[tldr: what myths have you embarrassingly failed to be skeptical about?]
I think these are mostly things that I was told authoritatively many years ago (probably by a man in a pub); and that I accepted them without question because, at the time, there was no way of checking them; and after all, y’know, I was told authoritatively, by someone who* clearly knew*.
Scroll forwards into the age of the internet, and google: but I* still failed to check them* – either because they were so obviously true (ie, entirely my fault tor believing them) or because they were things that everybody knows to be true (ie, everybody’s fault tor believing them). Only now am I recognizing some of the nonsense I have believed, in some cases, for most of my life. I’ll give you three recent examples.
In the vicinity of the Mont St Michel, the tide comes in faster than a galloping horse. Everybody knows that. Actually, I’ve started a thread in GQ on this, just in case there is somewhere in the world where this is true. But it sounds like BS to me.
In the UK you can be convicted of being drunk in change of a horse; or a boat; or a bike. (So far this is true). And if you are, your driving licence gets an endorsement, or you can even lose your licence. Absolute nonsense – I have believed this for nearly forty years! I only found out it was untrue by the simplest of google searches a couple of weeks ago.
**In the past, in England, people would be hung for stealing a loaf of bread. *This is a much repeated internet fact (in, just as an example, “10 Executions That Were The First Of Their Kind” - groan) – but it’s always the same case that’s quoted, that of 7 year old Michael Hamond (sometimes Hammond) and his 11 year old sister, Ann. But here’s an account from a seriously non-trivial website: “It has been suggested that the youngest children ever hanged in Britain were Michael Hamond and his sister, Ann, whose ages were given as 7 and 11 respectively in “The History of Lynn” written by William Richards and published in 1812 (page 888) [ie, 103 years after the events]. In other accounts they were referred to as “the boy and the girl” as they were both small. Research into parish baptism records by Michael Stern reveals that these two were almost certainly 17 and 20 years old respectively which is much more likely, as there are no other recorded instances of small children being executed at this time. They were allegedly hanged outside the South Gate of (Kings) Lynn on Wednesday, the 28th of September 1709 for an unspecified felony.” (My bolding.) So, nope, don’t believe that any more either.
OK, so we’ve established that I have a long history of being gullible. But it can’t just be me. Who else is guilty of believing an implausible myth for far too long, when they could easily have researched the truth?
j
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- Information taken from this page on this site, which I have referenced on these boards before. It is a remarkably (indeed disturbingly) comprehensive, detailed and well researched compendium of execution. Your go-to resource for the straight dope on capital punishment. I’m kind of pleased that it exists, but I definitely don’t want to meet the author. Ever.
