It’s no secret that it’s been getting increasingly hard to separate facts from fiction. With so much chaos, fake news, conspiracies and whatnot surfing around the media, it’s easy to lose your own standpoint.
But believing nonsense, aka myths, is part of (often flawed) human nature. In fact, people believed all kinds of crazy things a long time before the pandemic hit, and ridiculous beliefs, like that when you get a covid vaccine, you get injected with a microchip, started spreading much like the virus itself.
So when someone asked “what myth is still widely circulated as truth?” on r/AskReddit, the 33.2k responses came flowing in. We selected some of the most eye-opening ones that debunk so-called common knowledge that turns out to be anything but knowledge!
#21
Shaving hair causes it to grow back longer and thicker.
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140points
#22
That historical armour was useless, or just something you wore so you had a slight chance to turn a death blow into merely a serious injury.
Shows and movies still perpetuate this. Game of Thrones has "acclaimed" sword fights where guys casually shove swords through dudes in plate armour. Impossible. Metal is not cardboard.
Even the most basic iron or bronze chain mail armour will be barely scratched by a slash from the sharpest katana. Well-made plate armour is impervious to all damage short of a blow from a specialized armour-piercing weapon (lance, pole axe etc.). Even the earliest guns couldn't penetrate plate armour.
Armour was incredibly expensive. Common people couldn't afford it so made do without or, if lucky, with fabric armors (that were still very effective protection!). A suite of the custom-made plate would have cost a knight the equivalent of a modern high-end luxury car. Why would people pay that much for something useless?
Armour was very useful. That's why weapons continued to advanced over the centuries and why armour did as well. It was an arms race.
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139points
#24
That the seeds are the spiciest part of hot pepper. The seeds are the only part of a pepper that isn't spicy. The white stuff near the seeds though, spice max.
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118points
#25
Knuckle cracking doesn't lead to arthritis, it is just an old wives tale people use in place of simply telling you it's annoying them. Crack away!
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117points
#28
That Corsets are a lethal torture item and every Victorian woman did tight-lacing.
The myth about harmful Corsets was started by Victorian men, in order to bring down women-owned businesses. And some feminists (looking at you, Emma Watson) swallowed that lie, hook, and sinker, thinking they are empowering somebody with it.
The truth is, Corsets are way better than bras. If you have back pains, which many women have because of their bras, switch to Corsets. There is a reason, why it was used that long.
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99points
#30
The European "Dark Ages"
People seem to love the idea that, between the fall of Rome and, like, DaVinci or something, everyone in Europe was just blowing spit bubbles and looking at the funny pictures in the Bible. Not only was there not a complete absence of classical learning in Europe during the dark ages but throughout the dark ages and medieval period, there actually was a fair amount of progress in fields like architecture, engineering, metallurgy, philosophy, theology, and yes, even science.
But then again, I suppose it all ties back to the notion that people in the past were somehow far stupider than we are.
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93points