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submitted 11 months ago by PP_BOY_@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

Bonus points if it's usually misused/misunderstood by the people who say it

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[-] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 118 points 11 months ago

"We only use ten percent of our brains."

People genuinely believe this and never learned where it came from.

[-] TechyDad@lemmy.world 54 points 11 months ago

That and the "Alpha Male" garbage. Even the author of the study on wolves has said repeatedly that his study was totally wrong. And yet some people continue to reference it and apply it to humans when even the original study wasn't about people.

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[-] conciselyverbose@kbin.social 30 points 11 months ago
[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago
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[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts.

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[-] baggachipz@kbin.social 82 points 11 months ago

"Everything happens for a reason"

The cancer disagrees.

[-] dreadgoat@kbin.social 17 points 11 months ago

I actually love this one, because it's technically correct but not in the way people who use it mean, so you can turn it around easily.

Yes, you did get cancer for a reason. Because you insisted on maintaining your suntan every winter. Or perhaps merely because you pissed off the wrong banana.

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[-] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean, technically it did happen for a reason. Your body hates you.

Also, my sympathies for your condition.

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[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 77 points 11 months ago

"I could care less".

Oh really? How much less?

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[-] Donebrach@lemmy.world 68 points 11 months ago

“They’re just one bad apple” in reference to (more often than not) shitty cops, but also for most malcontents in a position of public trust. This a misappropriation of the aphorism “one bad apple spoils the bunch” which is literally saying that if there’s one bad actor in a group, the entire group is comprised.

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[-] mangosloth@lemmy.world 59 points 11 months ago

"Customer is always right" isn't a trump card for customers to win disputes with the staff. When it comes to matters of preference, yes, the customer is always right. Ketchup on ice cream? Great. Down jacket and shorts? Sure thing! If it makes you happy and you're paying for it then you're always right.

In most other matters though, customers are usually wrong. The idea that random people off the street know more about the products and the way a business should be run than the actual people selling said products and running said business is absolutely ridiculous.

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[-] GladiusB@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago

"if you can't handle me at my worst you don't deserve me at my best".

You're basically excusing bad behavior. And never taking accountability. People are wrong. Mostly when they are so blindly following some perception of greatness rather than caring for those around you.

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[-] jmsy@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

That is not the definition of insanity

[-] blady_blah@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Yeah, isn't it like practicing? You're not very good at something so you practice over and over and over and hopefully when you're done you do it better... You know different than when you started.

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[-] TheInsane42@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

"Survival of the fittest" when used to indicate the stongest should survive. Instead of the one best suited for (fitting) the situation.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

Both wrong. Survival of the barely adequate.

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[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 36 points 11 months ago

do or do not, there is no try

Fuck you. That was meant for a Jedi master not your fucking IT systems admin

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[-] HooPhuckenKarez@kbin.social 31 points 11 months ago

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Especially when used by people claiming to have done just that.

[-] Xariphon@kbin.social 34 points 11 months ago

Especially when you consider that it was coined to refer to literally impossible action. It's not meant to be about self-reliance or whatever, it's something that cannot be done.

[-] Mishmash2000@lemmy.nz 16 points 11 months ago

THIS! A million times this!! It's literally implying the opposite of their intent in that you have to have someone else HELP YOU because you OBVIOUSLY can't pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!

One way to use this phrase correctly would be "No one can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, we all need some help along the way."!

[-] skozzii@lemmy.ca 31 points 11 months ago

Whenever "woke" is brought up.

Please give me your definition of woke, because so far it's been different for everyone I've talked to.

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[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

"Agree to disagree." No, dipshit, you're just wrong.

I do not agree to disagree, because we're not arguing about opinions. Your belief is simply, objectively incorrect. Or mine is, which is something that I would be willing to accept. If I were wrong, you'd be able to convince me that I'm wrong. We can keep going until one of us accepts that we didn't have an accurate understanding of reality.

It's always the dipshits that fall back on "Well, we will have to agree to disagree," usually right after they've been presented with enough evidence to change the mind of a rational person. Fuck that, I do not agree to disagree.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 43 points 11 months ago

Agree to disagree is for things like "what ice cream flavor is best", not for things like "2+2=4".

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[-] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml 26 points 11 months ago

If I were wrong, you'd be able to convince me that I'm wrong. We can keep going until one of us accepts that we didn't have an accurate understanding of reality.

I had an ex like you.

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[-] Fogle@lemmy.ca 28 points 11 months ago

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. And as far as I can tell Einstein never said it but it's always attributed to Einstein

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[-] gatelike@feddit.de 27 points 11 months ago

"actually we're a republic" when someone defends democracy

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[-] SonOfSuns@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago

"They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps!" Apparently, the quote originates from like a late 1800s textbook or something, and it was a logic problem: "Why cannot a man pull himself up by his own bootstraps?" It's not possible, 'cause physics.

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[-] handsatinizer@lemm.ee 25 points 11 months ago

"not all heroes wear capes"

[-] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Only the dead ones.

NO CAPES!

— Edna Mode

[-] Critical_Insight@feddit.uk 24 points 11 months ago

"Fuck around and find out"

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[-] lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 11 months ago

Occam's razor, because it seem it is often used wrong by using it for just shutting down possible explanations. Typically noone mentions, that this is about guessing probabilities without prior knowledge and not a way to completely ignore an explanation.

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[-] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 19 points 11 months ago

"make it was simple as possible"

Super annoying, because the people who use this always forget the second half, which makes the saying useful.

"Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler" it is effectively a re-stating of Occam's razor.

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[-] Twig@sopuli.xyz 19 points 11 months ago
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[-] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 18 points 11 months ago

No one wants to work anymore.

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[-] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago

"think of how stupid the average person is, and then think half of them are dumber than that"

So heavily overused.

[-] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

This was actually the quote that inspired this thread. I love George Carlin but I hear this all the time online and I hate it

[-] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml 15 points 11 months ago

The people saying it aren't usually in the half they think they are, either.

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[-] pizzazz@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

"Galileo too was ostracized for his beliefs, but he was right"

Yeah but he did science, not that new age bullshit you think are an expert in.

[-] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

—Carl Sagan

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[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I guess you don't see it too much these days (outside of maybe yearbooks or collections of inspirational quotes), but Frost's "I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference."

If you read the rest of the poem the narrator explicitly states in several different ways that the roads are pretty much the same. So the narrator is saying that by later on saying the roads are different he'll be retroactively be justifying his choice or just not telling the truth about it.

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[-] AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

"I took the road less traveled." Which in the original poem means pretty much the opposite of what people are trying to say.

[-] SHamblingSHapes@lemmy.one 16 points 11 months ago

I live in the US and follow rugby.

"Rugby is a hooligan's sport played by gentlemen, soccer is a gentleman's sport played by hooligans."

So cringe. Different sports are different. I can like both, I can even play both, and neither suffers a loss.

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this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
136 points (93.6% liked)

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