Bits of "common sense" that need to die

[New Octopucta]

Chicken soup cures a cold. This a very damaging belief because FUCK chicken soup.

What's wrong with chicken soup?

[The Merchant Republics]

That trickle down economics work or that people act in their economic self interest.

I'd disagree that the either the first or the second is "common sense".

Nor that the second part is necessarily wrong. People do act in their individual economic self-interest, but the problem with recent economic issues is that their self-interest is getting screwed around by irrational long and short-term incentives pushed on them. Not that certain cases are nonetheless true, drug addicts for instance, rarely act in their economic self-interest.

Most of economics and society wouldn't work if people didn't basically follow their own economic interests.

[SaintB]

That common sense is common.

[Saiwania]

Universal healthcare means that granny will have to wait in a long line to see a doctor.

Maybe that is true. This Canadian politician (Danny Williams) went to the US for surgery rather than use the socialist Canadian health system. Because of Obamacare, all that is going to be ruined. The US will no longer be the country with the best medical equipment or medicines. Health care will need to be rationed and long lines will result.

[EnragedMaldivians]

not really "common sense" but still widely quoted:

that Islam is the religion of peace

Historically speaking, Islam was pretty damn peaceful. Well I should perhaps say instead that after the sweeping invasions of the early Caliphates, the Muslims were generally pretty peaceful and non-dickish to the people they conquered, when contrasted with the Christian Europeans.

A religion of peace then (which is still, debateable). Calling it the religion of peace is a bit silly.

The Ottomans would have taken offence to it anyhow, since the concept of Gaza (holy war) to subordinate dar-al Haab were among its principle founding tenets.

Though it should be noted that their philosophy of aggressive war against the unbeleiver was in response to the Crusades (and makes for a great IR case study for the theory of offensive realism); and within conquered territories, the inhabitants were neither foribly converted or disallowed from living by their own religious laws. For instance, Mehmed the conqueror largely left the Eastern Orthodox Church intact after he conquered Constantinope in 1453. Granted, this was partly because through the Jizya, the Ottomans maintained a policy of taxing non-Muslims higher than Muslims - so even if it was for partly revenue purposes, they were quite tolerant within their borders.

Anyway that going to the gym and doing a bunch of bicep curls is going to get you all buff. Compound lifts and proper diet ftw.

[Aethyopea]

Chicken soup cures a cold. This a very damaging belief because FUCK chicken soup.

The reason why your cold isn't getting cured is because you're supposed to drink it.

[Dilbertarian Workplaces]

not really "common sense" but still widely quoted:

that Islam is the religion of peace

Historically speaking, Islam was pretty damn peaceful. Well I should perhaps say instead that after the sweeping invasions of the early Caliphates, the Muslims were generally pretty peaceful and non-dickish to the people they conquered, when contrasted with the Christian Europeans.

I think the point I was trying to make is that people TODAY don't refer to it as "the religion previously known as peaceful", they claim it is still the religion of peace.

you might want to take a peek at http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Persecuti ... on-Muslims
to see what they've been up to lately.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

The conception that the stock markets will get back to normal if we stay business as usual. No, the credit crunch and the sovereign debt was a massive bubble that went unnoticed for some time until the late 2000s.

[SaintB]

I'm considered extraordinarily creative by my peers. Not to compare myself to those sorts of masters of the arts. But I'm creative and I'm right-handed, I was early on in my years ambidextrous, but I can't right more than chicken scratch now.

The Left/Right divide simply doesn't exist.

You certainly can't discount the confirmation bias that comes with people buying into this idea. "I'm left handed, so I must be bad at math but good at art. Better be a graphic designer."

Apparently I'm ambidextrous because I'm good at both, not because I spent a lot of time and effort to learn to do common activities with my off hand.

Graphic artists need to be decent at math.... take it from one...

[Soviet Haaregrad]

Universal healthcare means that granny will have to wait in a long line to see a doctor.

Maybe that is true. This Canadian politician (Danny Williams) went to the US for surgery rather than use the socialist Canadian health system. Because of Obamacare, all that is going to be ruined. The US will no longer be the country with the best medical equipment or medicines. Health care will need to be rationed and long lines will result.

The US isn't going to have a single payer system with no private clinics, therefore won't end up leaving rich Americans facing the same choices as rich Canadians who sometimes leave to avoid waits. The current US healthcare reforms are barely a universal healthcare system, and certainly aren't a single-payer, public healthcare system like Canada.

[Vellosia]

That all gays are effeminate.

That any man who shows the remotest bit of affection is gay.

Etc.

[Saiwania]

The US isn't going to have a single payer system with no private clinics, therefore won't end up leaving rich Americans facing the same choices as rich Canadians who sometimes leave to avoid waits. The current US healthcare reforms are barely a universal healthcare system, and certainly aren't a single-payer, public healthcare system like Canada.

It's not just yet, but it will go down that path eventually. I can see it.

[Greater Cabinda]

The US isn't going to have a single payer system with no private clinics, therefore won't end up leaving rich Americans facing the same choices as rich Canadians who sometimes leave to avoid waits. The current US healthcare reforms are barely a universal healthcare system, and certainly aren't a single-payer, public healthcare system like Canada.

It's not just yet, but it will go down that path eventually. I can see it.

Vermont agrees.

[SaintB]

I'm failing to see how this is terrible.

[The Merchant Republics]

Universal healthcare means that granny will have to wait in a long line to see a doctor.

Maybe that is true. This Canadian politician (Danny Williams) went to the US for surgery rather than use the socialist Canadian health system. Because of Obamacare, all that is going to be ruined. The US will no longer be the country with the best medical equipment or medicines. Health care will need to be rationed and long lines will result.

I'm a free marketist and strongly believe in Free Market Healthcare.

But I'm still going to disagree with you there. Danny Williams the Premier of Newfoundland went to an American Hospital because Newfoundland has no where near the population needed to support a major surgical hospital. Boston (where he went) is the nearest major city on the East Coast. Had he been in say, Quebec, they would have sent him to Montreal.

Now, that said, some Private American Hospitals do provide better service and higher quality care than Public Canadian ones (we don't have "socialist" healthcare, we have universal public healthcare, a good portion of it is nationalized but not socialist, we can have private hospitals), but it's based on the cost and cost for cost the Canadian system is better. The positive thing is that in America, you have hospitals that can specialize and do really good work, Canada can't do that with our public hospitals.


While I'm at, even though I dislike "ObamaCare", it's not nearly the "Socialist Take Over" that it's being called. You still have private hospitals, private insurance, your just being forced to buy private insurance, like your forced to buy car insurance and home insurance. It's not right in my opinion, but it's not nearly as bad for American healthcare as the host of other government programs and corporatist policies that make healthcare unbelievably expensive and not nearly as efficient as it was even 30 years ago.

[Dilbertarian Workplaces]

the widely held belief that by eliminating nearby cellular antennas we somehow reduce our exposure to radiation.

hint: the farther away you are from the antenna, the more power (i.e. radiation) the thing you hold up close to your brain has to emit in order to get connected.

[Central Slavia]

That penises are keys and vaginas are locks.

Fuck that shit.

How is that a bad analogy?

It's wrong in that even if you rotate a penis inside, nothing will open.

[The Merchant Republics]

Nuclear Power. Every little thing that any ignorant person says about nuclear power. Is pretty much bound to be a "common sense that needs to die".

From "What if it Blows Up?" and "We can't do anything with the waste" to "It kills us all with Radiation" including the grand-daddy of them all, "If Chernobyl happened once, it can happen again!". All of these need to die.

[The Merchant Republics]

How is that a bad analogy?

It's wrong in that even if you rotate a penis inside, nothing will open.

Have you tried jiggling it? Sometimes the lock just gets stuck.

[Soviet Haaregrad]

Maybe that is true. This Canadian politician (Danny Williams) went to the US for surgery rather than use the socialist Canadian health system. Because of Obamacare, all that is going to be ruined. The US will no longer be the country with the best medical equipment or medicines. Health care will need to be rationed and long lines will result.

I'm a free marketist and strongly believe in Free Market Healthcare.

But I'm still going to disagree with you there. Danny Williams the Premier of Newfoundland went to an American Hospital because Newfoundland has no where near the population needed to support a major surgical hospital. Boston (where he went) is the nearest major city on the East Coast. Had he been in say, Quebec, they would have sent him to Montreal.

Now, that said, some Private American Hospitals do provide better service and higher quality care than Public Canadian ones (we don't have "socialist" healthcare, we have universal public healthcare, a good portion of it is nationalized but not socialist, we can have private hospitals), but it's based on the cost and cost for cost the Canadian system is better. The positive thing is that in America, you have hospitals that can specialize and do really good work, Canada can't do that with our public hospitals.


While I'm at, even though I dislike "ObamaCare", it's not nearly the "Socialist Take Over" that it's being called. You still have private hospitals, private insurance, your just being forced to buy private insurance, like your forced to buy car insurance and home insurance. It's not right in my opinion, but it's not nearly as bad for American healthcare as the host of other government programs and corporatist policies that make healthcare unbelievably expensive and not nearly as efficient as it was even 30 years ago.

Wow, actual common sense is so nice.

[Call to power]

What's wrong with chicken soup?

its dreadfully bland.

Chicken soup cures a cold. This a very damaging belief because FUCK chicken soup.

The reason why your cold isn't getting cured is because you're supposed to drink it.

medicine is best taken as a suppository.

[Sarkhaan]

Today, I sat next to somebody on the train who was lecturing his friend about weight loss, and he kept repeating that oft-used mantra "Calories in, calories out!" It took all my will power to resist springing into Creepy Random Science Lecturer Mode and explaining to the guy why the only real weight-loss benefit of that phrase is the small number of calories that one burns whilst uttering it.

This got me thinking about all the little bits of "common sense" out there which are complete horseshit, and how very much I would like for these depressingly-common misconceptions to die out.

So, what charming nugget of bullshit "common sense" would you most like to stick in a blender and liquefy?

not voting for one of the two major US political parties is 'throwing your vote away'.

Exactly. Everyone knows that ANY voting is throwing away your vote. Save your votes and use them all at once to maximize your impact!

...wait...that sounds wrong for some reason...

[Fnordgasm 5]

if you ever have strange growth coming out of your penis or notice a mysterious unlocking noise when having a long hot bath it is time to see the doctor.


Or become a master thief I suppose.

When the next "what super power would you like" thread inevitably comes round I know what my answer will be.

Magic penis skeleton key, please!

Anyway, I'm not sure if this counts but I get slightly irked or even vexed when someone claims that "those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither" or whatever. I mean, I like Benjamin Franklin but to make such a broad moralistic judgement regardless of the contexts of which these sacrifices take place not to mention that if you were to take this phrase literally and to it's logical conclusion then should those who would sacrifice freedom deserve imprisonment? The ambigiousness of the phrase annoys me but not as much as those who quote it and think that regurgitating trite sayings are akin to engaging in debate.

[Zanarkenisia]

What's wrong with chicken soup?

its dreadfully bland.

The reason why your cold isn't getting cured is because you're supposed to drink it.

medicine is best taken as a suppository.

Ouch.

[Pauper Kings]

How about the common belief/sense that having more education automatically makes one more intelligent than someone with less education. That one is rampant.......


In some circles, the common belief that common sense is worthless.