Asklemmy

the entire history of past socialism

The Toungue map.

The idea that different parts of the tongue are responsible for feeling different tastes. This blatantly false idea was made up in 1901 out of thin air and then made its way into biology classrooms somehow. It was taught to schoolchildren (including me) for about 100 years as a biological fact, even though every human being in that time proved it false by experiment thousands of times by eating things and tasting them with the "wrong" parts of the tongue. It doesn't quite count as an example of this happening today, because we finally realized that it simply wasn't true and have stopped teaching it, but still: 100 years is a long time to realize that something is false when every human being in the world is confronted with physical evidence several times every day.

People, no matter the inteligence or schooling, are more likely to believe what they hear more often. (If 10 people you know swear that eating mint will keep you from going bald it might just be true)

This makes sense and is normal, at least until the modern world.

Now add social media and an algorithm that its only purpose is to increase clicks/likes/interactions. Suddenly everything everyone is talking about is whatever you clicked on last time. A positive feedback loop occurs. The more videos you look at on the same topic, the more those get served, the more you view them, the more you believe them.

Experiment : Try creating a brand new Google account and watching 3 videos on YouTube on a single topic. Refresh YouTube page, or check back tomorrow.

Switching to electric cars will save the planet. Not when they increase tire pollutants at higher rates and still rely on fossil fuels and fracking to charge their batteries.

Also for the US specifically that we can't afford universal healthcare.

That coconuts falling on people's heads kills more people than shark attacks. It's was literally an experiment to see how far a lie could spread, and now it's used by many as an actual fact.

America might be flawed but it’s still overall a force for good in the world.

Biden might suck but we should still vote for Democrats on the state or local levels and participate in the [nonexistent] primary to put pressure on Democrats because they are clearly better than Republicans and progressives would never lie to us (cough bernie cough fetterman cough AOC).

Communism is impossible because it goes against human nature.

China is capitalist.

Organizing for revolution in the USA is hopeless.

It’s impossible to scientifically understand human societies, even though humans are part of nature and nature can be scientifically understood.

We can solve all our problems with technology alone. There’s no need to change anything else.

Things will be better in the future even if I don’t actually do anything to make them better. (This one has been an issue for me. “The future” for a Marxist like myself isn’t terribly different from religious visions of paradise.)

Literally anything regarding China, especially Xinjiang if you talk to anyone from

I was talking to a mate about Palestine and he immediately went for the "bUt TiAnAm3n SqU@r3 k1LLeD oVeR tEn Th0uSaNd" and the "Ch1n@ cEnOcIde iN UygHuRs Th0" with the swiftness of a 737 flying into the 2nd tower. They will disregard who originally makes these claims and are 100% unfazed by say, World Uyghur Congress being totally in support of the genocide in Gaza, the response being either dismissal or "you're too much into politics and also ableism".

"we are free"

Ukraine is winning and Russia is collapsing.

The US military is there to protect their country's "Freedom"

I have not seen this mentioned before, but the Teslas people buy in the US isn't helping the environment. You just are saving on fuel!

USA Civil War: It was only the Southern states that were racist.

USA Civil War: The Confederacy was "only fighting for its way of life". With the hope that most USA'ians will assume that "its way of life" was anything but slavery.

News ownership has consolidated over the last 40 years from around 40 companies in the 1980s to 6 today. This is that "liberal news media" conservatives keep yammering on about. The one that's owned by 6 corporations.

Iran has convinced a large portion of their population that the holocaust never happened.

"This war is different, this war is nessasary" "This is the most important election of our time" "Invasive surveillance is done for your protection" "We only censor misinformation"

the vast majority of americans believe the obvious lie that buying things can make you happy

Death to America

I came into the comment section hoping for interesting things, but knowing it would be almost all political. Why do I keep doing this to myself, I know better.

That global poverty has declined because of the spread of liberal economies

So many things I could type here... I'll just keep it silly:

Some people think drinking peroxide will give their body "extra oxygen".

There's a TVTropes page for things like this, of course.

That the 2020 election was stolen.