Sometimes the most outlandish ideas sound totally plausible.
In this day and age when 'Saturday Night Live' and 'The Onion' sound like credible news sources, anything is possible.
It feels like a lot of humans will believe literally anything.
Redditor Jeffery_DahmerTV wanted to discuss the ideas that sound too crazy that they have to be true, so they asked:
"What is the most believable conspiracy Theory?"
In this day and age of alternative facts, it all seems like lies and truth.
Enlighten me.
Infection
Sick Computer Virus GIF by Achievement HunterGiphy"That computer viruses are made by antivirus companies to test their antivirus software."
astarisaslave
"Parents bought a new computer recently, the McAfee stuff was in there pretty deep to remove. The staff bogged it down, way faster afterward."
lt12765
War
"We are being goaded into waging culture wars that don't matter to keep us from waging class wars."
virgilreality
"Is this a conspiracy theory though? It would be if you assume it was engineered from the start, but this would also make it very unbelievable. But that existing conflicts had been fueled and taken advantage of by people in the position to for millennia is well evident I'd say."
Leseleff
Double Down
"Mattress Firm is a front for laundering money. There is no other reason for there to be so many. No one is ever even in there."
Free_Bingo
"Double down on this one! I have a Mattress Firm next to my job and I have never seen anyone in there ever. It’s been six years!"
cbcmama781
"I’m not convinced of this. Our local Mattress Firm is clearly baking $1k+ into their margins and then aggressively selling credit-based financing. Selling two or three a month probably covers everything."
Agloe_Dreams
Weather Issues
Climate Change Earth GIFGiphy"Those climate protestors that glue themselves to the road are hired by oil giants to make climate activists look stupid."
milanvlaman
"I feel this way about a lot of 'extremist' groups on both sides, that there are plants from the other side doing really stupid stuff just to discredit the idea."
Herr_Poopypants
The climate is changing. We have to come together. How is that a conspiracy?
That's All
Meryl Streep Pursed Lips GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"That the fashion industry purposefully doesn’t put pockets in women’s clothing so they have to carry purses."
diceunodixon
Financial Clean Up
"That the only reason that the US government doesn’t do anything with student debt loans is because then people would stop signing up for the army."
Brotastic29
"That and healthcare.
"When you join up you get healthcare fully covered for you and your family, and you can get a full college education.
If the government started providing either of those for civilians, no one would need to join the military anymore."
redF5veStandingBy
"I think so too. I know and agree with what that dude was saying but when I see or hear people use 'Army' as a way to generalize the military, it usually means that what they said is something they’re just repeating what they heard."
chefboiortiz
The Commission
"There's definitely more to JFK's assassination than the Warren commission made it out to be. Whether or not LHO was the sole killer, I find it fishy that the CIA was so desperate to hide information from the public."
Bitter-Record-3831
"There is a very well-done documentary that concludes it was an accidental discharge from a Secret Service agent in one of the cars ahead of him."
Babstana
"CIA probably considered the assassination a declaration of war against Russia. They’re probably covering up that they were about to start WW3 over it."
tangcameo
Dairy Pounds
"The Great cheese conspiracy. Each year the US government buys more and more milk to make more and more cheese. The US government is sitting on something like 2 billion pounds of cheese. Just to artificially inflate milk prices."
worfhill
"Not even a conspiracy, just an example of the government controlling the economy in favor of dairy farmers."
Glass_Pies
"I watched a documentary about this. It's actually true."
PreferredSex_Yes
They're Listening
government agent GIF by South Park Giphy"That the CIA posts questions like this on Reddit to measure their past and current work, brainstorm for future projects."
ZRX1200R
Ominous
"I have a conspiracy theory about conspiracy theories. I believe the governments and 'leaders' of the world are actually rather incompetent, so much so, that they require the illusion of them being an ominous all-powerful all-seeing entity in order to remain in power."
"And to accomplish this they allow conspiracy theories like the Illuminati and etc to spread around to add a bit of urban myth to how 'powerful' they are."
"It's probably all a bunch of garbage Europe can barely communicate within itself you expect there to be some secret global order??? Oh, stop it haha."
SparkNoJoyThrw01
Sifting through what could and could not be true, could take forever.
Life is full of mystery.
The phenomenon that is the human brain is one of the most incredible things on this planet. We are the only species that has been able to create amazing feats, like transportation, technology, arts and entertainment. Humanity has the potential for so many amazing inventions.
Humans also have the ability to create things of our own destruction or demise. As brilliant as cars can be, they have been known to cause a few accidents. Smartphones and television has given us access to infinite information and entertainment at the touch of a button. Over time, these devices have been known to cause some serious health problems.
We went to Ask Reddit to find out what inventions we are just simply better off without.
Redditor numbnerve asked:
"What is one invention that we'd be better off without?"
Let's try not to get too worried over this list of terrible inventions.
Landmines shouldn't be used anymore.
"Landmines. I'll tell you why:"
- "They render large tracts of land completely unusable."
- "They are expensive and difficult to remove safely because there is seldom documentation of where they are placed."
- "They are cheap, plentiful, easy to place, and deadly."
- "They kill/maim livestock and wild animals."
- "They kill/maim innocent people decades after conflicts have ended. Many times the victims are children because they can't read or don't understand warning signs."
"This is a great answer. They really are truly horrible, and hurt people long after whatever stupid war has gone down."
"I was going to say Twitter but I have to admit this is worse."
- Jeheh
"You're not wrong. Twitter is the landmine of the internet. You said something stupid when you were younger but as you grew older, you realized your stupidity and changed for the better. Great right? Then bam, your tweet from years passed gets used against you. And you have people freaking the f*ck out like they never did or said stupid sh*t before."
"But landmines really do suck. There's actually a country in Africa that has rats that detect land mines. They're friggin adorable."
We all love to hate 'em.
"Robocalls."
- c_fritz
"You mean, autodialer services that scammers use. Companies exist to provide autodialing phone services. F*ck them."
"A smaller but related issue is calling different businesses and hearing a robot on the end. To navigate through all their hoops, especially when it's a voice response system, and only find that you landed in the wrong section and have to do the whole thing over, is extremely frustrating."
"For questions about your account, press 1. Oh your question was about billing, you should have pressed 2 for billing. Oh, your question about billing is why you were billed twice, you should have pressed 3 for dispute resolution. Oh your dispute was due to a processing error, you should have pressed 4 for bookkeeping. Oh bookkeeping only has access to your account for records and inquiries so we can tell you your payment history and the like, so if you want to know why you were billed twice... you should have pressed 1 for questions about your account."
- atigges
"Then once you finally get to a person they send you to someone else who then puts you on hold."
"And then your call just magically loses connection."
​A lie detector test is so inaccurate.
"YES! There is no device that can "detect lies". Having a device monitor your pulse and heart rate is not a lie detector test, it is a device that monitors your pulse and heart rate."
"Or a printer. One of my favorite scenes in The Wire."
A truly unsustainable practice.
"Seafloor trawling..."
"It destroys the habitant of fish just so we can squeeze every bit of a fish from an area..."
"That seems counter productive."
- Dewahll
"Sometimes fisherman will just toss bad nets into the ocean. If they're in an area with a strong current they'll move on their own and become whirling nets of death. They'll catch anything they come into contact with and kill it. Divers have reported seeing these nets with the skeletons of thousands of sea life still stuck."
"Commercial fishing nets make up 50% of ocean plastics. And yet the industry got everyone focused on drinking straws instead..."
"I'm pretty sure it's all because of that video with a straw stuck up the turtles nose. There are a thousand better things to cut back on but straws it is!"
So many people suffered... for a specific kind of ceiling?
"Asbestos in popcorn ceiling."
- tessamp
"Asbestos in general too many people (including myself) have lost grand parents or parents to mesothelioma."
"Fun fact (actually not fun at all fact): you are more likely to get other lung cancers than mesothelioma from asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma just is a slam dunk for lawyers since you basically can only get it from asbestos exposure."
"Technically, mesothelioma isn't a lung cancer, although it typically develops in the tissue that holds the lungs in place. But you're not wrong, it's almost guaranteed that the cause was asbestos exposure, and there's a good chance that exposure was due to or precipitated by some degree of corporate negligence or dishonesty. Sadly, due to the various types of asbestos that were predominantly used, and the diverse range of exposure sources, a lot of mesothelioma restitution ends up with corporations fighting it out over how much each of them should be liable…and often, after confirmed diagnosis, the plaintiff has at most a very gross and painful year or two left and in my experience seldom lives to see a decision made in their favour."
"The problem is, the corporations aren't necessarily wrong to dispute their varying degrees of culpability, and often it's like they're saying 'yeah ok we were all beating on this guy but you were the one who got all crazy and brought out the lead pipe, and I think that's when you killed him'. And when you factor in splitting hairs over which cancer is the main boss-cancer, it gets even hairier."
"Mesothelioma tort law was the saddest thing I've worked with I think, and it's why I abandoned pursuing a career in law."
Subscriptions for products you pay for already.
"Any product that you pay for, and then have to pay a subscription to use."
"Subscriptions for any service that absolutely does not need to be a subscription. And by that I mean Microsoft Office."
"Adobe is fully subscription. You don't pay an initial fee for the software. That said, f*ck Adobe and subscription models."
- cat-meg
Though some of these inventions are minor inconveniences, some of them have serious consequences or are actually life threatening.
Over time, humans will continue to evolve and reinvent what we know the world to be like today. The question remains though: Do we actually need any of this? Just because it makes our lives more convenient, doesn't mean we need to have it.
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People Explain Which Activities Not Everyone Realizes Actually Will Shorten Life Expectancy
Death is inevitable. It's a truth we're always trying to outrun. Yet we do so many things to speed up the process.
Everyday we are helping ourselves to an early grave. And there are so many ways to avoid that trip. People are telling us all of the time how we can be healthier and better. There are literally books and blogs about ways to keep on keeping on.
So why don't we try and follow some of these ideas. And maybe we should begin trying to pinpoint were we are off and how we could try and avoid that which is poisoning us. Like carbs, well too many carbs, at least for me.
Redditor u/Babynouil wanted everyone to listen up, to make sure we live as long as possible, by asking:
What's something a lot of people do, but don't realise it's shrinking their life expectancy ?
Rule number one for living a healthy and productive life... "AVOID ALL POLITICS FROM THIS MOMENT ON!!" I swear that is killing us all, swiftly! Turn off CNN, FOX, MSNBC... all of it! Stop!
MOVE!
Tired Good Morning GIF by FreeformGiphy"Sitting too much. Our bodies are not built for the insanely sedentary lives we live. Even many of us who are relatively active spend most of the day sitting at a desk at the office and then sitting on a couch/gaming chair/whatever all night."
Good Night
"Screw up their sleep schedule."
"Some of us can't help it. I remember being as young as 10 years old and constantly waking up several times in the night, seemingly for no reason (and it still happens 5 out of 7 night these days, in my late 30s)."
"Then I read a few years back that severe PTSD can disrupt your ability to sleep through the night, sometimes for the rest of your life, and suddenly everything made sense. As such I'm lucky if I spend two straight weeks on a "normal" sleep schedule. Right now, I'm a 5AM -1:30PM sleeper."
Control
"Tension caused by worrying about things beyond our control."
"I'm stressing because my kid just started school and is having a hard time. Whenever I started a new year of school, I'd get sick with a cold. Now I'm sick with a cold because I'm worried about my kid."
"That which is beyond my control causes most of the pain in my life, so it's hard to avoid."
Down Time
"Work is killing us. We need to figure out for ourselves what we need to do to offset out jobs. I had a standing job for over a decade. It is only slightly better. Standing in one place is terrible for the circulation into your legs. It's also really hard on your feet, ankles, knees and lower back. Fatigue mats, better shoes, etc only go so far in helping. Throw in a couple repetitive motion injuries from the job itself and even after 5 years in an office job later I still have pain."
I definitely need to put my phone down. Especially when I drive. It's like an addiction. Also, my sleep is a mess. I doing my best. And someone teach me meditation.
Active
Working Out Lifting Weights GIF by Chance The RapperGiphy"Being stationary too much and not enough movement and activity. So many problems slowly creep up on you."
Rays...
"Go outside without a hat or sunscreen."
"People have been using some form of sun screen for hundreds of years. Whether it be plants, mud, etc. Plus, the UV index is ridiculous in comparison to what it used to be due to the climate crisis so the risk is actually much greater."
"If you live in the UK/Northern Ireland... not a big worry. We get proper scorching days a few weeks out of the whole year. Not all at once either."
- ElishaGG
In Public
"Not building deep relationships. Doesn't matter if friendships or romantic relationships, deeply connected human beings live longer than people who isolate themselves or have rather shallow relationships. So, just so you know: THAT'S what friends are for. ;-) "
"Being severely anti-social is all I know. I am slowly developing a minor case of agoraphobia. I don't have any friends, and every time I meet someone new I freak out and don't talk to them ever again."
"I need therapy but I can't afford it. Online options aren't really options, because most of them are either extremely impersonal, expensive, or other various issues. Also I generally have a very bad history with therapists and don't like doing it because I usually come out feeling worse."
Call Erin Brokovich
"Living near steel mills. The area I live in thrives off of these and the air pollution from them has caused SCARY high cancer rates, lung problems, and thyroid issues."
"There's a city near where I live that is nicknamed Steel City because of the amount of steel mills and other metal working facilities that exist there. I started visiting friends that lived there on a regular basis when i got my license many years ago."
"Almost every young adult at the time had this random twitch that happened every few minutes. They all acted like it was completely normal. "No, that's not normal at all, wtf is in your tap water?" I said. Most of those facilities are shut down now, and I don't see the same issue anymore."
Water. I always forget water. It's so vital. Does ice count? I put ice in everything. You gotta start somewhere. Let's get healthy people.
Reread all of this.
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After nearly a decade of Shark Tank, I always wonder what inventions are left to be created? Well apparently, plenty. Everyone out there seems to be brimming with ideas for things that can make life more productive and a tad easier. One of us has something that we know is that billion dollar idea that can revolutionize an industry. Give me a minute...
Redditor u/nala_beans wanted to hear some ideas we should all be trying to be bring to fruition by asking... What doesn't exist yet, but should?
fashion
Snow Shaking GIF by funkGiphyTemperature regulating clothing. Like, ahhh it's too cold, and the clothing gets you warm. Or later it's like ahhhh it's too warm, then the clothing automatically goes woosh woosh and you're back to normal.
Yum Yums...
The perfect snack food. I want a savory, trailmix-esque food that tastes like a regularly meal (rice bowl, beef stew, French fries, etc.) with the protein content of regular trail mix and the nutritional value of a multivitamin.
I've wanted this for years. I think that's why I eat chicken broccoli and rice so often.
Staying Afloat....
Zero gravity rooms. Who doesn't wanna just go inside a room and float for fun?
They do have zero gravity rooms but the zero gravity only lasts 30 seconds at a time and costs about $5,000. Look up "vomit comet". It's a plane that flies in a sinusoidal up-and-down flight path. It's like skydiving while still inside the plane but you never reach terminal velocity because the plane dives with you.
Space Force
space floating GIF by Tomas BrunsdonGiphyPeople on Mars. Seriously it's been 50 years since we got to the moon? I want to be able to see the first humans on Mars before I die.
For the Boys....
Birth control pills for Men.
I read that the problem is actually to do with assessing the risk of side effects. In men, you're comparing the side effects to their "normal body". That means its difficult to get medication passed as easily. But in women without birth control, you are then facing all the potential life threatening complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
So the risk assessment is framed completely differently, and that's why more options for women are available.
The science is there for male contraception. And its not just some "men couldn't handle the side effects women put up with" situation. Its more complicated.
In the Air
Low emission commercial air travel.
I always find myself wishing that blimps and dirigibles were commonplace these days. It's like taking a train through the sky! I also wish train travel was common here in the US like it used to be.
Shelter
A way to get away from your abusive parents without going into the crappy foster care system. Maybe just let the kids choose their own parents or rent a room like anyone else or stay in the school classroom each night.
The Menu....
The perfect 2000 calorie diet in frozen meal form without 200% of your DV of sodium.
I don't understand why a company hasn't made a meal plan that is actually healthy and affordable. Something like 15 dollars a day for perfect macros and micronutrients with a double protein option for lifting.
Freaking cooking. Ugh.
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There are so many little things, day to day, that we take for granted. Those things make our lives so much easier.
For example, lights. Or keys and locks. Little things that keep us safe, that keep us healthy.
But do we give them enough credit?
u/astralrig96 asked:
What's the most underrated invention?
Here were some of those answers.
Olfactory Challenge
Not necessarily a single invention, but sewers. Cities would not be possible without a good sewer system. What's even more impressive is that we had sewers in Ancient Rome. They have saved millions of lives of the years by having cleaner sanitation.
Using That Right Now
Copy, paste, and cut functions. Sure we use them all the time and we don't think about it, but there was a time when that wasn't an option... just think about that. It's bonkers.
Preserving Food
Refrigeration. It changed the world. Food can be preserved and shipped vast distances. Supermarkets are a thing now! Frozen fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy are all readily available. We have fridges in our homes. We can make ice on a whim. Our beer is cold and life is good.
Modernity Vs Antiquity
The public library.
More information and entertainment than you could ever get through in a lifetime, paid for by the people, for the people, and open to everyone? A place where you can freely go and use the computers if you don't otherwise have access? Get out of the rain? Research local history or your family tree? Where there are people who will help you find that bit of information you need but don't know where to start looking? Where you're not expected to buy anything? Where there are story-time sessions for young kids right alongside adult learning classes? Oh, and pretty much every town has one? Where the only thing you have to do is bring back the things you've borrowed in a timely manner so other people can enjoy it too -- and where people actually do it?
The public library is a phenomenally large undertaking, and I'm always in awe that those crazy bastards not only managed to pull it off but also to make it seem so normal and everyday that people actually take the things for granted.
No Ma'am
Washing machines/dryers. I don't take those for granted. Imagine filling a washtub and scrubbing clothes with a bar of soap, then hanging all that to dry, no matter the season. Yuck.
Number Twos, Specifically
The pencil.
It absolutely revolutionized how so much recording, design, and general progress was done, to the point that there were a number of countries that had strategic wad reserves (wad being the precursor to modern pencil lead).
It may be looked down upon now but has done so much good.
Padding The Feet
Shoes. Do we all really appreciate to the full extent that we should how great shoes are? I mean, think about how painful some of the places we go would be if we didn't have shoes. I'm not denying the possibility that we would have evolved around a lack of shoes, but they're just such a nice thing to have.
oh man, w h ee l ie s
Blown Rock
Glass. Without it, optics of any kind are gone. Poor eyesight? Tough. Telescope to see the planets and moon? Gone. And worst of all no microbiology, because no microscopes either. Glass is a fabulous thing so common we don't even think about it. Its absence in China allowed Europe to get a jump in a whole range of technical areas. Glass, the stuff of magic.
No More By Hand
The printing press. When it was created, it allowed the transmission of knowledge at an unseen rate. Before that, everything had to be written by hand and books were considered rare and expensive commodities only available to select few individuals.
But Even Before
Really? No one has said "paper". The ability to record thoughts and facts? The printing press revolutionized they western world and it wouldn't have been possible if paper didn't exist. The entire scientific revolution was brought about and shared through paper.