Influencers overwhelmingly promote products for money and share opinions on social issues without expertise; influencer culture originated in the early 2000s with the rise of social media platforms like YouTube enabling people to build large audiences and for personal branding.

Beginning in the 1890s statues honoring Confederates were built in America, despite the monuments glorifying individuals who fought to uphold slavery and started a failed civil war. Thus, making their creation a historically unprecedented practice in a post civil war society.

New Episode: Is Bipartisanship Still Possible in America? Listen anywhere or at rootsofreality.com/podcast

There is no evidence that Nikola Tesla believed in an immortal soul, life after death, or linked his research to spiritualism, this idea originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s, when New Age and conspiracy theory circles began co-opting his legacy to promote false ideas.

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There is no scientific evidence that a human can live for hundreds of years, claims of discovering a 300-year-old monk are myths or hoaxes, originating from sensationalist media or spiritual folklore in places like Tibet or Mongolia.

Excited to be a part of Indiana Humanities Civics and Democracy Speakers Bureau! indianahumanities.org/civicsanddemor…

Genocide isn't the same as war crimes, and has a specific legal definition involving the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. War crimes refer to violations of the laws of war; as defined by the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

The claim that the HPV vaccine causes infertility is false, with no scientific evidence supporting it; this myth originated from anecdotal reports and misinformation spread online and was amplified by anti-vaccine activists in the early 2010s.

UFO sightings, which trace back to Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 “flying saucer” report, and have always been natural or human-made phenomena, yet every year new claims emerge despite investigations consistently finding mundane explanations rather than extraterrestrial visitors.

Quantum healing is a pseudoscientific idea that misapplies quantum mechanics to claim that thoughts or “energy” can directly cure disease, originating in the 1980s as part of alternative medicine movements.

The idea that Jesus would approve of megachurches is unlikely based on the Gospels, Jesus emphasized modesty, caring for the poor, and warned against wealth and religious showmanship, which contrasts with the opulence and commercialism often associated with megachurches.

The Earth is round, proven by centuries of observations from ancient Greek astronomy to modern satellite images, while the flat Earth idea originated in early mythological worldviews before being discarded by science over 2,000 years ago.

The claim that gentrification is genocide is false. While gentrification can displace communities and worsen inequality, it does not meet the definition of genocide, which involves the intentional destruction of a group based on ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion.

The claim that “not everyone can be given a trial” is false because the U.S. Constitution guarantees due process to all persons, and the idea originated from recent political arguments supporting mass deportations without individual hearings.

The idea that barefoot running is inherently healthier or more natural is a myth, studies show it does not reduce injury rates compared to running in shoes and can actually increase risks; the craze originated with the 2009 book Born to Run.

Metaphysics, named by Aristotle’s editors from the Greek meta ta physika (“after the Physics”), seeks to explain reality through speculation rather than testable evidence, and today is often used as a vague catch-all in New Age spirituality and other pseudoscientific beliefs.

Tarot cards, originating in 15th-century Europe as a card game called tarocchi, have no scientific basis for divination and work only through chance, suggestion, and interpretation, making them a pseudoscientific practice.

Concern over the national debt dates back to the founding of the United States, with figures like Alexander Hamilton advocating for federal debt management; today, both Democrats and Republicans claim to care about the debt, but in practice both consistently increase the debt.

The claim that the Quran requires women to wear headscarves is misleading: the text instructs modest dress but does not explicitly mandate covering the hair, and interpretations of verses like 24:31 and 33:59 vary widely across Islamic scholarship.