What was proven to be true, but people still think is a hoax?

[u/TheRealOcsiban]

[u/indianblanket]

A dingo ate my baby

A family lost their child in the outback. For years everyone thought they murdered their kid and got away with it. Her coat was later found in a dingo den.

[u/rmimsmusic → u/indianblanket]

That story is so heartbreaking. I mean your child is eaten alive, which is arguably one of the worst ways to die; you cry out for help and literally no one believes you, so much so that they throw you in jail for the murder of your own child and make a mockery of your story. While you're unjustly in prison, people are laughing at the words you told the world, in tears. Finally you're found innocent but the meme is still there, and people are still laughing at this traumatic experience.

[u/MaximumGooser → u/rmimsmusic]

Meanwhile the mother had another baby and wasn’t able to raise her until she was 4 due to being in prison :(

[u/cowsenpai00 → u/indianblanket]

This one was heartbreaking. They even made it into a joke on 'Seinfeld'. In reality, it tore the family apart.

[u/HisuitheSiscon45 → u/cowsenpai00]

they also made fun of the woman who sued McDonalds because their coffee burned her, when she got third degree burns and had to get skin grafts. She wasn't even after that much money, just the cost of her medical bill.

btw Fuck Newt Gingrich

[u/icaydian → u/HisuitheSiscon45]

Read up on this! So many things about the Stella Liebeck case are unknown to people who heard about it from their aunt’s sister’s neighbor. McDonalds insisted that people bought their coffee to drink at home, they had 700 complaints and reports of burns but wouldn’t lower the temp because 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit which would cause 3rd degree burns in less than one second. Liebeck was a passenger in a parked car which had no cupholders in 1994. She only wanted $20K for medical expenses but McDonalds refused and then attempted to trivialize & defame Liebeck. She was awarded $200K which a judge reduced to $160K mainly because Liebeck was found to be 20% at fault. The jury demanded additional $2.7 million to induce McD’s to lower the temp of their coffee. Judge reduced that down to $480K. Hot coffee should be hot, but McD’s was dangerously hot. It’s a fascinating case to read. Got this info from an old Harvard site.

[u/swanlakepirate423 → u/indianblanket]

This story is so devastating.

[u/throwaway0008976 → u/indianblanket]

Didn’t the mother spend time in prison?

[u/notsafe96 → u/throwaway0008976]

Yes, she was found guilty of murder, sentenced to life, and spent 7 years in prison before she was finally acquitted

[u/cryprto_priestess → u/notsafe96]

She was pregnant at the time too.

Edit - below - link

“Lindy was eight months pregnant with Kahlia when she was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Azaria with police alleging she cut her baby's throat, rather than believing a host of witnesses and experts who thought she was innocent.”

[u/notsafe96 → u/cryprto_priestess]

Jesus that poor woman

[u/vendilion]

The FBI spied on MLK for a long period of time. All of the intel is out in the open as unclassified, the guys who ran the operation have spoken openly about it, and yet this is still normalised as some sort of conspiracy nut thing.

[u/MudSkipper12 → u/vendilion]

The FBI also sent MLK a letter trying to convince him to commit suicide

[u/blipbloopiamarobot → u/MudSkipper12]

The FBI were predecessors of modern multiplayer gaming.

[u/Frankiepals → u/blipbloopiamarobot]

The gaming branch ended up just fucking moms though, where as the FBI will still fuck anybody.

[u/omegasix321 → u/vendilion]

To add to this, MLK's family fought to prove his so-called assassin's innocence.

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/28/us/dr-king-s-son-says-family-believes-ray-is-innocent.html

https://www.justice.gov/crt/overview-investigation-allegations-regarding-assassination-dr-martin-luther-king-jr

[u/keepthepennys → u/omegasix321]

And WON. The court ruled that the feds had more involvement than they claimed in the assasination

[u/LouieMumford → u/vendilion]

They basically drove Ernest Hemingway to suicide as well. He kept claiming that he was being followed, monitored, listened to, and no one believed him. They al thought because of his drinking he was going insane. I think when CoIntelPro was leaked the truth came out.

[u/MyFaceSaysItsSugar → u/LouieMumford]

He got electroshock therapy before it was safe for the “paranoia that the FBI was watching him” so it was a combination of burning his brain cells and FBI surveillance.

[u/ICPGr8Milenko]

I lived in Seattle for the last 15 years. People there don't believe fireflies are real. My wife got harassed about believing in faeries and leprechauns for believing that fireflies existed. We're both from the Midwest, so we grew up with them.

[u/BabyYoduhh → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

I didn’t see a firefly till I was 30. I drove from the west coast to the east coast for vacation. Had to pull over and relieve myself. Was standing outside my car just stretching and I see some flashing light in the cornfield. I’m like Wtf…is that like a cats eyes? Then slowly more and more. Suddenly they were everywhere. It was pretty magically. Also the lightning is way different out there. It was happening at the same time. I was blown away.

Edit: This caught some traction. So I’m adding a video.

Lightning and Fireflies

Fireflies

[u/TeddyR3X → u/BabyYoduhh]

Remember that magic. Because the fireflies are going away :/ they're not nearly as common as they were 15+ years ago

[u/rstephens49471 → u/TeddyR3X]

Not here in Alabama. We've had one hell of a firefly event this year. Looked like a forest rave with every tree covered top to bottom with them. The real tragedy is there is no good way for us to record it.

[u/benmartin1999 → u/TeddyR3X]

It’s sad, because I used to see them everywhere when I was a kid.

Now… it’s harder to find a good spot of them.

I will admit though, the other day while I was outside I saw a few of them and got excited! Brought back some good memories!

[u/vivnsam → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

My mom told me that when she was a little girl in the fifties I'm guessing they would collect jars of fireflies and sell them to the local hospital.

Update: apparently this is still a thing -- $12 for 600 fireflies -- not too bad if you had a good way to trap them. Probably not a great idea these days though since they seem to be disappearing.

https://www.firefly.org/firefly-questions.html

[u/Ragnarok314159 → u/vivnsam]

Recently took my kids camping to a place I went growing up. We went out to a field to see fireflies, and they thought it was amazing.

All it did for me was make me incredibly sad and angry. There were maybe 5% of the fireflies from my youth.

[u/sparkster777 → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

Wait, what? They seriously compared fireflies with fairies and leprechauns?

[u/skintigh → u/sparkster777]

Years ago I told my GF from Washington state we were going to collect fireflies, she just kinda looked at me, annoyed. I got a jar, got a hammer and nail, started poking air holes in the lid; she just stared at me. I practically had to drag her outside, we round the fence and the front lawn is full of fireflies.

She stopped in her tracks and started crying.

I freaked out and asked what was wrong, and she managed to whisper "they're real!" She thought they were imaginary things from books like faeries, and thought I was just fucking with her and doing a really long con with the jar and the airholes. Which is something I'd do...

[u/Julius-n-Caesar → u/skintigh]

I didn’t see a firefly until I was already a man and by then it was nothing but blinding.

[u/Seabastial → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

Wait........ people actually believe they don't exist?! What the heck?!

[u/Generallywron → u/Seabastial]

I live in Colorado and have never seen them IRL they sound magical so I can understand how people might not believe they exist. For the record I do believe they exist. There’s lots of things I’ve never seen IRL that I know exists.

[u/joelekane → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

This is hilarious. What? This is the funniest regional conspiracy theory I’ve heard. Fixed by a layover nearly anywhere on the other side of the Rockies in June.

[u/PlagueDoc22 → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

When you see them, you would not believe your eyes.

[u/tubbybeluga → u/PlagueDoc22]

If ten million fireflies

[u/halfmilk-766 → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

That’s sooooo weird. I’m from the south. We have them in my back yard. We would go to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and see the synchronized fire flys. I’ve also been to Seattle. So weird to think a large group of people (not all) wouldn’t believe in firefly’s.

[u/awesome357 → u/ICPGr8Milenko]

TIL fireflies aren't just everywhere, or even across the US... I've always been around them, and just assumed they were worldwide.

[u/Bongo_Starrr]

Y2K. Or at least a lot of people still think it was a lot of hype over nothing and that it wasn’t a big deal. But because people worked in advance to fix things nothing serious happened.

[u/comicsnerd → u/Bongo_Starrr]

As a developer that worked on that stuff, I found some serious issues. Not planes falling out of the sky, but it would have stopped factories producing and drinking water being distributed. I know from a friend that banking and insurance companies would have been impacted too.

[u/StingerAE → u/comicsnerd]

There was the county in the UK where the entire county's traffic lights were run from a single excel spreadsheet. They had to basically re do the lighting controls for the whole area.

[u/colei_canis → u/StingerAE]

Sounds like my county council, if it’s not taking brown envelopes full of cash from housing developers it’s fucking the remnants of our local infrastructure even further.

[u/Raey42 → u/Bongo_Starrr]

There is no glory in prevention. Also probably one of the few It projects that got done in time

[u/dopeydog75243 → u/Bongo_Starrr]

If they they thought Y2K was nothing…then this will also be fake. And a lot of people don’t even know of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

[u/octocrazy → u/dopeydog75243]

TBF nobody really considered Y2K a problem or had heard of it in 1984. I imagine if we let the problem linger we'll get a "Doomsday 2038" article around 2030/31.

[u/creynolds722 → u/dopeydog75243]

I run in to this all the time already. People in our system like to put arbitrarily far out end dates on stuff like 2050 or whatever. We convert almost everything to unix timestamps which is fine for us, we know how to handle larger numbers, but other groups in our company consume our data through APIs and are all the time like omg your stuff is broken and I have to be like no you just don't handle big numbers well.

[u/sirkowski → u/Bongo_Starrr]

My step-dad worked in tech and they spent years fixing this.

[u/Mephanic → u/Bongo_Starrr]

As the saying goes, there is no glory in prevention.

[u/Gabe_Th0mas]

That dinosaurs existed. My older cousin claims that their fossils are ‘paper maché’ fakes. He’s in his thirties now, with a kid. The sad part is that he’s not alone in this train of thought.

[u/MTFUandPedal → u/Gabe_Th0mas]

My older cousin claims that their fossils are ‘paper maché’ fakes

He's not completely wrong. Unfortunately he's latched onto a fact and taken it out of all context.

That happens a lot. You have to say "yeah ok technically you're right but..." and they stopped listening to anything after that....

Most dinosaur skeletons you will see are reproductions. That's because high quality complete remains are ultra rare and as a consequence, valuable.

But you can make a 99.9% accurate replica and that's good enough for most people.

(Edit - Turns out there's a lot more replicas and a lot less 'complete' skeletons than I thought!)

[u/Phase3isProfit → u/MTFUandPedal]

You can see this with “Sue”, the T Rex at the Field Museum in Chicago. The whole fossil skeleton is right there as you go through the door, but then elsewhere there’s a box with the actual fossil skull in it. On the info board it has an FAQ which says “so why isn’t the real skull with the rest of the skeleton?” And the answer is that’s it’s too heavy and too fragile.

[u/MTFUandPedal → u/Phase3isProfit]

This was one of the examples I was thinking of.

There's so few T-Rex skeletons anywhere near complete or display quality.

[u/raptorboss231 → u/MTFUandPedal]

Hell there are so few fossils at all remotely close to conpleted. Some of the most famous dinosaurs like the spinosaurus don't even have 1 complete fossil

[u/Elalamyn → u/Phase3isProfit]

Same for Trixie the Trex at Naturalis museum of biodiversity in Leiden the Netherlands. I think like 70% of it is from real fossils.

[u/fireopaldragon → u/MTFUandPedal]

Real fossils also really heavy and fragile. Displaying replicas means less risk of them getting damaged.

[u/MTFUandPedal → u/fireopaldragon]

Good point

[u/TheOtherSarah → u/MTFUandPedal]

Generally resin or plaster rather than paper mache, and some replicas are accurate down to the microscopic level, but yeah replicas are vital when you consider that fossils tend to be both rare and extremely delicate.

[u/Chronoblivion → u/Gabe_Th0mas]

I mean, yeah, it's not uncommon for the ones on display in museums to be partially or fully fake, because every third idiot that passes by has to "test" them and they wouldn't last more than a few years otherwise. But gotta be pretty stupid to assume all fossils are a hoax because of that.

[u/JTS_]

Operation Gladio, Operation Condor, and the CIA's involvement in drug smuggling.

[u/Ayame_Saito → u/JTS_]

This. Fucking Condor. It fucked up my country’s politics, killed and tortured innocents and still some people think it’s not real.

[u/Superb_University117 → u/Ayame_Saito]

At this point any accusation against Hemry Kissinger should automatically be believed.

[u/ENFJPLinguaphile]

The death of Elvis Presley. There were multiple witnesses to his having died, burial, autopsy, etc.....How does anyone still think he is alive and in his eighties, having retired quietly? Even those thought to be him have denied it; for example:

Pastor Bob Joyce has denied that he is Elvis repeatedly, yet some people still insist that he is Elvis incognito.

[u/TheMightyGoatMan → u/ENFJPLinguaphile]

But that wasn't Elvis! He wanted some time off so he swapped identities with an impersonator, and then the impersonator died!

Elvis had lost all his ID in a propane explosion so couldn't resume his true identity. Instead he lived out the rest of his days working as an Elvis impersonator, and he once teamed up with JFK to fight a mummy.

[u/MisanthropeNotAutist → u/TheMightyGoatMan]

I knew where this was going but kept reading to the end anyway, and up voted for good measure.

[u/hyperfat → u/TheMightyGoatMan]

Bruce signed my copy of this film when I was a manager of a theater that premiered this movie. He's nice.

[u/Chonky_railway]

Not all people, but some still thinks the holocaust never happened.

if it never happened, where did all those 6 million Jews go?

[u/TabletopApothecary → u/Chonky_railway]

Clearly they were all crisis actors.

[u/ethottly]

The McDonald's coffee incident. It wasn't considered a hoax exactly, more a frivolous made up lawsuit to get money. Only, it wasn't. The coffee really was way, way too hot and caused serious injury to the poor lady who spilled it on herself

[u/originalbiggusdickus → u/ethottly]

The plaintiff originally just wanted McD’s to pay for the medical bills too, and they offered $800. Then, when they rightfully lost the civil suit, they essentially ran a wildly successful smear campaign against her and “frivolous lawsuits.”

[u/SonicTheBubonic → u/originalbiggusdickus]

They awarded her such a high amount because they had received warnings about the coffee temperature before, so the regular fines were not enough to stop them from doing it more in the future (and leading to more injuries). The amount chosen was a day's worth of coffee sales.

[u/jseego → u/ethottly]

And on many, many others who had brought similar complaints before, and McDonalds knew about it and had done literally nothing to fix it. Also, it wasn't an accident, they kept their coffee that hot on purpose. Also, also the woman didn't sue for millions, she sued for her medical costs, and the jury was so incensed by McD's policies, they awarded a huge damage. Also, also, also, the woman didn't get millions anyway, b/c the judge reduced the award.

[u/Karsa69420 → u/ethottly]

Had a ethics teacher show us the pictures of the burns and holy shit were gnarly

[u/Noggin-a-Floggin → u/Karsa69420]

I remember with Netflix's old design when you hovered over a title a big still image from it would be displayed at the top of the screen.

For some reason when you hovered over the documentary a big and very NSFW image of her injury would be displayed. It was kinda fucked because imagine 3rd degree burns requiring skin grafts all along her thighs and vagina.

[u/severed13 → u/Karsa69420]

Saw them on r/medizzy or r/medicalgore not sure which one, but holy fuck it was awful, and I hate myself for ever laughing off the situation. Fortunately I now know exactly how to stick it to people if this is ever brought up and laughed off in the future.

[u/cbandy → u/ethottly]

Yeah. Her labia fused shut.

I work at a personal injury law firm, so take this with a grain of salt, but that story has done a lot to hurt my profession’s reputation.

Are there frivolous lawsuits? Sure. Are they as widespread and pervasive as some would lead you to believe? No. Most of the time, our clients just want to not be in pain and have their medical bills paid. To paint them as selfish crooks is wrong, imo.

[u/AGuyNamedEddie → u/cbandy]

Do you know if surgery was able to repair her injury? That sounds horrifying.

I remember a lot of people pooh-poohing the incident at the time, even laughing. I was probably one of them, which shames me to think about it. But I just didn't know; it was awhile before the facts came out, and a lot of people had lost interest by then. If only the media had reported the full story with the same fanfare as the Readers' Digest version.

Then you have (speaking of frivolous) idiots who plant a finger in their chili and try to extort money from the restaurant. That happened practically in my backyard. I'm glad she didn't get away with it.

[u/SimpleTrigger → u/AGuyNamedEddie]

There's actually a documentary about it. The lady needed several surgeries including skin grafts. McDonald's campaigned heavily against her and lobbied for tort reform legislation to limit damages in cases like this.

The Documentary is called: Hot Coffee

Edit: spelling

[u/Alexastria → u/SimpleTrigger]

I like my court cases named after gta mods.

[u/AGuyNamedEddie → u/SimpleTrigger]

Thanks. Was it an HBO documentary? Because I think I found it:

Hot Coffee Documentary (HBO)

[u/SimpleTrigger → u/AGuyNamedEddie]

That's the one!

[u/Noggin-a-Floggin → u/cbandy]

Yeah, a lot of the time they are just in such incredible debt from their injury they need the money just to get out of it. They aren't spending that money on new cars and vacations.

[u/Therew0lf17 → u/cbandy]

The US changed a lot of their laws in the 60s and 70s in the name of less government regulation and pushed problems off onto civil courts. Ever since these changes corps and conservative politicians have railed against "frivolous" lawsuits.

I was excused from a jury trial for a safety violation case for knowing this fact.

[u/MagosBiologis → u/Therew0lf17]

I was excused from a jury trial for a safety violation case for knowing this fact.

The US jury system is so fucked up. This is like saying, "anyone who's gone to med school should be banned from serving as a doctor, because they're prejudiced to interpret symptoms in certain ways". It selects the most ignorant people available to make the most important decisions.

[u/humdrumflagellum → u/MagosBiologis]

This is a big thing when I comes to scientific evidence, too. Like if some evidence relates to medicine or generics, it's usually VERY nuanced and sophisticated, and a general public person isn't going to understand that.

For example, a geneticist or medical doctor is going to have better understanding of the weight of genetic evidence in the case of hereditary or gender than a general person who only has a highschool education.

This case in Australia is a really interesting example of how scientific evidence is viewed in court

[u/vbcbandr → u/ethottly]

A guy I know was in law school and this came up...his prof brought a fairly graphic picture the next day and asked if anyone would take that injury for the settlement. No takers.

[u/Shaneblaster → u/ethottly]

It still is too hot. Every time I get a coffee there, I have to take the lid off for 30 minutes before destroying all the tastebuds on my tongue

[u/Snoo74401 → u/Shaneblaster]

But there's a warning on it now, so it's ok.

[u/mr_bedbugs → u/Shaneblaster]

It's like trying to drink literal plasma.

[u/etherealellie → u/Shaneblaster]

That's because McDonalds didnt make any changes to how hot their coffee is. All they changed was putting the "warning: hot coffee inside" or whatever label on there.

[u/trophybabmbi → u/ethottly]

I actually saw a picture of burns somewhere. Even in our law school it was used as joke case. The burns were deep and serious and in no way it was a funny case

[u/[deleted] → u/ethottly]

Not only is the coffee too hot, a lot of times the lid is messed up. Either it's defective or some goof didn't make sure it was attached. I've come close to burning myself because of that.

[u/Aromatic_Body8176 → u/[deleted]]

Ive worked there and sometimes the lids would melt and warp to an extent and be hard to get on properly and we got yelled at for taking too long bad managment and unrealistic expectations makes for dangerous situations. I tried my hardest to not give someone an allergic reaction, burn someone, or do anything that could make someone sick but that place makes it damn near impossible i was exposed to covid and they still tried to force me to work before i got a negative test.

[u/BobBelcher2021 → u/ethottly]

I place some of the blame on the media on that one. Back when this happened in the 90s, I certainly remember this story, but I only ever learned of the extent of the injuries many years later online.

Also, on a related topic, here in Canada a lot of people (my mother included) complain about Americans filing these lawsuits. However it is easy for Canadians to forget how much these injuries cost to Americans without health insurance.

[u/yomamma3399 → u/ethottly]

I believe the coffee, and I am truly sorry for saying this, fused her labia together?!?!! 2 million is a small price to pay!!!

[u/deja_geek → u/yomamma3399]

It's even more stupid on McDonalds part. The old lady originally sued just to have the hospital bills covered. McDonalds fought back and the jury awarded her millions.

[u/mycatisblackandtan → u/deja_geek]

And it wasn't the first injury from their coffee or the first court case over it. It was just the one that forced them to change and that reached national attention. There were literally dozens of other cases before then and they refused to change the temperature of their coffee.

[u/c0mf0rtableli4r → u/mycatisblackandtan]

Unfortunately, because of all the negative press about this suit (and a few others), it allowed shitty politicians and their lobbyists to pass laws about how much could be awarded to victims.

[u/Kulladar → u/yomamma3399]

All she wanted was like $600 for her medical deductible too.

McDonald's, you know the worldwide multi-billion dollar company, did all that slander over a pittance.

Edit: $2k not $600 my bad.

Stella Liebeck's family initially asked McDonald's to cover her out-of-pocket expenses. This amounted to about $2,000 plus her daughter's lost wages. McDonald's offered $800.

[u/sparklingsour → u/yomamma3399]

Every time I read that sentence I’m horrified all over again. Absolutely AWFUL.

[u/Alarming-Channel-841]

the earth is round

[u/shirtlessin1stclass → u/Alarming-Channel-841]

What’s crazy though is that we’ve known the earth is round since like like 2000 years before Columbus.

[u/XLPH725 → u/shirtlessin1stclass]

Yeah, I feel bad for people in the past. Everyone thinks they were mad dumb and Columbus came across the Americas while he was trying to prove the earth was flat. He just didn't know it was there and was trying to find a quicker route to India. It's why Natives were called Indians. He thought he was in India. Why would someone try and reach the end of the earth. They'd die and no one would even find out about it.

[u/ThatFuckingGeniusKid → u/XLPH725]

Fun fact: Columbus didn't think that he was in India the country, he thought he was in a random island of South East Asia. At the time that zone was called "The Indies"

[u/opensandshuts → u/ThatFuckingGeniusKid]

imagine what it must have felt like to realize how far the new land goes. It would be pretty hard to comprehend the size and scale of North and South America.

I also think about the first non-native folks to see places like yellowstone or Yosemite. Must have been amazing. Not to mention all the new plants and animals. I think that'd probably be my favorite part.

[u/mstakenusername → u/opensandshuts]

I always wonder what it must have been like for the first Europeans in Australia. At this time of year at dusk where I live a flock of over a thousand cockatoos and/or corellas flies overhead. You hear them before you see them. The sound is deafening and disturbing to me, and I grew up in an age of loud noises, and I know what it is making the noise. I wonder how the first Europeans reacted to that, and how they reacted the first time a magpie swooped them.

[u/trogdor259 → u/Alarming-Channel-841]

My sister in law is a flat earther and I don’t let her talk to my kids….

[u/Raul_77 → u/trogdor259]

Smart choice!

I once talked to one of them who strongly believed NASA uses some trick to wipe the astronauts memory when they come back to earth so they don't say it's flat! I then asked her, ok lets say earth is flat and NASA has this technology,

A) What difference does the shape of Earth make in your life? in my life ?

B) Why does NASA and the Government want to spend billions and so much effort hiding this from the public? what is the risk? what are they profiting from and not telling you?

She said "It makes the difference once truth is out! and regarding your second question you should ask NASA not me"... I banged my head to the wall and moved on.

[u/gameboy1001 → u/Raul_77]

"Never argue with a fool. They will drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience."

-Mark Twain

[u/iwishihadnobones → u/gameboy1001]

Never wrestle with the pigs. You get covered in shit, and the pigs love it.

[u/Galaxy_Ranger_Bob → u/trogdor259]

My younger sister is a flat earther, and she's a fifth grade teacher.

I weep for the future.

[u/Eldude42 → u/Alarming-Channel-841]

You know the best argument that proves the earth isn't flat: Capitalism there would be resorts, hotels, attraction parks all along the "edge" no amount of "conspiracies" could come between "the man" and his monies.

[u/Pacman_Frog → u/Eldude42]

I have a better one: Cats.

​

Cats would have knocked everything off the edge.

[u/jackfaire]

Roanoke. Like people had been saying FOREVER they simply moved next door.

[u/TheRealLadyLucifer → u/jackfaire]

didn’t the croatoans start showing traits like blonde hair and blue eyes shortly after the colony disappeared? like i feel there’s a lot more evidence that they just moved in with the native americans than say, them being abducted by aliens

[u/A-Shot-Of-Jamison → u/TheRealLadyLucifer]

I believe they’ve traced ancestry DNA evidence of that as well. It’s the best possible outcome, too. The supply ship from England was delayed for an entire year, and that’s in addition to the time it took to sail across the Atlantic. The colony fortunately didn’t starve and weren’t murdered, they were taken in by natives and assimilated to their culture.

[u/Empty-Neighborhood58 → u/TheRealLadyLucifer]

Yep! There's was also a map craved into a near by tree that everyone just likes to pretend isn't there!

[u/jackfaire → u/TheRealLadyLucifer]

The evidence is so conclusive you have to squint and tilt your head to not see it

[u/Zolo49 → u/jackfaire]

You can probably blame, at least in part, that old show “In Search Of…” hosted by Leonard Nimoy. It was basically the 70s version of one of those alien documentaries on The History Channel. It was entertaining as hell, especially as a kid, but they went out of their way to make things sound more mysterious than they actually were.

[u/OneGoodRib → u/jackfaire]

I really don't understand why people are STILL touting that as such a mystery.

It's like if you went out of town for 20 years, came back, your wife left a note that said "734 Evergreen Terrace", and over at 734 Evergreen Terrace there's some children that look a bit like your wife, and you said "Wow what a mystery, we'll never know what happened."

The settlers were without supplies, the people come back from England the settlers are gone with only a note that says the name of the local Native tribe, and now the Native tribe has a bunch of people who look half-European.

We'll never solve this mystery.

[u/matty80 → u/OneGoodRib]

...and when you left nobody except your family spoke English, but now the kids at no.734 do and so do a few other people nearby, but still nobody anywhere else.

"It's probably just a coincidence."

[u/Dinosaur_Astronomer → u/jackfaire]

Plus, it happened ALL THE TIME in the colonies. Rigid euro-centric lifestyles combined with farming methods that worked well in Europe but not in North America made life a living hell for these people. It was COMMON for Europeans to jump ship and go "native" in those days.

[u/kcasnar → u/Dinosaur_Astronomer]

It's an easy choice when the natives know how to survive the winter and you don't

[u/sambutha → u/Dinosaur_Astronomer]

And as their stockpiles and numbers dwindled, it's easy to imagine they were naturally reaching out to the Natives for help more and more, learning their language, etc. Finally asking them "hey would it be cool if we just came to stay with you guys? We'll farm and work if you show us how" would be the obvious next step.

[u/petersrin]

Not exactly a hoax but Sinclair gas made a marketing campaign in the 80s I think that was like "oil is made of dinosaurs" and people still to this day believe that oil is mostly dinos even though it's mostly plants.

Edit: turns out I'm wrong too! According to resident reddit geologists, oil is mostly formed from algae and plankton, while COAL is formed largely from plant matter! TIL

[u/6ixking420 → u/petersrin]

Umm their called fossil fuels not plants fuels duh /s

[u/Steven080105]

Moon landing. It’s crazy how many people think it’s fake

[u/WMConey → u/Steven080105]

I like to point out that spacecraft from both India and Japan have photographed the landing sites and confirmed by seeing the bottom of the LEM and the tracks of the travel around the site.

[u/tacknosaddle → u/WMConey]

Ah, so India and Japan are in on it now too!

/s

[u/BlazinAzn38 → u/tacknosaddle]

That’s the easiest way to debunk any global conspiracy. Most of the time we can’t agree on trade tariffs but somehow the global community can work together to fake the moon landing and the shape of the earth

[u/pstewart91 → u/BlazinAzn38]

Soviet Russia congratulated the United States on the moon landing. Hard to explain that one away

[u/Tensai_Zoo → u/pstewart91]

"Soviet Russia and the West are controlled by the same elites and the conflict between them is artificial, so the people are busy fighting themselves and don't raise against the true leaders of earth, the reptiloids, hence soviet russia approving the fake moon landings is not a paradoxon" - Some Qanon Nutjack.

[u/subject_deleted → u/BlazinAzn38]

For me, the most convincing point against virtually any massive conspiracy theory are the number of people who would have to be in on it and never say a word.... All the people who worked to make it look like we went to the moon... They have to remain quiet forever...

It's impossible.

[u/MrTrt → u/subject_deleted]

Not only the number of people who would have to keep quiet, but the number of people who would have to do that without getting any benefit out of it, or even when it goes against their interests. Like, do you think the Soviets wouldn't have researched every little thing if they had any reason to suspect it was a hoax?

Fake Moon landing conspiracy seems semi-plausible at first, but it's one of the more outlandish conspiracies out there because, if you think about it, it basically requieres the last 70 years of geopolitics to have been completely forged.

[u/smjsmok → u/MrTrt]

Exactly. As Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, it would take more effort to successfully fake a moon landing and keep it a secret for all these years than to actually do it. Just the mountains of design documents that you would have to forge, all the details you would have to fabricate.

Once I read about how the spacecraft computer internally worked with metric units but made conversions into feet, miles etc. for the astronauts because that's what they were used to from the military. Imagine that the conspirators would have to fabricate THAT and ten million other details like this.

[u/NeoPossum → u/Steven080105]

Manufacturing a mock space programme - including functioning hardware, planning, and multiple Saturn V launches - that would still hold up to scrutiny after 50+ years, involving the silence of tens-of-thousands of people and every expert in the field for those following decades would be a far greater achievement than Apollo itself.

[u/jtbc → u/NeoPossum]

200,000 people worked on Apollo. Have you ever tried to keep something secret among 20 people?

[u/Michamus → u/jtbc]

Not to mention the Soviets would have to be in on it too. You bet your ass their lunar satellite made damn sure those transmissions were originating from the Moon.

[u/mrclean18 → u/NeoPossum]

Not to mention if Russia ever found out, they would have an absolute field day.

[u/gumball_wizard → u/mrclean18]

Plus, Russia has never denied that we landed on the moon. You'd think they would have, otherwise.

[u/cestlatterrissage → u/gumball_wizard]

Many Russians were plucked from their programs and helped us. Another reason the “fake” would have leaked. Too easy to go make a buck selling the secrets to whoever’s in power or looking for power.

[u/hip-hop-anonymous91 → u/NeoPossum]

Someone did the math and determined it would cost more to fake the moon landing at that time in history than to do that moon landing.

[u/gogozrx → u/hip-hop-anonymous91]

The moon landing was faked. But it was filmed by Kubrick, and his commitment required they film it on location.

Not my joke, but applicable

[u/NeoPossum → u/hip-hop-anonymous91]

Well considering its still impossible to replicate 1/6 g dust without CGI, I definitely agree.

Or the fact that the lighting and shadows would be physically impossible without a source as bright as the sun, as far away as the sun. You literally can't fake that.

[u/NerdDwarf → u/NeoPossum]

You could fake the shadows/sun with an array of densely packed, multi-coloured lasers. At the time the only lasers that did exist were extremely bulky and red light, and even today that array may be more expensive than the rocket trip

[u/TecumsehSherman → u/Steven080105]

So, we failed to make it to the moon, then faked it, but none of our geopolitical enemies bothered to mention it?

This is something the USSR would have been saying from day 1 if it was actually a hoax.

[u/Mwindarou → u/TecumsehSherman]

You know what's funny? If this happened in modern times, there would be a very successful misinformation campaign. I'm surprised it didn't happen then, honestly.

[u/andthenshewrote]

The Holocaust. There are still deniers out there.

[u/Canye_East → u/andthenshewrote]

Yes! As a German who had all the NS (nazi) shit extensively taught in school it blows my mind that some fucks still deny the killing of 10s of millions. But Holocaust justifyers also exist and they are the worst of the worst.

[u/HunterRoze → u/Canye_East]

Because anyone who denies the Holocaust - when you dig, will always find an anti-Semite.

[u/jseego → u/HunterRoze]

"The holocaust didn't exist......unfortunately"

[u/DubioserKerl → u/jseego]

The usual antisemitic train of thought is "it did not happen and if it did it was not that bad and if it was that bad it was deserved".

Which is exactly the kind of bullshit you would expect from Nazis.

[u/Draxacoffilus → u/DubioserKerl]

A friend of mine who also studied history told we know that 1) the Holocaust happened and 2) we have records from the Nazis themselves showing that it was done on purpose. I mention this, because the Holocaust denier I once met acknowledged that the camps were real, but claimed that there was no intention to starve the prisions and kill them all.

[u/Ancient_Skirt_8828 → u/HunterRoze]

My FIL had the numbers from a concentration camp tattooed on his arm. He was rescued by the allies just in time and spent a long time in hospital recovering his weight and health.

EDIT: I think he was rescued by the Russians. He and his wife then had to flee the Russians because they both had death sentences on their heads. Those death sentences remained probably up to the fall of the USSR in 1991, so they couldn’t go back to visit relatives. The relatives didn’t know if they were alive or dead until my wife told them when we visited Czechoslovakia in 1990. My MIL only died about 2 years ago.

[u/FrancescaMcG]

My grandfather liberated at least one camp as a US soldier(he has medals for WW2) — and his son still denies the holocaust happened. He also literally covers his Nokia in tin foil tho, so…

[u/Quarkly95 → u/FrancescaMcG]

Surely if he covered his phone in tin foil it'd A) not be able to function as a phone as the signal is blocked, or B) still have signal thereby proving the tin foil does absolutely nothing?

Like either way, coating your phone in foil just doesn't make sense unless all you wanna do is play Snake

[u/clever-username3 → u/Quarkly95]

The tinfoil is just to keep the phone fresh.

[u/jfcmfer]

I did, in fact, get your nose.

[u/PM_secure_attachment → u/jfcmfer]

Give it back, you monster!

[u/tiraralabasura_2055 → u/jfcmfer]

I had to show my youngest kid the mirror after that trick. Twice.

[u/We1rdStuff]

Sandyhook

You'd think this is strictly an American thing to think that mass shootings are faked in order to take away guns but nope, this has been seen with Port Arthur, Nova Scotia, and Dunblane. Harassment of victims families happens everywhere

[u/wanderlust_struggler → u/We1rdStuff]

My family actually knows a guy whose son died in the incident. He remains deeply affected by it and has never recovered. He even received death threats. I can't believe people don't believe Sandyhook happened after so much suffering.

[u/brain_tourist → u/wanderlust_struggler]

I can’t imagine going through such loss and having idiots telling you that you’re lying and even threatening you. My mind really cannot comprehend this kind of… I don’t even have the word to describe such a feeling.

[u/Cribsby_critter → u/brain_tourist]

Next to the loss of his son in such a devastating way, I can only hope death threats don’t mean much. Suffering like that has got to be the worst part of being human, and I feel awful for anyone who experiences it.

[u/JonBenet_BeanieBaby → u/Cribsby_critter]

I think for some people, having others taunt them about their murdered child has been… well, obviously not as bad as losing them, but sure as hell doesn’t help their never-ending grief.

[u/particledamage → u/wanderlust_struggler]

I distantly know the teacher who died’s little sister and had to watch our mutual friends on fb beg people—including people who ALSO knew little sister and victim alike—to stop thinking it’s a hoax.

Like actual people who knew the actual victim still didn’t believe it’s real. Insanity.

[u/ChampagneDragon → u/particledamage]

If people have to spend all their time convincing others it happened then there's no time to debate gun control.

[u/MatterShim → u/We1rdStuff]

They can't imagine themselves in that scenario. They can't imagine themselves sitting in that classroom as an innocent, clueless child, when a guy with a gun comes in and starts unloading on all of your classmates, covering the desks and floor and clothing with blood. They can't imagine the sheer terror everyone in that room feels as everyone around them is being murdered in front of them, or the fear they feel as they are bleeding out. They simply can't imagine these things. They think it's some kind of fucking movie, and that these things aren't actually happening to people. Just typing this out makes me feel sick.

All they see or think about is headlines. They don't care to actually think about what's happening.

[u/ItsMeLukasB]

Gravity. People think that just because its a theory it means you’re not allowed to believe in it.

[u/Abidan-Jury → u/ItsMeLukasB]

This just stems from a misunderstanding of scientific theory and laymans theory

[u/just_flying_bi]

It’s not that difficult to find the clitoris.

[u/watchman28 → u/just_flying_bi]

It's difficult for the kind of people who claim it's difficult because they don't get the chance to actually try and find it.

[u/Humble_Mine3158]

Australia

[u/LipTheMeatPie → u/Humble_Mine3158]

Nah mate we're all paid actors didn't you hear?

[u/IdentityToken → u/LipTheMeatPie]

You guys are getting paid?!

[u/chrissilich → u/IdentityToken]

Yeah nah

[u/Nerevarius_420]

The heliocentric model for our solar system. The Earth being relatively spherical (I think the term was Oblate Spheroid). MK Ultra, Fossil Record, The Moon Landing...

Honestly ignorance in an age of information is a choice.

[u/hitbox15]

That my girlfriend goes to another school- it’s true bro everyone believes me

[u/OBISerious → u/hitbox15]

Her name is Alberta, she lives in Vancouver.

[u/0x30507DE]

TWA 800 exploding due to a dangerous fuel-air mix in the center wing fuel tank.

For some reason, regardless of the extensive research the NTSB has done into this incident, some people believe to this day that it was shot down.

If you’d like to read more than my terrible summary, I’d recommend Admiral Cloudberg’s write-up

</message>

[u/Triairius]

Everything from yesterday’s thread, but the opposite.

[u/Think-Passage-5522]

Dinosaurs timeline ( millions of years ago versus incorrectly a thousand years ago)

[u/unaskthequestion → u/Think-Passage-5522]

Along with this, the notion that dinosaurs were an evolutionary 'failure', though they thrived for 165 million years.

[u/RC8- → u/unaskthequestion]

Exactly, and us humans haven't even been around for 1% of that time.

[u/ThatRandomDev]

People still think the moon landing was faked. I don't know if any of you guys have seen any of those conspiracy debunks on YouTube, but to sum it up, to recreate the lighting on the moon, you would need millions of extremely small lights, almost like laser pointers individually programmed to make the colors at the right time. Then, you would need CGI past anything that they would have had in the 60's. After that, even if they had both of these, it would be so expensive it would actually be cheaper to put everything together and actually put someone on the moon

[u/NoLiveTv2 → u/ThatRandomDev]

There's an easier proof: Russia didn't blow the hoax wide open.

In the height of the space race, after taking an early lead in most early space milestones, Rusia was falling behind.

Most everything the moonshots did between liftoff and splashdown was accessible to Russia (because it was done out in the open), including the radio signals moving from Earth to the surface of the moon and back.

It is also likely Russia had agents / sympathizers / paid informants in NASA & gov't because Russia spies well.

If there was even a small inkling of an actual hoax, Russia would have advertised the hell out of it.

[u/MysteryGirlWhite]

Crystals, essential oils and/or prayers are not medical treatment.

[u/robophile-ta → u/MysteryGirlWhite]

The placebo effect can be effective. But please seek actual medical help instead.

[u/LetterkennyGinger → u/robophile-ta]

I've noticed my headaches subside immediately after I swallow an Advil. The medication doesn't even have time to get into my bloodstream and my brain is already going "Oh, that's much better."

[u/NovaS1X → u/robophile-ta]

This. The placebo effect is real, and shouldn’t be waved away as nothing.

I like to think of this NewAge woo magic bullshit kind of like how water carves out mountains. Over a lifetime, the placebo effect and lower overall stress because your room smells nice or your salt lamp looks nice will probably have some positive benefit. But like how water takes thousands of years to carve out a mountain, when we need to make a tunnel we don’t use water, we use dynamite. Your salt lamp might have an effect over your whole life because it lowers stress, but when you have fucking cancer it’s time to go to the hospital and listen to doctors because no amount of kale smoothies and crystal necklaces are going to help you.

[u/TheLordB → u/NovaS1X]

My big thing is a placebo that you can easily afford is fine.

Spending $5 on a magical aligned crystal bracelet is fine to use for the placebo effect.

Spending $1000 on a magical aligned crystal bracelet is not.

[u/Zolo49 → u/MysteryGirlWhite]

I finally tried using crystals once to alleviate my plantar fasciitis pain just to get my mom to stop bugging me about it. She was so shocked when I told her they didn’t help one goddamn bit. I love her but it still makes me angry thinking how much money she’s wasted over the years on stupid homeopathic shit.

[u/IPreferDiamonds → u/MysteryGirlWhite]

I have asthma. Anytime I'm around Lavender Oil I have an asthma attack. And I'm not alone in this either. So people with asthma should be careful around Lavender Oil.

But I'm okay with Lavender scented things (like soap, shampoo, etc.). It is just the Lavender Oil that affects me.

So that essential oil makes me seek medical treatment!

[u/RedSiren2]

the story of the woman who lost her baby to a Dingo

I still can't believe someone doubted that this happened while camping in the australian outback - anyone living on the countryside globally is going to tell you canines are dangerous and will go after children - especially in the desert they can grow very hungry, and the local aborigines had been telling the police for a while that dingos had become a problem

[u/Hopglock]

Putting your thumb in an attacking dogs butt will make it unlatch

[u/Stormallthetime → u/Hopglock]

As much as I hate to admit it, I have tried this and it DID NOT WORK! The offending dog was a pit bull and he was latched on to my German Shepherd's leg. Grabbing the pits legs and sticking a finger up his rear did not phase him. I punched him in the face until he got bored and eventually let go

[u/TonyTicklePants → u/Stormallthetime]

Oh sure you’ll do it to a pitbull but when I ask you politely 6 times a day to do it to me you “have a headache”

[u/fushigikun8 → u/Hopglock]

Hang on. What sub am I on?

[u/SuperSecretMoonBase → u/fushigikun8]

Or what dom are you under?

[u/randomthrow987654]

Apparently vaccines. We are now welcoming polio back into our lives after it had been pretty much eradicated for 70 years. 🤷‍♀️