r/IsItBullshit

I wanted to scratch an itch on an area near my temple but accidentally jabbed my fingers there instead, not super hard or anything, but I read that the amount of pressure required to hit the artery that makes blood buildup in your brain and eventually kill you is surprisingly little. Now I'm anxious that I accidentally caused my own death, am I really going to die like this, or will I be fine?

Edit: I may be a hypochondriac.

i've noticed a recurring ritual on this sub. someone posts a claim that is obviously exaggerated.

then somebody finds one study, statistic, technicality, definition, or missing decimal point that makes the claim about 23% less dramatic.

and everyone immediately gathers around the corpse yelling bullshit. Case closed. science has spoken.

Except half the time the original claim wasn't completely bullshit. it was just badly phrased, oversimplified, missing context, or inflated for attention. and the debunk isn't completely right either. it's usually another simplification pointing in the opposite direction. And nuance is terrible content.

this appears partly true under these conditions, although the evidence is mixed and depends heavily on what exactly you mean.... gets 12 upvotes and dies alone.

NO. BULLSHIT. HERE'S A LINK. gets 3,000 upvotes because somebody has successfully converted uncertainty into a small dopamine pellet ffs

this is where this sub gets interesting.

Anything that reaches the front page here has already survived several filters designed to make it less accurate. so the original claim usually had to be dramatic enough for somebody to wonder if it was bullshit. the title had to compress the claim into something even more dramatic. the replies then compete to give the cleanest yes/no verdict and the most confident answer rises because nobody enjoys scrolling through six paragraphs of well, technically bla bla bla and bla bla this that..

Soooooo you end up with a subreddit dedicated to critical thinking that structurally rewards one of the oldest failures of critical thinking: premature certainty !!!!!!

the funniest version is when someone posts a complicated scientific or economic claim and within eleven minutes a guy called thebongwizard has read the abstract of one paper and declared the matter closed. then someone replies: this.

thank god. peer review is complete. you know what the weird part is that this isn't even mainly about stupidity. plenty of people here are intelligent , imo it's about incentives because being uncertain feels weak while being nuanced feels boring. finding evidence that agrees with what you already suspected feels fantastic. so debunking gives you an especially nice psychological bonus because now u're the person who wasn't fooled lol.. it's the attitude u see lowkey in people saying woo woo about things they don't understand or use reductionism only to feel better than the plebs. everyone else is a gullible peasant wandering around the internet believing headlines while you, the last functioning prefrontal cortex on earth found the Snopes article lolol

And of course the opposite tribe does exactly the same thing. go to the subs of conspiracy communities they collect evidence that everything is secretly true. debunking communities collect evidence that everything suspicious is secretly stupid. both sides can become extremely sophisticated methods of never having to update your worldview.

Actual skepticism is annoying as it means sometimes discovering that the stupid viral claim contains a real signal and sometimes discovering that the elegant debunk is misleading or noticing that a study technically supports someone's argument while also being far too weak to justify their confidence. which is psychologically disgusting as there's no victory music with no idiot to point at.

How much bullshit is in it, in which direction, produced by whom, and what would i have to learn for me to change my mind? unfortunately that subreddit would probably have 147 members and one moderator who hasn't logged in since 2019.

I ask this as respectfully as possible.

If I'm to believe movies and shit, every patient in a mental health facility is wearing a gown, in the common room, maybe walking around, maybe watching television. Everybody is just chilling.

What actually happens?

Basically what I’ve heard is that they put out some cameras and tried playing different sounds for different animals. Regardless of the animal, all responded with most fear to hearing the sound of a group of humans. For example, deers were more afraid to hear humans than wolves

While it seems the plausible, it also seems kinda… idk like something simplified down for a TikTok?

My father keeps telling me that if I sleep with the fan on I will become stiff and die. I've researched this a bunch of times and everytime people say its not true but when I bring it up to my father he doesn't believe it. He has apparently had a friend experience this and is now extreamly scared about fan while sleeping. Is there anyway that someone here can help me tell him that nothing happens when you sleep with a fan on?

Everything I'm seeing says that their site doesn't do interac-e-transfer but I'm on the site and it does? I'm almost certain it's the real site and I'm not sure if it's safe to use?

Grew up in Eastern Europe where home remedies and inexpensive “cures”/symptom relievers were very common, especially when I was a child in the 90s.

I was and am still very prone to throwing up or at least nausea if I’m even just a tiny bit sick, and my childhood family doctor up until we stopped seeing her after we moved had told my mom to give me Coca Cola that has been standing in the fridge in an open glass (so the carbonation goes away) for at least an hour for emergencies but preferably at least 3-4 hours.

This has been my cure for nausea ever since, but I was wondering if it was placebo/eastern European cultural thing or does Coca-Cola actually have something in it that helps???

Have seen this doing the media rounds from the Dana White interview.

I haven't head this before. Is it just culture war bs or does it hold truth?

Clickbait title because it obviously isn't 100% worthless but I keep reading this over and over...and the ones who do say anything positive insist on networking. By networking they mean finding powerful people and being a kiss ass so they can eventually hire you somewhere down the line. I don't want to do that but it seems like I have to.

I am mostly curious about recent grads 2023/24/25/26, I myself have about 2.5 years left. A lot of people are saying STEM and ComSci are in a really bad spot right now, I am in business and it doesn't feel great but at least I can larp as a business owner. What do you think?

Keep seeing that price used as a shortcut for durability in discussions about floor liners, as if a higher price automatically means the material will survive more abuse. For this question, “more durable” should mean the liner does not crack in cold weather, curl at the edges in heat, or allow liquid to reach the carpet after repeated use.

A convincing comparison would need more than a new-product bend test. I’d want several years of use, exposure to both low and high temperatures, repeated removal and washing, and abrasion from boots or cargo. Warranty length might help, but only if the failure being discussed is actually covered. Is there evidence that price consistently predicts those specific durability outcomes, or is construction and fit a better indicator?

I read about this and apparently it's something to do with beta carotene?

is it bs tho?

So basically this Japanese company sells patches that removes your bloating and stomach fat, giving you a slightly flatter stomach in only 30 minutes. The website has really good reviews but I’m not so sure if this is true or not.

Tools that automation job applications like SimpleApplyAI, SonaraAI, etc.?

I’ve tried to look online but see some older reviews and comments, looking for newer experiences.

My instinct says “scam” or placebo effect at best.

They’re marketed for weight loss, depression, and other mood disorders.

With how many weight loss pills and injections have come out lately, has there been any real results from these patches?