Idiotic urban myths

[cultcross]

Even more idiotic myth: the thing about vaccines and autism. That's also been thoroughly debunked, yet some ignorant sheeple still believe it. And diseases flourish because of it.

Good point - one of the doctors who created that here was struck off last month for serious professional misconduct in relation to his research. Carrying out invasive tests against the best wishes of child patients.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Wakefield, right? What a crack.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Stupid bullshit about "all odd numbered Trek movies suck".

You mean they don't?

 

[scotpens]

In Germany, there's one that says you can drink beer and then wine, but not the other way around, because that would make you sick.

This is based on an old saying about social classes, wine being an upper class drink and beer being the drink for the lower classes. So, it's good to climb up from beer to wine, the other way around, not so much.

That makes as much sense as preferring one's martinis stirred rather than shaken because shaking "bruises" the gin.

(I guess James Bond likes his gin bruised.)

A friend of mine is convinced he can get rid of his shortsightedness by training the muscles in his eyes.

Does he also think he can cure his impotence by training the muscles in his dick?

Different areas of your tongue are for different tastes. That one is probably one of the most enduring biological myths and is still taught in primary school the world over - generations have now grown up utterly convinced they can taste 'sweet' better with the tip of their tongue, etc.

Yes, like my parents and grandparents, I learned the "taste map" of the tongue. I only recently found out it was bullshit.

 

[T'Girl]

A friend of mine is convinced he can get rid of his shortsightedness by training the muscles in his eyes.

Does he also think he can cure his impotence by training the muscles in his dick?

The myth that tells a guy that he can increase his size by stretching his unit,
men if all it took was to pull on it, well ...

 

[greenguy]

What about the one where your friend has a friend who knows a couple who tried anal sex and "it didn't work out" (to euphemize) so they blamed it on the dog and then their parents put the dog down? I have heard this one in at least three different states.

 

[Mary Ann]

Even more idiotic myth: the thing about vaccines and autism. That's also been thoroughly debunked, yet some ignorant sheeple still believe it. And diseases flourish because of it.

Wakefield supporters are on my hit list. My youngest child is on the autistic spectrum and it's surprising that I've never decked anyone for asking me if he'd had the MMR injection considering how many people have asked me. I'm a firm believer in immunisations. In Quebec and Ontario, and probably most other Canadian provinces, children must be immunised in order to attend public schools. I wish to hell the UK had the same rule.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

Stupid bullshit about "all odd numbered Trek movies suck".

You mean they don't?

The Final Frontier might have something to say about that.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Probably bindun but I missed out the middle pages
Different areas of your tongue are for different tastes. That one is probably one of the most enduring biological myths and is still taught in primary school the world over - generations have now grown up utterly convinced they can taste 'sweet' better with the tip of their tongue, etc. A German scientist published an thoroughly debunked paper about it in 1901 and we've been learning it ever since.

Thanks for that! I just found out now from you!

it sounds weird, but I like finding out things that I thought I knew were false. Not about things like my mom and dad aren't my real parents or anything like that but "neat" little things like that.


Another: People that think toilets flush counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

 

[John Picard]

Oh, has anyone ever heard the Old Wives' Tale that a cat should never be allowed near a newborn baby as it will "steal the baby's breath"? This is a no shitter, and people were furious when they discovered our one cat would sleep in my son's crib.

The underlying problem is if the animal sleeps on the infant's chest or face; however, in our case the cat would sleep at the foot of his crib.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What about the one where your friend has a friend who knows a couple who tried anal sex and "it didn't work out" (to euphemize) so they blamed it on the dog

Eh?

 

[John Picard]

What about the one where your friend has a friend who knows a couple who tried anal sex and "it didn't work out" (to euphemize) so they blamed it on the dog

Eh?

 

[greenguy]

What about the one where your friend has a friend who knows a couple who tried anal sex and "it didn't work out" (to euphemize) so they blamed it on the dog

Eh?

A really popular urban legend when I was in high school was that someone at our school always "knew" a couple from the district/school nearby. Allegedly, either the girl or the guy's parents were out of town, so they got wasted and decided to try anal sex. There was a "mishap" of the worst possible magnitude (one that practitioners of the activity know never actually happen) and they couldn't clean the sheets properly. When the parents came home, they blamed the stains on the dog, and then allegedly the parents responded by putting the dog down. I heard this "rumor" in college in California and then at a party in Brooklyn, about separate people.

Variations also exist:

http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/sofa.asp

 

[Sephiroth]

HEY NOW! Dog is good eating, cat on the other hand is too stringy

 

[Gil T.Azell]

The old "pleasuring yourself" will make you go blund.

It may not make you go blind, but I hear it might make you make spelling mistakes.

Who siad that!!!, come out into the light so i cen saw you.

Didn't the song say it Turned You Japanese or something like that?

 

[scotpens]

Didn't the song say it Turned You Japanese or something like that?

I really think so!

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Stupid bullshit about "all odd numbered Trek movies suck".

You mean they don't?

The Final Frontier might have something to say about that.

So would Nemesis

 

[Rii]

The thing about having to wait an hour after eating before going swimming to save oneself from drowning or whatever.

 

[RJDiogenes]

You mean they don't?

The Final Frontier might have something to say about that.

So would Nemesis

The Search For Spock and Generations would disagree, though.

 

[Etched]

In the UK the story about eastern European immigrants killing and eating swans is believed by a shocking amount of people despite there not being one single recorded case of this happening. The RSPCA have twice released statements saying that its hasn't happened but it still gets thrown around by racist tabloid journalists at every available opportunity.

A friend of mine is convinced he can get rid of his shortsightedness by training the muscles in his eyes. I'd file that under "idiotic myths" too.

I used to work with a woman who was convinced the reason she was boss eyed is because when her eyes were operated on as a kid the doctors "took them out and swapped them round".

I kid you not.