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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed when apparently reasonable and intelligent people share blatantly false 'warnings' on FB.

164 replies

EarlessToothlessVagabond · 07/08/2017 09:28

Yes I know it's fb and I have a choice to be on there but... come on!! I have friends (not just fb friends, real actual sane and sensible friends) who share the most awful, obviously fake warnings along the lines of 'DO NOT EAT BANANAS WITH BLUE STICKERS ON THEM THEY'RE ALL INFECTED WITH EBOLA ...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!' etc. Why why why?!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Flatt7 · 07/08/2017 09:30

Maybe they're sharing it because they find it funny? :)

ShatnersWig · 07/08/2017 09:30

Yes. YANBU. You point it out to them and they get all "well, you never know, I just want people to be safe". It takes a 10-second Google search to prove whether something is genuine or not. Barely any longer than sharing the crap in the first place.

I defriend them. If they are that stupid, I can do without them.

Dragonglass · 07/08/2017 09:31

And when you tell them it's a hoax, they say well 'better to safe' or 'just in case'.

YANBU

DonaldStott · 07/08/2017 09:31

I don't do fb. one of the reasons is your OP. My mum even shared a message about plug in air fresheners. The plugs of which, in the pics, were like no plugs I have ever seen in my life.

I spent the whole of reading fb, face palming. It was time to give it up.

Ninabean17 · 07/08/2017 09:32

I can't stand this. There's one in particular on my page who I have just unfriended because I couldn't take it anymore. Just Google it ffs instead of taking up my feed! Argh

Original poster
EarlessToothlessVagabond · 07/08/2017 09:34

One off them is my sister so I can't defriend Grin. I've probably been just as annoying (and bloody smug) by posting a link to Snopes about her latest one. Some of them do have a slight ring of authenticity about it them I suppose but there's always something dodgy sounding about them. She'll probably be as pissed off at me for correcting her now!

OP posts:
MorrisZapp · 07/08/2017 09:34

CAN YOU HELP? THERE IS A LOST DOG!

IN PLYMOUTH

JeReviens · 07/08/2017 09:35

Drives me to tears. YANBU at all. I sometimes post a Hoaxslayer link underneath to debunk the nonsense but they don't seem to appreciate this 🤣

Original poster
EarlessToothlessVagabond · 07/08/2017 09:35

CATCH THIS PERSON WHO DID A BAD THING IN OUTER MONGOLIA IN 2012. SHARE SHARE SHARE.

OP posts:
toolonglurking · 07/08/2017 09:37

I'm Usually the smug git that posts a link to snopes, I can't help myself!

Adnerb95 · 07/08/2017 09:37

I also find this irritating, as are the admissions of people who VOTE that they take their guidance from certain publications without even checking them out. People's naivety astonishes me.

SnickersWasAHorse · 07/08/2017 09:37

It is the modern day version of the chain letters that we used to get in the 80s.

ToastMarketingBoard · 07/08/2017 09:37

YANBU. See also, "competitions" that are obvious like-farming pages, and missing person/pet appeals that even just clicking into the original post would show were found three months ago.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 07/08/2017 09:41

Oh, god yes.

My cousin's wife is a big sharer of the kind of 'safety' information that's utter bullshit - you know, 'get into your car by wiggling through the back passenger seat with your shoes in your hand to foil the rapists who lie in wait by the driver-side door' type stuff. She believes in the abandoned baby seat in the middle of the road, too. You link to snopes and she'll say 'oh, but it's best to be safe'.

I have yet to discover whether she actually wiggles into her car from the back in the hope of avoiding rapists. She has two small children and the logistics seem ... interesting.

Trills · 07/08/2017 09:45

Posting a link to snopes is not "being annoying".

People do get defensive when they are embarrassed, but there is no genuine reason to be annoyed at you for telling them "that thing you said, it is not true".

ShotsFired · 07/08/2017 09:59

I usually post links to Snopes and tell them official advice is to delete these hoaxes as they are more dangerous than the OP. If they are suckers for this type of thing, they usually fall for it!

I neglect to point out the "official advice" is my own

HoneyDragon · 07/08/2017 10:00

Than goodness the family and I don't eat bananas. Do you mind if I share on Facebook op?

ooerrmissus · 07/08/2017 10:06

YANBU it utterly fucks me off. And the obviously fake news ones. Somebody actually posted one the other day about road signs in Bradford being bilingual English and 'Pakistani'. Bollocks of course but all the racists fuckwits piling on to say how appalling it is and how it shouldn't be allowed. It feeds into people's misplaced fears and phobias and stirs up hatred.

Original poster
EarlessToothlessVagabond · 07/08/2017 10:06

Fill your boots Honey.

Yes I made that one up. Honest I did.

It was the paracetamol infected with virus-I-can't-remember-the-name-of which tipped me over the edge.

OP posts:
AnotherLegoBrick · 07/08/2017 10:07

I have a few that do just this. I used to think they were sensible, intelligent people...

Feckitall · 07/08/2017 10:07

This is my pet hate on FB...the ones that bug me are the ones that post this rubbish..and post political rants..Seriously if you don't have enough discernment to know this is rubbish why would I take notice of your political views!

StumpyScot92 · 07/08/2017 10:07

YANBU I have a few family member like this... One in the space of a week shared that you should never eat anything from a fast food place served in a polystyrene container because you will definitely get cancer and die. A post about how bottled water is killing us all because it isn't pure water (because of the fucking minerals) and a post about an Asian gang in a white van kidnapping local children (post actually said local, not an area, the word local) but the police keeping it quiet as they don't want to alert the gang they know about them.

I can't unfriend without causing issues so after a long time of posting snopes links I have unfollowed so I don't have to see this guff.

Most worrying, she is in her last year of teacher training....

treaclesoda · 07/08/2017 10:08

Yes, yes, this is so frustrating.

I have a particular hatred of all the ones that start by telling people that 'police are warning about a new way of kidnapping a raping women'. I hate those with a passion because they are not about safety advice at all, they are about frightening women. They are about trying to pin the blame on women for not following the advice. And moreover 'police are warning'. What police? The Met? NYPD? The police in Mauritius? I'd be willing to take a bet that safety advice is different for me than it is for someone who lives in a favela in Rio Hmm

Although my all time favourite is the one that constantly does the rounds about onions. Onions absorb toxins don't you know? During the plague, people put cut up onions in the corner of their rooms to absorb the plague. 1) can you absorb plague? and 2) well, that must have worked well, because it's not as if anyone died of plague or anything...

treaclesoda · 07/08/2017 10:10

Oh, and dog thieves coming round in vans and putting stickers on people's gates when they are out.

Here's a thought. If you are out of the house, and the thief is in a van, and your dog is locked in your yard, is it not just possible that it would be a lot more practical for the van person to just steal your dog there and then instead of putting a nice colour coded sticker on your gate so that a friend can come back and do it later?

putdownyourphone · 07/08/2017 10:11

Or 'share this post to show your support for cancer' - why would I want to support cancer??