What were some misconceptions you had about the world when you were a child?
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  What were some misconceptions you had about the world when you were a child?
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Author Topic: What were some misconceptions you had about the world when you were a child?  (Read 4338 times)
retromike22
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« on: April 28, 2014, 07:56:52 PM »

Because my parents had me watch old movies, I used to think that the world was originally in black and white, and each color was individually and separately invented.

I also used to to think that people lived a really long time, about 1,000+ years.

And for some bizarre reason, I thought our family was half-British.
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Atlas Has Shrugged
ChairmanSanchez
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« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2014, 08:12:19 PM »

I thought my dad was black.
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The world will shine with light in our nightmare
Just Passion Through
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« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2014, 08:15:19 PM »


haha what
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2014, 08:36:36 PM »

Not literally, but he was (and is) very tan and in preschool I used a black crayon (I could never find the right color) to draw him, which amused my family.
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Reaganfan
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« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2014, 08:39:47 PM »

Because my parents had me watch old movies, I used to think that the world was originally in black and white, and each color was individually and separately invented.


I thought the same thing. I also thought, from movies and TV shows, that::

1. Punching someone didn't get you in trouble
and 2. Women only had sex because men wanted them to and for conception because they always showed women rejecting men's advances.
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HagridOfTheDeep
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« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2014, 08:48:46 PM »

I believed that my face would freeze if I held it in a really gross expression. Not like "oh, the coldness of the wind will freeze my face," but I literally thought the nerves would cease up and something would "go wrong" on the "inside."

I believed that for longer than I'd care to admit, actually. Tongue
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2014, 08:50:12 PM »

I believed people did whatever job they had because that was their lifelong aspiration and that the money was just a nice gesture on the side. I didn't understand people work primarily to get paid.
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Napoleon
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« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2014, 09:18:00 PM »

I didn't understand why poor people didn't just find a job/better job and earn more money, or why they were poor in the first place.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2014, 09:33:43 PM »

The biggest misconception I remember from my childhood is that you can hit a golf ball farther with a 9 iron than a 2 iron because it has the bigger number.
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GaussLaw
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« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2014, 09:37:42 PM »

I didn't understand why poor people didn't just find a job/better job and earn more money, or why they were poor in the first place.

Unlike 47% of America (in 2012), you grew out of that.
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retromike22
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« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2014, 09:45:12 PM »

I believed people did whatever job they had because that was their lifelong aspiration and that the money was just a nice gesture on the side. I didn't understand people work primarily to get paid.

I still have trouble understanding that.
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nclib
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« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2014, 10:23:54 PM »

I didn't understand how it was possible to borrow money, since you can't return the exact dollar bill or coin you've already spent.
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Alien
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« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2014, 10:33:17 PM »

^ Same with me, and I also didn't understand how giving change worked.  
I'm pretty sure that my first lemonade stand was a net loss.  Some of my customers ended up making money, because I just handed out coins and lemonade all day.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2014, 10:34:38 PM »

Yeah, I used to think that when you deposited money in the bank you were actually putting the money in a vault (well, safety deposit box) somewhere, so I was utterly baffled as to how ATMs worked. I eventually came to the conclusion that ATMs were a sort of loaning system- that you could withdraw what you pleased and some guy would come later to your individual box and physically take out the amount you had withdrawn.

Later I was able to conceptualise some mechanism that allowed one to note the amount of money in the (physical) account, thus removing the loaning aspect (you couldn't withdraw more than your balance), but still keeping the idea that your money was physically in a box somewhere. And that a check involved someone going to the payer's bank account, taking the cash, and physically depositing it in the payee's bank account.

I actually don't think I ever "realised" I was wrong about this, I just eventually dropped the idea that a physical account existed.
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old timey villain
cope1989
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« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2014, 12:39:31 AM »

I got a lot of these:

I thought people on TV actually lived in the box

I thought Bill Clinton's first name was "President" since people on the news called him President Clinton

I thought a robe was called a "robon" because my mom would always tell me to "get my robe on" after I took a bath

I was convinced my mom was best friends with Rosie O'Donnell for a long time. No idea why.

I thought I was the only person in the world who farted and I thought that every time I did it green bubbles would come out but they popped inside my clothes so I could never see them.



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Flake
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« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2014, 09:01:15 AM »

I always thought people would do their best and the right thing.

I also thought that the reason some shows were black and white was because the world was black and white then. Tongue
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Torie
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« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2014, 09:29:18 AM »

The only thing that pops into my mind, is stuff involving Santa Claus. I was disappointed when my older brother filled me in on that one, at about age 5.
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TheDeadFlagBlues
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« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2014, 01:21:44 PM »

For a while, I was under the impression that Americans admired Mexico because of its ancient civilization and its beautiful colonial architecture.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #18 on: April 29, 2014, 01:59:21 PM »

For a while, I was under the impression that Americans admired Mexico because of its ancient civilization and its beautiful colonial architecture.

Well, some of us do. Smiley
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courts
Ghost_white
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« Reply #19 on: April 29, 2014, 02:57:01 PM »

- didn't know about lemon trees, wondered if there were lemon fields.
- briefly thought russia had been fascist or something because of all the neo-nazis in the news. this was before i learned about the cold war, so around age 7
- vampires could and did routinely break through windows and eat people
- the environment was significantly more polluted than it really was because of all those mutant frogs being born and rainforest destruction mostly. it was the 90s
- area 51 was really full of aliens
- the y2k bug would be a bigger problem than it turned out to be
- the republican party wasn't terrible
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Ghost_white
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« Reply #20 on: April 29, 2014, 03:17:09 PM »

hm, some more i thought of

- 'sex change' operations were easier to get and tg people were more common than they really are (later is because of tabloids and jerry springer.. and anime). yeah, that should have been a tip off right?

- satanic and pagan cults were more common than they really were

- virtual reality was around the corner

- ancient civilizations like atlantis were real

- bubbleyum contained spiders eggs

- lsd could be put in water supply

- chameleons blended into their environment. this is actually untrue, they change color based on their emotions and hormonal state.

- aspartame was really dangerous for you and could cause cancer.
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Anti Democrat Democrat Club
SawxDem
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« Reply #21 on: April 29, 2014, 05:20:41 PM »

I thought bisexual people where girls who acted like boys or boys who acted like girls.
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Warren 4 Secretary of Everything
Clinton1996
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« Reply #22 on: April 29, 2014, 06:39:12 PM »

Lord Voldemort would come and kill my parents because I'd found out that he murdered the Potters.

The rats from Willard were going to run out of the toilet while I was using it.

Cars had a mind of their own. We told them where to go and they just went there.
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Mechaman
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« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2014, 06:46:02 PM »

I didn't understand why poor people didn't just find a job/better job and earn more money, or why they were poor in the first place.
^^^^
This.
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CrabCake
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« Reply #24 on: April 29, 2014, 06:55:38 PM »

The American president was called Grass.

I also briefly supported the Conservatives, when I was very young; because I overheard my grandma wishing she had a conservatory and thinking the "Conservatory" would help her dream. I was scared of Labour, because I knew Labour meant hard work. And I hated hard work.
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