What's something that people claim happens a lot, but you have rarely, or never, witnessed it?

The great thing about wearing masks: They are the Great Equalizers. No wonder the Maskholes object!

Statistically, given the prevalence of adult lisping is somewhere north of 15%, that seems highly unlikely.
I know several gay men who lisp quite strongly. But in none of them is it the stereotypical “gay lisp” (which isn’t actually a lisp), it’s much more the speech impediment kind.

People having sex.

Supposedly happens a lot. But how often, or how many people, have you seen doing it?

(Must be something that doesn’t happen in public much? You know, kinda like reading the Bible.)

I think that used to be more common than it is now. It happened to me when i was in my twenties, but not too often. I tried to avoid it, though. My mom said it was common when she was young, and she liked it. None of my younger friends had complained of it, and i think they would.

Rabbits are crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk.

You and I have obviously led quite different lives. :wink:

For a short time I was on SNAP (food stamps), and yes I bought stake with it, also lobster which was somewhat of a test as it’s not supposed to be used to buy live animals (answer you can). I didn’t get it often, and such spending would quickly deplete it, but it something that really helped me being able to.

When I could afford food (before SNAP), I would actually spend very little on food, and deprive myself, though I could afford anything I wanted barring very expensive stuff like gold plated truffled albino lobster. But really spent as little as I could. A large part of this was a self imposed feeling that I didn’t deserve good food, I was not worthy enough to have it and the good stuff was not for me.

Change of circumstances had me apply for SNAP, which I found my balance growing though I was using it every chance I got. I was using perhaps 1/2 of the close to $200/month. At the same time I was working on myself and one day decided to use some of that to buy higher end foods. Over time I found where that monthly allowance landed. Mostly basic foods + some better stuff + a treat one a month sort of zeroed it out. From that I learned a great deal of my worthiness as a person in society was of higher value then my own view of my worthiness. It was very therapeutic and very helpful.

Even if people on SNAP don’t make that realization, it has to help them not be on subsistance rations but know that society values them, so I don’t fault them for buying some luxury goods, after all it’s supplemental, and it’s also limited, so if they spend it on expensive food they have to make up the rest.

Bad luck on Friday the 13th is definitely one. Despite its dire reputation, I can never remember experiencing anything awful on a Friday the 13th. If it happens just one time, though, I’m sure some people would say, “See, Friday the 13th!”

I haven’t seen steak/lobster purchases on food stamps, but I’ve definitely seen it abused in the grocery store on numerous occasions.

What I see is 2 people in line, obviously together. The first one uses their food stamp card to buy chips, soda, snacks. The second uses private funds to buy alcohol, cigarettes, and other non-food-stamp items (in large quantity).

Based on the number of times I’ve seen this pattern, the obvious plan is that the SNAP customer is going to trade or share their government-paid food for alcohol and tobacco. It looks like they’re actually using SNAP for cocktails and party snacks, based on the fact that the “legit” purchases are sodas and chips. But of course some people subsist on junk food, so I’m not 100% confident guessing it’s a party.

I have no problem with a SNAP customer buying steak or lobster. People need a little variety and enjoyment in their diet, not just calories, and I’m OK subsidizing that. But alcohol and cigarettes are purely harmful. If the government won’t ban them outright, the least we can do is not supply it for free.

Paying estate tax. Unless your estate is over $12M, your heirs won’t pay estate tax. Yet people on modest means are convinced that when they die, the government is going to wind up with all the money.

I basically never see kids being allowed to run amok and scream in public places while their parents make no effort to control them. People complain about that, sometimes on this board, all the time. I certainly see children behaving badly, but AFAICT >99% of parents respond appropriately.

I work retail, and I like to eat out. I have seen A LOT of it. I’ve seen it as a shopper too, usually in big box type stores but occasionally in smaller establishments.

I am not a kid-person, so maybe it grates on me more than someone who’s a parent and has learned to tune that stuff out.

I use a bible app, and lots of time use it as a audiobook. I even talk to those JW that go door to door and they typically more and more use a digital version.

They don’t actually lisp, that’s a speech impediment, but a certain kind of gay man absolutely talks differently than either straight men or women. I grew up with a boy who came out (well, to me and his parents anyway) when he was about 17, and at that time started hanging out in the Castro whenever he could get out there. His whole manner of speaking changed then, from talking like everyone else to a sort of theatrical lilt. It happened in a few months. It’s not genetic, it is learned, a kind of tribal ID. I believe that’s what people mean when they say lisp to mean a gay male accent.

Echoing previous comments, I have a buddy who has worked in HVAC home repair/install for the last 10-15 years and says he’s never been propositioned (he’s fit and in the bounds of conventionally attractive) nor does he know anyone else with a credible account of it happening.

Sort of related, the old saw about men who slip on a wedding ring and suddenly have women falling all over them. I’ve heard people pontificate on why it happens – forbidden fruit, power over the other woman, guy’s obviously a catch if he’s married, know you can have a fling without him getting attached, etc – but never known anyone this has actually happened to (myself included). While I don’t doubt that there’s certain women who do get a kick out of luring a married guy, I don’t think they’re thick enough on the ground that slipping on a ring will have them hitting on you become a commonplace occurrence.

People used to tell me this as well, often saying something like “What’s so awful?” Well, I might have answered, I filed for divorce this week and I have no idea what the future brings…

Anyway a little thing called COVID came along and we started masking.

Not sure if this fits the OP, but there are things a lot of people claim that are primarily due to delusion:

“I’m allergic to MSG. If I consume it I’ll breakout in sweating, flushing, etc.”

“Diets don’t work for me. Even if I go on a calorie-restricted diet, I won’t lose any weight.”

I don’t think that’s true. Most people who receive Food Stamps receive far more in benefits than they can actually use and end up either selling the excess (illegally) or (more common in my personal experience) offering them for free to friends and relatives, and if all that fails, just throwing it out. At this time in particular, with the economy struggling to produce enough to go around, this is particularly harmful.

Beyond that, WIC recipients are price insensitive, because WIC pays for X number of items versus $X. So stores which cater to a lot of WIC recipients tend to jack up the prices of WIC-eligible items (which of course impacts other people shopping for those items).

AFAICT, the stereotypical gay voice is more nasal and somewhat higher pitched. But I have no idea how valid the stereotype is, if at all. (This type of thing is particularly subject to confirmation bias, since you don’t know the sexuality of the vast majority of people you encounter.)

In Massachusetts the average SNAP benefit is $121 per person per MONTH. If that is “far more in benefits than they can actually use” they aren’t shopping for more than 50% of their food (i.e. they are eating in restaurants/takeout a LOT)

We certainly have folks coming into our food pantry at the end of the month because they have run out of both SNAP and cash. And these aren’t people who I would think are blowing all their income on luxuries.

Our Great Dane, Huck, was one of those dogs. The former owners bought him as a puppy right at the beginning of lockdown. By January he was in the shelter. One of his “pros” on his list of pros and cons the shelter had from the owners was that he could stay in a crate for 10-12 hours/day. :unamused: One of his “cons” was that he was too big. :thinking:

He is not in a crate at all anymore and we love our big beast. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Many years ago, I was single. When I couldn’t find anybody that I liked (who liked me in return). I thought, “It could be worse; I could be gay.” Meaning, look at the math. I think one estimate I read in college was that 7-10% of men are gay. So if I were a gay man, about 90% would not be interested in me (or any other man) from the git-go. In contrast, the percentages are that if a woman interests me, she’s probably straight and still a possibility.

All that led me to wonder how gays spot each other in everyday situations? Many years later I encountered the term “gaydar.” I guessed that maybe a gay man lisping (or other affectation) was a way of putting out a signal. If I’m in the presence of a gay man and he isn’t interested in me or any other males in the room, maybe he doesn’t put out that signal or perhaps doesn’t exaggerate it.

But now that a lot of them are out of the closet etc. they don’t need to.

Yep.