What is the one most astonishingly dumb things that, as a child, you believed was absolute truth?

Dubious_Fart@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 473 points –

I dont remember the age, but it was before Kindergarten, thought men came into the house at night to load the next days shows into the TV.

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If you were cold then you would catch a cold.

You had to wait an hour after eating because if you swam after eating then you would sink.

Carrots will allow me to see in the dark if I eat enough of them.

If you did a bad thing then the universe would make a bad thing happen to you.

If you dropped food on the ground and picked it up quick enough it didn't have germs.

Carrots will allow me to see in the dark if I eat enough of them.

This was (and is) a very successful British WWII misinformation campaign. The Brits didn't want it known that their aircraft had radar - which allowed them to find enemy aircraft at night. So they embellished carrots' benefit on night vision to cover up their technological advantage.

It worked. Don't feel bad for believing it. Everyone believed it.

If you were cold then you would catch a cold.

There is a startling amount of people here (most people I know) that believe this. I work in healthcare and we constantly have arguments about the AC in summer for that exact reason. Yeah cold weather can make it easier to catch a cold but it's interesting to see how many people believe that you need to get warm to avoid catching a cold.

Carrots will allow me to see in the dark if I eat enough of them.

Partially true. If you're vitamin A deficient, your night vision worsens and carrots can help with that. But you won't get Minecraft night vision

Isn't AC quite effective at spreading germs though?

That's true as well but you can't store drugs at 35°C. Good ventilation and regular disinfection takes care of the germs.

An ac system with dirty humidifier portions or stagnant water from the condensate system being plugged can start growing things like mold in the wet filthy areas and cause legionnaires disease or other health issues.

A properly functioning ac system just cools and dries the air.

There is a belief that going from hot and humid summer air to cold and dry ac air and back, constantly all day long, can make you sick.

I have no idea if that is true.

A central hvac system could potentially move particles of infectious materials from one room to another but whether that would make someone sick is debatable due to how short lived virus particles are and other factors.

Some commercial systems utilize ultra violet sections and hepa filters to kill and stop airborne contaminants and allergens.

The carrot thing came out of world war ii propaganda which was intended to keep radar gunsites secret.

Believing in karma isn't bad, though. If it helps being a better person, then why not.

It didn't help me be better at that age because I lacked the forward thinking ability to weighthe consequences. It did make me scared that something bad was going to happen after I'd done something bad. Which is kind of good I guess.

99% of Indians still believe the first one. They also believe that if you don't immediately dry your hair right after a shower you'll catch a cold. Sneezing and coughing without covering your mouth though? That's ok.

The world believed carrots made you have better vision. It is an interesting story and worth looking into.