Someone argued that I was actually probably Russian like their grandfather, not Polish because Polish and Russian is both Slavic and therefore the DNA test and our culture is probably wrong and I was Russian the whole time.
I’ve been in a group argument over whether you use a comma in the second last item of a list; as in the one in paranthesis at apples, oranges(,) and pears. The fact is, I didn’t even care which was correct i thought it was the dumbest shit to argue over but it was funny
Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I once had to convince MULTIPLE people that they couldn’t drown their fish by using too much water. No, they weren’t worried about water treatment. They had their fish on a water paper towel for inspection and killed them.
Second isn’t my argument, but it was an amazing argument to hear at the bar. It started with a guy screaming, "Alcohol is NOT a drug. Name ONE addictive ingredient in alcohol! " Lmao
At my first real job, I used to hang my coat on one particular coat hanger because it was the only one of its color. I chose it because it was easy for me to spot my coat when the hangers were crowded.
Now, I had a coworker who… I’m not quite sure what was going on with his brain. He jumped to weird conclusions all the time and flat-out made up things that he seemed to truly believe were real.
One day he randomly started arguing with me that the coat hanger I used was green. Uh, okay? Then he claimed that I had claimed it was yellow, and that I was wrong. I never made any such claim (and if I were pressed to it, I would’ve called it chartreuse.) Yet he was insistent that we had fought about it before, for some strange reason, and went on gloating about being right. It was utterly bizarre.
I let it go. He’s the same person who decided that “magic erasers” (for cleaning surfaces) must work by having paint in them. No amount of logic about that budged his opinion, and I knew no amount of reality would budge him on the coat hanger color.
So, sure dude, you win the imaginary argument. Congrats. Would you like an imaginary cookie?
Not weirdest but absolutely stupidest. Told my older brother I wouldn’t date anyone at my company. Personal choice. He was so drunk and weirdly interested in my dating choices that we were yelling and I just couldn’t visit his place anymore. His drinking makes him too stupid.
Not mine but I was in the same room (took place at college). Two brothers were taking similar classes and somehow began arguing about the physics of how a vampire would be invisible in a mirror. To the point where they were yelling at the other brother about his lack of understanding of refractive physics and geology of the minerals that were smelled to make the mirror glass. The debate was whether a vampire would be visible when viewed through soda glass versus lime glass. Eventually I had to break their debate since they were being so loud and aggressive that people thought they were gonna come to bless over it.
My sister cut a piece of paper to have a flap and seems to think it’s some kind of brain teaser and won’t stop acting like there’s some illusion happening to make the flap move and won’t give it up. She’s been doing this for a whole damn week now. It’s literally just 2 slits in the paper to make a piece of it fold away from the rest and she can’t even explain what’s special about it (because there isn’t anything special or mind blowing going on). 😬
I dated a girl with severe, unmanaged BPD… It led to a LOT of wild arguments over the weirdest things lol
I also recently got into an argument with someone over whether or not Huskies and malamutes misbehave out of spite/revenge, or a lack of mental or physical stimulation…
It could really go either way with the huskies and malamutes. Depends on the situation.
My mother, who has had three kids, believes that women pee out of their vaginas. She realizes that pee comes out the urethra, but insists that a woman’s urethra is inside the vagina. She was extremely condescending to me when I tried to explain that’s not how it works, so I just gave up.
That’s why you can’t pee when you use a tampon
My friend at the time watched some documentary about chess computers (Deep Blue etc.) and was telling me about the “super advanced algorithm called Brute Force”. I told him that brute force is means trying every possible combination, is the least efficient approach, and does not generally work for chess. He was adamant it was some genius algorithm. The only time in my life I remember saying “I have a computer science degree, I know what I am talking about”.
DNA tests can’t prove nationality. Your DNA test can’t have proven you’re Polish. Your grandparents can, of course.
Anyway, a girl was complaining she had a bit of a tummy. I told her that’s perfectly natural and another girl told me that she has a flat stomach and that I made her feel insecure.
Was playing a board game (I dont even remember which) and I had to give the name of a tropical place that starts with letter M that no one else would guess. I said Manila and this person I was playing with argued with me for 20 minutes (this was pre smartphone) that Manila isn’t tropical. I had to seriously find a book with a world map in it to show this person where the Philippines are located to prove that it is, indeed, tropical and honestly she was still unconvinced.
I played it off but I lost a lot of respect for my then girlfriend, who I was with, because I know she knew I was right but wouldn’t defend me because she didn’t want to take sides against her other friends. That was honestly the beginning of the end for us, that stupid fucking game night I didnt want to go to anyway lol
Things like that instantly make we want to escalate to putting money down to see how committed they are to the wrong answer.
Bet someone like that $100 and see how quickly they get flustered and look for a map.
I have a geographic one for you:
Friend: posts some statistics map
Me: Czechia is an interesting outlier here, weird.
Friend: [sic] its czechoslovakia, not chechniaAll countries/regions that start with “ch” sound are the same i guess. Also Czechoslovakia split in 1989.
Hi, I’m from Manila. It’s actually snowing here right now.
/s This shit ass place is so hot and humid, I’m like a soggy paper towel
yeah i aint built for that shit lol
theres a reason i live in the land of always winter
When we were kids and on holidays, my parents got into a really heated argument about the name of a jam’s brand. My mom “it’s Hero!”, dad " no, it’s Delicia!". They were both so adamant, it put a real damp on the entire vacation. Finally back home they went straight to the pantry to check out the name of the jam that was called Hero Delicia. Yeah… that was dumb.
Pre-internet era debates were the best!
Dobre xD
I had argument with communists on Lemmy, my claim was that I can’t ignore the success of capitalism since I live in a country that after system change went from a total post socialist shit hole in the 90s to European power house now. He said that capitalism lives off exploitation and back then capitalists exploited poland, and now poland exploits poor third word countries.
One coworker claimed that all seedless fruit are genetically modified. I explained that it’s just good old selective breeding. No fancy tech required, though gene editing can achieve the same result. I even pulled up the relevant Wikipedia article to back it up. His response? And I quote:
Wikipedia, it’s all lies.
That hit me like a mental blue screen of death. My brain froze for a solid few seconds before rebooting. Once I recovered, I realized I’d just witnessed what might be the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard in person.
At that point, I knew he was far beyond reason, so it was time to cut my losses. I let him keep his distorted worldview and steered the conversation toward less soul-crushing topics. It’s a coping strategy I’d learned a few years earlier: when you encounter people like that, you can either bang your head against the brick wall or simply walk around it. Once you realize it’s not a problem you can solve, it’s better to just avoid it.
Selective breeding is genetic modification. That’s what makes the anger about the lab stuff so stupid. Sure, it isn’t natural, but neither is what we’ve been doing for thousands of years.
Yeah, well where do you draw the line though? When normies talk about something being GMO, it always involves fancy labs, modern biotechnology and greedy corporations.
When wolves were modified to become dogs, people were effectively practicing low-tech genetic manipulation, but people usually don’t think of it in those terms. Well, what about when the same thing happens without humans in charge of the process? Like, why do peacocks have such impressive tail feathers? Humans weren’t involved in that manipulation, so does it still count? It’s the peacocks themselves who did all the selective breeding and genetic manipulation.
What about when one species causes another to change? Just think of the relationship between orchids and hummingbirds for example. What about wasp-mimic flies or harmless snakes that look a lot like venomous ones? Surely, that’s a result of genetic manipulation too. This is getting completely ridiculous, so I guess we need to draw the line somewhere.
Yeah, I do think the lab kind should be in a different category, but it shouldn’t be shunned. It’s a new way to do an ancient thing. The biggest difference is that genes from one species (or designed ones) can’t get into a different one naturally (very frequently or easily —viruses can, but that’s pretty limited without humans managing it). Usually the genes need to be present in a population for them to be selected for. Either that, or caused by a random mutation, which decreases the rate this can happen.
It’s potentially dangerous, if it isn’t managed properly. It could introduce some issues that wouldn’t be with slower methods. However, it’s not a serious concern. It being modified in a lab doesn’t inherently make it harmful any more than all the other ways does. It’s just far more capable. It can solve some huge issues, and we shouldn’t shun it.
In biology, there are always exceptions. As you pointed out, viruses frequently mess around with genomes. Also, some bacteria can grab a plasmid from a completely different species of bacteria. Larger critters can’t pull off tricks like that, and that’s the group we usually think of.
Totally agree about gene editing being neutral. It’s just a tool like any other. That doesn’t make it good or evil. People who use it get to decide how it’s being used, and that’s the step where things can go wrong. It’s a powerful tool, so when used correctly, the results are life-changing. When mistakes are made, the price can be very high.
What about the terminology then? My previous examples are usually covered under evolution, not genetic manipulation, and I think intention is the key difference. Evolution happens on its own, while editing requires an intention.
What about the terminology then? My previous examples are usually covered under evolution, not genetic manipulation, and I think intention is the key difference. Evolution happens on its own, while editing requires an intention.
I think evolution also covers selective breeding, which is intentional too. The “natural” form is natural selection. I think “Genetic Engineering” is the best term for the lab process. It’s not ideal, because I’d argue selective breeding could still be argued to be genetic engineering, but it’s the most accurate I think that exists. Engineering does imply a certain amount of control that could be argued isn’t met by selective breeding. Genetically modified organism (GMO) is a horrible term, though that is probably the most common term for the lab process.
I like to just respond with “Oh… ok.” And then stare at them for a massively uncomfortable amount of time. Really let them marinate in it. Even if they dont realise theyre being stupid, it makes them feel very awkward and hopefully pavlovs them into saying less dumb shit around me.
Gotta say, I love the semi-hostile energy of that approach. 😈
I was working telephone company helpdesk. A customer called in demanding that I raise the priority of their ticket so the serviceman (who was in their house already) would finish the work faster. I made the mistake of trying to explain that’s not how it works.
Someone once tried to convince me that I can bypass the security on their bank account so they could get in. And I had to keep coming back with, “That’s not how this works”. I ended up resetting his password and spending half an hour trying to help him get in.
