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Crazy old people, possibly weren't? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 4 days ago by Biffsbraincell@lemmy.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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When I was a kid I remember my elders telling me advice and conspiracy theories, just stuff about how the world works, and I, mostly internally, would roll my eyes or laugh. Now decades later many of those things seem to have been the truth ( obviously some couldn't be further from it but that's a different post)

but what sticks out to you as the thing that you just knew was such rubbish nonsense, and now years later you understand to be true.

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[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

But you only know in hindsight which ones were true or not. So there is no value if 50% or more turn out to be bullshit.

Not all old people are wise with age. Most old people can be led down the garden path just like the rest of us.

I think what you experience is hindsight confirmation bias. Granny was right all along about this clandestine network of rich child molesters. That bit was true but there are another fifteen layers of outrageous Q Anon bullshit heaped on top of that, which now fade in our memory, as we have to face the fact that there was some truth to it after all. But without actual evidence and bare chested men in native American getup prancing about, I don't think we could have known. Like you couldn't know which story from ye elders turned out to be true.

[–] Biffsbraincell@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago

Oh yeah it's not necessarily a listen to your elders post. Often they actually are full of it. Just sometimes when you think "this old bat is crazy" you'll grow up to realize they were 100% right. It's very difficult or impossible to tell which is which at the time.