I once actually thought that when movies and shows were developing, I thought that they were being made within the year of their release date. I didn’t know that these projects were sometimes done in advance or took years to make.
That when ‘Commercial Breaks’ happened during shows, I thought they meant that the actors needed a break before resuming. Not realizing that episodes are already made and commercials just interrupt things to just sell you shit.
When I learned food and drinks were energy for your body, I actually thought that when I got sleepy or tired, I just needed to drink or eat something. Not realizing that it wouldn’t have mattered.
I believed babies were conceived by kissing. When I first released genitals might be involved, I was in disbelief, thinking something like “No, it cannot be. This would be too stupid. Then it must be kissing that makes you pregnant”.
I lived in the greatest country in the world and everyone was so jealous of us.
Well that was true for some of us in the past…
That adults were intelligent
When I was a kid my parents would show me the NORAD Santa Tracker on Christmas eve, and of course had to explain to me that NORAD tracks everything larger than a baseball in the sky so of course they would track Santa’s movements. This easily added a couple of years onto how long I believed in Santa because why the heck would NORAD have a Santa tracker if it wasn’t real? The federal government doesn’t do whimsy like that!
I think it was the fact that the little animations never changed from year to year that finally allowed me to drop that line of reasoning…
That the future would be better.
Justice, mercy, duty, that sort of thing.
One of those things is not like the others.
Its a line that death says in the Discworld book The Hogfather
All right," said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
“They’re not the same at all!”
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—”
MY POINT EXACTLY
I miss Terry.
I believed dogs were all boys and cats were all girls.
I thought hard work would be enough to make a living.
In fairness to yourself, it used to be.
But they’re not being entrepreneurs! /s
Along those lines…my dad worked hanging drywall in new houses. I went to work with him many times. He busted his ass all day, sweating and covered in gypsum dust, blazing heat with hardly any ventilation, to bring home little pay.
On one of the rides in to work with him it occurred to me that if pay were decided by level of effort, he would be rich. Guys that wear ties to work and sit in air conditioned offices with their pencils and pens…they were living the easy life and making much more than their worth as I saw it.
Honestly that naivety hasn’t fully left me in adulthood. I have more appreciation for many office jobs, but the people who put their bodies on the line for work in shitty conditions are not paid nearly enough by and large. It’s a fucking criminal arrangement.
I do both sides of this at my work, both office and do real work. I keep telling the guys who don’t do the office part that they are the ones that should earn the most. Most of them are old and just think they are fine as is sadly. This mentality is sad imo.
I wonder where I would be if my work ethic didn’t get raped for all its worth.
At one point in time, it was. Now it’s the opposite.
Did depend on what race you were mind you.
Everybody forgets this. The time when “a single income could provide housing, transportation, and collage for a family of four” only existed for white men. Thinking this was universal is just lefty false nostalgia nauseatingly similar to MAGA.
It’d also depend heaviliy on the country too
No, everyone forgets the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
lefty false nostalgia
I don’t know anyone left leaning who thinks that
Or it’s your American defaultism showing.
You can, just not at the same company. You just have to hop jobs as soon as you get experience.
I believed that one day I would find myself in a situation where I would have to save myself or a friend from being buried in quicksand.
When I was a kid I’d get a new stuffed animal, and somewhere on the tag it would say, “Made from all new material”.
And for some reason I thought that meant the material had just been developed or discovered. Like they had a team of scientists in a lab working on a new type of polyester just so they could use it to make this shitty stuffed lemon that I won at a church carnival.
Thirty years later I realized it probably just meant the materials weren’t recycled.
Until I was about 5, I believed all dogs were boys and all cats were girls.
I just posted the same!
That was a lie propagated by parrots.
that adults knew what they were doing, and knew the stuff they were so loudly talking about. Was I naive.
Even as a kid I knew the adults were full of shit. Like, “why are you bullshitting me? Do you think I’m dumb?”
Obviously kids weren’t supposed to have critical thinking skills, and that was my problem, apparently. It sure got me into a lot of trouble…
I suspect that the louder a person talks, the more likely they are clueless about the topic.
Was also a big revelation to me that effectively arguing a point is a separate skill form actual knowledge and wisdom. The truth doesn’t care what you do, know, think, or how you talk about it.
The sad thing is that people don’t even argue points. I wish people who lacked knowledge and wisdom would argue. Instead, they just rebroadcast whatever propaganda they were fed most recently, untroubled by anything like critical thinking or introspection, and mostly unchallenged by their peers.
“Are you here for the 5 or 15 minutes argument?”
.montepython
I generally agree, but I just have pressing personal experiences where I prefer they don’t argue. Aside from arguing not fitting well into a chilling context, there are friends who are in cults, or were brought up with the weirdest shit and lack critical thinking skills, or have mental health issues where it would crash their world, there isn’t much point arguing. Nobody changes their minds and it’s just stressful mental masturbation. Better to set boundaries, respect each other and argue or give resources if both parties are willing. Again, this is about a specific context and my experience; you folx do you :)
There’s a Calvin and Hobbes strip about this. I think it’s the run where their house was broken into and Hobbes was missing. Calvin came to the same realization and I remember it really sticking with me as a kid.
Two big realizations I came to embarrassingly late in my youth.
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Adults are fallible and sometimes I know better.
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I can change the world around me to suit my preference if I just make it known.
I listened to the same 5 CDs over and over for years because I never thought to ask my mom to take me to buy music.
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I still have this internalised. I sort of assume that everyone around me knows what theyre doing and what theyre talking about.
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Cops are good
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Hard work pays off
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I might own a home someday
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The government isn’t out to get anyone
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People are inherently good
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Drugs are bad
Agree.
Also “crime doesn’t pay”, “you shouldn’t lie” and “we’re a monogamous society and you shouldn’t cheat in a committed long-term relationship.”
Tbh I still kinda believe in the latter, despite knowing it’s a childish fantasy.
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That big fireworks from far away could somehow land on my family’s car and burn us to death. Brought to me by my older sister trying to scare me at the age of 7 🙃
That the moon was moving and following us when we were driving.
That going to the bathroom at a neighbour’s house was rude and that I had to hold it in until we got home. I vividly remember this one time I was sitting on my mum’s lap. She talked for hours and I couldn’t hold it anymore, but I also was embarrassed to tell her I needed to go home, so I ended up urinating on myself. I still didn’t tell anyone until my mum felt her legs warm and wet. I still hate using any toilet that isn’t mine but I at least do what I need to do now.
I mean to be fair, the whole big fireworks landing on a car and catching fire can actually happen. Depending on where you’re parked at wind and everything like that. I remember very vividly multiple times saying firework shows go awry and fireworks dropping to grass and such like that and actually catching fire on things. And even now I’ve seen things happen with fireworks where they drop nearby and I’ve actually seen cars catch on fire because of that. So that’s not really an unfounded fear and it’s not really something that can’t happen.
That’s true but we used to watch fireworks from nearby towns so I don’t think we were ever really close enough to be in danger. I’d say we were at least 4km away. I just perceived big = close in my little child eyes.
I believed that there were very tiny human workers in my body that made it run.
But what made theirs run?
I was a stupid kid, not a deep thinker. My universe ended with just them. :)
Tinier humans. It’s tiny humans all the way down
