# Snopes: Do people REALLY believe this crap? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236 "2014-10-13T20:32:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/21 "2014-10-13T21:36:24Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Or small. There just isn’t much of a left wing anymore to be fooled. With the popular vote in Presidential elections running closer than 55/45, it seems pretty clear to me the actual L vs. R split in the country is pretty close to even in terms of head count. I agree with you it’s far from even in terms of decibels of silliness spouted. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/22 "2014-10-13T21:40:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > 1. Somebody(s) somewhere are producing these items \*en masse \*for right-winger consumption to keep the base agitated. > … > Anybody have a theory? I’ve wondered about this. I’d noticed that a lot of the “classic” urban legends always seemed to have a “moral” attached. Don’t go necking in the woods lest the hook-armed killer gets ya! That sort of thing. it’s like someone it creating a “guide for good behavior” based in folklore rather than textbooks. An ethereal Miss Manners, so to speak. But who? Modern ones seem to pop up that mystify me. For example, one time, several years back there was a tornado that got good national coverage. There were several high quality photos of the tornado. I told my friend that “you’ll be seeing these pictures attached to some other tornado/hurricane/alien invasion within 6 months”. It actually took only about a week! So someone out there completely fabricated the link between the existing pictures and the then-current story. It couldn’t have been an accident. Who is making these things? Are they doing it for the lulz? Are they lazy? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/23 "2014-10-13T21:45:27Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Aren’t coffins by default disposable? Or do they generally pull the stiff out after everybody leaves the ceremony and reuse for the next dead person? Actually, yes - you can rent fancier coffins and have Unca Joe stuffed in a cardboard box for cremation. Some unscrupulous funeral homes also switch coffins sent for cremation and re-sell them. But everyone’s missing the point here. The gummint spent $1B on coffins for Ebola victims? That was for \*eight \*coffins, purchased through Mil Spec! I know it’s true because a guy at the convenience store has a cousin whose brother makes coffin handles. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/24 "2014-10-13T21:45:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I walked into a store a couple of days ago. The owner of the store was an elderly man who was talking to some people who he presumably knew. I missed the beginning of the conversation but he was talking about some disease. And he was saying, with all apparent seriousness, that the government was intentionally withholding a cure to the disease because it was using the disease to reduce the number of old people in the country. I heard that one - except that I heard it ten years ago, and it was Bush getting rid of all the flu vaccines so old people would die and he could privatize Social Security. (The person telling me this story insisted that they had seen Donald Rumsfeld on TV saying “the best thing senior citizens can do for this country is to die”, but couldn’t quite remember when or on what channel.) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/25 "2014-10-13T21:52:20Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/26 "2014-10-13T22:01:50Z")
Considering some of the conspiracy nuts we’ve gotten here, I have no trouble accepting that there are people who actually believe this shit. Think of people who’ve taken _The Onion_ seriously. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > [It’s been known to happen.](http://lubbockonline.com/stories/112098/LA0547.shtml) > > And yes, some fraction of the population will believe just about anything. There are such things as rental caskets, but generally they’re then used for the next type of situation. I don’t think they re-use the pillows and such, though. Sometimes, I think, the casket is simply cremated along with the deceased. If you like, I’ll ask my father. (For people who are new here, he’s a funeral director) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/27 "2014-10-13T22:05:45Z")
The persistence of older people believing and spreading patently absurd stories, usually ones that put them in a victim/target spot, isn’t new… but wow is the propagation fast and persistent. The real fears and worries of old age are bad enough without using them to spawn belief in national/global/liberal programs to disenfranchise, marginalize and murder them. I guess if you feel you’re no longer important or relevant, putting on the victim hat is a way to become so… if only amid your fellow inmates in the nursing home. But godelpus, they still _vote_. Tom Waits’ [“God’s Away on Business”](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tomwaits/godsawayonbusiness.html) started playing as I wrote this. Swear. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/28 "2014-10-13T22:27:54Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > …Image circulates of a “captured Ebola zombie.”… I’ve personally seen this on a different messageboard I frequent. There are a lot of idiots out there. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/29 "2014-10-13T22:50:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …And he was saying, with all apparent seriousness, that the government was intentionally withholding a cure to the disease because it was using the disease to reduce the number of old people in the country. How about the HPV vaccine for young women a few years ago, and the controversy about administering it? Weren’t conservatives saying that doing so would somehow encourage the women to have sex, or (similarly) that withholding it would discourage them from having sex? I think it’s not that different an idea. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/30 "2014-10-13T22:58:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Did you know that the word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary? Wait a minute! I happen to have _ **5** _ dictionaries and “gullible” was in all of them!!! What are you tring to pull??? * * * ETA: Oh, spat! ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/31 "2014-10-13T23:28:33Z")
You should friend some of my wife’s family on FB. There’s not a legend so outlandish that at least one of them doesn’t believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/32 "2014-10-13T23:32:56Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I like to read the “What’s New” section of Snopes, which has a roundup of the current urban legends. These days there seems to be a whole bunch that are showing up that are plainly absurd. Some are obvious jokes. Snopes says they get emails asking about these, but are there really people out there stupid enough to believe: > > Is Congress ‘moving to appoint Barack Obama to a third term’ in 2016? > > A 14-year-old girl is pregnant with the son of God? > > In 2014 does Halloween fall on Friday the 13th for the first time in 666 years? > > Can cell phone calls from particular phone numbers cause brain hemorrhage and death? > > Image circulates of a “captured Ebola zombie.” > > Can the striped mittenfish change its sex at will by turning its entire body inside out? > > Did Sarah Palin demand President Obama “invade Ebola?” > > Has the Obama administration ordered $1 billion worth of disposable coffins for use with Ebola victims? > > Which do you think it is – is there a _significant number_ of people that are dumb enough to believe jokes as real? I believe there is not a single person that, after a moment of thought, would believe Halloween could EVER fall on Friday the 13th. Am I too naive? Starting with Clinton–and possibly before, but certainly Clinton–every President since has been subject to rumors that he was somehow going to run for a third term, or “cancel elections” or some such nonsense. Halloween is scary, and Friday the 13th is scary. People always take a certain number of brain shortcuts, (otherwise we would get overwhelmed with details) and so adding two scary things together makes a certain amount of superstitious sense. I’m sure that some people realize AFTERWARD, “Oh wait, that can’t actually happen.” Ebola is scary. Plus a lot of people don’t know much about it. Then add to that all the stories of government overspending. Sarah Palin–that one is probably directed at liberals. After all, it’s a liberal trope that she’s very stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/33 "2014-10-13T23:36:30Z")
[quote=“Amateur\_Barbarian, post:27, topic:701236”] The persistence of older people believing and spreading patently absurd stories, usually ones that put them in a victim/target spot, isn’t new… but wow is the propagation fast and persistent. The real fears and worries of old age are bad enough without using them to spawn belief in national/global/liberal programs to disenfranchise, marginalize and murder them. I guess if you feel you’re no longer important or relevant, putting on the victim hat is a way to become so… if only amid your fellow inmates in the nursing home. But godelpus, they still _vote_. And then there “older” people like me (is 67 older, or do I need to wait a while?) who routinely use Snopes to debunk the crap that is sent to me by younger people who should definitely know better. Nobody is exempt from gullibility, but I won’t be giving computer control to someone from Microsoft anytime soon. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/34 "2014-10-13T23:45:22Z")
The thing about a big preorder of coffins has been bouncing around for years, usually associated with FEMA relocation camps and tied in with whatever’s currently up on the Doom-of-the-Month Club, from epidemics to global warming to asteroid impact up to and including plain and simply that Washington (_whoever_’s in office) is going to send in the UN Black Helicopters to take everyone’s guns and expects mass casualties as a result. People ARE that paranoid. And once upon a time they’d stand at a corner of the park yelling and passing out mimeographed newsletters, which they’d implore the local Alternative Newsstand to let them leave on top of the counter. Now they have Twitter followings. Oh, and the far-left paranoids prefer collaborating with Wikilieaks and the like. Or else are STILL yelling at the corner of the park. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/35 "2014-10-13T23:52:13Z")
It wouldn’t be too hard to convince me that Sara Palin actually did utter the words: “I demand Barak Obama invade Ebola!” ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/36 "2014-10-13T23:52:22Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > With the popular vote in Presidential elections running closer than 55/45, it seems pretty clear to me the actual L vs. R split in the country is pretty close to even in terms of head count. I agree with you it’s far from even in terms of decibels of silliness spouted. You’re assuming that one of those candidates is actually L, rather than the decision being R vs. more R ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/37 "2014-10-14T01:40:38Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > You’re assuming that one of those candidates is actually L, rather than the decision being R vs. more R I’m trying real hard here to present an evenhanded appearance. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/38 "2014-10-14T01:58:35Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Did Sarah Palin demand President Obama “invade Ebola?” Now that’s funny!! ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/39 "2014-10-14T02:05:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > With the popular vote in Presidential elections running closer than 55/45, it seems pretty clear to me the actual L vs. R split in the country is pretty close to even in terms of head count. I agree with you it’s far from even in terms of decibels of silliness spouted. Yes, but as **WhyNot** said, the American “left wing” at this point is just center right - or even slightly right of center right. The whole country is out of whack with global politics. You only find the real nuttiness on the far end of the spectrum; I’d expect that in, say, Sweden, you’d find a disproportionate amount of left wing crazies than right wing ones. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236/40 "2014-10-14T02:20:58Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > It wouldn’t be too hard to convince me that Sara Palin actually did utter the words: “I demand Barak Obama invade Ebola!” I believe she actually demanded that he invade e-coli. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-do-people-really-believe-this-crap/701236.md?page=3)