this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

The story of how North and South America were settled by the first humans. What I was taught was that the Bering Sea was frozen at the end of the last ice age, and then glaciers opened up and people migrated southward.

The problem is that the timing is too tight and the migration would have to have happened too quickly. Many native groups have long seen this story as flawed, as well.

This was covered in the book "1491", and at the time of publication, researchers weren't quite sure what model to replace it with. Probably some of the migration was using boats along the west coast rather than going over land. That book is getting pretty old now, though, and I'm not sure if or where things have settled out.

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[–] recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

IQ tests!

They are standardized eugenics and should be rethought entirely

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[–] BallShapedMan@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

The book Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen goes a long way to accomplish this. At least it did for me.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 16 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I went through the two websites posted here for graduation year 2008. The only incorrect thing I was taught that I still believed was:

"Learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) determine how you best learn"

False. Huh.

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[–] ghen@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 months ago (6 children)

The fact that we thought Pluto was a planet seemed absolutely insane at the time but none of the kids could question the adult in the room when the stupid rock is literally not even staying in its own lane

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[–] wer2@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 months ago

When I was in school, we were taught that vaccines work. /s

[–] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wash your chicken before cooking. Don't do this, it just spreads salmonella all over your sink.

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[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

School experiences are too varied for such a site to exist. Examples:

Climate change was universally agreed upon to exist and be caused by people 30 years ago. For some reason it no longer appears to be.

Leif Erikson was taught to us back then but you’ll find people today that celebrate Columbus.

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[–] lath@piefed.social 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Alphas.

White Jesus.

IQ.

9 out of 10 dentists.

Apple a day.

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[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 14 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Feel like a lot of the "myths" are also just because you're not going to teach a 16-year-old about quantum mechanics to explain why table salt exists

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[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 14 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Rome didn't have special rooms for people to vomit in, then resume feasting.

Soviet blocking brigades weren't machine gun nests set up to mow down retreating soviet soldiers.

Vietnam had a regular army, it wasn't entirely a guerrilla force.

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[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Most of what I learned about genetics is incorrect as when I graduated we thought DNA ran the show.

We were also wrong about why the USSR fell (not a huge surprise)

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[–] Jhuskindle@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Ill never accept that Pluto is not a planet! JUSTICE FOR PLUTO

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[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

"What you were taught
"Flu shots give you the flu"

What we know now
A common misconception...

Updated understanding emerged around 2020"

Updated for whom? Anti-vaccine idiots?

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[–] CubitOom 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Um...what's it say about Tylenol?

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[–] Overshoot2648@lemmy.today 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fruit and vegetables being separate categories: Fruits are actually a type of vegetable. Additionally cucumbers are melons.

Cyan being a light blue: It is actually 50% green.

Simple machines are fundamental: They completely ignore compliant mechanisms and aren't atomic. Actually atomic mechanisms would be defined by the type of force, the shape, and the compliance.

The only form of Socialism is Marxism and Communism and Capitalism means markets: Look up Mutualism or Syndicalism.

Basically everything with pop psychology.

I am sure there are more, but these were just top of my head.

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[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Sure, some are still taught. Like you can catch a cold from being in the cold.

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[–] yabai@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Oh I've got a good one. Learned in the American south. Supposedly the American Civil War was not fought over slavery, but differing railroad track widths. Slavery was a minor detail that was a scape goat for the north to force the south to use its standard railroad width.

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