bizarre "facts" in conversation

[calmloki]

+1 on he is probably a moron.

Every Sunday, I have a Happy Hour with my Dad and a few of his friends. One of his friends is a retired legislator and newspaper editor (he's almost 80 years old) and very, VERY often will say stuff that is blatantly wrong. Stuff that was internet lore back in the early 2000's that have been rebuffed hundreds of times over, yet he still believes. He thinks Google is the devil and *any* time you mention Google (or any other online research like Wikipedia) he will shout you down. So...I learned to grin and say, "Wow! That's interesting!" and just forget it. BUT...things have gotten interesting as one of the new happy hour participants is a very intelligent retired engineer...and he calls him out on his BS very often. It's usually fairly entertaining, but then sometimes it just wears you down listening to a couple of old guys arguing about some of the dumbest things.

My bold. Sounds like southern finishing school, where the young ladies learned to say "Isn't that interesting!" instead of "Bullsh*t!".

 

[LOL!]

I do not mind teaching such people the real facts and setting them straight. After all, they usually vote and that affects me in the long run.

So far, none of these folks have stopped talking to me and giving me their version of the facts. However, there is no doubt that I have improved their lives.

 

[braumeister]

Like most of us (I assume), I've had several old friends who got into the habit of sending random ridiculous claims by email to everyone in their contact lists.

For most, I used to always reply with appropriate debunking references (frequently that would simply be a snopes link). In some cases, that worked well, and they were trained to not be quite so gullible.

The fun ones were those who were so clueless that they sent their nonsense to a long list of people with all the email addresses in the clear instead of using bcc. In those cases, I would sometimes reply to all with the corrections.

I would guess that about 10-20% of these folks wised up when they were repeatedly shown the error of their ways, and the rest just dropped me from their lists. Either way, I won.

I don't get on Facebook very often, but whenever I do, I see the same nonsense, just in a different format. I just have to remind myself that intelligence is on a bell curve, and for every one of us on one side of it, there is someone else on the other side.

 

[scrabbler1]

Like most of us (I assume), I've had several old friends who got into the habit of sending random ridiculous claims by email to everyone in their contact lists.

For most, I used to always reply with appropriate debunking references (frequently that would simply be a snopes link). In some cases, that worked well, and they were trained to not be quite so gullible.

The fun ones were those who were so clueless that they sent their nonsense to a long list of people with all the email addresses in the clear instead of using bcc. In those cases, I would sometimes reply to all with the corrections.

I would guess that about 10-20% of these folks wised up when they were repeatedly shown the error of their ways, and the rest just dropped me from their lists. Either way, I won.

I don't get on Facebook very often, but whenever I do, I see the same nonsense, just in a different format. I just have to remind myself that intelligence is on a bell curve, and for every one of us on one side of it, there is someone else on the other side.

I do this a lot, too. I hit "Reply All" and then explain how the email is (usually) a hoax and include 1 or more links to Factcheck, Politifact, and Snopes. And like you, I either showed them the errors of their ways or just got dropped from the nonsense. A win.

 

[Music Lover]

Bet them $20 that they are wrong next time they make a false claim that is easy to prove inaccurate...and then follow through by providing the facts and demanding payment.

 

[GravitySucks]

bizarre "facts" in conversation

If he's anything like my friend with the same 'ailment' the suggestions that more info would resolve the issue (Snopes, FactCeck, Politifact) will just be rebuffed with a " They're controlled by the government / mainstream media." It isn't a matter of too little good information as a over abundance of bad information. My friend will believe Natural News and David Wolfe over the CDC website. I really can't believe the political news sites he forwards actually exist. Thank god for a defined pension as the US banking system has been poised to fail since 1990. He's a great guy, but I have to limit my time with him just because it is so frustrating.

Some times his comments are quite entertaining though. Yesterday I learned AIDS doesn't exist, but they will have a vaccine soon on the market. Doesn't matter though since vaccines don't work. (None of them. It's a scam of sorts). I also heard that taking Tylenol makes you less empathetic.

 

[MissMolly]

If he's anything like my friend with the same 'ailment' the suggestions that more info would resolve the issue (Snopes, FactCeck, Politifact) will just be rebuffed with a " They're controlled by the government / mainstream media." It isn't a matter of too little good information as a over abundance of bad information. My friend will believe Natural News and David Wolfe over the CDC website. I really can't believe the political news sites he forwards actually exist. Thank god for a defined pension as the US banking system has been poised to fail since 1990. He's a great guy, but I have to limit my time with him just because it is so frustrating.

Some times his comments are quite entertaining though. Yesterday I learned AIDS doesn't exist, but they will have a vaccine soon on the market. Doesn't matter though since vaccines don't work. (None of them. It's a scam of sorts). I also heard that taking Tylenol makes you less empathetic.

Actually, the part about Tylenol may be true. They came out with some studies in the past week or so that show a correlation.

Taking common pain reliever Tylenol may reduce empathy, study says - CBS News

 

[mpeirce]

Actually, the part about ____ may be true.

It's funny how often "accepted wisdom" turns out to be dead wrong.


Regardless, confirmation bias is the main culprit here. If you hear something that fits into how you see the world, you are very likely to accept it. Everyone does this, not just those other people.

 

[eytonxav]

I'd suggest to him that he go on youtube.

 

[kcowan]

Yet another study! Its on the internets so it must be factual.

What is really amazing to me is how many apparently rational friends are so extremely gullible. Maybe I should put them on the Nigerian mailing list?

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

My bold. Sounds like southern finishing school, where the young ladies learned to say "Isn't that interesting!" instead of "Bullsh*t!".

Yep. This video does a good job of illustrating that...

 

[audreyh1]

Yep. This video does a good job of illustrating that...

My not from the Deep South DH overhearing asks - is that some black woman talking? No silly - that's four different white women! And I made him watch it.

Bless his heart! (Something my GA aunt says fairly often)

That was really funny.

 

[RunningBum]

Sounds like you don't want to offend and don't want to avoid the guy. I'd probably tell him that you'd have to see his source before you believe it. The problem is that there are so many spoof news sites like the Onion and also hate sites that will just make up stuff about politicians or others they are against that he probably will be able to give you a source. Then you're stuck debating the reliability. So maybe the better reply is something like "Does that seem like it could possibly be true? It doesn't sound like that to me. I don't believe it."


I have a friend who sometimes says things like this. We were talking about an arrest last year of a guy who abducted, raped and killed two women, and whether they'd go for the death penalty. She said "But what if the execution fails? Then they have to set him free." I just looked at her and said that can't possibly be true, but she insisted her husband read it somewhere and it was. I checked Snopes, and they point to a satirical news site that "reported" this. Some people will still believe what they want to and ignore fact checkers like Snopes.

 

[marko]

Well, it's a little known fact that guys that spew false information are...........
oh, never mind.

Personally I'd be intrigued to hear all sort of whacked out 'theories', wondering where they originated. But then, I just finished an entire "Ancient Aliens" marathon.

 

[mh]

bizarre "facts" in conversation

Actually, the part about Tylenol may be true. They came out with some studies in the past week or so that show a correlation.



Taking common pain reliever Tylenol may reduce empathy, study says - CBS News

Some argue that empathy is overrated - for example

http://bostonreview.net/forum/paul-bloom-against-empathy

( hint : First you have to distinguish empathy from sympathy )


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[unclemick]

+1 on he is probably a moron.

Every Sunday, I have a Happy Hour with my Dad and a few of his friends. One of his friends is a retired legislator and newspaper editor (he's almost 80 years old) and very, VERY often will say stuff that is blatantly wrong. Stuff that was internet lore back in the early 2000's that have been rebuffed hundreds of times over, yet he still believes. He thinks Google is the devil and *any* time you mention Google (or any other online research like Wikipedia) he will shout you down. So...I learned to grin and say, "Wow! That's interesting!" and just forget it. BUT...things have gotten interesting as one of the new happy hour participants is a very intelligent retired engineer...and he calls him out on his BS very often. It's usually fairly entertaining, but then sometimes it just wears you down listening to a couple of old guys arguing about some of the dumbest things.

Retired businessman and retired engineer both in their 70's who grew up on Kansas and Missouri farms a stopped an entire dinner conversation(10 people) with a heated conversation on what size chicken a hawk could attack and lift/fly off with.

I did not offer to Google it.

heh heh heh - We did keep eating though. We're in a Saturday night dinner club which meets during the Spring and Fall.

 

[Amethyst]

The behavior OP describes is rather common, both on and off the Internet. It is not confined to any sex, race, national origin, or age group, although I do have the sense that people get worse as they age.

I'm extraverted by nature - I love having company - yet I do not socialize very much, and seldom belong to any group for very long. The reason is that the type of person the OP describes, is Hell for me. I hate to be silently accepting when someone is trampling on my credibility and values, and yet I find arguing with them to be physically and mentally utterly draining. I feel like they are a pig who has just announced, "Hurray! I've conned another person into wrestling in the mud with me!"

So when a group I enjoy is invaded by an argumentative ignoramus, I leave the group.

Amethyst

 

[braumeister]

what size chicken a hawk could attack and lift/fly off with.

African or European?

 

[scrabbler1]

I mentioned my 85-year-old dad in an earlier post. I remembered another part of our last argument about fact-checkers: I mentioned that one of the sources the fact-checker used was the U.S. Census and my dad scoffed at that because it was "part of the government." I threw up my hands and replied, "You're scoffing at the Census?" I knew then, for sure (and sadly) there was no convincing him that anything [MOD EDIT] said could possibly be wrong.

 

[Marita40]

The closest I can get to the OP's dilemma is a friend who, although very well educated and quite reasonable in everything else, strongly believes in those chain e-mails that insist you must pass them on to 20 of your friends or else. I get at least one of these every couple months urging me to take action. There's usually a kind of gloom-and-doom text to them if the recipient fails to send them on. I'll admit that I'm always appalled when I get them and try to figure out why my otherwise "normal" friend would believe such nonsense? But I've never confronted her; I just delete and forget. I find this very odd. I guess the word to put on her is superstitious, but where that comes from I don't know.

 

[Amethyst]

This is only one shaky step away from "Keep the government out of my Medicare!" (See Related: Keep the government away from our military.)

It is dispiriting when we have to throw up our hands around our parents, who once seemed to know everything.

I mentioned my 85-year-old dad in an earlier post. I remembered another part of our last argument about fact-checkers: I mentioned that one of the sources the fact-checker used was the U.S. Census and my dad scoffed at that because it was "part of the government." I threw up my hands and replied, "You're scoffing at the Census?" I knew then, for sure (and sadly) there was no convincing him that anything [MOD EDIT] said could possibly be wrong.

 

[MichaelB]

It is dispiriting when we have to throw up our hands around our parents, who once seemed to know everything.

So true. I've often wondered how much of this is the result of a very slow and gentle loss of cognitive function or onset of senility.

 

[imoldernu]

"Isn't that interesting?"

 

[Souschef]

We have a situation on another site where a lady, for who knows what reason,created a whole Romanian family.
The father, who is a millionaire, does not exist, they own a fishing boat that does not exist, the daughter's picture is a younger version of the author.
On another site, the author claims to be a pilot flying organs for Angel Flight. Angel Flight flies patients, not organs, and there is no Angel Flight organization in the state she lives in.

 

[Amethyst]

I am sorry, but the vision of a flying organ just caused me to blow coffee through my nose. And that was just the first vision, which was of my late Dad's old Hammond electric organ that used to take up half our living room.

We have a situation on another site where a lady, for who knows what reason,created a whole Romanian family.
The father, who is a millionaire, does not exist, they own a fishing boat that does not exist, the daughter's picture is a younger version of the author.
On another site, the author claims to be a pilot flying organs for Angel Flight. Angel Flight flies patients, not organs, and there is no Angel Flight organization in the state she lives in.