Least-favorite myths

[drwex]

Yesterday I managed to waste most of an hour sitting through what should have been a professional seminar but turned out to be entirely based on the now-discredited left-brain/right-brain mythology. See http://t.co/kBTnX1VTeJ for details if you're unfamiliar with this one.

This got me to wondering: are there popular beliefs that people insist on perpetuating that irk you?

I'm not thinking of large cultural myth sets like astrology, reflexology, homeopathy, nor specific religious beliefs such as transubstantiation but just this wrong stuff that people seem to have latched onto and won't let go of.

Comments

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

"Domino's Pizza is pro-life."
"Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis."
"We only use 10% of our brain."
"Guns are defensive weapons."

[drwex]

Oh, yes. The "10% of our brains" thing bugs me too.

I might spend a little too much of my time reading neuroscience literature...

[unseelie.livejournal.com]

10% of brain... arg......

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I came here to mention that "10% of our brain" jazz; I see I'm not alone. :-)

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

"Domino's Pizza is pro-life."

The corporate entity may have no particular position on the subject, but Tom Monaghan, who was the owner and majority stockholder until 1998, very much is, and has put a great deal of his accumulated fortune behind anti-abortion causes.

Also, their pizza sucks.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

There are people less informed than you who seem to think Monaghan's views are still current events, when in fact many Domino's franchises support pro-choice organizations.

As to their food, they have four different crusts, three different sauces, they changed their recipes a few years ago, and I like 'em.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

...i think that last part is what counts.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Meyers Briggs

[drwex]

Ooh, yes. Another brain-based on that drives me 'round the bend.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah. my general response to meyers briggs is "horoscopes for smart people". They're making a lot of references to it in my current class, but they're failing to infuriate me because they're pretty much just using it as a jumping off point for "hey, people communicate differently! check it out! stuff that works for some people won't work for others!" which is - imao - a reasonable use of it.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the management training class at work that I was invited to leave was big on it. I could suddenly see why our whole management structure outside my small department was so messed up.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i find the 'stroke of insight' ted talk from the neuroscientist who had a stroke to be a much more interesting look at left brain/right brain dichotomies. but that's because she starts off her talk with an actual brain.

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

different areas of the tongue have different taste buds, so you taste sweet and salty in different areas...um, no, totally bogus

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

"I'm too old to start learning <X>"

[meadmaker.livejournal.com]

"The ACLU sued to prevent crosses in cemeteries / The ACLU sued to prevent prayer in the military"

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

I read an interesting pile of refutations of the whole "Alpha Wolf"/"pack leader" thing today:

http://www.squidoo.com/leader-of-the-pack

[drwex]

That's very interesting as we're in the process of integrating our new dog with our family.

[wren13.livejournal.com]

That leader of the pack article is excellent. And yes, my addition was going to be the 'you have to be alpha and dominate (In an aggressive way) your dogs. Ceasar Milan is just scary to real dog people.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

"students can't pray in school."
"atheists got school prayer banned."
"Christians don't have any rights any more because of PC judges."

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

"Schizophrenia means having multiple personalities." Nope. Having multiple personalities is Dissociative Identity Disorder; Schizophrenia is something else.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

If you hear voices you have Schizophrenia.

The other one that bothers me is the 'ic being added onto diagnoses as if you were your illness.
You are a diabetic or a schizophrenic, but a person with cancer (not a canceric)...etc.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

"Christopher Columbus wanted to prove that the earth was round."

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

The world is full of stupid myths and advices. A lot of them started as a way to oversimplify something -- that, in and of itself, would be fine for the first 5 or 10 minutes, until people get a clue of what's going on and can then be exposed to a more complete/nuanced explanation, but most people never get the full explanation, or don't understand it, but are willing to expose other people to the same cliche they got.

The ones that drive me up the wall, because (a) they're completely wrong and (b) take a very nice and practical appliance down to a one trick pony are "No metal in the microwave!" and "microwaves don't brown".

"No metal in the microwave" is ridiculous, because a lot of useful cooking can happen with a microwave when you know how to use foil to protect parts that would burn otherwise, and it takes just a couple of minutes to show someone what to do to do it properly.

"Microwaves don't brown" is akin to saying one can't cook on the stovetop or oven because it always burn the food -- there's nothing that forces people to use the nuker at 100% and, in fact, if people always cooked at 500F in the oven or high heat on the stovetop, they'd burn the outside before cooking the inside of the foods too. Besides, it's easy to disprove by just making a meatloaf in the microwave, perfect browning.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

The "no metal in the microwave" thing is, I think, because using metal _safely_ is difficult enough that it's easier to just say not to do it than it is to explain the rules for keeping it from sparking.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

one that is not a myth: in general, people are stupid. (present company very much excepted.)

if they tried to explain how to use metal safely in a microwave to the general populace, the number of house fires and ruined microwaves would probably put the mfrs out of business.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, the homeopathy thing just burns me up. So many people i know are like "oh, but i have this lovely homeopathic concoction that works great" -- and it's all i can do not to tie them to a chair and make them watch James Randi on infinite repeat. yack.

[dcltdw]

Come to a weight watchers meeting.

No wait, sorry, I like you. Don't do that.

(They're not all terribad, or we wouldn't go, but yeah sometimes...)

[drwex]

What myths are you dealing with? I assume it's the ignorance of the attendees rather than the myths of the WW program...