What are the worst misconceptions you know of?

[Dark Knifer]

That misconceptions has three s's.

Hmm, surprised no-one pointed this out sooner. You must be the finest grammar nazi in the land then. Or at least the most devoted, take your pick.

 

[JokerCrowe]

Besides the "muslim = Terrorist"-thing. Even though us guys might want it to be true; women aren't bisexual deep down. There are women who simply don't want to have sex with other women. No matter how much they've had to drink. Also I find the Beautiful = Good thing a little annoying.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Democracy is the best form of Government.
It isn't....It REALLY isn't.

 

[ralfy]

That the current global capitalist system will continue indefinitely.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

All English people love tea and crumpets, and won't consume anything else.....

When i forced my brother to drink some tea, he spat it right back out. And the crumpets?..... let's not go there.

I'm going to have to take your word on this one. When I went to Manchester everyone I was staying with had about 6 cups a day and gorged on the crumpets.

Several that I get particularily annoyed at are that everyone who plays D&D is a either:
-a fat, unemployed nerd living in their parent's basement
-friendless (believe it or not you actually need 3 friends to play)
-A satanist
-A psychopath ready to go on a killing spree at any given moment
-all of the above

 

[Dark Knifer]

Several that I get particularily annoyed at are that everyone who plays D&D is a either:
-a fat, unemployed nerd living in their parent's basement
-friendless (believe it or not you actually need 3 friends to play)
-A satanist
-A psychopath ready to go on a killing spree at any given moment
-all of the above

I bet this was only spread because of one exaggerated case. Come to think of it, I could say the same thing about quite a few posts here. It's a wonder how we ended up so misinformed honestly...

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

When people think that Jesus was white. So stupid.

When people think Jesus was black, one of the most annoying things in the world is when people hear that Jesus is white and then start trying to argue that he was black because they cant think sensibly.

Also all sorted of stupid misconceptions about nearly every single religion there is, if anyone ever brings up any religion in a conversation you can be pretty certain that 90% of whatever being said are misconceptions unless you have someone of that religion around.

I never said Jesus was black, but he was clearly not European like so many believe. Don't be an ass.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Just because you wear jeans that fit you perfectly and you wear band t shirts, your emo.

 

[Toriver]

Well, I'm a Canadian living in Japan so I have kind of a long list of misconceptions people have about "foreigners". I'm not Japan bashing here, but these a pretty much held as truth by anyone over 30 or who has never left the country.

1. Foreigners can't eat natto, umeboshi, or raw fish. (note: that's "can't eat" not "don't like")

2. Foreigners can never speak Japanese as well as a Japanese person, because Japanese is the most unique language in the world.

3. Foreigners all speak English.

4. Foreigners do not know how to use chopsticks, and must be praised non-stop when it turns out that they can.

Oh and here's a bonus one, not about foreigners but still a hilarious misconception that is widely believed here:

Japan is the only country with 4 seasons.

I remember all of those. Are you new to the country, by chance? I've been here a few years now, and you will find that pretty much all those misconceptions tend to vanish after a few months. (Except maybe the 4 seasons one... I really don't get where that one came from.) It's not so much that their misconceptions apply to everyone, but they tend to be about you personally. Once they get to know you better, those misconceptions about you disappear.

 

[whaskins]

That we should feel remorseful and pay penance for stuff our ancestors did.

 

[Mikaze]

That gamma radiation is ionising. Sorry, had to call you out on that one, gamma is an electromagentic wave, just like visible light, radio and microwaves.

"gamma-ray photons can ionise atoms by knocking out electrons by means of photoelectric and compton effects. furthermore, if a gamma ray has sufficient energy, it can undergo pair production... which(sic) go on to produce further ionisation"
Giancoli, DC, 1998 "Physics: Principles with Applications", 5th edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Gamma can cause ionisation by its interaction with matter as can (theoretically) any other electromagnetic wave. The gamma ray itself has no charge and thus is not considered ionising radiation.

 

[Blitzwarp]

- All women without exception are only interested in hair, make-up, boys and children, and have no understanding of comic books, Warhammer, video games, etc. They also may or may not be a bit stupid.

- All men without exception are only interested in either (a) video games, poor hygiene, take-out food, girls with unrealistically big anime boobs or (b) football, sex, their hair, good-looking women, and beating up nerds.

 

[Retardinator]

"Marijuana is bad."
Screw you, then.

EDIT:That's strange... It seems I wasn't ninja'd with this one. And there are 7 pages too.

 

[gillebro]

That Napoleon was a midget. He was 5' 7", which is hardly a shrimp.

Above average height at the time, even.

I've got two: 1. That all Australians are lazy. I'm Australian, and academically I am not exactly the most productive person on the planet, but I'm certainly more productive than my peers most of the time. And I know others like me. Many others. 2. That all fat people are stupid, lazy, smell bad, are ugly... what else? I dunno. Anyway, I am not stupid or lazy and I do not smell bad unless I haven't had a wash in a while, just like the rest of you. As for ugly... well, I can't speak for myself, but I can show you all photos of other people.

 

[gillebro]

Well, I'm a Canadian living in Japan so I have kind of a long list of misconceptions people have about "foreigners". I'm not Japan bashing here, but these a pretty much held as truth by anyone over 30 or who has never left the country.

1. Foreigners can't eat natto, umeboshi, or raw fish. (note: that's "can't eat" not "don't like")

2. Foreigners can never speak Japanese as well as a Japanese person, because Japanese is the most unique language in the world.

3. Foreigners all speak English.

4. Foreigners do not know how to use chopsticks, and must be praised non-stop when it turns out that they can.

Oh and here's a bonus one, not about foreigners but still a hilarious misconception that is widely believed here:

Japan is the only country with 4 seasons.

Amen to all of them except 2. While we can certainly learn Japanese to fluency, we won't be able to speak it as well as a native speaker, ever, because you need that mother tongue-ness to truly be as good as a native speaker. But by Christ we can get close.

 

[Snor]

that Europeans were responsible for slavery.... its like wrong on so many levels, every major civilization enslaved people and every minor tribe that could gain profit in helping them did.

that all German soldiers during ww2 were Nazis

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

Hmmm... there's so many misconceptions out there, and some of 'em are so off base and ignorant it's almost laughable, that it'd be hard to nail down any one or two as "the worst"... I guess I'll just name a few.

All Americans are overweight violent freak-o's.

All Europeans are not overweight violent freak-o's.

You can define your sexuality by what you have/have had sex with.

All furries are weird sexual deviants.

All tgs are weird sexual deviants.

Passion is the same as happiness.

People of science and people of faith must be at odds.

Toast always falls buttered side down.

I know there's a bajillion more out there, but many good ones were already stated.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

that Europeans were responsible for slavery.... its like wrong on so many levels, every major civilization enslaved people and every minor tribe that could gain profit in helping them did.

that all German soldiers during ww2 were Nazis

Thank you for both of these. That first one has been stuck in my craw ever since I was old enough to do my own research and found out how incredibly limited a standardized education can be.

That second one hits home very close for me. After a bit of research I found my family roots in Austria died out in WW2 specifically because they weren't involved with the Nazi party.

 

[some1stolemyusername]

Gamma can cause ionisation by its interaction with matter as can (theoretically) any other electromagnetic wave. The gamma ray itself has no charge and thus is not considered ionising radiation.

ionising radiation does need to have a charge to be considered thus. gamma rays interact with matter due to their energy, sufficient enough to cause ionisation of matter.