A few days ago I shared some news that the Eurovision song from Israel would be named “Your land is mine now” to later realize it was from an onion kind of website, lol.

I hope I’m not alone in this kind of f’up.

  • I got reverse onioned a little while ago. There was an article about a kids version of the AR-15 called the JR-15, and it was so ludicrous and I didn’t know that website, I thought it was a satirical article for a while… Weeks later I mentioned it as a joke, but my brother said it was real and I checked and saw he was right.

      • My favorite childhood toy was a metal-and-plastic, kid-sized Winchester 1873. It came with plastic beads it could shoot - they were all lost within days, but it still made a “pop” when you cocked and shot it. I tried to carry that thing everywhere; I clearly remember the trauma when my parents refused to let me take it to church, or school.

        Anyway, I’ve always assumed my experience and desires were pretty standard for kids: they like guns. Is that uniquely American? Do German and Chinese kids not run around with gun-shaped sticks or toys “shooting” at each other?

        Edit: typo

        • Sure they do. The difference is they don’t do it with real weapons because people generally don’t own real weapons. When they do own one (for hunting or sport, never for personal protection), it’s locked in a secure safe by law and requires successful completion of a fairly tough training with a proficiency test at the end.

          • Was the JR15 mentioned above a real gun? I have a hard time imagining a functioning rifle chambered in 5.56 that would be small enough for a child to handle. And AR15s aren’t that big; a young teen can handle them fairly easily.

            I guess my point is that the AR frame is about as small as you can make a functioning 5.56 rifle anyway. You could put a shorter barrel on it, maybe lighten the stock, but now you’ve just made a carbine. The upper isn’t getting any smaller… so what’s “JR” about it?

            Scaling an AR down so it just looks like one, but is chambered in something shorter like .22 short… I guess you could call it a JR15. Seems like a cheap cop-out, since that upper is the defining feature of the AR15. Although a guess there are derivations chambered in Blackout, Grendel and so on, and they’re all considered based on the AR platform.

            Hence, my assumption it was a toy.

        • I only occasionally see that here in Asia. It exists, but I feel like it’s much less. I immigrated here maybe 12 years ago from the West. The overall level of violence is much lower than I grew up with (even in Canada).

          Most young people I know consider handling guns more of a chore. In Vietnam, learning to disassemble, clean, maintain, and reassemble an AK-47 is a mandatory class. My wife got top score :)

          Anyway, we stumbled on a great way to make guns uncool, I think. Personal possession is illegal here except for shotguns, it’s for some very specific scenario that I don’t exactly recall. I knew of some remote workplaces with one, in case of wild animals. We get some, but not many, illegal firearms.

    • It’s a .22lr though, which is common for teaching kids firearms safety. The only difference between that and the usual .22lr squirrel hunting rifles is it has a few cosmetic features like a pistol grip and a detachable mag rather than an 1880s style mag tube under the barrel. It’s also largely injection molded so it’ll also be lighter than said regular hunting rifle (and of course you could still hunt with this and it takes optics easier thanks to the 1913 rail.)

        • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDmgDlc-KUg

          Works out fine more often than not, just don’t give a 9yo a full auto uzi.

          This kid may not be ready for semi, but she will be before she can comfortably hold a heavy aluminum/steel or wood/steel rifle. Gun safety is important for kids to learn if they’re going to be around guns, typically if a kid learns to properly respect the dangers involved it cuts down on the 18 and life type scenarios. Sure, you can keep yours locked and you can vet their friend’s parents before you allow them to stay over at the friend’s house all you want, but you can never truly know if they adhere to safe storage around children or if they keep one out of the safe "where their kid can’t reach (spoiler: he can). If they’re aware of gun safety it increases the likelihood they’ll snitch at the mention of “wanna see my dad’s gun?” (and of course you should instruct them to do so regardless), it decreases the mystique of guns so they’re less curious and more “been there done that let’s watch that awful teen titans reboot abortion instead,” and even if they did find themselves in possession or close to a firearm for some ungodly reason, at least they know how to safely clear the chamber, watch the muzzle, etc, so even if they ignore you telling them to get an adult (grounded for life for sure ofc), if they do handle the gun it decreases the likelihood someone will be injured.

          Honestly, it isn’t that bad a move, just be smart, you know, like no full auto uzis until you’re 14. .22lr bolt actions (or air/pellets first then .22lr), then keep moving them up as time goes on (assuming they’re interested and capable, but I mean, don’t force em into ballet either lol).

  • Thirty years ago, I told a friend that Australians come from Australia, Romanians come from Romania, and Canadians come from Canadia. She called it Canadia for thirty years.

    We’ve been together for ten years and she’s only just found out that it’s actually called Canada. Boy am I in trouble.

  •  Flaky   ( @Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi ) 
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    Someone on Bluesky claimed that the Tesla Cybertruck was emitting “human sewage” or “fishy glue” smells with a convincing edit of a Insider News article. Then they convinced me more by editing/making from fiction a Cybertruck owners discussion board to say someone was posting about their Cybertruck smelling like dog pussy. To be honest, when I saw that I should have known it was fake, but I can absolutely believe the Cybertruck smelling rancid from failing electronics.

    I believed the fake article since I had a similar situation with a failing minifridge. There was a strong electronic smell coming from it and while it wasn’t really “fishy glue” I knew something was failing and disposed of it immediately. I also remembered a YouTuber having issues with her home wiring emitting a fishy glue smell.

  •  Elise   ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 
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    8 months ago

    I honestly thought that kangaroos were poisonous. That they had a kind of stinger on the elbow.

    I even managed to convince a few people of it, including two Australians.

    Then later I couldn’t find it any more on Wikipedia. Apparently it was a prank edit years ago.

  • I shared Naomi Klein’s support for the “No Label” party on Facebook many years ago. It was of course satire.

    Since then I really look into the things people share before I share them myself. Even though I generally trust these people.

  • It took me way longer to realize an article about how Alaskan airlines was giving passengers a pass to bring your own pocket tools on one of their flights that it really should have. My only real excuse was that the site wasn’t the onion.

  • I fell for an April Fools joke years ago saying that an upcoming character to be released in Smite was The Morrigan, then confidently posted about it on Reddit weeks later.

    This was years before she actually was released, and long before development was started on her.