against McDonald's."
"Later reduced by the trial judge."
"The parties settled without disclosure out of court during appeal."
"Basically, McDonald's was completely in the wrong and scalded this woman, and the court found them liable, but smear campaigns made her look like a moron and losing party."- Kent_Knifen
Glitch Mcdonalds GIFGiphySome People Just Have High Standards
"That napoleon was short."- NiallCCFC17
Nope, Just Annoys Other People...
'That cracking your knuckles causes arthritis."
"Science nerd Donald Unger cracked the knuckles on his left hand only for 50 years, no arthritis."
"Suck it Nana."- Unable_Version_3955
Just Read The Label
"That plastics are easily recyclable, and that MSG is bad for you."- AZSnake
Climate Change Sustainability GIF by INTO ACTIONGiphyNext time you hear something whose validity is questionable, seriously evaluate who you heard it from, and then do some research of your own.
After all, facts are facts.
And no, there are no "alternative facts".
"Doctors of Reddit, what's the biggest case of 'faking it' you've ever seen?"
That's One Large Pain Threshold...
"Taking trauma call during surgery residency, had a prisoner come in after a fight and claimed he couldn’t move or feel his legs."
"All the CT scans and MRIs were normal, but we would shield his legs so he couldn’t see them and poke them with needles and other sharp objects, with enough force to cause pain- he never flinched or moved his legs at all."
"He was diagnosed with SCIWORA, spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality."
"He stayed in the hospital for a week, no improvement."
"Always had one guard with him."
"One night they were down in the lobby watching some television but the guard needed to use the restroom."
"The patient said, 'where could I possibly go?'"
"I’m paralyzed!'"
"Guard left him alone for two minutes."
"Patient last seen sprinting down the road, naked butt cheeks flapping in the breeze."
"Made it to a city four hours away by car before he was caught again."
"I have never seen anyone fake it so well."
"Truly playing the long con!"- Wine_and_sunshine
season 8 episode 23 GIFGiphyYou'll Have To Do Better Than That...
"Dermatologist here."
"Patient was convinced she had a melanoma and needed a biopsy and would need to be on workers comp."
"I told her it looked like ink from a marker."
"She demanded a biopsy."
"I wiped the area off with an alcohol swab and showed her the ink and that there was no spot on her skin anymore."
"She stormed out threatening to sue."
"I'm just glad I cured her melanoma."- Richter915
No Complaints Here...
"Had a patient come in for a fall who now couldn’t move their legs at all."
"Did a bunch of tests, didn’t find anything."
"The patient was not at all phased by suddenly being paralyzed which was the first red flag."
"Didn’t really believe anything was wrong but the patient was still not moving their legs."
"My options are to admit for a huge work up or get them to walk."
"So I update them saying everything is fine, tests are negative, you can go home."
"Patient gets up, gets dressed and walks out without a word."- meropenem24
There's Clearly One Issue She Wasn't Faking...
"Not a doctor but worked in health care for nearly 20yrs."
"While taking a break from the ICU, due to it being emotionally draining, I worked in home health for a bit."
"I had a patient who clearly had Munchausen syndrome."
"On a daily basis she would call her insurance to see what things would be covered if she was diagnosed with this or that."
"She called her Doctor's office an average of 5x during my shift with her, she would report all kinds of non real symptoms."
"She pestered the doctors into doing exploitive laparoscopic surgery, of course nothing was found."
"One day I walked in and she was rubbing her incisions with rotten cabbage trying to get it infected."
"She wasn't seeking pain meds, except to sell, really she was just as happy with antibiotics or stool softeners, anything, as long as they wrote her a prescription and she got to go to the pharmacy where she did a whole song and dance for them too, claiming allergies and reactions."
"She always increased the exaggeration of her story too."
"One time she fluttered her eyes, after making sure I was looking, and said she lost consciousness in that half a second."
"She called the doctor and claimed she lost consciousness for 5mins, she called the insurance and claimed it was 10min, she called the pharmacy and claimed it was 30min, then she called 911 and told them she woke up on the floor after losing consciousness for 4hrs."
"The worst thing about her was she was a mom."
"Her son was 28 at the time and by all the stories of his childhood illnesses and all her saying how he is severely disabled I knew she basically f**ked up his childhood with Munchausen by proxy."
"She portrayed him as being severely disabled and that's why he would never find a wife."
"I met him, he was healthy and of average intelligence."
"He wasn't looking for a wife, he was gay, but she refused to accept that."
"Working with her was so miserable that I took a couple years off from any and all healthcare after that."- invisible_for_this
GiphyShe Only Thought She Was Faking It.
"Young, 18-20, Woman went running into small rural hospital ER pretending to have abdominal pain."
"Police officer had tagged her going 40+km over the limit which was ‘stunt driving’ as per the new law in Ontario, impound and licsence suspension automatic."
"Cop followed her into ER and apparently said he’d be waiting for her when she left."
"Locum staff such as myself were housed at a small B&B about 15 mins away, and the ER had pre-printed order sets to be done before we arrived."
"When I arrived she flat out admitted that she just came in because she freaked out and didn’t stop."
"I told her we’d give her 45 mins to call her parents/family before I booted her."
"Except, bHCG came back positive, and subsequent ultrasound came back showing extremely early ectopic."
"Officer figures out something is up when he hears air ambulance call come in over radio."
"She was completely asymptomatic and just worked out that she dodged both charges and a life-threatening issue by accident."
"It was definitely a WTF moment."
"A little more info, small rural hospitals in Northern Ontario often service areas from more than an hours drive away and still only have a catchment area of 2000-3000 people."
"When on-call it was just that, we would do our days in the community clinic, then maybe hospital rounds, then go home and be on call; we wouldn’t be at the hospital, there wasn’t an on-call room where you would stay for example."
"There were lots of times that you’d go a full night without being woken up, or maybe just a call from the acute care inpatient wing."
"Locums were short term contracts for places that didn’t have full time medical staff for whatever reason."
"It’s hard to attract clinicians if you don’t even have broadband internet in the community."
"They generally pay very well."- Graigori
Lighten Your Load!
"I'm not a Doctor, but I have a hilarious story to tell of my ex faking it."
"So my first abusive ex is a compulsive liar."
"She would lie about ANYTHING, big or small!"
"She lied about a serious spinal medical condition, until I found her medical report that states she does indeed have an infusion of only 2 lower vertebrae."
"But not the condition she claimed to have."
"After I discovered this, she immediately quit her bullsh*t."
"But only for about a year."
"It was a long time ago now, but she basically claimed to have a much more severe condition, involving her WHOLE SPINE."
"She used this to get out of practical lessons in College, but what made me suspicious is the fact that she ALWAYS carried around the HEAVIEST backpack."
"I had to go through her bag to sort out what she needs and doesn't need, just to lighten the load, with consent, of course, and it did stop her complaining about back pains."
"However, after finding the note, she stopped using her back as a way to not do practicals, and she stopped using it as a way to not do any work outside of College."
"It was a miracle!"
"The story with the doctor starts here, though."
"One day, she laid on the couch, way after the spine lie fiasco, complaining that her back hurts and she can't breathe."
"I lifted her backpack, and wouldn't you know it?"
"It was really. F*cking. Heavy."
"We went to College 3 days a week, which she would carry this thing all the way around for the 8 hours each day!"
"But, she also carried it everywhere she went outside of College, meaning work, too."
"I'd carry it at times, cuz I'm not a d*ck, and would prefer to keep her happy and healthy."
"Anyway. I left her bag alone, didn't empty it just in case."
"I left her alone on the couch, cuz I knew she was over-exaggerating."
"Yeah, I know, I was a d*ck."
"Honestly though, after all the abuse, lies, and the many many times she wouldn't accept a breakup, I just kinda gave up caring, but I could always tell when she was lying."
"She's a terrible liar."
"Later, my mother decides we're taking her to the hospital."
"Apparently she wouldn't stop moaning."
"So we went, my mother dropped us off, and we waited in the waiting room after checking in at the desk."
"The beginning was still the play, but I explained again that it might just be the bag."
"She still wouldn't agree, so we sat there, I gave her love and attention, and we had normal lovey chit-chat."
"I kept observing her bpm (breaths per minute), and noticed that they lowered from quick and short, to normal, while she focused on talking to me or playing games on my phone."
"The immediately came back when we were called, though."
"She wanted me in with her, as she was nervous."
"So I went in with her, she talked to the Nurse about her difficulties, no mention of back pain this time, while I held her hand."
"During the ECG, I stopped holding her hand of course, and I had to quickly shush her when she wanted to speak, not rudely, it's just because vocal vibrations can alter an ECG's results."
"And then there was the stethoscope BPM observations, etc."
"The Nurse seemed to be sure there was an issue, but then some people would agree with the casualty to avoid confrontation."
"She said she'd have to get the Doctor, and left."
"My ex then rubbed it in my face that there was something wrong with her after all."
"I was never nasty to her, I was loving and caring throughout, after trying to help in the beginning, but not giving too much of a sh*t."
"So this was unexpected, and kinda ticked me off, but I stayed calm."
"I still gave her love, care and attention, but told her politely that we'd still have to wait for the Doctor."
"The Doctor arrived with the results, and asked my ex a few things."
"My ex's face was a suite to behold!"
"She couldn't answer anything he was asking, because he was asking questions that obviously implied there was nothing off with her results!"
"Meaning there was nothing wrong with her at all, and I was right!"
"Anyway, he asked the questions he needed to ask."
"I don't remember the exact questions, but they were basically 'what have you been doing recently?'"
"'Have you been doing any strenuous exercises?' etc., and she couldn't answer."
"Then he asked me what I thought could be the issue."
"I hadn't spoken to the Nurse or Doctor until this point, bear in mind."
"I told him about her backpack."
"THE backpack that my ex BROUGHT WITH HER TO THE HOSPITAL!"
"He said that is the most likely cause of her discomfort, and advised I carry the bag for her and empty any unnecessary items to make it lighter."
"I agreed, and we were dismissed."
"My ex's face was the ultimate face of defeat!"
"I didn't rub it in her face though, like she did to me. I actually hugged her, grabbed her bag for her and walked out with her, holding her hand and ensuring her she'd be okay."
"Basically just being a loving and supportive boyfriend."
"She stopped the rapid breathing and complaining of breathing difficulties after this."
"Although, she actually stopped just before the Doctor came in the room, so yeah."
"Thanks for reading!"- Dregar12
all good thumbs up GIF by PBS KIDSGiphyThey Weren't Entirely Wrong About Being "Humiliated".
"Once when I was in elementary, I got really bored and decided I would fake being sick."
"At the time, the word 'humiliated' was a new word for me, but I didn't know what it meant."
"My brain thought it was something like flustered or nauseous."
"I told the secretary at my school that I was so sick and was feeling humiliated."
"I was so stupid."
"Another time, my friend decided to try and skip school and twisted up some tissue paper into some kind of stick. "
"He shoved it up his nose until his face was red and his eyes went teary."
"It was a successful plot!"- the_prophecy_is_true
Don't Trick Your Parents Too Many Times...
"It’s kinda the opposite way round, but when I was little, on Christmas Day, I was sitting at the table and my stomach starting to hurt."
"A lot."
"I was a good kid and never misbehaved but for some reason my mum thought I was exaggerating or faking so she told me to stop being silly and eat up."
"I couldn’t eat."
" I felt horrible and was in a lot of pain."
"My mum just would not believe me and thought I was trying to get attention."
"About 5 more minutes of me crying and she realized something was wrong so called the doctor and put me on the sofa."
"So, that was the Christmas I missed because my appendix had burst."
"I spent a couple of months in hospital due to complications with the surgery and missed both Christmas and my birthday."
"Apparently they had caught it just in time as it could very well had been fatal."
"My family still donates what they can to the children’s wing of that hospital as that was the first of 3 times they saved my life."- PastelCurlies
stomach GIFGiphyFaking Illness To Cover A Real Illness...
"When I was between the ages of 4 and 13, I suffered from persistent UTIs."
"Actually, I was a mystery case in my hospital."
"No one could figure out the reason they just kept coming back."
"Anyway, this meant I would occasionally get the sudden need to pee, extremely intensely."
"If I wasn't within two meters of a bathroom I would pee myself."
"Obviously, being a teenager at school this was excruciatingly embarrassing."
"I often faked foot or leg injuries so I could either sit down and try to suppress the urge, or cover up my wet clothes."
"I was once discovered by my PE teacher to be faking, when she offered to bring a wheelchair out."
"Of course I tried to stop her, and it miraculously got better, whoops."
"Anyway, not much point to this story apart from bladder/kidney issues truly suck and I would never wish that upon anyone."- abisexualqueen
If Anyone Should Believe You, It's Doctors...
"Other way around for me."
"When I was 8 I went to Michigan to visit family with my dad."
"I got really sick on the flight back."
"So my dad took me to the hospital in the city we where in."
"The doctors and nurses thought I was fake wheezing and coughing."
"Then I passed out then woke up in my home town hospital with my parents grandparents and my pediatrician."- Noble611
Return Visitor
"We have a guy that comes into the ER all the time faking seizures."
"Best actor I’ve ever seen."
"Sternal rub and he doesn’t flinch."
"Last time it was so bad he got intubated and right as they pushed the meds he stopped and said 'ahhh that’s the good stuff'."
"Welp now we gotta tube you dude."
"Problem is he’s a drunk who falls a lot so he could in theory really be seizing."
"Biggest rule of medicine is even fakers get sick sometimes."- cbelle4
It's hard to blame someone for faking illness to get out of something that they really don't want to do.
But when you actually try to get doctors involved in your deception, you might want to question if it's really worth it.
After all, let's not forget the story of "the boy who cried wolf"...
Every group has soulless people among them. It's all in the numbers.
Not so Chill
Scared Spider Web GIF by XboxGiphy"Minecraft community, especially twitter. Minecraft is like the chillest game ever but the people who are into Minecraft youtube stuff are a whole new level of deranged."
AV8ORboi
Crunched
"Crunchy mums/hippie mums/gentle parenting groups. They seem lovely, but it typically winds up being a judgemental pissing contest over who is the best parent in the world."
Arugula-Current
"As a gentle parenting and somewhat crunchy mom I can't fit into these groups either. Inevitably there's a crunchy mom who believes sunshine and vitamin c cure covid, or a hippy mom who wants to organize a protest at chic-fi-la, but most of them just talk trash about everybody that's different from them."
"ALL Christians are bad (I'm an atheist and I know plenty of lovely Christians). I don't get why people have to be so black and white like that. I will say that I can't deal with moms being sh*tty to their kids by either yelling or being manipulative assholes so I will leave a group if that behavior is being condoned. Guess that's where my judgment comes in... verbal, mental or physical abuse are not my things."
spelunkilingus
The Scene
"Cosplay and it's not even close!"
judgedavid90
I love making cosplays and wearing them, but last time I went to a convention, I realized I'd just become too old for the 'cosplay scene.'"
"I literally don't care that X broke up with Y so Z and W got into a fight because they sided with different people but Z and W had a matching cosplay planned and now V has taken W's place in making the cosplay and X made a group chat to mock V's cosplays and... like Jesus, it never stops. I just want to dress up as Jinx and take pictures. Leave me out of your teenage drama."
DansMaLigneDeMire
Narrarives
"Body positive community has some surprisingly negative people. My friend who at some point lost a lot of weight and got into exercising realized she was no longer welcome there. Not because she tried to tell other people to lose weight or started sharing dieting tips, but because her experience with obesity and her body did not match the preferred narrative."
foxmachine
Yeah Right
Incredulous Yeah Right GIF by Nick CannonGiphy"Any workplace that describes itself as 'like a family.'"
jasmminne
"What they really mean is the Manson family."
SeldomSeenMe
That workplace one is a golden rule of life.
No Solutions
Giphy"Chemistry enthusiasts. It's all reaction videos involving highly toxic substances."
venbrou
"It boils down to being a pretty caustic community. Not sure if there is a solution before it implodes."
DitDashDashDashDash
Be Well
"The yoga/wellness scene. the pandemic was actually kinda handy at showing you which yoga teachers to stay the hell away from. The big things are of course, the anti-scientific views on medicine, but it’s also a breeding ground for cult leaders and grifters."
ilmalaiva
"I agree! It’s so unfortunate because I love yoga, but so many instructors (in the western world I suppose) are awful. My least favorite is when I feel like I’m being given a stern lecture on vulnerability lmao."
soapdishlunch
Extremists
"NoFap community."
"If the community stayed true to their original purpose, to quit porn, it wouldn't be toxic at all. But I'd say there are a lot of extremist people there, like people who say masturbation is evil and you must be fully abstinent unless you get a one night stand with a 10/10 because you did X number of days, or just plain conspiracies about the whole world view. The problem is this kind of posts never get removed."
the_living_paradox00
Popped
"The Kpop community? They be like heeeyyyy come enjoy this and the next minute tear you apart because you didn’t pick their favorite member."
allmylovingxx
"Yess! especially the whole locals things. when people that aren't into Kpop find a song that they like, people will tear them apart for listening to Kpop, telling them to name all the members of a group (obvi not talking about those weird thirst traps made by TikTokers)."
girlcrushjeongyeon
Intense
Super Mario Mate GIFGiphy"For whatever God forsaken reason, Paper Mario. I have gotten more death threats from Paper Mario fans than any other Fandom. I posted about it maybe three times, max. About how I liked the games, specifically."
GladOkumuraGotShot
"Mario fandom is freaking intense. Critikal made a video about huge fight in YouTube comments that started with which Mario song is better."
Falchen_
Not everybody is a good person, even when it looks like they are.
I almost sold kitchen knives. My set couldn't cut the can. So I ran.
Saviors for $$$
Celebrate Thank God GIF by KeshaGiphy"Televangelists that manage to convince their followers that God will provide for them... IF they make a one-time (which turns out to be multiple times) donation."
Ok-Strain-9847
Hang Up
"Call center scammer."
"XeQuTi
"A friend of mine used to work for the OG pre-paid travel scam. If you are not familiar, this is a scam they used to run in the 80's and 90's where a mark would pay 4 figures or so to join a travel club. The deal was that the member could choose vacations and pay minimal fees."
"The truth was that none of the desirable vacations were ever available and the available vacations had super high fees that actually paid for the vacation. The thousands of $ initial club fee was actually paid out to the phone scammer and the company that sold it. Very little of the fee went to travel services."
"My friend's job was first selling the vacations then working the customer service line. The sales people made ~$20/hour + a $200-$300 bonus for every sale. They had phone sales people making $80k in the early '90s. All that mattered is that they could sell the mark the dream of travel that they knew they would never deliver."
"As a customer service person she knew all the rules to a letter. After 3 days there was never a refund. She would just politely say no in different ways over and over again. Probably not coincidentally, she had a lot of trouble telling the difference between what was legal and what was ethical. She didn't realize there was a difference."
tweakingforjesus
Manipulators
"Addictive Design Engineer."
Ralph_Nacho
"I tried to use TikTok and I just found it overwhelming. Auto-play videos, stuff showing up on my feed I don’t want, etc. Kind of a nightmare for someone who gets overwhelmed easily. I’m sticking with watching TikTok compilations on youtube like a grandma."
Sell it Off
"Those people that market fake health insurance bulls**t on the TV channels aimed at the elderly, or sell snake oil to the old/disabled/chronically ill as though it actually works. I'm not sure what those jobs are formally called, but back in my day we called them 'con artists.'"
StrawberryR
"Marketers. The job is literally to convince someone to buy something. Whether they want the product or not."
"And fair, sure, there's a niche for people like that. What I can not stand though is Marketers. The disingenuous bullshi**ery of a 1984 language to try and shoehorn something into someone's life. The unnaturalness of it... It's like speaking to a person that can not feel emotions but pretends that they can. To manipulate you to drop a few bucks on some random bullshi**ery."
The_Pastmaster
Payday
Make It Rain Dance GIF by State ChampsGiphy"People who work for payday loan companies."
biggestdawg1234
"This is one of the few comments in the thread I agree with entirely without any reservations. Pure evil."
whateverathrowaway00
Why is our insurance such a disaster? Lord knows we pay enough.
Poor Pups
"Dog breeders for breeds like Pugs that are guaranteed health problems."
SevroAuS**tTalker
Evil...
"Scammer. Tricking 70 year-olds into giving you their savings."
A-dog-named-Trouble
"That happened to my mom. She won a big settlement for some medical something or other and was convinced by some random dude that if she gave him half of the money (around 25K), he'd TRIPLE it in like six weeks. She never saw that money again... or the dude. When I found out, I was pissed."
KnockMeYourLobes
dictators...
"Insurance company employees who dictate what Doctors can and cannot do."
Ill_Animator3907
"Yeah insurance is scummy. I interviewed at a law firm that represents insurance companies and got a call back, but I turned it down to accept a job at a firm that sues nursing homes for abuse and neglect, and I’m glad I made that choice. I don’t wanna represent insurance companies at trial. Idk why I even interviewed. Ok I do. It was the money. But I didn’t go through with it!"
natsugrayerza
Add-ons...
"When I was an intern I was working for biodegradable plastic company, they added an additive that reduces the lifetime of plastics from thousands of years to dozens of years in the environment. But it produces an increased volume of micro-plastics in the process. And by using their additive, it introduces degradation properties into other plastics meaning the products can't be recycled well and will eventually end up in landfills and cause other plastic feed stocks to end up in landfills."
hg_99
Mirror Mirror
"Beauty influencers, especially those that target young people and profit off the envy they inspire. Hawking diet pills, magic hair powders and other crap — and girls who are made to feel bad about themselves because they are swiping through these unrealistic videos and images all day wondering why they just don’t measure up will buy anything they sell just for the chance to be prettier or to fit in."
ThroatObvious6345
Jaws
Katy Perry Sharks GIF by VevoGiphy"Shark fin harvesters. They cut fins off sharks (obviously) for soup and then let the helpless shark with no fins die In the water."
budderbrudder
I say veto these gigs for sure.