People Are Still Falling For These 30 Fictional Things That Were Never Real To Begin With

Our today's selection of facts and opinions is based on this thread in the AskReddit community, where the author, the user u/turmohe, asked the question a couple of days ago: "What is something completely fictional but people think is real?" and eventually collected over 1.8K upvotes and nearly 3K various comments.

From Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter to social structure and belief in incorruptible and honest politicians, from the flat Earth to the harm that vaccinations allegedly cause, we present to your attention a selection of the most interesting and controversial opinions from this thread.

In fact, a significant part of the popular misconceptions that made it onto this list are formed under the influence of popular culture, for example, movies and TV. For example, various myths about the work of the police or intelligence.

The thing is that any work of art in any case greatly simplifies and embellishes the picture - and if, for example, a film is shot in a realistic manner, then many people begin to believe what is shown there.

The same applies, for example, to Sherlock Holmes. The great detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's genius is, of course, a fictional character—but the author's talent, multiplied by numerous film adaptations in recent years, merch sold all over the world, and other related things, did its job. Many people really think that Holmes actually existed.

By the way, another thing is also interesting here. Despite the fact that Holmes himself in the stories was an extremely rational person, alien to any mysticism, the person who invented him was a big fan of spiritualism and other theories that were fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century.

By the way, when in 1926 the young but already popular writer Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared (it is said that the reason for this was some mental issues), Conan Doyle, who by that time had completely retired from writing, also joined in the search for her.

In fact, the outstanding writer tried to find Christie not with the help of deduction, but by turning to spirits. Needless to say, he was 100% unsuccessful.

The alleged falsification of the US astronauts' landing on the Moon also occupies a place of honor on this list. However, what no supporter of this theory can explain is why, in the midst of the 'Cold War' and the fierce confrontation between the two great powers in space, Soviet propaganda didn't pick up such a tidbit but simply admitted that it had lost this "Moon Race"?

Just imagine that you are in a bitter feud with your neighbor, in which you both use literally all means, and then you get your hands on some absolutely damaging info on your neighbor, but you don't use it! Is that actually reasonable? Of course, no.

Then, before they try to convince me next time that Stanley Kubrick or someone else allegedly filmed the moon landing on a Hollywood soundstage and all that other stuff—first explain how one of the most powerful totalitarian machines in human history could make such a blatant mistake!

In any case, there are many things that people tend to believe, even if they are shown visual evidence that these things are made up from start to finish. Merely because they want to believe them or because they want to be different from others—with their "special knowledge." There can be many reasons for this.

So let's just read this selection of people's viewpoints to the very end - and maybe give your own examples of such things, in case you have something to add here. Well, and if you want to argue with the authors of some quoted opinions, please go ahead. After all, truth, as we know, is born in disputes.