Lies and provocation: the most popular false stories that millions believed

No, this is not a story about Dalmatian puppies who are about to be drowned. These stories have spread all over the world, there are articles about them in Wikipedia, they were broadcast by respected scientists… But in fact, none of this happened. Here are the most popular deceptions that the whole world has believed in. And he still believes, by the way!

The other day, a website posted a text allegedly belonging to Julia Roberts, in which the star suggests that everyone give up makeup and stop doing cosmetic procedures, pay more attention to inner beauty and abandon the desire to conform to someone else's ideals.

Quite a position, good wording, in a matter of hours, the "Julia Roberts letter" was scattered on social networks. We have nothing against natural aging and the rejection of makeup. The catch is that Roberts didn't write any letter. This is a fake, a fake, a lie. A few phrases are pulled out of Roberts' post, which she wrote in September 2015, signing her own photo without makeup on Instagram, but the meaning is distorted beyond recognition.

The letter was fabricated successfully, on time and for the spite of the day, so that people, not doubting for a second that the star, who has been advertising decorative cosmetics for many years, could say such a thing, rushed to press the repost button. We are used to trust networks. And not only ordinary Internet users, but also great minds fell into this trap.

The "farewell letter" appeared on the Internet back in 1996, when Gabriel Garcia Marquez was alive and well. It was written by a little-known Mexican writer under the pseudonym Johnny Welch, and the letter had nothing to do with the farewell - it was just a work of fiction.

I would explain to those who are mistaken, believing that they stop falling in love when they get old, not realizing that they get old when they stop falling in love! I would give wings to a child, but I let him learn to fly himself. I would convince the elderly that death does not come with old age, but with oblivion. I learned so much from you people, I realized that the whole world wants to live in the mountains, not realizing that the real happiness is in how we climb the mountain.

Marquez was outraged by the attribution of the authorship of the text to him and has repeatedly publicly denied claims that he wrote the letter.

Nevertheless, in April 2014, when the maestro left our world, a new wave of popularity broke out, and the letter began a triumphant march through the pages of users of social networks. Unfortunately, Marquez did not leave any farewell letters to us.

On his 70th birthday, the great actor allegedly uttered a beautiful text, wise thoughts.

When I fell in love with myself, I stopped wishing for another life and suddenly saw that the life that surrounds me now provides me with all the opportunities for growth. Today I call it maturity. When I fell in love with myself, I realized that under any circumstances I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens exclusively at the right moment. I can always be calm. Now I call it self-confidence.

When I fell in love with myself, I stopped stealing my own time and dreaming about big future projects. Today I do only what gives me joy and makes me happy, what I love and what makes my heart smile. I do it the way I want, and in my own rhythm. Today I call it simplicity. When I fell in love with myself, I freed myself from everything that harms my health - food, people, things, situations. Everything that led me down and away from my own path.

When I fell in love with myself, I stopped always being right. And that's when I started making fewer and fewer mistakes. Today I realized that this is modesty. When I fell in love with myself, I stopped living in the past and worrying about the future. Today I live only in the present moment and call it satisfaction. When I fell in love with myself, I realized that my mind could interfere with me, that it could even make me sick.

But when I was able to connect him to my heart, he immediately became my valuable ally. Today I call this connection the wisdom of the heart. We no longer need to be afraid of arguments, confrontations, problems with ourselves and with other people. Even the stars collide, and new worlds are born from their collisions. Today I know that this is life."

Again, a beautiful text, wise thoughts. Only Chaplin died 24 years before the appearance of this text. Because it's actually a fragment of Kim Yi's book. Alison McMillen "How I finally fell in love with myself."

I will no longer tolerate either partially educated or arrogant scientists. I'm not going to deal with gossip, I can't stand conflicts and comparisons. I believe that the world consists of opposites, that the world is diverse, so I try to avoid people with a tough character, unable to adapt to the environment.

I despise betrayal and infidelity in friendship. I will not be able to get along with those who are not capable of a real compliment, are not able to encourage and inspire with their own words, and I will not be able to get along with someone who does not like animals. Exaggerations tire me. And yes, among other things, I will no longer tolerate those who do not deserve my patience. «

Even we almost believed it! But in fact, the author of these words is the Portuguese writer and life coach Jose Micard Texeira. And on the web, his statement "stuck together" with Meryl Streep and by a funny coincidence at all: the blogger posted the text, accompanying his photo of Meryl Streep and noting that for her (blogger) Meryl Streep is the living embodiment of what was said. No one read the blogger's text, and the quote "flew" on the Internet along with the photo.

Here is just a fragment, it will not be difficult for you to find the full version (there is quite a lot of text).

But believe me, in 20 years, looking at your photos, you will understand how many opportunities were open to you and how wonderful you looked. You are not overweight — all this is fantasy. Don't worry about the future. Or worry, just remember that the sense of all your experiences is the same as the help from chewing gum when solving complex mathematical equations. The real difficulties in your life are something you never even thought about, which suddenly strikes you at four in the evening on one ordinary Thursday."

This story is generally a hoax. In the summer of 1997, journalist Mary Schmich wrote this text for the Chicago Tribune. The article was a great success, and one of Mary's friends copied the text and emailed it to his friends. That's just in the subject of the letter, he wrote "Kurt Vonnegut's parting speech" for the sake of laughter. The effect exceeded all expectations.

The text flew around the world with unimaginable speed, Kurt Vonnegut was congratulated on an amazing speech, recognized in the text "stylistic turns characteristic of the writer" and "ironic originality". Even Vonnegut's wife fell for the bait! When the rumors reached the writer himself, he denied, of course, his authorship, but the process became uncontrollable. The journalist also repeatedly spoke out on this issue, but no one listened to her. The text is still on the Web!

The phrase (certainly witty) is attributed to a Nobel Prize winner, an oncologist from Brazil named Drausillio Varella. To begin with, there is no such person. There is a Brazilian oncologist Drausio Varell, but he has never received a Nobel Prize and has not uttered these words. And they themselves are lying: on average, 2 times more money is spent on Alzheimer's disease research, drug development and clinical trials than on plastic surgery (all, including injections) and means for potency.

The image of the American continent from space - covered with forests in 1978 and deserted in 2012 - broke all popularity records in social networks.

In fact, these are two photos that NASA took in 2002 and 2012 with different cameras installed on different satellites and at different angles. Both pictures are heavily photoshopped: this can be seen by the changing color of the ocean. So we were absolutely terrified in vain.

When his finances were almost depleted, he learned about a foundation in Madrid, whose activities were aimed at supporting people suffering from leukemia. Thanks to the help of the Hermosa Foundation, Carreras overcame his illness, and his songs, without which he could not imagine his life, sounded again. When Jose Carreras decided to participate in the work of the foundation, he discovered that the founder of Hermosa, the main sponsor and president was Placido Domingo.

The singer also learned that this fund was created from the very beginning specifically to support the sick singer. Placido Domingo wished to remain anonymous because he did not want to offend the feelings of Carreras, who would never have turned to his enemy for help. The meeting of the two enemies took place at one of the concerts in Madrid.

Jose Carreras interrupted the performance and, humbly kneeling at Domingo's feet, asked for forgiveness from his former enemy in front of the entire audience and thanked him. Placido picked him up and hugged him tightly. This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship between two great tenors. When a reporter asked Placido Domingo why he created the Hermosa Foundation for his enemy and extended the life of the only performer who could compete with him, his answer was brief and definite:

«

In 1987, Jose Carreras really got sick with leukemia, but a year later he was successfully cured of it without resorting to the help of any funds. The Hermosa Foundation does not exist in principle. And Domingo and Carreras are old friends.

"The paradox of our time is that we have high buildings, but low tolerance, wide highways, but narrow views. We spend more, but we have less, we buy more, but we rejoice less. We have bigger houses, but smaller families, better facilities, but less time. Find time for love, find time for communication and find time for the opportunity to share everything you have to say. Because life is measured not by the number of breaths, but by the moments when it takes your breath away"

This heartfelt quote is attributed to the American satirist George Carlin and has been reposted since 2008. Carlin himself immediately denied his authorship, but the story was "seasoned" with a lie that the satirist wrote these words, shocked by the sudden death of his wife, and was allowed to walk on the Net. Only a few managed to unearth the original: this is a collection of prayers, sermons and monologues published in 1995, "Precisely Spoken Words" by Protestant pastor Bob Moorhead.

Scientists do not disclose this information to prevent panic, and this article should be burned by anyone who reads it. The patient calmed down and socialized. At the time of the trial, he was working as an auditor for a large firm in Colorado. Alas, the state court found Dr. Rogers a charlatan, and the experiment was inhumane. He was sentenced to death."

This is allegedly a fragment of an article from the newspaper The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, which later published the alleged suicide letter of Dr. Rogers.

The truth is that there was neither Dr. James Rogers, nor Aaron the Giraffe, nor the Massachusetts University of Psychology and Neuropathology, in which the experiment allegedly took place, nor such a newspaper.

The man in the photo is writer and journalist Hunter Thompson. And the story is a prank by the writer Alexander Shamarin. He decided to test the credulity of friends and posted this photo on his Facebook page and composed a story from and to. Subscribers began to share an impressive post, and today Google finds almost 7 thousand pages with a description of the Massachusetts experiment.

These stories prove once again: any correctly and interestingly submitted information in The network may turn out to be false. Our consciousness, alas, is not so difficult to manipulate. Therefore, before you click the "repost" button, check the source and keep critical thinking! Well, or share our article: there is definitely not a word of untruth in it.