Ask Lemmy

That my dad cared about or respected me. After a family dinner, my wife asked me if he always talked about me like that and it just kind of clicked. Things like telling my kid, "If you play too many video games, they'll melt your brain like your dad" or "why would anyone pay you that much" when I told them that I broke a six figure salary. She made me realize that this wasn't normal and I didn't have to sit there and listen to it just because of who he is.

I haven't spoken to him or really any of my side of the family in almost two years now. Good riddance.

Thinking the words, "just calm down" in the heat of an argument with my wife will actually work if I just try it enough times. Mathematically it should but it seems math doesn't care about that.

Raised conservative christian, took a disgustingly long time to lose some of my shittier takes

I thought the "purple" skittles were supposed to be brown (I still think they look brown). One day I looked on the package. The rest is history.

As a non American who has never been to the US, but grew up well within its sphere of cultural influence.

I thought that about half of the population was black, maybe 40% minimum. I was surprised to learn that it was just above 10% in reality.

I thought I'd live a comfortable stable life pursuing the sciences for the sake of knowledge. I learned in the past year or two through studying political economy and climate science that this is pretty unlikely. These days idk what to do. I want to do something more useful, I want to help people but it all feels quite hopeless. It often feels like revolution is the only option but I fear it may even be too late for that. We are already past the point where hundreds of millions will die and be displaced. We are already past the point of inevitable severe famine and societal collapse in many places. We aren't even accomplishing damage control and it feels like most people don't even dare acknowledge it.

Used to think that cis people normally think that they are girls or dislike their genitals, and that it was a phase I would grow out of. I didn't, it just got worse and it was from browsing r/egg_irl and r/traa that made me realize that I was wrong and in-denial.

Marshmellow is not correct. It's marshmallow. I learned by spell checker. Only took nearly 21 years.

Rinsing after brushing teeth. The fluoride in the toothpaste should stay on your teeth for a while to be effective. So you should floss, then brush, and wait to rinse or not rinse

I thought that the human body was incapable of making glucose. Learned about gluconeogenesis during a university nutrition course

I was wrong about who I was for several years. A pretty unexpectedly intense DMT trip set me right

EDIT: This isn't really the ideal place to rlaborate on my experience, but thanks for the interest.

Cocoa has an "a" at the end of it. I was in college and was like, "haha, they spelled it weird." Nope, just a dumbass.

A BLT is literally just bacon, lettuce, and tomato. I thought it was just the toppings on the base meat (like how a pepperoni pizza inculdes bread, sauce, etc.). I don't like bacon or raw tomato, so I never had one.

There is no bone in the penis. I swore there was one until I made it to 3D molding and, as we were going over different body parts and their movement, I asked my male friend "Hey, where's the penis bone/muscle." He looked at me like I had two heads. I assumed it could do tricks, like waving and stuff. 🤷🏿‍♀️

Until I was 24 or 25 I believed that women were disinterested in sex, and that sexual relationships were wholly transactional. I also thought I was hidiously undatable.

Nope. Wrong on all counts.

I thought I was straight for about 17 years, thinking that also being attracted to men was just something everyone experienced.

Shame about sex stuff, because of growing up in a Christian household. Took me until my 20s before I was comfortable with… everything.

Now I have over a grand in Bad Dragon stuff and another grand in other fun things and I’m basically asexual so I rarely use anything. BUT WHEN I DO… we get WEIRD about it.

That Tom Brady was a product of a winning system and would be average at best if he played with another organization. What made me realize I was wrong? Fuckin ring number 7 and our (the Bills) absolute owning of New England ever since he left.

I was certain that a gander was a group of geese. Why? Because apparently everybody who has ever used the phrase "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" around me was using it wrong. I just learned this week that a gander is a male goose. So based on misuse, I thought that the phrase meant that what's beneficial for one is beneficial for the greater group, but what it really means is that what's acceptable in the case for one should be equally acceptable for others in the same situation.

I'm nearly 36 and I would say that I'm smarter than most people, but this was a gaping hole in my knowledge that was pretty damn humbling to learn of and correct.

Alanis Morisette is not the artist that did the "I'm a bitch I'm a lover" song. Meredith Brooks is the artist.
I found out because I had the song stuck in my head and I looked it up on yt. The comments section showed me that I wasn't the only one who thought the song was by Alanis Morisette
Llllink

The longest was probably the vegetarian → vegan pipeline.
My position was that 'employment' of animals was humanely possible, if you genuinely treated them like you'd want to be treated.

It was until I read how cows need to basically be kept continuously pregnant, that I realized there was just no way.
I believe, you could have a bite of cheese every year or so, if we don't do forceful impregnation, but at that point, why even bother?