Incredibly Obvious Things That Aren’t True
Yay!!! 20 posts and counting—thank you for walking with me this far!
If you’d like to help keep the fire burning, scroll to the bottom to see how.
Unmasking the joke — what seems obvious is often just a performance.
“Trouble is, just because something is obvious, doesn't make them true.”
—Terry Pratchett
I stumbled upon this quote in Terry Pratchett’s Word Sisters a couple months back. Sometimes we drown in things that feel obvious but are wrong. Some of them are harmless, some deeply corrosive. I’ve been having fun gathering as many as I could think of in my notes and write a new one down when it pops up.
I turned on comments so more suggestions can be added!
Common Sense:
Sun rises in the East, sets in the West
The Earth is spinning
Bigger objects fall faster than smaller ones
Weight matters and in a vacuum, all objects fall at the same rate.
Only use 10% of our brains
Completely false
Old age = wisdom
Age doesn’t guarantee growth—only reflection does.
The majority is always right.
Consensus often lags behind truth.
“Natural” = safe
Hemlock, arsenic, and rattlesnake venom are natural.
Side note: I really enjoyed last night’s Platonic Finale:
“…it's a 100% natural drink.
There's no artificial preservatives.
There's no artificial flavors.
It's naturally natural.
I mean, Celly is 100% proven to function.”
”What the fuck? That literally means fucking nothing.
It's a drink. It can't function.”The past was simpler
Nostalgia edits complexity.
Morality/Culture Myths:
Bad things happen because you did something wrong
Comforting but bad things can happen when you do everything right
Working hard guarantees success
Comforting but structural inequities, luck, privilege
Love conquers all
Emotionally satisfying. Neglects abusive relationships, oppression, and mismatched needs
A nice person is a good person
A person can be a nice person but not a good person and similarly you can be mean but a good person.
Truth doesn’t matter anymore
Defeatist myth. We only experience one timeline. Truth still matters—it just takes work to parse amid noise. Our world works with rules, like physics, just because new rules are sometimes discovered, doesn't mean it doesn’t matter.
Beautiful people are un/trustworthy
Unfair scale bias.
Fat equals lazy
Bodies are diverse. Genetics, caloric intake, nothing to do with work ethic
Religion:
When good things happen it’s a blessing. When bad, punishment.
Narrative comfort
Morality comes from religion
Morality predates religion
Enough faith equals protection
Nature and physics give fuck all
Unexplained questions means divine creator
Answers are being found all the time. Your god doesn’t mean only god. Just unknown.
More natural disasters are divine punishment
Climate change is human made—and reversible. Global warming can be improved upon. Disasters =! Punishment. Every major shift in history had people crying “End Times.”
Media:
Because AI and fake media exists, nothing is true
Witnesses and video angles piece truth together.
Propaganda exists, both sides suffer, therefore, all world events (Ukraine/Russia) are neutral
Flattens genocide, sovereignty, people’s collective identity.
AI is unbiased
False. AI replicates human bias at scale.
More data means more truth.
False. Data without context is noise.
If it’s trending, it must matter
Viral comes from the word virus. Virality is not value.
Both sides are always equally valid
False balance props up lies.
Journalism is dead
Local newsrooms and independent outlets still break vital stories.
Silence is neutral
Silence often sides with power.
Science + Medicine:
Earth is flat
Standing in field, obvious. But Earth is round.
Vaccines cause autism
Studies show false. Media repetition makes it feel obvious to some
Cavemen had short lifespans
Lower life expectancy due to infant mortality but actually strong, long lives.
Weed makes you better at music, art, etc
Weed doesn’t make you better—it provides confidence. It can help you tune in with body but alters perception of performance and rewards. Move towards how you feel on weed while sober.
Individual recycling will fix climate change
Systemic change and corporate accountability matters most. They dump most of the burden onto the consumer.
Humans will always find a way to survive
Our survival depends on ecosystems we disrupt
Technology will save us
Tech helps, but political will and behavior shifts are necessary.
Nothing I/we do matters
Every fraction of a degree matters. In quality assurance we strive for five 9’s— 99.999
Voting & Democracy:
My one vote doesn’t matter.
Close elections are decided sometimes by single digits. Collective action only works if individuals show up.
My state leans red/blue, my vote is wasted.
Down-ballot races (school boards, judges, city councils) shape daily life.
Voting is all you can do
It’s one tool—organizing, protests, donations, and conversations matter.
Mail-in-ballots aren’t secure
Multiple safeguards and decades of proven reliability.
Young people don’t vote, so it doesn’t matter what they think
When engaged, youth turnout has swung major elections.
LGBTQ+:
Being LGBTQ+ is a choice
Every major medical and psychological association affirms orientation and gender identity are innate, not chosen.
Kids are too young to know whether they are trans or queer.
Kids know their gender as early as age three. What they’re “too young” for is often shame imposed on by adults.
Trans people are dangerous in bathrooms
Trans people are far more likely to be harassed or assaulted in bathrooms than to pose a threat. They just want to humanly and have the dignity of relieving themselves.
Gay/bi people “just haven’t met the right man/woman yet”
This denies authentic identity and is rooted in compulsory heterosexuality.
Nonbinary identities are new or made up.
Nonbinary, third-gender, and gender-expansive exist in cultures around the world for thousands of years.
Same-sex couples aren’t good parents
Every credible study shows children of same-sex parents thrive at the same rates (or even higher in some metrics) as those with different-sex parents.
Just because someone “feels like a boy or a girl” doesn’t make them that.
Gender isn’t just a “feeling”—it’s a deep, internal sense of self. Science shows gender identity is influenced by biology, neurology, and lived experience. This dismisses the complexity of human identity—like reducing love to “just a chemical”.
Everyday:
Follow your gut
Sometimes works but neglects bias and trauma
Money can’t buy happiness
Discredits reduced stress and improved wellness
History repeats itself
Patterns echo, but history is not a loop. Similar shapes, newer context.
If something looks bad, it tastes bad
Chocolate and nuts look like poop. Green curries can look like vomit.
If you tried it once and didn’t like it, you won’t like it when you try it again
Acquired taste. Practice - you must learn the rules to play the game. Learning rules can be difficult.
Someone not texting means they’re mad at you
They could be busy. Don’t like their phone. Nothing to do with you.
If something feels good, it’s good for you
Anything in access, even stretching can be bad for you
If something feels too good, it’s bad for you
Trauma, discomfort with receiving good things, evaluate relationship
Health and Healing:
Healing is linear
Just no. And when you think you’re done, it comes circling back.
You can outthink trauma
The body remembers. Healing requires more than logic and talking.
Time heals all wounds
Time helps, but healing requires intention, support, and work.
Strong people don’t need help
Strength is asking for help when you need it.
Rest is laziness
Rest is repair—necessary for resilience.
You should “Just get over it.”
Trauma imprints on the body; dismissing it festers the wound.
You have to be fully healed before you can love or be loved
Healing often happens inside relationships and is nurturing
Work/Success:
Busyness equals productivity
False. Often business is avoidance or not allowing space to prioritize and plan.
Passion guarantees success
Market forces, luck, and privilege shape outcomes.
Long hours proves dedication
Often proves poor boundaries and leads to burnout.
Multitasking makes you efficient
Splits attention and work suffers
Success is individual
Success is collective—mentors, networks, and systems matter.
Quitting means failure
Quitting often clears the way for a more resonating (right) path.
Hustle culture is sustainable
Exploitation dressed as ambition.
Relationships:
Better to be in bad relationship than be alone
Bad relationships can cause corrosive and deeper loneliness
Familiar pain is safer than unknown possibilities
Familiarity masks danger
Other’s approval is the foundation of security
Approval without self-trust is fragile. Can be instantly withdrawn
If people really love you, they’d accept your partner
Their love for you does’t obligate them to tolerate your partner
Short term relief prevents long term suffering
Compounds suffering, just delayed
Myself: My own ruminating pitfalls
If you explain things clearly and lovingly enough, people will change
Change is about timing, readiness, and internal capacity
Remove enough obstacles for someone, there would be no reason to keep hurting themselves
Familiarity feels safer than change
You can accelerate someone’s healing if you’ve been through it yourself
Your map is not their map
Constantly available shows love + strength of connection
Availability can delay growth, create invisibility. Distance is necessary for change.
If your absent, you’re failing them
Absence can be a gift
I don’t like engineering
I was good at engineering. I love problem solving but environment (screens, misaligned ethics, focus on products I didn’t believe in) drained engagement and desire to excel.
I have/had bad rhythm
Too tense to feel the beat. Relaxation and body awareness unlocks rhythm
I wasn’t good at violin
Excessive tension and sweat caused by anxiety prevented smooth shifts, even when I prepared
Have something obvious but false, comment below!
I’ll keep adding to this!
Every tale hides another… care to see what’s next?”
This marks my 20th post on the Hearthfire Journal—thank you for walking with me this far!
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send me a note, or leave a little fuel for the fire.