Received Ideas in Quotes 32

Like the people who think old paintings were deliberately created in tones of ochre and brown to give them an "antiqued" look, some readers are offended by historical novels showing same-sex relationships, or people living as the opposite sex “because there were no gay or trans people until now”.

Factoid: Coined by Norman Mailer in Marilyn: A Biography and defined as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority".

Conspiracy theories involve: ignoring contrary evidence that doesn't fit with what you already believe, thinking you're an expert on things that you know nothing about, and projecting malicious intent onto events that have a perfectly innocent explanation. Philosophy Matters

The speculative theories of former centuries have become the widely circulated factoids of the Internet era. (Adrian Bott @Cavalorn)

As I become older, I keep noticing how I used to hold some pretty stupid beliefs. Crucially, the beliefs in question were sincerely held by the younger me, without any hint or suspicion of their lack of soundness and/or validity. Chances are I currently hold some such beliefs. (@alancolquhoun1)

If you are not a scientist, and you disagree with scientists about science, it’s actually not a disagreement. You're just wrong. Science is not truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn't lie to you. It learned more. (@mhdksafa)

That young people of to-day prefer games to conversation scarcely proves degeneration. That they wear very few clothes is not a symptom of decline. (Emily Post, 1922)

Googling “negative impact on young people” throws up: social media, celebrity culture, screen use, community violence, media violence, social disparity, rap music, video games, films (one source blames them for “falling values and so on”). 

A businesswoman has accused parents who work from home of setting a bad example to their children, claiming that it reflects a “sense of entitlement” that has become common in Britain. (Times, 2021)

Raymond Burr’s appearance in Rear Window was based on Darryl Zanuck, whom Hitchcock hated.

Literature is meant to be read and enjoyed, not taught and analysed. (@CmucG)

Kellogg Corp’s head office building has a jagged edge – because everybody wanted a corner office. (Aerial America)

A Victorian lamppost outside the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford inspired C.S. Lewis to write the entire Narnia series. (Via Gabriel Schenk)

There’s a crane buried under Michigan’s football field. (Aerial America)

Halloween has a very inauthentic feel in the UK as it is basically driven by business. (@RJo00)

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass is inspired by Carroll’s migraine aura hallucinations.

The 400 pleats of a Greek soldier's kilt represent the 400 years of servitude under the Ottomans. (Anna Somers-Cocks)

A penguin named Nils Olav was given the rank of Colonel-in-Chief and was awarded a Knighthood in Norway. (@MondongoFacts)

Turk's Head pubs on the Tyne are named after a sailor’s knot - the Turk's Head knot. (The knot resembles the Turk's turban. Many pubs are called after heraldic symbols.)

An 1895 book on child development argued that if a girl overused her brain, it would damage her reproductive powers. (Lucy Worsley, Agatha Christie. Likewise if she had singing lessons too young.)

More here and links to the rest.

Many more in my book What You Know That Ain't So.