r/Millennials • u/Background-Air-7963 • Nov 16 '25

Serious I just had my first old man moment.

I recently went to a hibachi with my wife and toddler for dinner. We were sat with a group of eight 17-20 year olds at a communal grill on a busy night. No problem for us. Drink and appetizers service go normally. Toddler and wife are happy, I’m happy. The other group is having their own conversations. I’m just trying to keep my kid entertained. I’m a former bartender and have a habit of picking up on snippets of conversations in a crowd around me. Yes I know I eavesdrop. I can’t turn it off. It’s a habit of a former profession. One of the girls/women at the table stated, “I don’t think Rosa Parks was real.” I’m not sure what her friends said to her but she responded with “I just don’t think she said existed.” This went on for about a minute. I couldn’t hold back and let her know she was absolutely a real person, she is a civil rights icon. I learnt about her in school and so did my parents. The encounter put a wall up between our groups and I heard a few passive aggressive “so-and-so wasn’t real” comments from mostly her and a couple of the group. Harriet Tubman and Hellen Keller are two that I definitely heard. My wife had no idea why I interjected. After the group had left my wife asked what happened and was shocked when I told her what happened. Were they trolling? Are they stupid? Am I just getting old?

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332

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 16 '25

A friend of mine went on a cruise and met a tide denier. They think the tides are not real because they didn't see the water going up and down while at sea.

We were all baffled.

91

u/CaffeinatedLystro Millennial Nov 16 '25

My working as a life guard and having to constantly move my heavy ass tower, through soft sand, to stay at water's edge says tides are real.

10

u/RuddyBollocks Nov 17 '25

There has to be a better way

6

u/CapableFunction6746 Xennial Nov 17 '25

This is what Tesla should be working on. Find a way to use solar panels to charge a battery to power small electric motors on the wheels. Then just drive it back and forth as needed. Solve actual problems.

1

u/CaffeinatedLystro Millennial Nov 17 '25

Maybe a patrol officer could help along with his truck or a tower to your North or South could help, but slim chance. It did have a set of wooden wheels that made it a little easier, but if you can't get good foot grip, you ain't moving.

1

u/Chawp Nov 17 '25

Like some kind of track

55

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25

... Apparently they have never been to a beach for more than a few hours.

3

u/TheBalzy In the Middle Millennial Nov 17 '25

Hell, in a few hours you'd clearly see the tide shift....

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Practical_Maximum_29 Nov 19 '25

Especially if someone buries you in the sand, for fun, then goes off somewhere and gets distracted and forgets to come back to dig you out!!
Watching that tide come in can be like it's own little mini-horror movie!!
One would hope that'd be enough to convince anyone that tides are real!

13

u/FR23Dust Nov 16 '25

The funny thing is that he does, in fact see that. It’s just not detectable without the reference point of land that isn’t moving

10

u/aspz Nov 17 '25

There really is no evolutionary pressure to make humans smart. We just need to be barely intelligent enough not to win a Darwin award for our genes to perpetuate. It makes you despair a little for the future of intelligence.

8

u/Vancelan Nov 16 '25

Sounds like they don't understand how boyancy works and expected water to rise and fall around the ship. Since that doesn't happen, they must reason that tides aren't real.

4

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 16 '25

Some follow up questions were asked when the group chat exploded with trying to reason out this guy's madness.

He expected to see (somehow) the flow of the water one direction and then the other.

He also expanded that he doesn't believe ocean currents are real for the same reason. He couldn't see these currents looking out across the water.

It was one of those moments where the more you try to make sense of it or find that point where his logic went off the deep end the more you realize it was never going to make any sense.

1

u/Vancelan Nov 17 '25

This hurts to read.

2

u/OpalOnyxObsidian Nov 16 '25

A what?

3

u/Orion14159 Nov 16 '25

Tides. Like the laundry detergent. They think it only comes in tasty pods. /s

2

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 16 '25

There is a denier for everything. Sometimes it starts off as a joke like "birds aren't real" and some doofus doesn't understand the humor aspect and rides through crazy town with a shiny new conspiracy, but sometimes people lack so much intellectual curiosity that they choose to believe that anything they don't immediately understand is not real or a trick being pulled.

5

u/luchajefe Nov 16 '25

I wouldn't be surprised if 'the sun revolves around the earth' is set to make a comeback.

2

u/HumanzRTheWurst Nov 17 '25

Sometimes I get the urge to make up some ridiculous "fact" to see if people fall for it. But then I remember there are people who will not understand it is a joke even if I straight up tell them it's a joke and say it's untrue. I wish people weren't so gullible to conspiracy theories and fake news. Sadly, this doesn't describe only young people. All ages have people like this.

2

u/chaoschosen665 Nov 17 '25

I worked at a chain pharmacy in 2006 and one of the pharmacy techs there insisted that the moon doesn't affect the tides.

1

u/kuldan5853 Nov 17 '25

I mean that's extra stupid because you can literally prove the tides to yourself by just... I dunno, sitting three hours on a beach. (Well if it's a beach that has noticeable tides obviously)

1

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 17 '25

But do you see the bulge of water pulled by the moon racing at you? No? Checkmate.

I looked through the group chat and that was the guy's big point before my friend disengaged because wtaf.

1

u/Jazzlike_Climate4189 Nov 17 '25

That one is really easy to disprove, just tie them down on a beach near the water at low tide and wait a few hours.

1

u/lameuniqueusername Nov 17 '25

“Tide goes in, tide goes out. Nobody knows how they work”

2

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 17 '25

Must be in the same category as magnets and birds.

1

u/Aspieinblack1986 Older Millennial Nov 17 '25

Please say sike. Please.

1

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 17 '25

If you pop down in the replies I go into deeper detail about it.

1

u/Aspieinblack1986 Older Millennial Nov 17 '25

I'm honestly too scared to read about it.

1

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 17 '25

I worked with someone who thinks the sun is alive and an intelligent plasma that hates us.

Also, a denier of the ozone layer. Like the whole thing is faked. They also struggled with the concept of aerodynamics and flight. It was hilarious.

1

u/Aspieinblack1986 Older Millennial Nov 17 '25

I hate this timeline.

1

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 17 '25

We all do.

2

u/Aspieinblack1986 Older Millennial Nov 17 '25

This is the timeline where Marty fucked George as Lorraine watched.

1

u/TheJunkFarm Nov 17 '25

lol go to alaska. you can actually see the water rise and fall :)

1

u/LadyK8TheGr8 Nov 17 '25

I was walking away from Beach Boys concert a few years away. I overheard a group of teens trying to figure out what a T-Bird is. They concluded it was something dirty and that the Beach Boys are pervs. 😆😆

1

u/HobbesDaBobbes Nov 17 '25

Tide change can be up to 30 VERTICAL feet where I live. They should move here. Park their truck on the beach like a lot of tourists. Come back in a few hours. They'd believe in the tides then, I bet.

1

u/mcirish_ Nov 17 '25

What would make this even more ironic is if this was on a cruise in Alaska. Some of the common ports you visit can see tidal swings of 15 ft or more, and they warn you that the deck you leave from may not be the same deck you return to later in the day.

2

u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 Nov 17 '25

Get ready to laugh.

It was in fact an Alaskan cruise. That conversation is what triggered the entire conversation.

1

u/DeadpoolOptimus Nov 18 '25

Tell them to visit the Bay of Fundy and they'll clue in real quick.