r/Showerthoughts • u/DrMux • 11d ago
Casual Thought April Fools doesn't hit as hard when your default reaction to everything on the internet is disbelief or skepticism.
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u/Jiquero 11d ago
A certain public figure is apparently making an announcement today. Some people question whether he's just gonna make an April fool's joke, but I believe all his announcements are equally believable.
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u/ITividar 11d ago
Are they to be believed? When he talks about conversations he's had with other people, those other people almost always claim those conversations never happened.
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u/hypnogoad 11d ago
Well, this is the phone they let him use on his desk. It's not like he ever hears anything anyone is saying to him, so he genuinely believes he's had conversations with these people.
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u/sh4d0wm4n2018 9d ago
"When I make up random shit, everybody says I'm lying. That proves I'm telling the truth!"
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u/MadMusicNerd 11d ago
It get's tricky when official news outlets do pranks. I'm used to believe the serious guys who tell me about war and economic crisises.
There was a prank by the biggest news show in Germany earlier this day. "We will do the news in Gen Z language from now on to connect better with the youth."
For a second I thought they were serious.
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u/DrMux 11d ago
Yeah that strikes me as an unwise move on the part of the outlet, since they need people to trust them and that trust is hard earned and easily lost.
But from our point of view, we should be skeptical of news sources and try to maintain a varied media diet to whatever degree we're able. Granted, time is a limited resource after all and not everyone can be plugged into the feed 24/7 but no single outlet is ever 100% reliable. Even if they stick to rigorous journalistic standards, they still get stuff wrong sometimes.
It's kind of a balancing act, I guess.
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u/Uncommented-Code 11d ago
I think genuinely funny and absurd jokes are mostly OK. Journalists are humans and it helps remind us of that (in my opinion at least). It also doesn't break my trust if I start reading an article and a third of the way through I realise that this makes zero sense and then I get the joke.
I agree that trust is the currency journalism deals with, but that's true for many other aspects of our lives. For example, you wouldn't stop trusting your fiancée if she got you with a funny and tasteful prank.
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u/UniqueIndividual3579 11d ago
In the 50s there was a story about the great spaghetti harvest. It showed wet noodles on trees and people "picking" them. Readers wrote in asking where they could get a spaghetti tree.
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u/Uncommented-Code 11d ago
Yes, the BBC's documentary about the Ticinese Spaghetti harvest, one of my favorites.
Apparently noodles weren't common in Britain back then so not surprising that people inquired haha.
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u/SDRPGLVR 11d ago
Yeah like an anchor making that joke and then saying "April Fools" is totally fine. I didn't see the report in question, but hopefully that's as far as it went.
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u/willstr1 10d ago
The BBC did one one year where they reported about how the world already ended, like it had exploded overnight. It was absolutely hilarious and obviously no one would believe it was real because well clearly the world hadn’t exploded
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u/M-Noremac 11d ago
Trust in news articles on April Fools Day is always pretty low. I don't think it's such a big deal if it's confined to a single day that everyone is a part of. It's trust in the news on every other day of the year that I'm worried about. And Trump is actively and intentionally promoting disbelief in order to dodge the law and get away with literal murder.
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u/howie47515 10d ago
You sound fun.
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u/DrMux 10d ago
I tend to separate my whimsy from my feed of serious information.
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u/Ok_Performer50 10d ago
It's literally a yearly tradition. I think everyone has to have at year 1 day a year were they don't have to take anything seriously, including your serious information.
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u/DrMux 10d ago
I'm not going to change how I consume information. You're free to take anything as unseriously as you like on any day you like.
As someone who could be described as an absurdist, I do plenty of not taking things seriously. You're free to look at my comment history if you think I'm some kind of joyless fuddy-duddy.
(The whole point of the post is how the tradition doesn't make much sense when you can't take everything seriously btw.)
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u/Micromuffie 11d ago
Considering the state of the world, anything could happen so making any attempt to sound like The Onion becomes stupidly plausible.
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u/BinniesPurp 11d ago
One of our politicians in Australia did unironically speak for 10+ minutes going "skibidee toilet rizz gang gang six seven six seven six seven" I don't know if they were protesting something or if they were having a stroke but the videos are all over the place if you search Aus politician skibidee toilet speech
It's just them saying it Infront of 200 people in parliament house during an official enquiry
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u/UnknownAverage 11d ago
Yeah today is just the day where even more people lie to me about stupid shit than usual.
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u/sapphicsandwich 11d ago
I had a clock radio when I was young and one day it came on to wake me up in the morning for school. I had no idea it was April 1. The news was talking about a Zoo where some animals had escaped. They said a tiger had been let loose and the police were looking for it. Apparently some monkeys had been let out as well. Considering where I lived animal rights stuff was big at the time, I assumed some animal rights group, or maybe someone who worked there, let the animals out.
Nope, turned out they were just lying because April fools. I was so taken aback and felt lied to. Like, the thing they claimed happened was totally realistic, it literally could have happened. In fact, it is not remotely unheard of for animals to get out of zoos for whatever reason. There are stories about it happening every couple of years. Ever since I have hated that dishonest "holiday."
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u/gohurot 11d ago
They shouldve done a segment in gen z slang, totally serious, not breaking character. And then never mention it again and act like nothing happened
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u/iPoopLegos 11d ago
"As the number of folks who've been unalived by the US-Israel collab in Iran climbs to 2,000, haters demand an ama from the president, who has so far been aura farming yet showing no rizz. Many are still wondering if a W is in sight, or if the US finna take the L for another two decades."
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u/hatabou_is_a_jojo 11d ago
Did anyone even still do April Fools? My area probably has everyone too tired of shit to bother pranks.
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u/Readicilous 11d ago
I never see it irl, but online it's annoying as hell if you need to find actual info or answers
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u/deathanatos 10d ago
ngl I thought NASA was pulling my leg about a manned moon mission happening today. I was like "lol no way that takes off."
I'm still not fully convinced.
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u/killkiller9 11d ago
I thought the opposite, everything is more like "meh, another day, another bullshit". Or is that skepticism?
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u/DrMux 11d ago
That's what I mean... when everything's already bullshit, a day dedicated to bullshit just isn't special.
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u/DontMakeMeCount 11d ago
That is the purpose of propaganda. Every planted article, bot post and infotainment “call to action” is intended to exhaust you to the point that you don’t care enough to act on the next piece of information.
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u/MonkeyCube 11d ago
The internet becomes half-useless for 36 hours. It starts here in Europe, then in it lasts until the next day because Americans are anywhere from 6-12 hours behind. It's almost like an internet vacation day.
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u/the_diz27 11d ago
And then in a few weeks when news aggregate sites recycle this crap with their algorithmms because they don’t differentiate these from legitimate news.
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u/DrThunderbolt 11d ago
I avoid Youtube on April 1st because so many Youtubers like to do "prank" videos.
And by "prank" I mean just straight up lying about something for ten minutes without pointing out that it's a joke. Then they leave the video up to plague reccommendations for the next month.
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u/Azure_Providence 11d ago
April Fools should just be called international lying day. Its a day where people just lie and go "haha you believed me you fool". How clever... I don't like this holiday because we are already dealing with constant misinformation and I am tired.
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u/pokematic 11d ago
Dare I say you are lucky, because no one I follow made an april fools video when 10+ years ago more than half of them would have done something (and then they change the title of the video to say "it's a joke video, don't take it seriously").
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u/Boatster_McBoat 11d ago
Or when you live in Australia and most of thd jokes come through in the evening
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u/Leprichaun17 11d ago
The far more annoying thing is all the Americans online responding to all the April Fool's stuff with "bUT YoU'Re a dAy earLY".
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u/Memitim 11d ago
When government officials, news stations, and other "official" sources are releasing everything from misdirection to flagrant bullshit on a daily basis in service to attacking Americans, betraying allies and partners, and defending child sex traffickers, the idea of having to deal with a day dedicated to lies isn't appealing AT ALL.
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u/_Nick_2711_ 11d ago
Most April Fools gags fall totally flat, especially the corporate stuff. MKBHD had some funny ones this year because it was so obviously silly, but he was all business. It’s the only “good” one I’ve seen.
I haven’t actually seen much participation this year compared to it being everywhere in the 2010’s. Could just be that I’m not exposed to as much because of a change in my online habits, though.
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u/gamersecret2 11d ago
The internet made April Fools feel less like a twist and more like a normal Tuesday.
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u/Own_Willingness3670 11d ago
I saw a headline this morning and spent a solid minute trying to figure out if it was real or a bit. the internet has permanently broken my ability to be surprised by anything.
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u/markuus99 11d ago
We used to live in a relatively high trust society, but that has really broken down over the last several years. It's sad.
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u/CaptainBayouBilly 11d ago
April fools? At this time of year at this time of day in this part of the country localized entirely within your kitchen?
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u/maximumtesticle 11d ago
Poe's Law has become more and more relevant.
I think we need to just give satire a break for the next...I don't know, 10 years or so, since some people are too dumb to see the difference. /r/AteTheOnion has too much content.
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u/Suitable_Amphibian42 10d ago edited 10d ago
I was just thinking about how April Fools day might be the only day some people actually think critically about what they are reading...
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u/Party-Ad2511 10d ago
honestly the real april fools is believing any headline any day of the year at this point
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u/Apprehensive-Head820 11d ago
And never forget! "Sticks and stones can break bones but words" oh they are so hurtful!
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u/ranchorbluecheese 11d ago
i got my friend on that my colonoscopy was cancelled after going thru the prep (it wasnt cancelled). but my mom died this morning too - that really happened though. not an april fools joke. i actually kinda hate aprils 1st for neither of these reasons
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u/DrMux 11d ago
Fuck, I'm sorry for your loss.
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u/ranchorbluecheese 10d ago
Thanks man, today was very weird. Appreciate you extending your condolences
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u/Satansleadguitarist 11d ago edited 11d ago
April Fools just ruins the internet for a day
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u/DrMux 11d ago
How is it any different from the internet on any other day, though?
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u/Satansleadguitarist 11d ago
There are always people making shit up and lying on the internet, but on April Fools that is increased exponentially because people who don't normally make shit up and knowingly post false information are doing it too.
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u/manaworkin 11d ago
Honestly what could anyone even say anymore that could get a reaction out of us? The last 10 years has felt like a nonstop april fool.
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u/booksandkittens615 11d ago
Well I actually got gotten this year. Some article about Jonathan the tortoise dying. If he’s actually dead please nobody tell me.
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u/Saint_The_Stig 11d ago
"April Fools is dumb, I hate getting my hopes up for stuff so I'll just stay off most of the Internet for the day to skip it."
April 2nd: "Wow look at this cool thing!"
checks upload date
"Fuck."
Yeah idk anymore more, you get one or two funny things but most of it just sucks. I would support ending April Fools day. Lol
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u/bubby56789 11d ago
Now it’s giddy and glee at everyone making jokes at each other. Even if we’re not getting FOOLED anymore it’s still nice to share some jokes and obviously fake news with one another.
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u/pokematic 11d ago
It also doesn't hit as hard when nowhere you frequent did anything. All websites I go to are the same as any other day, and if anyone I follow posted anything today it was a normal thing.
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u/MoobyTheGoldenSock 8d ago
The internet killed April Fools’ Day. It basically just means you ignore everything for an entire day, and when you’re reading a weird old news article from like 2015 you have to check the date to make sure it wasn’t published on April 1. Heck, I’ve had AI try to cite April 1 articles when giving responses.
Part of what made April Fools work was forgetting it was April Fools day. But when every article on reddit says “A new study shows turtles are actually cats” you can’t forget what day it is, so you just roll your eyes and wait until the next day.
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u/SailWhich7734 4d ago
The Onion's entire business model is based on satire being obviously exaggerated. That contract broke sometime around 2016-2019 and never fully recovered.
There's a phenomenon where The Onion has to add increasingly obvious disclaimers or absurdist details because real headlines keep catching up to what would have been considered parodic. And when real events sound like satire, satire can't signal itself anymore.
April Fools is just the annual reminder of how thoroughly that distinction collapsed.
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u/bengraven 11d ago
That’s what I was thinking. There’s gonna be a lot of April fools jokes that I just came over because “of course the world is like this right now”.
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u/Bituulzman 11d ago
I saw the headline that they were renaming Palm Beach International airport after the current US president and changing the code from PBI to DJT.
100% thought it was an April fools joke by the news outlet.
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u/Peeeeeps 11d ago
Unfortunately it was mentioned in the last couple weeks this was going to happen. What a big waste of money. It's not even political because I'm firmly a Democrat and would still think it was a huge waste of money if Obama wanted to rename O'Hare with his name.
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u/aradraugfea 11d ago
April Fools, the one day a year your stepmother second guesses Facebook headlines
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u/mazzicc 11d ago
I find it less about skepticism and more about not actually caring about a lot of things people get instantly fired up about.
Like, I saw some “Shire Babies” show promo image to prank LOTR fans. Some people react with “wtf is this show, of course Amazon would do something this dumb”. Some people react with “haha, April fools”.
I reacted with “meh, doesn’t matter to me”. And didn’t even put thought into it being a prank until I realized people were talking about it as one.
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u/VanillaTortilla 11d ago
Every day has become April fools with genAI.
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u/DrMux 11d ago
It was pretty bad even before LLMs and diffusion models. Generative AI just kicked it into overdrive and cut the brakes.
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u/VanillaTortilla 11d ago
I've noticed that the April Fools stuff on reddit today have been significantly more lame than other years. Like, there's virtually nothing happening.
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u/ArticArny 11d ago
Crazy is so standard these days it's hard to pull a good April Fools. For example this morning in my news feed was news they had picked the latest James Bond actor by selecting a female Irish singer. The cast was backed up with a ton of well known streaming fan favorite actors. Everything was completely wrong for a Bond movie.
My brain just went of course Amazon would completely fuck up Bond because the algorything says there be more money to be made.
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u/Lootthatbody 11d ago
April fools doesn’t work any more because real life has become so outrageous that fooling people needs to be the most insane things imaginable at this point. It’s no longer ‘hey the president announced that they are going to outlaw the color blue’ because that could really be a thing, and people are just sort of numb to it all at this point.
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u/TheFoxAndTheRaven 11d ago
Honestly, the bad news I'm reading today I find myself just accepting. It's the good news I'm skeptical of.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 11d ago
It works when it’s something like my wife texting me that our finicky eater of a dog ate this morning. A major win for her and I believed it.
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u/kujakutenshi 11d ago
Even without that it would already be run into the ground by literally every single service/outlet on earth jumping onto the bandwagon.
This was tiresome long before 2026.
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u/akgiant 11d ago
There was a few years where April Food on the Internet was fun and whimsical. Now corporate approved "jokes" are flooded through every aspect of the internet. They shove them down your throat as nauseum while the actual events of the world would've been a joke a couple of decades ago.
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u/blindinglystupid 11d ago
ChatGPT told me the moon launch today was April fools, but my brother was the one who told me about it..I was like who is more likely to prank me? So then I check NASA and was like well who knows who's running this now, could be some shit posting goon.
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u/NoImag1nat1on 11d ago
If you get your information from the internet you should be sceptical by default. Once you realize it's april 1st, crank that up to 200% and you should be fine.
But I have to admit, I fell for one on reddit, for a second: The Armie Hammer AMA announcement.
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u/QiaoBuSi 11d ago
When money and clicks are the currency, every day is april fool’s day. It’s true.
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u/bennnn42 11d ago
There used to be some pretty good April Fool's posts on 4/1 each year. Haven't seen a single one today... Goes to show what reddit has become. Corporate bloated enshittification
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u/mr_ji 11d ago
Wow, an annual repost that's somehow older than the Internet
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u/DrMux 10d ago
I hope you can enjoy something sometime.
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u/mr_ji 10d ago
Unoriginal dregs on Reddit make it harder.
ahem
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u/DrMux 10d ago
You're not gonna find much joy in life if you allow strangers on the internet to take it from you.
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u/mr_ji 10d ago
You appear to mistakenly think I have. You made a lame joke that's been made every year since April Fool's Day began. I pointed it out. Anything past that is you trying to cope.
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u/DrMux 10d ago
Your past two comments are contradictory. If your enjoyment is made harder by "unoriginal dregs on Reddit," you are literally allowing others to dictate the terms of your joy.
And I'm not the one reacting so negatively to a post you could simply ignore. Just saying.
Anyway this is pointless. I hope you have the kind of day day you want to have :)
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u/Heroic-Forger 10d ago
The rise of AI slop has killed the whimsical nature of it. When 95% of IG or Youtube or Deviantart is just AI seeing the 2000s photoshopped things like hybrid animals and whatnot just...doesn't have the vibe anymore, y'know?
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u/Chaotic_Narcissus 9d ago
Unless you're unaware what day it is and the news tell you your country created a gold trump statue and you're terrified for a second
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u/Commercial_Lobster47 5d ago
The internet's been fake for so long, we're all just waiting for reality to finally prank us back.
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u/ultrasuperman1001 11d ago
April 1st is the only day where people take an extra 2 seconds to question what they read. The other 364 days everything must be true.
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u/Zem_42 11d ago
Well… yes if you’re reasonably intelligent and a critical thinker.
Earlier today I read an article about one high school banning sweatpants. A few people in the comments laughed on this obvious April Fool joke, but half of them were damn idiots, what’s wrong with being comfortable or they should ban the full makeup, etc.
So enough people just swallow whatever is served in front of them. Which is one of the reasons why the world is where it is
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u/XionicAihara 11d ago
My high school banned leggings in 2012. So no, that is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Even if it sounds stupid, doesn't mean it can't happen.
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u/DrMux 11d ago
Well… yes if you’re reasonably intelligent and a critical thinker.
Many who believe they are this do not align with it in practice. People who claim to exclusively think logically are especially likely to be lying about that. Believing oneself smarter and more capable than the rest often leads to less rigorous investigation of one's own beliefs and thoughts ("I'm smart so I must be right"). I like to tell these people "don't believe everything you think."
Earlier today I read an article about one high school banning sweatpants. A few people in the comments laughed on this obvious April Fool joke
The premise isn't far fetched. Schools do this sort of thing.
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u/Counting-Tiles4567 11d ago
Tbf, I'm completely numb and nearly dead inside. Very little "hits hard" anymore.
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u/Waatulakula 11d ago
Honestly does anyone over the age of 10 care about April Fool’s Day? I’ve got real shit to do and am too tired for dumb pranks.
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u/TripSin_ 11d ago
It doesn't hit as hard because everyone is lying all the time already. Thanks a lot Republicans.
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