# Internet Rumors: HOW STUPID CAN PEOPLE BE?! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581 "2003-01-04T08:12:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![verifier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e480ec/32.png) [@verifier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/verifier)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/21 "2003-01-05T00:20:44Z")
I live in Brazil, and about two years ago I got one of the most stupid hoaxes ever. It was about Geography books in U.S. high schools supposedly showing the Amazon as not being part of Brazil’s territory, but rather something named “International Area of the Amazon.” The e-mail talked about how kids in other countries were being taught this as part of some big conspiracy plan to take the rainforest away from Brazil. The hoax author was so creative that he/she made sure to provide a scanned extract from the book on the e-mail. Well, I replied to everyone on the list saying I had lived in the U.S. before (actually studied in an American high school), and such thing was completely untrue. In fact, that wasn’t even necessary, since it only took a more detailed look at the extract to see it was a fake. And a quite crude one. The page had a grotesque layout which made it clear such page could not be an extract from a real textbook. I could’ve done better using MS PowerPoint! And the text itself contained so many grammar and spelling errors that the book would have never been published in the first place. Anyway, two years later I find myself reading at a newspaper an article about the rumor, as it being true! :smack: The guy in the paper had just gotten a letter about the subject from a “trusted” friend and wrote a whole page about it! I was amazed the paper actually published a story based on a rumor that had already been found to be false two years before. It impressed me how they really check their sources. I never bought that newspaper again. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/22 "2003-01-05T00:28:54Z")
> [@](#): > > I think J.R. “Bob” Dobbs said it best: > > “You know how dumb the average guy is, right? Well, by definition, HALF of them are even dumber than that!!” Clever, but I think he’s confusing the average and the median. Or at least that’s how they explained it on the Phil Donahue show – the same episode where the CEO of Proctor & Gamble mentioned that the company’s executives are all Satanists… ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/23 "2003-01-05T00:32:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Roadwalker \* > \*\*Anyone try the Neamun Marcus cookie recipie? \*\* It is a very good chocolate chip cookie recipe. It substitutes powdered oatmeal for some of the flour. I also use more chocolate chips than the recipe calls for. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/24 "2003-01-05T00:43:10Z")
About a month ago, I got a fwd email warning me about a virus contained in a Budweiser Frogs screen saver. I was pretty sure it was not only bogus, but old. I went to [Snopes.com](http://Snopes.com), and I emailed the link to the woman who had sent me the warning. My subject line said, “Budfrogs virus is a hoax.” The next day she answered, saying she was afraid to open my email for fear of getting the virus.:rolleyes: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/25 "2003-01-05T01:39:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DMark \* > \*\*It only took a minute to search this on [Snopes.com](http://Snopes.com), or simply type Hilfiger Oprah rumor on Google. Yet, apparently, almost 100 people got this tidbit and were going to boycot the Hilfiger company. I was the only one who bothered to check to see if there was any basis of fact. \*\* If you really think that the 100 people who got that tidbit are actually going to be boycitting TH then you are more gullible than the people you are lambasting. Also, what makes you think that you are the only one out of the 100 that “checked the facts”? Most probably just deleted the email without reading it, or used their common sense and figured that it was false. I’d bet that you were one of the only ones who needed to check out the validity of that email. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/26 "2003-01-05T01:48:33Z")
My mom made the Neiman Marcus cookies with the powdered oatmeal. Very good cookies! ---
**Author:** ![soop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@soop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soop)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/27 "2003-01-05T02:37:02Z")
“Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.” - Schiller ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/28 "2003-01-05T03:03:38Z")
My mother forwards every piece of pro-Israel glurge and rumor she gets in her e-mail box to everyone she knows. There have been a few I’ve been able to refute, but she’s so stubbornly pro-Israel that she refuses to believe it. Actually, in her case, it’s not the gullibility that bothers me, since she can believe what she wants (and is going to, anyway); it’s the abuse of others’ e-mail addresses – they get sucked into her address book and become assimilated. Fortunately, I use blind-copy wherever possible. 😃 Robin ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/29 "2003-01-05T05:38:24Z")
I told everybody on my email list a long time ago to check it at Symantec or Snopes before passing it along, and now I hardly get any of them. I just ain’t no fun at all. 😉 A student of mine handed me a printout recently of a “Warning” about poisonous perfume or some such thing. My reach just isn’t long enough to get to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/30 "2003-01-05T05:45:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DMark \* > \*\* > And to top the day off, a woman at work who I thought had a brain sent one of those "if you forward this email on, Bill Gates will send you $25. \*\* Ha! You were only promised $25 bucks?! _I_ was promised $263.45!! (Oh I blocked the stupid people who sent me that crap so fast) ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/31 "2003-01-05T05:57:53Z")
It spreads on Instant Messenger too. My brother’s girlfriend once tried to get me to delete “viruses” from my windows system folder. Fortunately she was able to salvage her own “viruses”. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/32 "2003-01-05T06:14:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stinkpalm \* > **If you really think that the 100 people who got that tidbit are actually going to be boycitting TH then you are more gullible than the people you are lambasting. Also, what makes you think that you are the only one out of the 100 that “checked the facts”? Most probably just deleted the email without reading it, or used their common sense and figured that it was false.** I interpreted this–_…this thing had almost 100 people on the forward lists._–to mean that nearly 100 folks were in the chain before it got forwarded to him. While I doubt many, if any, of them will be boycotting anyone, I think it’s safe to say none of them thought critically or did any fact-checking before blithely sending the message on. > [@](#): > > \*\*I’d bet that you were one of the only ones who needed to check out the validity of that email. \*\* He didn’t need to check it to know it was horsecrap, he was just verifying that those who didn’t immediately realize it was horsecrap could have found out easily. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/33 "2003-01-05T06:19:40Z")
The ones I really frickin hate are the “You must pass this on to 5 other people, and you will have good luck all week. If you don’t pass this on to 5 other people then all your hair will fall out and your wife will become sterile”. You know the kind of crap I’m talking about. I don’t get them much these days, but used to get them quite a lot at work. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/34 "2003-01-05T07:28:48Z")
I hate to say this, but **every** I’ve been forwarded a rumor or hoax, it’s always been by some [Jean Teasdale](http://www.theonion.com/archive/archive_teasdale.html) type; always female, usually an administrative assistant, more often than not “country” in their outlook. Why is that particular demographic more prone to forward hoaxes and rumors than others? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/35 "2003-01-05T08:06:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wang-Ka \* > \*\*I think J.R. “Bob” Dobbs said it best: > > "You know how dumb the average guy is, right? Well, by definition, HALF of them are _even dumber than that!!"_ \*\* Also, George Carlin said something VERY similar to that during one of his stand-up specials. I’d always assumed it was an original thought, but perhaps not. His statement was “Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that.” ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/36 "2003-01-05T08:26:57Z")
I don’t get as many as I used to, because I’m the ol’ misery on the email list who always pipes up: “You’re sending this _me_?!? After all the debunking links I’ve parked over? Are you _insane_?!??” I’m a party-pooper. Should remember to have that noted in my will for th’ headstone. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/37 "2003-01-05T08:27:56Z")
My friends know me as the party pooper too. I always get stuff like that with “Is this Real”? under it.Th last one I got was the Bill Gates thing too. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/38 "2003-01-05T08:51:41Z")
I _ALWAYS_ try to include the link with the debunking on it, and I always get an email back from someone asking why I have to ruin things for people. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/39 "2003-01-05T08:58:29Z")
Does anyone know where I can get a can of Instant Hair? That’s the kind of thing every bathroom cabinet needs. But concerning the OP, the stupidity of some people will never cease to amaze me. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581/40 "2003-01-05T09:02:38Z")
I just got (yeah, as in about this time yesterday morning) a WTC virus warning forwarded to me by a gullible but well meaning relative. My first thought was, “Damn, this thing is better than a year old, now. Didn’t I even see it on some major network’s national morning news program as a hoax?” Some folks _are_ just plain resistant to us party poopers. I sometimes wonder what the world would be like to me if I had this, oh, let’s generously call it innocent, world-view, and was willing to entertain belief in this stuff… [sub]And then I realize I’d be terrified to ever leave the house with that awful **Good Times** virus just waiting outside the door to give me an atomic wedgie and steal my lunch money.[/sub] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-rumors-how-stupid-can-people-be/146581.md?page=3)