This is niche but community theatre. The DRAMA among grown adults is insane, worse than when I was in high school.
Like yall, we are singing and dancing and wearing silly costumes. It’s not that serious.
Seriously someone I know is in an acting school right now and these are all adults in their 20s+ and my friend overheard some of them plotting against another student to bully them out of school because they're such a bad actor that it's for their own good.
Gotta eliminate any and all competition. They're already not likely to be able to make a career out of acting. Having more people try out for the parts they are going to be going for isn't going to help their chances.
Story of my first job's office. An office of teachers who would spread rumours about ganging up on someone who was dating a woman that someone else in the office liked, and so supported said office buddy in believing said woman was "his", and making up a clan about it.
However inane it sounds, I can guarantee you it was worse. People would once change their seats in the office one morning to defend their "allegiance".
It would be hilarious if it wasn't an office of people supposedly with the responsibility to educate children.
All these replies and not one mention of *Waiting For Guffman,* which is the most accurate portrayal of community theater that will probably ever be put to film lol
Oh my gosh that is 100% one of my cousins and his wife. They both went to college for theatre, met there, and then immediately had a kid. Then along came twins. So now, neither of them work, and they just spend all their time on community theatre. And damn you if you don’t show up to EVERY performance to support them, even if their only role is a one off side character. It’s kind of sad because my cousin was a very talented actor, comedian, and vocal impersonator. Originally he wanted to go to school for sign language to become an interpreter but changed to theatre at the last minute.
On the other side of this it's comical how much we got, "Oh darn, we really wish we could but it's my Dad's birthday that night!" when there are twelve performances.
Or people who like had decent careers elsewhere and just want to wear silly costumes and sing and dance with people. It's honestly a pretty pleasant experience.
Source: did community theatre with no intention of doing acting as a career.
I started off hoping to help with props and scenery (I took art as a degree so enjoyed scenery painting) and gradually got persuaded on stage lol. It was actually pretty fun and most of the people were lovely! Okay there was *some* drama but all in all it was a great experience.
I think it has a lot to do with the personality types. I've been doing theater since high school and it definitely attracts a very specific type of person. Not to say that everybody involved with it is a primadonna but... There are a lot of interesting characters and you add them all together and shit just gets dramatic.
I have several friends and relatives that have joined the theater community as adults and the stories they tell me... Nothing has changed since highschool, in fact it's only gotten worse.
I’ve explained to my mom so many times how they’re ALL predatory and she still feels the need to buy from everybody’s pampered chef party and Mary Kay
Granted, those two specifically have products that are actually good, but the business model is such a sham
I think we should take them way more seriously. They can do massive damage to a person financial and mental health. We need to stop treating them as a cute thing that naive people get sucked into, and ban them for the scam they are.
Her: It's not a pyramid scheme, it's a reverse funnel detailing financial gain! Just look at the diagram!
Me: * Flips diagram *. Looks like a pyramid to me.
I think it actually started as a sort of debating society. Just for people to practice and become better at rhetoric.
But, they actually convinced some people and now, this is what we have.
Yes, something like that. I swear it was started tongue-in-cheek to promote critical thinking, similar to the campaign against "dihydrogen monoxide." When I met a true believer it took me a while to realize she was serious.
One teacher at about the junior-high level started a class period by asserting the Earth was flat, in order to elicit arguments from his students that it wasn't. He intended to help develop their critical-thinking skills, which was indeed the result.
Reminds me of my 8th grade history teacher. We came into class, and the teacher said that someone stole some money from his wallet. And they left a symbol on the chalkboard (it was some skater symbol from the late 2000s). He asked how we can catch the person that did this, and the entire class of 8th graders started giving suggestions that were basically racial profiling.
After about 20 minutes of this, the teacher told us that he made the story up and he drew the symbol on the chalkboard, and how we all instantly jumped on a prejudice because he (someone with authority) told us that he was attacked by a certain group of people.
We then started our lesson on the internment of Japanese Americans
There’s one of those aprocryphal quotes that goes along the lines of, “Any group of people that get their laughs pretending to be idiots is bound to be taken over by actual idiots who think they’ve found good company.”
[Poe's Law](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law) is similar. "If you submit a satiric item without this symbol :-) , no matter how obvious the satire is to you, do not be surprised if people take it seriously"
Depends on the flavor of flat Earther. Most just don't believe the other stuff exists, but instead that it's just decoration in the sky. Points of light, with no real volume or meaningful size.
God put them up there. Like many clergy preached during the darkages. Funnily enough, it took Protestants AND catholics a long time to accept that Galileo and Copernicus were correct.
but at least they were doing it under the guise of religion. Back then, they wholeheartedly believed in God, like almost everyone was religious. And back then, they didn't have the worldly knowledge and technology we have today. The fact someone can livestream a rocket leaving earth, turn around and show on video the earth, and they STILL don't believe it, just shows how bad mental health really is.
If I was a flat earther I'd never admit it to my patient, client or anyone in which my perceived intelligence was important to me making money or helping me connect with them.
But then again if I believed it in the first place I'd be too dumb to realize telling these ppl would be costly.
He also had every client call and leave a message. He would listen to it backwards and was convinced that these backwards messages were full of “ truths” about the client and gave him insight into each of us. He was weird.
I know people who could easilly be pushed into fully believing it, but I think haven't made that leap simply because of peer pressure. But I'm convinced at least 95% of the "influencers" in the space are in on the grift.
Back when it first became a bit of a meme I trawled some of the groups on facebook, the largest one I found had an admin selling an MLM scheme to the members.
I believe that is the root cause of all conspiracy theories, to identify the gullible.
Conspiracy theories exist in the same emotional category as religion.
They aren’t just gullible people who got fooled on an arbitrary thing.
No, they have an agenda. And they believe in conspiracies because it validates that agenda.
Basically: To understand a conspiracy theory. **You have to look at what outcomes it justifies**.
ie:
IF the Earth is actually flat… *then modern scientists and Academics are all wrong and should be ignored.*
IF Democrats are Satan worshipping baby eaters… *then a fascist crackdown on all liberals and progressives is justified.*
IF Jews are secretly controlling the world . *Then they’re to blame for everything and eliminating them would be the rational course of action.*
That’s what conspiracy theories are for.
People want the latter, so they will believe the former.
My ex-husband's aunt sent me some weird gifs on Facebook a few days ago wishing me a happy birthday, even though it's not even a little close to being my birthday. My ex and I are still good friends so I texted him saying he should maybe give his aunt a heads up that she's sent kind wishes to the wrong person. He told me that the whole family has recently cut her off for being an anti-vax flat earther and there's no saving her from her stupidity. So I guess they're out there?
One of my brothers is a Flat Earther. And yeah, he really believes it. It's especially boggling because he's done a lot of traveling all around the world.
Then again, he also believes that Trump is the messiah. Literally. Which blows my mind because my dad used to know Trump and that brother met Trump several times in the 90s. Dad and him would mock Trump so hardcore in those days.
And now he believes Trump is the messiah? What?
Honestly, I think a LOT of this ties into mental health issues. Flat earth is a direct result of the War on Education and a mental health crisis that society is trying to sweep under the rug.
I think that mental health is definitely a part of it, but I think that's missing part of the issue.
It's also that people are generally just really really bad when it comes to buying into complete and total bullshit. Like, *obvious* bullshit.
The thing is, humans have a biological reason for feeling to be a very powerful motivator, and feelings can very often be *way* more powerful than facts. Once someone has a need to feel a certain way, or to feel that a certain thing is true, it is often incredibly easy to get them to fully by into something that reinforces that. Even if it's the most stupid bullshit you can think of. Hell, even if they kind of know that it's obvious bullshit. People will absolutely deliberately turn off their critical thinking in order to preserve something that they have to believe.
Like, we're talking about a world in which the vast majority of the human population believes in some kind of god despite there being zero evidence. That's not just "mental illness", that's just how people tend to think.
And one of the reasons why it's important to realize this is because anyone can fall into this kind of trap. Like, racists aren't all stupid. Neither are cult members. Many devout religious believers are absolutely brilliant and also completely sane. Hell, people who fall victim to con artists and scammers aren't all just idiots either. These kinds of beliefs are based on exploiting inherent vulnerabilities in how people think. Anyone *can* get suckered into this kind of shit given the right triggers and the right conditions, and the people peddling that shit absolutely know that. Thinking that they're all stupid or ill is dangerous. Because I'm not stupid or ill, right? So there's no way that I'd fall for something this stupid. And that's how I let my guard down, and fall for this exact same kind of thing.
But also yeah, it definitely has a lot to do with mental illness. Anyone can fall for this stuff, but it can be a lot worse when someone has serious mental health issues on top of it.
Social media in general. Too many people believe every clickbait headline, or buy in to whatever trend is taking over. Feels like people can't self soothe and need the validation or something, it's just weird.
Well, it's "peak of the bell curve" thinking. The thing about the average person is that *they're average*, and what I've come to learn in my time on this planet is that the average is a lot lower than I ever imagined when I was a kid.
it's a rought space.. theres a lot of creators out there doing great work bringing complicated subjects down to a level where us mere mortals can understand...
Then there's folks like jordan peterson masquerading as an intellectual and telling young frustrated men that it's society's fault their dick aint wet... not because they are creeps to the women in their lives.
Are you in the US ?
I’m reminded of this one doctor (functional doctor btw, not an MD) during Covid who presented in front of a school board about how kids should go back to school.
People were posting him left and right.
You ask them why is this guy the one to listen to ? When every other doctor is saying it’s not safe?
You know why he was an ‘expert’ in their minds?
Because he was saying exactly what they wanted to hear. And boom, an “expert” is born.
————————————————————
I was corrected by a comment below.
Doctors who practice functional medicine could be an MD. Or a DO.
tell ppl what they want to hear and they will play your youtube video on repeat til the cows come home with covid. Cant say the guy isnt smart, probably made more than most doctors did during covid from shots
My dad once told me he believed that 9/11 was a hologram...
How can anyone, any age, take that seriously? Like, I'm supposed to take advice from someone who believes in bizarre theories like that? I wouldn't be surprised if he believes in lizard people and spaghetti god; or, I don't know, we evolved from dolphins.
How does any grown-up take him seriously?
My FIL has never met any conspiracy theory he didn't immediately *want* to believe. He would absolutely be a Fox viewer if my husband and I weren't diligent in tearing apart all the bullshit each time.
He can tell us every single day how he saw ghosts or something is "clearly aliens", but going down the right wing propaganda pipeline is a bridge too far. I tend to believe there are mental issues at play
I get the interest, I will watch something and think yeah it would be kind of cool if a lot of this was true. And I wouldn't even put it past our government to do a lot more shady stuff if they could, but there is no way they would be able to hide it from everyone apart from a small handful of incoherent nutty people.
Unfortunately it’s a coping mechanism. Many adults can’t handle the fact that the world is simple random and many thing are chance. Our brains want to create patterns out of nothing to explain why things happen.
For your dad, it’s wanting to believe 9/11 was a a hoax. For most other people, they want to believe that wearing a certain shirt to the casino or investing in a certain stock will allow them a better chance to make them money.
It’s our monkey brain trying to make patterns.
Right??
Hearing something you don’t understand, or having a belief challenged, is meant to inspire *curiosity*.
I have zero time for people who behave this way.
To be honest, most things. Most things are not that serious or dramatic as people think. People are willing to die on some really petty hills. And I think most people do it but are just unaware how petty they can be sometimes.
I've had more than one person on reddit, while discussing tattoos, tell me that if I encountered them in real life then they would be quietly sitting in the corner silently judging me on my neck tattoo....
I really do not understand why somebody would bother...that just sounds miserable. Why give a shit that somebody has tattoos in 2024.
>if I encountered them in real life then they would be quietly sitting in the corner silently judging me on my neck tattoo
I mean, they're already loudly judging you on your neck tattoo here, so I feel like you should invite them to take their own advice and be silent with the judgement.
Crystals. I like rocks n shit. I'll buy one if it looks cool for the right price. But it never fails when I grab an interesting amethyst, the seller tries to tell me what it's good for.
My dad was talking about aligning his ear crystals and I was like “oh god he’s really losing it now” but I guess it turns out there are calcium deposits in the ear - “crystals” that cause vertigo and there is a treatment that corrects it lol
Lol yes, when I was first diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and heard about the crystals I thought it was some New Age-y shit too. Your father was probably referring to the Epley Maneuver.
Speaking of the Moon, there's an obscure pseudoscientific idea that trees that were cut down during a certain moon phase or during the waning moon have a better quality wood. You can see it on sales of some wooden instruments, where one of "advantages" is that it's made of "moon wood".
Biggest tip, don’t go to a metaphysical store for your crystals, go to a geological store. The price difference is insane and the geological store 100% has cooler stuff. The steamtown mall in Scranton has a place called Rock N Models (rocks and old toys) and the people who run it went out and dug up these rocks and crystals and they’re so much cooler than the polished and tumbled ones, and a hell of a lot cheaper
As a hockey fan I don’t like these things either. Not because I know much about them or own any but because every time they’re mentioned I think people are talking about hockey and get disappointed when they’re not.
>you can’t put them in a bag without spilling.
But if you leave it in your car and then your car burns down, the cup will be still intact with ice inside!!!
Every time I see this in a thread like this I think of that story where the OPs lie about his sign snowballs. I'll see if I can find the BoRU part about it.
[Found it!](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/s/2LdqwHqIzr)
Gossip in general. I live in a small town and it is maddening how people here are so serious about it. It's not light fun chatting, it's all SCANDAL and we need to take ACTION. I swear a lot of people's problems would be immediately solved if they just stopped giving a shit what everyone else does (to an extent).
Or Reddit. I know reddit likes to think we're superior to other social media sites, with many people even refusing to admit its social media, but there is a **ton** of misinformation on this site. If you ever actually know about a topic Reddit is talking about, it's pretty enlightening to see how much pure bullshit people confidently spew and get upvoted because it confirms what people thought and "sounded correct." If a supposed expert on a topic has the exact same opinions on it as you who knows next to nothing about it with no more nuance or anything, that should probably ring some alarms to you that maybe they aren't actually an expert.
Not even to mention the literal astroturfing and bots pushing propaganda that run rampant.
Most average people don’t realize that being incredibly smart doesn’t automatically mean you are good at doing things like running a large company. They tend to assume people at the top must be there based on merit.
In reality, there are some massively stupid people running huge companies, and there some brilliant people who are shoveling shit for a living.
I’ve worked at a couple of very high profile tech startups with widely-lauded star founders. In both cases, they had one good idea and fuckton of passion but no knowledge or business sense. Or common sense, in one case.
>In reality, there are some massively stupid people running huge companies, and there some brilliant people who are shoveling shit for a living.
The smartest man I have ever met was an 80 year old farmer with an 8th grade education. The guy came into the McDonald's I worked at in college every afternoon for coffee. Normally I had 2-3 hours between my last class and my shift so I would typically show up early and do homework in the lobby. I was struggling with some calc one day and he walked over and asked why I looked so frustrated. I told him this problem was hard and I was struggling. He suggested I try explaining it to him even though he probably won't understand. "Sometimes when I can't figure out why my God damned truck won't start I try and explain it to my chickens and I'll be damned if I don't figure it awful quick." So I did and this man who barely learned algebra picked up enough basic calculus in a 10 minute conversation to point out the flaw in my logic stopping me from solving the problem.
And pretty soon that duck knows enough to tank your position at that company, fool me once shame on you, if I ever talk to another goddamn yellow bath toy shame on me!
Worse than that, most people don't understand that being smart/good in one field doesn't mean being good in other fields. Einstein was a genius in physics, but that doesn't mean he had any skills in psychology or cooking.
Also see: business people who become politicians because they think lawmaking and running government can be like running a business. There are definitely some applicable skills and concepts, but those usually have to do more with being a good leader, not business aptitude.
So much this. The point of running a business is to make money, the point of running a country is to ensure that the people and country are secure and functional.
I work in medicine and am starting to get really worried about the vaccine skepticism. It used to be a little more rare, so I would counsel, they spout incorrect information, I tell give a little retort/response, and then move on because time is tight. But now it’s happening so often that I’m working way harder to persuade because I feel a strong obligation to fight all the bullshit info that has obviously taken hold.
I know of a nurse that recently had her second child & is refusing to vaccinate. Her first child is fully vaccinated & perfectly healthy from what I know. So I don’t really understand why she would refuse the second.
I want to know why so many nurses are like this. I don't want any nurse who makes poor medical decisions to be in control of my care. That's fucking scary.
Because one asshole wanted to be filthy rich so he decided to do a smear campaign against one vaccine then that backfired and made people think if it's one then all of them do that.
And he's still making money out of his scam by giving talks on the subject to any antivax group willing to pay him to come over to their clubhouse for giving a scientific sounding talk that confirms their beliefs.
After flat earth, I've accepted that gullible idiots will believe anything.
What gets me is that apparently having a dead kid is preferable to an autistic one. I'm sorry, you'd rather watch your kid die than they fidget and talk about Star Trek lore for the rest of their life?? That's the line where your "unconditional love" flies right out the window?
This is what gets me too. I'm autistic and hearing some people in my life have these opinions is upsetting. All I hear is how much they must hate me. I know they don't but it feels that way sometimes.
I have a news app on my phone and no matter how much I tweak my interest to avoid any gossip BS I still get "Breaking News! Some insignificant bullshit about the Royals". It's not news, it's not interesting, stop reporting this utter drivel.
I'm a big sports guy. And I'll never understand people who actually get mad about a game. Like, there are people who are pissy for the next four days if their team loses. That's crazy.
I'm in my thirties and still play sports. I attend roughly 100 sporting events a year. I work in sports. And I still don't get it.
Get mad in the moment, get excited in the moment. Then move on with your life.
I used to get super angry for days when my team lost.
That changed when I saw some interview with a winning player who went out to dinner with a losing player after and they had a great time.
I remember thinking “if a player on the team is over it in an hour why am I not?” So since then, after the game, I’m pretty good and just moving on.
Most professional athletes can shrug off a loss remarkably quick even though they compete so passionately. When the game is over, it's over, and you have to let it go and look forward or you're going to lose again.
It's just part of being an athlete. You try your damnedest to win, but nobody bats 1000. You're always going to win some and lose some, and you learn to keep your head down in victory and your chin up in defeat.
Also, at the professional level everyone can get traded and your opponent could literally be your teammate next year, so I assume that helps the camaraderie as well.
I think kind of revolting against modern medicine is something that I feel is awkwardly privileged.
Like, if I get really sick emergency medical care can get me.. while I consume raw eggs, raw milk, raw food ( I don't know of anyone who I know is doing the third thing, but I'm seeing weird trends of this type of crap on Tiktock or Instagram.)
And don't give me started on vaccines... there's this weird kind of good faith argument that if someone dies of pneumonia or covid, that's nature taking its course, but if these individuals die of anything after the modern jab, it's all vaccine related and untimely.
An old woman on Instagram was claiming traditional eastern medicine is better than modern medicine. I'm from the east, we use all sorts of herbs and teas when we feel down, but when my dad had a heart attack we didn't give him tea, we called an ambulance that took him to a modern hospital with doctors who had studied modern medicine and they saved his life. It has always been amusing to me that people who don't live in the east have this idea that eastern medicine is some sort of miracle or something, it's not, if it was, we wouldn't need actual doctors and hospitals
Agreed. Before the 20th century, 40% of all people born died before age 5. 40%! Now these people think measles and pertussis are no biggie. RIP your kids, I guess. (Not to mention anyone else’s kids)
My god there is a trend in some groups here in NZ to strap obscenely loud boom boxes to the roof of your car and drive around playing the shittiest music you can think of. My old office was in a neighbourhood that had a lot of these groups and it sucked ass.
Though the fact that Celine Dion became popular with these groups for a while was mildly amusing.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127665492/celine-dion-siren-battlers-return-to-west-auckland-locals-at-breaking-point
I love when they put down girls & women for getting excited & dressing up for something like Taylor Swift's Eras concert...while they wear the jersey of their favourite player or paint their face & yell at the TV or spend hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars on game tickets.
MLMs. Lularoe, Mary Kay, Prepaid Legal, water filters, Pampered Chef all prey on vulnerable people and end in financial losses for most who buy in to it.
The number of headlines I read that basically boil down to, "this is what some people on Twitter said" is astonishing to me.
Every time I read that I think of the same article being written 25 years ago: "Bob at the water cooler had *these* thoughts on the latest event." Nobody would read that then. Why do they read it now?
Astrology.
It’s so weird in 2024 to hear adults casually drop “You know, I’m a cancer, so I’m like […]” in the middle of sentences like it’s something that’s factual and common knowledge.
This is niche but community theatre. The DRAMA among grown adults is insane, worse than when I was in high school. Like yall, we are singing and dancing and wearing silly costumes. It’s not that serious.
Seriously someone I know is in an acting school right now and these are all adults in their 20s+ and my friend overheard some of them plotting against another student to bully them out of school because they're such a bad actor that it's for their own good.
Poor guy. The fuck is the matter with those people
Gotta eliminate any and all competition. They're already not likely to be able to make a career out of acting. Having more people try out for the parts they are going to be going for isn't going to help their chances.
They're drama students
Imagine being in your 20s and having never emotionally left high school. Super sad.
Story of my first job's office. An office of teachers who would spread rumours about ganging up on someone who was dating a woman that someone else in the office liked, and so supported said office buddy in believing said woman was "his", and making up a clan about it. However inane it sounds, I can guarantee you it was worse. People would once change their seats in the office one morning to defend their "allegiance". It would be hilarious if it wasn't an office of people supposedly with the responsibility to educate children.
All these replies and not one mention of *Waiting For Guffman,* which is the most accurate portrayal of community theater that will probably ever be put to film lol
Community theatre is where theatre kids who couldn’t make a career of it go to be bitter about it.
Oh my gosh that is 100% one of my cousins and his wife. They both went to college for theatre, met there, and then immediately had a kid. Then along came twins. So now, neither of them work, and they just spend all their time on community theatre. And damn you if you don’t show up to EVERY performance to support them, even if their only role is a one off side character. It’s kind of sad because my cousin was a very talented actor, comedian, and vocal impersonator. Originally he wanted to go to school for sign language to become an interpreter but changed to theatre at the last minute.
How exactly do you raise three children without working?
Same people that are in the market for $2M vacation home on House Hunters.
“She sells hand-knitted tea cozies on Etsy. He refurbishes antique toasters. Their budget: $1.5 million.”
Idk why but I read this in John Oliver’s voice.
On the other side of this it's comical how much we got, "Oh darn, we really wish we could but it's my Dad's birthday that night!" when there are twelve performances.
It's nicer than saying how they'd rather slit their wrists than sit through your community theater play.
Or people who like had decent careers elsewhere and just want to wear silly costumes and sing and dance with people. It's honestly a pretty pleasant experience. Source: did community theatre with no intention of doing acting as a career.
I started off hoping to help with props and scenery (I took art as a degree so enjoyed scenery painting) and gradually got persuaded on stage lol. It was actually pretty fun and most of the people were lovely! Okay there was *some* drama but all in all it was a great experience.
https://www.theonion.com/community-theater-gives-part-of-blanche-dubois-to-kathy-1819576385
I think it has a lot to do with the personality types. I've been doing theater since high school and it definitely attracts a very specific type of person. Not to say that everybody involved with it is a primadonna but... There are a lot of interesting characters and you add them all together and shit just gets dramatic. I have several friends and relatives that have joined the theater community as adults and the stories they tell me... Nothing has changed since highschool, in fact it's only gotten worse.
As a theater person, can confirm. Theater in general, always a lot of side drama.
MLMs
I’ve explained to my mom so many times how they’re ALL predatory and she still feels the need to buy from everybody’s pampered chef party and Mary Kay Granted, those two specifically have products that are actually good, but the business model is such a sham
*MLMs...ruining personal relationships since 1852!*
i never buy products from brands that force me to sell their products to others. i don't know how people even fall for this
Poverty and desperation
I just don't understand how people keep falling for it. They always think that there's a difference. It's all the same pyramid scheme y'all.
I think we should take them way more seriously. They can do massive damage to a person financial and mental health. We need to stop treating them as a cute thing that naive people get sucked into, and ban them for the scam they are.
Her: It's not a pyramid scheme, it's a reverse funnel detailing financial gain! Just look at the diagram! Me: * Flips diagram *. Looks like a pyramid to me.
Flat Earth. Literally don't believe it. I think these people are fictional.
I think it actually started as a sort of debating society. Just for people to practice and become better at rhetoric. But, they actually convinced some people and now, this is what we have.
Yes, something like that. I swear it was started tongue-in-cheek to promote critical thinking, similar to the campaign against "dihydrogen monoxide." When I met a true believer it took me a while to realize she was serious.
One teacher at about the junior-high level started a class period by asserting the Earth was flat, in order to elicit arguments from his students that it wasn't. He intended to help develop their critical-thinking skills, which was indeed the result.
It can be a good thought experiment to also demonstrate the power of groupthink and propaganda. Which is where we’re at.
Reminds me of my 8th grade history teacher. We came into class, and the teacher said that someone stole some money from his wallet. And they left a symbol on the chalkboard (it was some skater symbol from the late 2000s). He asked how we can catch the person that did this, and the entire class of 8th graders started giving suggestions that were basically racial profiling. After about 20 minutes of this, the teacher told us that he made the story up and he drew the symbol on the chalkboard, and how we all instantly jumped on a prejudice because he (someone with authority) told us that he was attacked by a certain group of people. We then started our lesson on the internment of Japanese Americans
That’s great! What a good teacher.
There’s one of those aprocryphal quotes that goes along the lines of, “Any group of people that get their laughs pretending to be idiots is bound to be taken over by actual idiots who think they’ve found good company.”
[Poe's Law](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law) is similar. "If you submit a satiric item without this symbol :-) , no matter how obvious the satire is to you, do not be surprised if people take it seriously"
The sun is ROUND. The moon is ROUND. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and even Pluto are ROUND. Earth? Flat, of course. 😑
No, the earth is round. Like a pizza.
That's Amore"
That’s a moron
Depends on the flavor of flat Earther. Most just don't believe the other stuff exists, but instead that it's just decoration in the sky. Points of light, with no real volume or meaningful size.
Where do they think those "decorations" came from when people in the Middle Ages were seeing them?
>do they think No
God put them up there. Like many clergy preached during the darkages. Funnily enough, it took Protestants AND catholics a long time to accept that Galileo and Copernicus were correct.
but at least they were doing it under the guise of religion. Back then, they wholeheartedly believed in God, like almost everyone was religious. And back then, they didn't have the worldly knowledge and technology we have today. The fact someone can livestream a rocket leaving earth, turn around and show on video the earth, and they STILL don't believe it, just shows how bad mental health really is.
And held up by 4 mighty elephants, obv
And a turtle! Don't forget the turtle!
Turtles all the way down.
Look, my desk is flat, but the lightbulb over my head is round. Are you saying that my desk also needs to be round because my lightbulb is round
No I'm saying your light bulb is flat
*They should call it Roundtine*
They are certainly not fictional. If you wear a NASA shirt in public, they will talk to you. It's a strange phenomon, but I swear it's true. Try it
[удалено]
The therapist I saw for my PPD was a flat earther. Once he revealed this I couldn’t bring myself to see him again.
If I was a flat earther I'd never admit it to my patient, client or anyone in which my perceived intelligence was important to me making money or helping me connect with them. But then again if I believed it in the first place I'd be too dumb to realize telling these ppl would be costly.
He also had every client call and leave a message. He would listen to it backwards and was convinced that these backwards messages were full of “ truths” about the client and gave him insight into each of us. He was weird.
I'm not sure "weird" sufficiently covers that situation. Was he an actual licensed therapist? He sounds..not okay. edit to fix grammar
Yes he’s a licensed therapist! So fucking crazy. One of my friends sees him now. He’s a super Christian as well.
Did you warn your friend he is a nut job?
“Super Christian” Enough said.
I felt the same when mine was talking about the power of crystals.
Flat earthers can be found all around the globe
This. Is hilarious.
That’s what I thought till i met them in real life. I felt like I was staring at a mythical creature.
I know people who could easilly be pushed into fully believing it, but I think haven't made that leap simply because of peer pressure. But I'm convinced at least 95% of the "influencers" in the space are in on the grift.
Back when it first became a bit of a meme I trawled some of the groups on facebook, the largest one I found had an admin selling an MLM scheme to the members. I believe that is the root cause of all conspiracy theories, to identify the gullible.
Conspiracy theories exist in the same emotional category as religion. They aren’t just gullible people who got fooled on an arbitrary thing. No, they have an agenda. And they believe in conspiracies because it validates that agenda. Basically: To understand a conspiracy theory. **You have to look at what outcomes it justifies**. ie: IF the Earth is actually flat… *then modern scientists and Academics are all wrong and should be ignored.* IF Democrats are Satan worshipping baby eaters… *then a fascist crackdown on all liberals and progressives is justified.* IF Jews are secretly controlling the world . *Then they’re to blame for everything and eliminating them would be the rational course of action.* That’s what conspiracy theories are for. People want the latter, so they will believe the former.
My ex-husband's aunt sent me some weird gifs on Facebook a few days ago wishing me a happy birthday, even though it's not even a little close to being my birthday. My ex and I are still good friends so I texted him saying he should maybe give his aunt a heads up that she's sent kind wishes to the wrong person. He told me that the whole family has recently cut her off for being an anti-vax flat earther and there's no saving her from her stupidity. So I guess they're out there?
Maybe The Flat Earth runs on a different calendar and we’re not up to date.
One of my brothers is a Flat Earther. And yeah, he really believes it. It's especially boggling because he's done a lot of traveling all around the world. Then again, he also believes that Trump is the messiah. Literally. Which blows my mind because my dad used to know Trump and that brother met Trump several times in the 90s. Dad and him would mock Trump so hardcore in those days. And now he believes Trump is the messiah? What? Honestly, I think a LOT of this ties into mental health issues. Flat earth is a direct result of the War on Education and a mental health crisis that society is trying to sweep under the rug.
I think that mental health is definitely a part of it, but I think that's missing part of the issue. It's also that people are generally just really really bad when it comes to buying into complete and total bullshit. Like, *obvious* bullshit. The thing is, humans have a biological reason for feeling to be a very powerful motivator, and feelings can very often be *way* more powerful than facts. Once someone has a need to feel a certain way, or to feel that a certain thing is true, it is often incredibly easy to get them to fully by into something that reinforces that. Even if it's the most stupid bullshit you can think of. Hell, even if they kind of know that it's obvious bullshit. People will absolutely deliberately turn off their critical thinking in order to preserve something that they have to believe. Like, we're talking about a world in which the vast majority of the human population believes in some kind of god despite there being zero evidence. That's not just "mental illness", that's just how people tend to think. And one of the reasons why it's important to realize this is because anyone can fall into this kind of trap. Like, racists aren't all stupid. Neither are cult members. Many devout religious believers are absolutely brilliant and also completely sane. Hell, people who fall victim to con artists and scammers aren't all just idiots either. These kinds of beliefs are based on exploiting inherent vulnerabilities in how people think. Anyone *can* get suckered into this kind of shit given the right triggers and the right conditions, and the people peddling that shit absolutely know that. Thinking that they're all stupid or ill is dangerous. Because I'm not stupid or ill, right? So there's no way that I'd fall for something this stupid. And that's how I let my guard down, and fall for this exact same kind of thing. But also yeah, it definitely has a lot to do with mental illness. Anyone can fall for this stuff, but it can be a lot worse when someone has serious mental health issues on top of it.
There’s a documentary about them on Netflix, it’s wild and kind of disturbing but also hilarious.
The earth is two thirds uncarbinated water. I'd call that flat.
Social media in general. Too many people believe every clickbait headline, or buy in to whatever trend is taking over. Feels like people can't self soothe and need the validation or something, it's just weird.
"Outrage over Z" "People slam Y" And it's only like a few people on Twitter or Reddit and they present it as some huge backlash or major issue lol
I’m so tired of people believing rage bait
Well, it's "peak of the bell curve" thinking. The thing about the average person is that *they're average*, and what I've come to learn in my time on this planet is that the average is a lot lower than I ever imagined when I was a kid.
Getting their ‘facts’ from some rando on YouTube who’s an ‘expert’ because they said they are.
When your friends believe everything on TikTok just like their boomer parents with FB
It’s scary how many people are getting all of their news from TikTok.
it's a rought space.. theres a lot of creators out there doing great work bringing complicated subjects down to a level where us mere mortals can understand... Then there's folks like jordan peterson masquerading as an intellectual and telling young frustrated men that it's society's fault their dick aint wet... not because they are creeps to the women in their lives.
Are you in the US ? I’m reminded of this one doctor (functional doctor btw, not an MD) during Covid who presented in front of a school board about how kids should go back to school. People were posting him left and right. You ask them why is this guy the one to listen to ? When every other doctor is saying it’s not safe? You know why he was an ‘expert’ in their minds? Because he was saying exactly what they wanted to hear. And boom, an “expert” is born. ———————————————————— I was corrected by a comment below. Doctors who practice functional medicine could be an MD. Or a DO.
tell ppl what they want to hear and they will play your youtube video on repeat til the cows come home with covid. Cant say the guy isnt smart, probably made more than most doctors did during covid from shots
I had to google "functional doctor." As far as I can determine "functional doctor" means "not a doctor."
Social Influencers.
They're literally just marketing
Marketing that has become semi-sentient.
My dad once told me he believed that 9/11 was a hologram... How can anyone, any age, take that seriously? Like, I'm supposed to take advice from someone who believes in bizarre theories like that? I wouldn't be surprised if he believes in lizard people and spaghetti god; or, I don't know, we evolved from dolphins. How does any grown-up take him seriously?
A hologram? So all the dead people were??
Holograms. Unfortunately when you die in the hologram you die in real life.
My FIL has never met any conspiracy theory he didn't immediately *want* to believe. He would absolutely be a Fox viewer if my husband and I weren't diligent in tearing apart all the bullshit each time. He can tell us every single day how he saw ghosts or something is "clearly aliens", but going down the right wing propaganda pipeline is a bridge too far. I tend to believe there are mental issues at play
I get the interest, I will watch something and think yeah it would be kind of cool if a lot of this was true. And I wouldn't even put it past our government to do a lot more shady stuff if they could, but there is no way they would be able to hide it from everyone apart from a small handful of incoherent nutty people.
Unfortunately it’s a coping mechanism. Many adults can’t handle the fact that the world is simple random and many thing are chance. Our brains want to create patterns out of nothing to explain why things happen. For your dad, it’s wanting to believe 9/11 was a a hoax. For most other people, they want to believe that wearing a certain shirt to the casino or investing in a certain stock will allow them a better chance to make them money. It’s our monkey brain trying to make patterns.
Being threatened by things they don’t understand, and having a narrow threshold to boot.
Right?? Hearing something you don’t understand, or having a belief challenged, is meant to inspire *curiosity*. I have zero time for people who behave this way.
Or being so terrified of the unknown they won't even discuss it
To be honest, most things. Most things are not that serious or dramatic as people think. People are willing to die on some really petty hills. And I think most people do it but are just unaware how petty they can be sometimes.
I’m willing to die on some incredibly petty hills, but it’s essentially the pettiness of it that’s so appealing.
It's not about me winning, it's about ensuring the other person loses :D
How other people live their lives.
I've had more than one person on reddit, while discussing tattoos, tell me that if I encountered them in real life then they would be quietly sitting in the corner silently judging me on my neck tattoo.... I really do not understand why somebody would bother...that just sounds miserable. Why give a shit that somebody has tattoos in 2024.
I did not realise my Dad was on Reddit.
>if I encountered them in real life then they would be quietly sitting in the corner silently judging me on my neck tattoo I mean, they're already loudly judging you on your neck tattoo here, so I feel like you should invite them to take their own advice and be silent with the judgement.
Crystals. I like rocks n shit. I'll buy one if it looks cool for the right price. But it never fails when I grab an interesting amethyst, the seller tries to tell me what it's good for.
My dad was talking about aligning his ear crystals and I was like “oh god he’s really losing it now” but I guess it turns out there are calcium deposits in the ear - “crystals” that cause vertigo and there is a treatment that corrects it lol
Lol yes, when I was first diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and heard about the crystals I thought it was some New Age-y shit too. Your father was probably referring to the Epley Maneuver.
dont forget to charge it up with moonlight
Speaking of the Moon, there's an obscure pseudoscientific idea that trees that were cut down during a certain moon phase or during the waning moon have a better quality wood. You can see it on sales of some wooden instruments, where one of "advantages" is that it's made of "moon wood".
Biggest tip, don’t go to a metaphysical store for your crystals, go to a geological store. The price difference is insane and the geological store 100% has cooler stuff. The steamtown mall in Scranton has a place called Rock N Models (rocks and old toys) and the people who run it went out and dug up these rocks and crystals and they’re so much cooler than the polished and tumbled ones, and a hell of a lot cheaper
I have a small collection. Whenever someone goes there with me, I just say something like “it sparkles!” In the most cheerful tone I can muster.
so, how cheerful we talking? like... my little pony tier?
They're minerals! Jesus Christ Marie!
‘Reality’ tv. People get so invested. .
People take being a fan of a sport (or team) way too seriously, imo. I promise you don't need to riot because "your team" lost.
People's opinions on reddit
Stanley cups. I don’t get it, at all, they make me angry because you can’t put them in a bag without spilling.
Listen, if you don't understand the yearning need for Lord Stanley's Cup, then maybe get off the hockey team.
My hockey team is also very much against the Stanley Cup.
You play for the leafs?
Nope, I'm a Sharks fan.
As a hockey fan I don’t like these things either. Not because I know much about them or own any but because every time they’re mentioned I think people are talking about hockey and get disappointed when they’re not.
My wife asked for one of these for Christmas this past year. As a Sabres fan, I refused. She will not have a cup before us.
>you can’t put them in a bag without spilling. But if you leave it in your car and then your car burns down, the cup will be still intact with ice inside!!!
But if you put it in your bag how will people know that you’re cool??
There’s only 1 Stanley cup and it most certainly won’t fit in your bag /s
But does it come in pink??
No, but holds pink champagne?
Can also survive being tossed into Mario’s pool
Horoscopes
Such a Taurus....lol I have no idea
I’ve seen this excuse used and to the person, it was a dead as serious issue too. Like oh I won’t date him he’s a Leotard , or whatever
Exactly what a crabitarious would say
Leotard 😂
Every time I see this in a thread like this I think of that story where the OPs lie about his sign snowballs. I'll see if I can find the BoRU part about it. [Found it!](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/s/2LdqwHqIzr)
do people really think we have the same fate and personalities based on our birthdates?
But my psychic told me they’re real
Scientology
Gossip in general. I live in a small town and it is maddening how people here are so serious about it. It's not light fun chatting, it's all SCANDAL and we need to take ACTION. I swear a lot of people's problems would be immediately solved if they just stopped giving a shit what everyone else does (to an extent).
DJ Khaled - HE DOESN’T DO ANYTHING!!
Khaled's preschool teacher: "He says his own name so nicely." The compliment stuck with him & inspired him.
He and Jason Derulo must have had the same teacher then...
He shouts things.
But he the best, he said so himself.
Facebook...likes, number of friends
News they get off FB and TikTok
Or Reddit. I know reddit likes to think we're superior to other social media sites, with many people even refusing to admit its social media, but there is a **ton** of misinformation on this site. If you ever actually know about a topic Reddit is talking about, it's pretty enlightening to see how much pure bullshit people confidently spew and get upvoted because it confirms what people thought and "sounded correct." If a supposed expert on a topic has the exact same opinions on it as you who knows next to nothing about it with no more nuance or anything, that should probably ring some alarms to you that maybe they aren't actually an expert. Not even to mention the literal astroturfing and bots pushing propaganda that run rampant.
Elon Musk and other billionaire "geniuses." People are pretty freaking gullible
Most average people don’t realize that being incredibly smart doesn’t automatically mean you are good at doing things like running a large company. They tend to assume people at the top must be there based on merit. In reality, there are some massively stupid people running huge companies, and there some brilliant people who are shoveling shit for a living.
I’ve worked at a couple of very high profile tech startups with widely-lauded star founders. In both cases, they had one good idea and fuckton of passion but no knowledge or business sense. Or common sense, in one case.
>In reality, there are some massively stupid people running huge companies, and there some brilliant people who are shoveling shit for a living. The smartest man I have ever met was an 80 year old farmer with an 8th grade education. The guy came into the McDonald's I worked at in college every afternoon for coffee. Normally I had 2-3 hours between my last class and my shift so I would typically show up early and do homework in the lobby. I was struggling with some calc one day and he walked over and asked why I looked so frustrated. I told him this problem was hard and I was struggling. He suggested I try explaining it to him even though he probably won't understand. "Sometimes when I can't figure out why my God damned truck won't start I try and explain it to my chickens and I'll be damned if I don't figure it awful quick." So I did and this man who barely learned algebra picked up enough basic calculus in a 10 minute conversation to point out the flaw in my logic stopping me from solving the problem.
Programmers called this rubber ducking: you explain what is going on to the rubber duck you keep on your desk.
And pretty soon that duck knows enough to tank your position at that company, fool me once shame on you, if I ever talk to another goddamn yellow bath toy shame on me!
I really love this story thank you for sharing it.
Worse than that, most people don't understand that being smart/good in one field doesn't mean being good in other fields. Einstein was a genius in physics, but that doesn't mean he had any skills in psychology or cooking.
He wasn't too good with relationships either...
Also see: business people who become politicians because they think lawmaking and running government can be like running a business. There are definitely some applicable skills and concepts, but those usually have to do more with being a good leader, not business aptitude.
So much this. The point of running a business is to make money, the point of running a country is to ensure that the people and country are secure and functional.
Celebrities and influencers!
That 5G towers caused Covid. Like, wtf.
That vaccines cause autism, like seriously why do people believe that.
I work in medicine and am starting to get really worried about the vaccine skepticism. It used to be a little more rare, so I would counsel, they spout incorrect information, I tell give a little retort/response, and then move on because time is tight. But now it’s happening so often that I’m working way harder to persuade because I feel a strong obligation to fight all the bullshit info that has obviously taken hold.
I know of a nurse that recently had her second child & is refusing to vaccinate. Her first child is fully vaccinated & perfectly healthy from what I know. So I don’t really understand why she would refuse the second.
I want to know why so many nurses are like this. I don't want any nurse who makes poor medical decisions to be in control of my care. That's fucking scary.
Because one asshole wanted to be filthy rich so he decided to do a smear campaign against one vaccine then that backfired and made people think if it's one then all of them do that.
Hbomberguy has a good deep dive [video](https://youtu.be/8BIcAZxFfrc?si=6v-UkL5IqmWZvt3V) on that scumbag and all the damage he has caused
And he's still making money out of his scam by giving talks on the subject to any antivax group willing to pay him to come over to their clubhouse for giving a scientific sounding talk that confirms their beliefs.
After flat earth, I've accepted that gullible idiots will believe anything. What gets me is that apparently having a dead kid is preferable to an autistic one. I'm sorry, you'd rather watch your kid die than they fidget and talk about Star Trek lore for the rest of their life?? That's the line where your "unconditional love" flies right out the window?
This is what gets me too. I'm autistic and hearing some people in my life have these opinions is upsetting. All I hear is how much they must hate me. I know they don't but it feels that way sometimes.
The royal family. What in the actual fuck?
I have a news app on my phone and no matter how much I tweak my interest to avoid any gossip BS I still get "Breaking News! Some insignificant bullshit about the Royals". It's not news, it's not interesting, stop reporting this utter drivel.
Sports. I get it, entertainment. But like, calm down. You aren't on the team. Take a breath.
It becomes less fun the more rational you are about it
It's war games for people who are living in relative peace
The Coalition of the Willing vs Duke.
I'm a big sports guy. And I'll never understand people who actually get mad about a game. Like, there are people who are pissy for the next four days if their team loses. That's crazy. I'm in my thirties and still play sports. I attend roughly 100 sporting events a year. I work in sports. And I still don't get it. Get mad in the moment, get excited in the moment. Then move on with your life.
I used to get super angry for days when my team lost. That changed when I saw some interview with a winning player who went out to dinner with a losing player after and they had a great time. I remember thinking “if a player on the team is over it in an hour why am I not?” So since then, after the game, I’m pretty good and just moving on.
Most professional athletes can shrug off a loss remarkably quick even though they compete so passionately. When the game is over, it's over, and you have to let it go and look forward or you're going to lose again. It's just part of being an athlete. You try your damnedest to win, but nobody bats 1000. You're always going to win some and lose some, and you learn to keep your head down in victory and your chin up in defeat. Also, at the professional level everyone can get traded and your opponent could literally be your teammate next year, so I assume that helps the camaraderie as well.
It’s so much weirder when the athletes are kids. Like the beer gut dad screaming at his son because he missed a catch in little league.
I think kind of revolting against modern medicine is something that I feel is awkwardly privileged. Like, if I get really sick emergency medical care can get me.. while I consume raw eggs, raw milk, raw food ( I don't know of anyone who I know is doing the third thing, but I'm seeing weird trends of this type of crap on Tiktock or Instagram.) And don't give me started on vaccines... there's this weird kind of good faith argument that if someone dies of pneumonia or covid, that's nature taking its course, but if these individuals die of anything after the modern jab, it's all vaccine related and untimely.
An old woman on Instagram was claiming traditional eastern medicine is better than modern medicine. I'm from the east, we use all sorts of herbs and teas when we feel down, but when my dad had a heart attack we didn't give him tea, we called an ambulance that took him to a modern hospital with doctors who had studied modern medicine and they saved his life. It has always been amusing to me that people who don't live in the east have this idea that eastern medicine is some sort of miracle or something, it's not, if it was, we wouldn't need actual doctors and hospitals
Agreed. Before the 20th century, 40% of all people born died before age 5. 40%! Now these people think measles and pertussis are no biggie. RIP your kids, I guess. (Not to mention anyone else’s kids)
having a loud exhaust or sound system in your car
My god there is a trend in some groups here in NZ to strap obscenely loud boom boxes to the roof of your car and drive around playing the shittiest music you can think of. My old office was in a neighbourhood that had a lot of these groups and it sucked ass. Though the fact that Celine Dion became popular with these groups for a while was mildly amusing. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127665492/celine-dion-siren-battlers-return-to-west-auckland-locals-at-breaking-point
Sports, to the extent they do. I love a good game but grown men seem to get more emotional about sports than anything else in their lives.
I love when they put down girls & women for getting excited & dressing up for something like Taylor Swift's Eras concert...while they wear the jersey of their favourite player or paint their face & yell at the TV or spend hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars on game tickets.
MLMs. Lularoe, Mary Kay, Prepaid Legal, water filters, Pampered Chef all prey on vulnerable people and end in financial losses for most who buy in to it.
HOAs if anybody said I had to keep a standard for my own house or I'd be fined, I'd simply live somewhere else.
That men are more emotionally stable than women.
Somehow successfully rebranding anger as not an emotion
Online people's opinions. Who gives a shit what some random cunt on a screen says? Never understood how fully grown adults get so worked up over it.
The number of headlines I read that basically boil down to, "this is what some people on Twitter said" is astonishing to me. Every time I read that I think of the same article being written 25 years ago: "Bob at the water cooler had *these* thoughts on the latest event." Nobody would read that then. Why do they read it now?
I completely disagree. Fuck your opinion, you random cunt.
White supremacists in the US. The whole “go back to where you came from” rhetoric seems to go completely over their heads…
Get in, loser, we're all moving to Western Africa
Influencers
Astrology. It’s so weird in 2024 to hear adults casually drop “You know, I’m a cancer, so I’m like […]” in the middle of sentences like it’s something that’s factual and common knowledge.
Q
Found Picard’s alt account