this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2026
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  • Most outrageous / unbelievable lies
  • Most offensive / dangerous lies
  • Most "adult meant it as genuine advice but it's laughably out of touch" lies
  • Lies you wish you still believed
  • Lies you took as truth and didn't question it until you were way too old
(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] likebudda@reddthat.com 7 points 8 hours ago

Dinosaurs were all green or gray/drab and they all went extinct.

[–] remon@ani.social 24 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

We were learning Roman numerals in elementary school and the teacher made us work out the current year.

I was the first one to correctly work out "MCMXCVIII" only to be quite smugly told by the teacher that you can just do "IIMM". It took more than a decade until I learned that he was full of shit and my answer was the only correct one.

[–] visnae@lemmy.world 13 points 10 hours ago

In Germany you can, but in France you have to do XIX-C-IV*XX+XIIX /s

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

My parents heartily believed in honesty. Even regarding mythological figures, they basically said "some people believe in them, some don't" and tried to provide context for me to decide myself whether to believe. My kid hasn't brought this up much but when they do I try to emulate the same behavior.

However, when I was in second grade, my teacher told me there is no such thing as negative numbers. Looking back on it, she was trying to teach remainders. She asked what you would get if you took seven pencils away from five pencils. She intended to say you can't have negative two pencils, which I acknowledge, but that and some other stuff she said and did disillusioned me with public education for a long time.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

This is so stupid of that teacher. Because what is debt, if not a negative number? You use $1,400,000 from a bank to get into an entry-level, 50-75yo shitbox of a home in an old neighbourhood which missed gentrification, and what does the bank have on your balance? A negative number that you have to fill back in.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You have a $1.4m home? Dang.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

That’s what “starter homes” go for in my region. In CAD, but still.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Looking up the exchange rate, that's between 3-4x my already rather lavish home, which I'm very grateful to occupy and terrified of losing. Canadians must be doing well. Good for y'all!

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Canadians must be doing well.

No, we aren’t. We are just suffering from regulatory capture and really, really wealthy home builders that buy up local politicians like they’re penny stocks.

We desperately need to import the Vienna Model, but then those brainwashed by Cold War era shite will start screaming “communism!!1!”

[–] bunchberry@lemmy.world -1 points 4 hours ago
  1. God is real
  2. Economics is a science
  3. Space and time are relative
  4. Particles turns into waves when you're not looking at them
[–] ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I still don’t have square eyes even though I was sitting in front of screens my whole life.

Also “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger“ is really bad advice.

[–] Kuma@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

I am with you, I think ppl think to literally with that saying and also use it too much... It is dismissive of them if someone tells them about their shity situation and they try to encourage them with "what doesn't kill you...". It also only works for some or takes a lot of time and effort and help for it to make them stronger, I think you should only use it in a jokingly way and nothing else.

[–] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 26 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Not a lie in that I think this was the truth for them (because me and my siblings are awesome), but: "having kids is amazing."

Mine are teenagers and I feel horrible saying it but it's still hard for me to be a parent the same way my parents were. I'm not nearly as patient. I don't think I've slept well for over a decade. My sex life with my partner is non-existent for quite a while. I feel like all I do is work, serve, and sleep.

Maybe it'll get better. I'm not having a good time, though. Neither are neurotypical. I don't know if I am either, the more I read about it. Poooooo

[–] redditmodssucks@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

But all my friends tell me it’s awesome to have kids while they all have struggling finances and marriages! Because it’s for the kids!

[–] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 5 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

There are plenty of families where it's working out great.

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[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 32 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

"Penguins are mammals" said to me as an offhand comment by a friend's older brother. I didn't question it till embarrassingly late in life.

"It's ok we (white people) took the land from the Indians because we make better use of it, and can sustain a much larger population on it." Said by my teacher to the third grade class.

"You'll become more conservative as you get older" heard this one quite a bit from people who didn't wanna face facts about the world.

"Global warming is a myth" oh if only that were true. We're so fucked

See first answer. Seriously, they're obviously birds!

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 14 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

"If you put some blu-tak on the top of the SNES version of Mortal Kombat, it will think it's the Mega Drive version and put the blood back in."

Even young me knew this one was weapons-grade bollocks, but it didn't stop kids at school excitedly trying it.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

Was thinking it was called the SEGA Genesis one of my dumb beliefs? That was what I knew it as but both this comment and a video I watched recently about the tower of power both just called it the Mega Drive without any mention of "Genesis" in the entire video.

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[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 28 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

"You're just having a brother fight. You and your brother are going to grow up to be best friends."

No, my autistic brother with FASD who was my rapist, and is a kleptomaniac, sociopath, pathological liar, and borderline pedophile... will never be my friend in adulthood.

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