Which misconseption annoys you more?

[Dorian6]

the one that really grinds my gears is when people think that we live in the most horrendous time ever, and that things are just going from bad to worse now a days, when they are clearly not. no major wars since WWII, no major epidemics since WWI (Spanish Flu), longer average life span, higher average education, better medicine, the internet, plenty of cultural exchange, plenty of freedom of speech, less discrimination... the list is very long.

Oh I agree. The past 100 years have been terrible! looking at the US, in the 1910's we had WWI, the 20's had prohibition, which lead to a spike in organized crime, the 30's had the great depression, WWII in the 40's, in the 50's we had the korean war and abortion was illegal meaning women would often die on their kitchen tables trying to have one at home. The cold war, the vietnam war, racism, homophobia, I don't know exactly what time period these people are talking about when the refer to the "good old days," but I have noticed that they all seem to be wealthy, white, christian, heterosexual men.

If anything, this is the best time to be alive in the past century.

 

[subtlefuge]

I know more people than I should that don't know that Africa is not a country.

How could you even get through school or watch the news or ANYTHING without learning that at some point. Really it's an amazing feat.

I actually had an argument with my sixth form, geography teacher once who didn't allow her children to watch TV. I think she was very religious. I was curious if she knew exactly how much general knowledge they were missing out on. I think I actually swayed her a bit, which was nice.

I know, right? Often it was just a slip of the tongue, country and continent sound alike, most conversations treat Africa as a single entity, so on...but some people really just did not believe me. I do live in Texas though, which has the brightest and dumbest people in the U.S.

 

[Atheist.]

I did not know about the different laws even though I know about gay marriage being accepted yes and no from state to state, I really need to start using my brain more.

Ready to have your mind blown even more? Counties have different laws. That's right buddy, it's a triple threat set of laws. County, State, and Federal.

OT : I'd have to say thinking Europe is a country. That's quite a massive amount of ignorance there.

 

[Dana22]

That humans evolved from monkeys. Grrr.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I did not know about the different laws even though I know about gay marriage being accepted yes and no from state to state, I really need to start using my brain more.

Ready to have your mind blown even more? Counties have different laws. That's right buddy, it's a triple threat set of laws. County, State, and Federal.

OT : I'd have to say thinking Europe is a country. That's quite a massive amount of ignorance there.

Even more of a threat! There are different laws for different counties and even cities as well!

 

[icaritos]

that all american conservatives are rush limbaugh imbecilles, some of us are actually fairly sane individuals,

Just wondering (please don't take this personally or as a means of offense), but how do you rationalize the consistent butchering of the middle to lower class? If I understood this it would go a LOOOONG way in allowing me to see them with more respect, it is kind of difficult at the moment.

what do you mean by butchering? Taxes, healthcare?
I dont understand the question, i dont remember many machetes during the last march for life

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).

 

[kortin]

What gets on my nerves more is when Americans don't know that the laws vary from state to state.

Its your own fucking country. Learn about it a little. You're the reason that the rest of the world hates us.

That just makes it so much worse. I mean I can understand someone from Europe not grasping that, but someone from America, that is just asinine. Really, did you not pay attention in 3rd grade civics?

Its cool not to pay attention in school. According to that, I'm not cool D:

Probably someone who thinks Europe is one big country. I've never even been to Europe and I know that its a continent and not a country. I mean, people not knowing laws vary from state to state is annoying, but not as annoying to me as people who think that about Europe.

 

[conflictofinterests]

That humans evolved from monkeys. Grrr.

OH. MY. GOD.

That is something that pisses me off SOOOOOO hard. I didn't ace a semester of biological anthropology to be told by some fundamentalist redneck that I think we evolved from monkeys.

 

[loc978]

The second is that daddy long legs are the deadliest spider in the world; but their fangs are too small to stick through your skin. This is just absolutely false. They're not even technically spiders, partly because they have no fangs! Therefore, they have no venom. therefore they have no poison. Therefore, they cannot be the most poison spiders!

Daddy long legs actually chase down their prey, like an eight legged tiger, and contain a type of jaws but THEY DON'T HAVE FANGS.

ummmm...

Spoiler: they have fangs about a quarter of a millimeter long, and about 2 billionths of a liter of venom apiece... and their venom is basically harmless to humans.

anyway, OT: I'm more annoyed with the misconception about state law, but only because I live in the US again... and I constantly have to argue about the legalization of certain things, and how it's already happened many places in the states. Even places where it's legal to own "assault weapons". Go figure.

 

[zehydra]

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.

Nope. That's incorrect.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ignorant

An ignorant person is simply someone who is uneducated. That's it. This word is abused by a lot of people nowadays.

 

[PessimistOwl]

Internationally I don't really care -_- just find it amusing.

Though, the one thing I hate most of all (and understand how the stereotype and/or misconception came to be) is that all people that enjoy classical music, play classical music, compose classical music only like just that type of music and are stuck up pretentious jerks that would never be associated with anything "low class" or "risque".

I play the violin. I love classical music but if you were to look at a collective database of music I have, the least amount of music on there is classical music. And no, going to a concert does not have to be a "high-class" venue. Quite honestly, I'm there to put on a good show, I don't give half of a rat's ass whether you show up butt naked with a beer hat on your head that says "*insert sports team of your preference here*". Or, for that matter, that you shouldn't clap between movements. Hell, I actually do enjoy it when people clap in between movements, makes me feel like I'm doing a good job so far. And if you ever see a classical concert scheduled near you, don't be afraid to shy away from it because you don't think you're high class enough for it (or that you have come to the thinking that you hate classical music all together, it's a huge genre, odds are you're bound to like something) we enjoy seeing faces there and putting on a good show like any other thing and sometimes when you've seen enough movies, monster truck rallies, *insert preference of sport here* games, and stage performances, it's like a breath of fresh air that you may actually thoroughly enjoy.

tl;dr: musicians, people that enjoy classical music, composers, conductors are normal people too.

 

[AMAZED]

that all american conservatives are rush limbaugh imbecilles, some of us are actually fairly sane individuals,

a lot of us its just the looneys that get all the press

 

[Ilke]

A. Friggin. Lot.

The most annoying one atm is probably how academic circles didn't know the Earth was round during the Middle Ages. Colomb or Magellan didn't discover it was round, Magellan just gave physical evidence of it.

Also, part of a greater list on misconceptions of Turkey ("joo Arab spiking fundamentalists trololol") "lololol Turkeh iznt in Yoorop so it cant joinz Yooropean Union trolololol". There's a whole lot more in Turkey's EU membership bid than geography. There is no official clause which defines the European Union as a geographic entity besides the name, that's like saying Albania shouldn't join NATO because it doesn't have a North Atlantic coast.

 

[loc978]

The second is that daddy long legs are the deadliest spider in the world; but their fangs are too small to stick through your skin. This is just absolutely false. They're not even technically spiders, partly because they have no fangs! Therefore, they have no venom. therefore they have no poison. Therefore, they cannot be the most poison spiders!

Daddy long legs actually chase down their prey, like an eight legged tiger, and contain a type of jaws but THEY DON'T HAVE FANGS.

ummmm...

Spoiler: they have fangs about a quarter of a millimeter long, and about 2 billionths of a liter of venom apiece... and their venom is basically harmless to humans.

Spoiler: snip

anyway, OT: I'm more annoyed with the misconception about state law, but only because I live in the US again... and I constantly have to argue about the legalization of certain things, and how it's already happened many places in the states. Even places where it's legal to own "assault weapons". Go figure.

Yea, I' mgonna trust my Bio 208 text book which I payed $250 for over a wikipedia entry, thanks.

...you didn't even click the spoiler, did you? that wasn't a wikipedia entry. it was a Mythbusters clip, closeups of fangs included. I trust practical experience over textbooks.
...though I admit I don't know what the scientific classification of "daddy long legs" is, the term is a mere colloquialism, and may be different breeds to different people.

**edit...3, I think**
just looked it up.
basically, you mean these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvestman

I mean these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_spider

Both are "daddy longlegs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_longlegs]", colloquially... but only the actual spider lives in my basement... I had never even heard of the "harvestman"... I'm pretty sure they don't live around here.

 

[Wintermoot]

American,s think that due to the sheer size of the USA and the fact allot of countries are united under the European Union

 

[AMAZED]

I hate the people that try to use society as an excuse for criminal, or otherwise inappropriate behavior

 

[Tomster595]

I don't think I've ever heard someone say that Europe is one country.

 

[Wicky_42]

It really is - do you seriously think that you get a better idea of the whole of France, say, by visiting Paris - let alone a completely different country - than you do of the US by visiting, say, Chicago? And that the US alone has more variation than the 50 countries in Europe? Honestly I'm offended that you could think that - amazing display of arrogance.

The US has more diversity than the 50 countries in Europe? Surely that's got to be wrong??
Are you aware that London alone has more than 300 spoken languages?

That was my point... quote fail -_-;

 

[undeserving]

That was my point... quote fail -_-;

sorry, it was a quote in a quote in a quote... i misunderstood.

 

[Wicky_42]

That was my point... quote fail -_-;

sorry, it was a quote in a quote in a quote... i misunderstood.

No hard feelings