things the masses of people seem to believe that aren't true.

[shortroundd]

I am not talking about conspiracies here that can't be proven with a bit of digging but more false stuff that seems to stick in the minds of the general population as truths.

1. All/majority of lotto winners go broke after 5 years. I have seen this touted out a lot yet there is no known source of it as no such research exists. There is the handful of bad stories that are circulated but this is only a minority out of 1000s of big winners worldwide. Infact, I recall the tabloids doing a feature with winners to celebrate Camelot's 20th anniversary or so and many winners had said their lives were better.

1. Marriage means all assets are split 50/50. Another huge misconception.

1. Prenups will protect 1 in divorce- again I think 2 and 3 come from people watching tv shows and movies that use this as factual when it's not.

1. Elvis sings 'Lonely this Christmas.'

1. The capital of Brazil is Rio.

The UK takes quite a strange stance on rights/ obligations when living together. They’re apparently able to recognise the concept of an unmarried but financially enmeshed couple when working out benefits and taxes but not when the couple spilt.

I’m reality it tends to be the woman in the couple who loses in both directions.

@NewarkShark

That rape victims can be questioned about what they were wearing, or their sexual history (very limited circumstances, but so many people think it’s routine in rape trials).

I was asked about my underwear, and the state of my marriage, in my trial. Stranger rape, witnesses and cctv, no reason to ask me except to imply I was a slapper wearing slutty knickers.

That there is no speed limit on the German Autobahn

There are stretches where there is no speed limit, but they are getting fewer every year.

@Leftbutcameback

I always think the US has 52 states! Is it actually 50?

A US President thought that too! No...not the one you might think.

That there is an animal species called a panther, or indeed a black panther. Its a genus, and includes tigers and lions.

@Realis

That is appropriate to say ‘hence why’.

They mean the same thing just say hence or why, you don’t need both.

Same as "from whence". Whence already means "from where".

@SmorgasBorb

That fat makes you fat That the law says that retailers MUST charge you the price on the ticket/shelf That Boris Johnson brought in the hire bikes in London. It was Ken Livingstone's policy but they happened to be launched within weeks of Boris becoming Mayor hence why they were called Boris Bikes That solicitors must give you 30 mins free advice That the police are interested/are able to 'log' a man sitting outside your house in his car 'just in case' That Scottish notes must be accepted in England or vice versa That there is actually a shellfish called scampi That there is such thing as a common law spouse in England

I had to Google the Scottish bank notes thing because I was incorrectly certain they were "legal tender" in England.

I've just discovered not only are they not "legal tender" in England...they aren't even legal tender in Scotland!!

[quote ThePlumVan]@CounsellorTroi what happened then ?
I remember this as if it was yesterday.[/quote]
He walked into the station, got a free paper, got on the train that was standing there. The police followed him on to the train and shot him. The man some people reported running and leaping the barrier was actually a police officer. The police initially did say he had been challenged and ran but corrected that within a few hours.

Commander of the police operation that day was Cressida Dick.

[quote Leftbutcameback]@elp30 so there are two cities with the same name five miles apart? Don't people get confused?![/quote]
No! One is a great big City with big sports teams and stadiums and the other isn't. I thought it was in Kansas until I went there!

That foreigners and refugees get handed everything on a plate, and are stealing our jobs, housing and benefits (I hear this shite from my own family too, who won't listen to or read, any evidence to the contrary ).

@Blurp 'Alright' is considered a word in British English, and is acceptable in almost all contexts except very formal writing (and in very formal writing, 'all right' probably wouldn't be acceptable as a phrase either, unless you were quoting somebody). 'Alright' is fine for emails, websites, novels, manuals, message boards etc, but not in most legal documents. However, in the US, the word is only acceptable as 'all right'.

Similarly, to the above, the word and spelling 'OK' is acceptable in most contexts in British English (excluding extremely formal... etc) but it is spelt 'okay' in the US.

I agree with you about 'alot' though. I've never seen 'bestfriend' written like that, but I see 'thankyou' as one word surprisingly often online.

Commander of the police operation that day was Cressida Dick.

And didn't she do well out of it

A Blair (commissioner at the time) going straight on record to say that it was terrorism related.

Yeah, related in the sense that they shot someone to death that wasn't a terrorist

I actively campaign for alot

First word I teach a new phone

That there's such a thing of right of way when driving

The Highway Code uses the word "priority". Much the same thing, really.

That anyone on benefits (including disabled people) could work if they really wanted to. Heard continually, to the point of frothing obsession, from my sister who would not hear evidence to the contrary.

[quote SuperSocks]@BigPantsLittlePants

Where's the line though? I've got tonnes of autistic traits so as if I wrote them down everyone would be nodding like, 'Oh yes, she's definitely autistic' whereas if I missed them out and wrote down the other side of me no one would think I was at all. When does it stop being 'autistic traits' and start being 'actually autism'?[/quote]
When I did the mental and cognitive side to my training, I was taught that "traits" become the condition-any condition-at the point where they cause problems for the person concerned or for their carers/family group...or even, much more broadly, society in general. make of that what you will.

That we only use 10% of our brains. I don't know why people believe it as it makes no sense anyway.

@Airyfairymarybeary

Cows milk made for their calf is completely normal for grown adults to consume.

Ok but it's been going on for possibly 6000 years so.....

@Magicandspiders

You can catch a cold by being cold.... Out your jumper or you'll catch a cold. Drives me insane!

God yes, this has always wound me up. I think there's something in the link between feeling very cold for some time and succumbing to a virus, but that's only because being cold lowers your immune response (I think), but you need to have had exposure to the virus in the first place for it to make a difference.

That places such as Bromley are in Kent, even though they have been a London borough since 1965.

That there is such a thing as Marital Debt, in the UK.

So many people think that if they are married, and accrue debt in their sole name, that in the event of missing or not making any payments, that their spouse can be pursued for it as well.

No. No, they absolutely cannot. If a debt is in one persons sole name, then that is the only person that the Bank can pursue, unless there is a Guarantor or Third Party surety.

I worked in Debt Recovery for 12 years.

That human beings can be born in the wrong body.

That human beings can change sex

That you can't drink alcohol while taking antibiotics
There's one I know of flagyl where you most definitely can't though

I read somewhere that our modern unit measure of "feet"changed at some point. So 5 foot 6" of today is not the same as 5ft 6" of Napoleon's time. I've never researched that though so might be another myth

That might make some sense.
Even now the average man's foot is only 10.5 inches. At some point a "foot" would have been the size as a man's foot.
A yard is roughly a man's stride.
A hand as in horse measurement is 4" the width of a man's hand.

Anything any politician says except "I will do and say anything to get into power, and I will do and say anything to hold power, fuck the country."

Not sure if this is still commonly believed but it's been a regular feature in TV shows over the years - in a game of poker, you don't lose because you can't match a stake someone else has raised. You just have to put in whatever money you have left and, if you win, you only win the part of the stake that you were able to match.

The biggest myth is the "climate emergency" - people genuinely seem to think that unless we destroy our way of life now, we're certain to reach the point of no return in the next few decades. That's simply not true. Climate change is real but not catastrophic. The disaster predicted is simply the worst-case scenario, it's highly unlikely to happen that way. It would be like the worst case scenario for cancer cases, if there's a 10% chance an individual could develop cancer in a year, there is an outside chance 100% of people could develop it, because everyone might be in the unlucky 10%.