# OTC Self-defense Sprays Don't Work!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otc-self-defense-sprays-dont-work/960967>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 13, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otc-self-defense-sprays-dont-work/960967 "2022-03-13T02:38:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 37

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/otc-self-defense-sprays-dont-work/960967/37 "2022-03-14T03:33:31Z")

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> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> I saw it clear as day on TV, and I remember it well. How is that analogous to ‘friend of a friend’ 🙂 ? I’d call it direct information.
> 
> And people here don’t believe that I saw it on TV? Are you saying people here are accusing me of lying 🙂 ?

Please see the never-ending “[Alternate Ending to ‘Big’?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1041)” thread for more on how the passage of time can mess with memories, even memories that people are _absolutely bloody certain_ are accurate. I’m sorry, but even if you _think_ you remember well a twenty-year-old clip from a random TV newscast, you may not, in fact, remember all the details.

It’s not that people don’t necessarily believe you saw it on TV, it’s that (as I figure you are well aware by this point) the standard for proof on the SDMB is typically that you provide actual links to the information that you have seen or read, if at all possible.

In retrospect, given what your “evidence” is, it probably would have been better to title your thread “Do OTC Self-Defense Sprays Work?”, and word your OP like, “I remember seeing on TV, years ago…was that accurate? Have things changed since then?”

Instead, you worded your OP as a flat-out statement:

> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> Self-defense sprays don’t work!

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