Which misconseption annoys you more?

[mduncan50]

That canadians say about "aboot" I have been all over Canada and I have never heard a Canadian say "aboot"

Ask them what they wear on each foot when they go out in the winter.

 

[The Funslinger]

Just thought of another one:

I hate when you're trying to have a debate with someone, and they're being a stubborn ass, either just saying "no, it's not!" or using the same two defeated points over and over, and then they say "you always have to be right! That's your problem!" No, I don't "always have to be right" but we're debating something, and there's an obvious hole in your argument, I'm going to point it out. Especially if you keep saying the same things over and over.

 

[Rottweiler]

Me? I despise the misconception that all bad ideas, actions, and decisions have the excuse of outside reasons.

Someone got shot? It's the weapon's fault. Someone on a cell phone drives off a bridge? Car's fault.

When we lost the idea of personal responsibility, it was all downhill.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

Having gone to public school, I am quite familiar with the lowest bar of intelligence this nation (America) has to offer and I've never met anyone who thinks Europe itself is a nation. I've seen people who consider the EU a country, but not the landmass.

Also In my years of lurking, I've also never seen anyone from outside the U.S. who didn't know that. -shrug-

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

The one I hate the most is that people only use 10% of their brains, probably because I did believe it at one point (when I was 13). Looking back on it, I never ever should have, and I hate seeing that myth pop up in fiction, and take an immediate dislike to anything that helps to spread it: the two most prominent examples I can relate are the movie Limitless (a pile of dung), and the show Heroes (a character states it about 20 seconds into the pilot episode, at which point I turned off the TV and avoided that show like the plague).

 

[Duffy13]

For me, I'd have to say the misconception that Ignorance/Education has anything to do with intellectual ability.

An uneducated/ignorant person isn't necessarily stupid, it would be a mistake to assume so.

An ignorant person is stupid, an uneducated person does not necessarily have to be stupid.

I hate people that don't think for themselves.

Ignorance by definition is uneducated, it can be related to stupidity, but being ignorant does not imply stupidity. Granted use of the word 'ignorance' has been slowly becoming the 'nice' way of calling someone stupid; at least in the US. Ignorance can be fixed, stupidity cannot.

Adding my own: I hate when any media pulls the 'it takes x mins to trace the call'. If you are talking to someone on the phone you already have a direct link to them, their location is known; or ball parked in the case of cell towers. Hell, wiretapping stuff is built into most phone systems. Even if you don't have access during the call, law enforcement agencies can very easily request it from the phone company who by law store call history for a set period of time.

 

[deus-ex-machina]

As a British person, I thought Britain - in saying that, I mean England, Ireland and Scotland - hated 'Europe' more than they hated each other? At least we all speak the same language. Somewhat.

I see the UK as European, but reluctantly so. Look at the Eurovision Song Contest. We have nothing in common with the rest of Europe and it is pretty much a mutual agreement. Travelling into Europe is a foreign venture. It is both brilliant and disgusting.

As for US State Laws? Couldn't care less. Get over it. There's only like... four states anyway.

 

[Darkgoosey666]

my friend ( a geography student no less) once asked me whether Mexico was a city or a state.

yeah.

 

[Grygor]

Ahhh let me guess, another one who votes conservative simply because of issues like abortion while ignoring their extreme corporatism, refusal to increase taxes under the crisis, destruction of the social services and social nets as well as pushing for the commercialization of every governmental sector.

You do know they don't care about issues like abortion at all right? When they were in power there wasn't a single bill passed or suggested to address the matter, they just pick the rhetoric up in between presidential sections to harness votes, then promptly forget it exists.

Still you haven't answered my question.How do you rationalize all they are doing? Look at the U.S., salaries for middle and lower class have remained stagnant for 30 years while the top 5% flourish, the worst health care and public transport of all the developed nations and every single legislation passed is done with disregard to the middle to lower classes (ban obamacare, support for removal of minimum wage, the Wisconsin fiasco, cuts to science and arts departments, citizens united ruling,endless war support with the exception of people like Ron Paul, etc).

Hey now, one could just as easily criticize liberals and progressives for supporting policies that have unintended but foreseeable consequences that hurt the very people they purport to help, enacting economic regulations that ultimately give greater power to the large corporations they claim to restrain, conflating opposition to their policies with opposition to their stated goals, being completely ignorant of economic reality by simultaneously viewing wealth and income distribution as zero-sum while otherwise ignoring the fact that all choices involve trade-offs, refusing to admit the trade-offs implicit in the policies they support, falsely assuming that science is capable of making value judgements and that therefore scientific facts necessarily imply specific courses of action, and for their deep abiding faith in centralized planning and concomitant distrust of organic development.

In short, put the kool-aid down and step out of the echo chamber, because conservatives are not the source of all that is bad in American politics, nor is the left the sole locus of good.

To wit:
Obamacare is a deeply flawed policy, sold to the public as health-care reform even though it only reforms health coverage. As a community-rated, guaranteed-issue, forced-participation system, it is effectively a tax on young and healthy people to subside older and unhealthy people (and while one can make arguments in support of that, it's simply not possible when the bill's supporters refused to even admit that inconvenient fact). Furthermore, by expanding medical coverage, the bill necessarily increases demand for medical services - but since the bill does nothing to address the limited supply of medical care in this country, medical costs will have to go up, and if they are not allowed to, the net result will be a shortage of medical care.

Research has shown time and time again that the minimum wage ultimately reduces employment, particularly youth employment, and in the long run also reduces the wages paid to unskilled laborers.

Citizens United v. FEC is widely and almost willfully misunderstood by the American left, who seem to impart an almost magical power over elections to money, far in excess of it's actual influence.

As far as "endless war", need I point out that Obama has continued Bush's wars and added one of his own, and continues essentially all of Bush's wartime policies? That Clinton had has own wars? That the overwhelming majority of wars the US has fought since the start of the 20th century have been fought by Democratic administrations? That the power to wage war ultimately resides in Congress, which has been controlled by the Democratic party for most of the last 100 years?

 

[v3n0mat3]

Pretty much everything concerning Americans, Christians, and, for that matter, all religions and cultures.

It's racism, that's what it is. It's hate. You spread hate by saying "All of these people who live here are like this". It's a clear-cut case of racism. What makes you so much better than they?

 

[Nimcha]

I find it more annoying when British people call the European mainland just 'Europe', as if they aren't part of it. Sure they may be an island but that really doesn't make them any less European.

Thats because we really do not want to be associated with Europe... well the EU at least anyway

Which is kind of stupid. Look at what happened to the Pound.

 

[Rooster893]

Thinking Europe is just one country is stupidity.

Thinking that the entire country of America works the same even though we have separate states is more ignorance. But, unless you're an American yourself, a more understandable ignorance.

So I'd have to say that first one would annoy me more.

"ALL GERMANS ARE NAZIS HERP DERP"

Brings my piss to a boil. Stupid Call of Duty...

Two things... that generalization annoys me too, but how in the HELL did Call of Duty contribute to that?

Because in Call of Duty: World at War, the playable Germans are Wehrmacht, to be fair it is what they were mostly at the time, but now all the kids that play Call of Duty think that they are historically correct when they say all Germans are nazis.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

- Last and by no means least, the idea that all Asians have small penises. I hate people that ask me about that directly at parties. Makes me wanna take it out and slap the fake tan out of them.

Well, not all, but the average size is smaller, so it is not really a misconception. But yeah, asking about it directly is kinda weird.

It's almost impossible to give an average to one ethnic group as diverse as Asians though. We only make up half the world's population. So odds are we will have the world's biggest and smallest dicks, just like we have the world's biggest and smallest people. So of course you are gonna find a larger number of asian dudes with tiny wangs, but you are gonna find an equally large number of asian dudes with big dongs, medium sized dongs, and at least one guy with purple junk.

EDIT:There are 2 well-respected studies on penis-size where erect penis sizes were measured by trained lab personnel:

1) William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson's 1966 study was the first to address the "phallic fallacy", the mistaken belief that size increase during erection is proportional to flaccid length. In fact, they found that the variation in flaccid size is much larger than variation in erect size and small flaccid penises increase more in size that long flaccid penises. There are men (called "growers") who have a smaller flaccid penis size of for example 3.5" which grow to 6.5" erect, and also men (called "showers") who have a larger flaccid penis size of 5" which only grow 1" to 6" erect. Their average erect size estimate was 5.2."



2) Dr. Wessels published a study in the September 1996 Journal of Urology concluding that average erect length was 12.9 cm (5.08 in) and that "Neither patient age nor size of the flaccid penis accurately predicted erectile length." Almost 20% of the subjects had erect lengths of less than 4". This is the largest study that is the most modern and scientific.

These studies showed no prediction of erect penis size as based on height, race, or size of hands/feet/flaccid penis size. Black, White, and Asian men were all compared, and no statistically significant difference was found among the races.

 

[Thundero13]

It annoys me more about Europe, then again I am from Ireland, so i'd probably find the American one more annoying if I lived there...

 

[The Heavy Metal Nerd]

When people say Heavy Metal is 'all about the screaming'. To quote Lex Luthor: WRONG!

It's the GUITAR that's king of the stage in Metal, backed up and supported by the bass and drums. Vocals are little more than a nice framing device.

Unlike in most other genres, the vocalist is a just a side-note when compared to the rest of the band, and as such, has to make his/her singing more powerful and dynamic to avoid being overshadowed completely.

But most people don't realize this, and focus all their attention on the singer when it SHOULD be directed elsewhere, giving them the wrong impression entirely.

 

[Alpha1Niner]

That people think Alaska is down south next to Hawaii and California... Seriously, some people believe that's where it's at. Also, that we live in igloos and live around polar bears and penguins. It might be like that really far north, but not the lower half of the state.

 

[Katana314]

1. That anyone cares what the "technical" definition for a fictional entity is. (Well, RE4 doesn't have "Zombies" per se, since they're just infected-*SHUT UP!!*)

2. Among women, assuming that men are shallow, perverted, able to take a punch without feeling pain, or that they don't deserve any of the same protections women get.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Ahhh let me guess, another one who votes conservative simply because of issues like abortion while ignoring their extreme corporatism, refusal to increase taxes under the crisis, destruction of the social services and social nets as well as pushing for the commercialization of every governmental sector.

You do know they don't care about issues like abortion at all right? When they were in power there wasn't a single bill passed or suggested to address the matter, they just pick the rhetoric up in between presidential sections to harness votes, then promptly forget it exists.

Still you haven't answered my question.How do you rationalize all they are doing? Look at the U.S., salaries for middle and lower class have remained stagnant for 30 years while the top 5% flourish, the worst health care and public transport of all the developed nations and every single legislation passed is done with disregard to the middle to lower classes (ban obamacare, support for removal of minimum wage, the Wisconsin fiasco, cuts to science and arts departments, citizens united ruling,endless war support with the exception of people like Ron Paul, etc).

Hey now, one could just as easily criticize liberals and progressives for supporting policies that have unintended but foreseeable consequences that hurt the very people they purport to help, enacting economic regulations that ultimately give greater power to the large corporations they claim to restrain, conflating opposition to their policies with opposition to their stated goals, being completely ignorant of economic reality by simultaneously viewing wealth and income distribution as zero-sum while otherwise ignoring the fact that all choices involve trade-offs, refusing to admit the trade-offs implicit in the policies they support, falsely assuming that science is capable of making value judgements and that therefore scientific facts necessarily imply specific courses of action, and for their deep abiding faith in centralized planning and concomitant distrust of organic development.

In short, put the kool-aid down and step out of the echo chamber, because conservatives are not the source of all that is bad in American politics, nor is the left the sole locus of good.

To wit:
Obamacare is a deeply flawed policy, sold to the public as health-care reform even though it only reforms health coverage. As a community-rated, guaranteed-issue, forced-participation system, it is effectively a tax on young and healthy people to subside older and unhealthy people (and while one can make arguments in support of that, it's simply not possible when the bill's supporters refused to even admit that inconvenient fact). Furthermore, by expanding medical coverage, the bill necessarily increases demand for medical services - but since the bill does nothing to address the limited supply of medical care in this country, medical costs will have to go up, and if they are not allowed to, the net result will be a shortage of medical care.

Research has shown time and time again that the minimum wage ultimately reduces employment, particularly youth employment, and in the long run also reduces the wages paid to unskilled laborers.

Citizens United v. FEC is widely and almost willfully misunderstood by the American left, who seem to impart an almost magical power over elections to money, far in excess of it's actual influence.

As far as "endless war", need I point out that Obama has continued Bush's wars and added one of his own, and continues essentially all of Bush's wartime policies? That Clinton had has own wars? That the overwhelming majority of wars the US has fought since the start of the 20th century have been fought by Democratic administrations? That the power to wage war ultimately resides in Congress, which has been controlled by the Democratic party for most of the last 100 years?

What about the Republicans promise half a year ago to block anything President Obama tries to pass in Congress...JUST BECAUSE.

Or the dismantling of unions. (It's been shown time and time again that minimum wage is not enough. The average American needs to make about 56,000 dollars a year to pay for housing, electricity, medical bills, clothes, food, ect, as well as save some for unforeseeable accidents in the future? )

How about the Republican's policy of pushing through standardized teaching which forces teachers to teach tests instead of valuable social/emotional developmental skills. Plus what is to be gained by making children memorize something?

How about the Republican push to track scores on said tests by race?

I'm not saying the Republican's are the source of our nation's ills but they don't seem to be doing a lot of good either.

 

[SamtheDeathclaw]

You know what I've run into a million times around where I live? People thinking that Mexico is a state. Around the fourth time, I lost all faith in America.

 

[icaritos]

Ahhh let me guess, another one who votes conservative simply because of issues like abortion while ignoring their extreme corporatism, refusal to increase taxes under the crisis, destruction of the social services and social nets as well as pushing for the commercialization of every governmental sector.

You do know they don't care about issues like abortion at all right? When they were in power there wasn't a single bill passed or suggested to address the matter, they just pick the rhetoric up in between presidential sections to harness votes, then promptly forget it exists.

Still you haven't answered my question.How do you rationalize all they are doing? Look at the U.S., salaries for middle and lower class have remained stagnant for 30 years while the top 5% flourish, the worst health care and public transport of all the developed nations and every single legislation passed is done with disregard to the middle to lower classes (ban obamacare, support for removal of minimum wage, the Wisconsin fiasco, cuts to science and arts departments, citizens united ruling,endless war support with the exception of people like Ron Paul, etc).

Hey now, one could just as easily criticize liberals and progressives for supporting policies that have unintended but foreseeable consequences that hurt the very people they purport to help, enacting economic regulations that ultimately give greater power to the large corporations they claim to restrain, conflating opposition to their policies with opposition to their stated goals, being completely ignorant of economic reality by simultaneously viewing wealth and income distribution as zero-sum while otherwise ignoring the fact that all choices involve trade-offs, refusing to admit the trade-offs implicit in the policies they support, falsely assuming that science is capable of making value judgements and that therefore scientific facts necessarily imply specific courses of action, and for their deep abiding faith in centralized planning and concomitant distrust of organic development.

In short, put the kool-aid down and step out of the echo chamber, because conservatives are not the source of all that is bad in American politics, nor is the left the sole locus of good.

To wit:
Obamacare is a deeply flawed policy, sold to the public as health-care reform even though it only reforms health coverage. As a community-rated, guaranteed-issue, forced-participation system, it is effectively a tax on young and healthy people to subside older and unhealthy people (and while one can make arguments in support of that, it's simply not possible when the bill's supporters refused to even admit that inconvenient fact). Furthermore, by expanding medical coverage, the bill necessarily increases demand for medical services - but since the bill does nothing to address the limited supply of medical care in this country, medical costs will have to go up, and if they are not allowed to, the net result will be a shortage of medical care.

Research has shown time and time again that the minimum wage ultimately reduces employment, particularly youth employment, and in the long run also reduces the wages paid to unskilled laborers.

Citizens United v. FEC is widely and almost willfully misunderstood by the American left, who seem to impart an almost magical power over elections to money, far in excess of it's actual influence.

As far as "endless war", need I point out that Obama has continued Bush's wars and added one of his own, and continues essentially all of Bush's wartime policies? That Clinton had has own wars? That the overwhelming majority of wars the US has fought since the start of the 20th century have been fought by Democratic administrations? That the power to wage war ultimately resides in Congress, which has been controlled by the Democratic party for most of the last 100 years?

First and foremost, do not take words out of my mouth. I never once said, or in any form implied that the left is the solo perpetrator of good while the right are demons. In fact I have been severely (and more importantly consistently) disappointed by the actions takes by the party. Obama made many promises that he either ignored or otherwise failed to follow up on for the sake of bipartisanship. However I cannot ignore the right, who at this point does not even fake interest in the social conditions of the country. You criticize the left for placing too much power of judgement (am I right to imply morality here?) on science (which I'd argue is a far better judge them religion could ever hope to be), yet the right places an almost mystical belief on the power of an unregulated free market.

Wake up. The U.S. has been under rule of the free market for a long time now, most of it's power being given doing the Reagen era. Since them wages have not stagnated, they have practically frozen while inflation increases. Our middle class is dying out and no middle class means no spending. Look at countries like Germany. Outstanding economical success with a history of both strong unions, worker rights (35 days mandated holidays for example) and healthcare. Can you really defend a country where any member of the middle class is one unexpected hospital visit away from complete bankruptcy?

The minimum wage stifles job? Don't kid yourself. Only countries who have no restriction upon minimum wage currently (with no health benefits or overall watch) are 3rd world countries. This only allows for extremely cheap labor forces, not young labor. Who will a company hire, the middle aged mom trying to feed her kids for minimum wage of 6.50 an hour, or the teenager willing to take 3.50? The market works at maximizing profits, without gov't oversight over wages you will only have contractual slavery. This is the reason companies like to outsource jobs to China and India, not altruism or hatred towards Americans. No standards means greater profit, the workers don't see any benefit.

Your argument on Citizens United is that the left overestimates the influence of money? Really? I won't even bother to discuss this one, as it would be insulting seeing as the U.S.A. is at heart (and it has always been) a plutocracy.

Now I agree with your comment regarding Obama and the wars. This whole fiasco should have been cut already. Still to say most wars in the past years have been caused by the left is absurd. George senior and Junior have been 2 of the greatest warmongering fools this planet has seen. Now I can't just pin blame onto all the republican platform, but I sure can do so for those who voted them into power. And please tell me which war Clinton started, I'm ignorant in this regard (I admit this may just plainly be my lack of knowledge here, but i can't recall a war he began.)

The U.S. needs to catch up to the rest of the civilized world, the rights of citizens have regularly been ignored in favor of corporations. This seems to be a problem both parties share, it is just that the democratic party at least goes through the trouble of seeming to care about the middle class. Something the right seem to have given up on a while ago.