what things that you once believed in turned out to be total lies?

[mopaul]

starting of course with santa claus. most elementary history books.
that jfk was killed by a lone crazed gunman. that we'd be victorious in vietnam. that russia was going to nuke the world. that ronald reagan was actually the president. that a lone crazed gunman tried to kill him. that bill clinton didn't mess around with monica.

i once believed that if you voted for a candidate, your vote actually counted. i once believed that the man with the most votes won. i once believed that the american people were intelligent enough to see treason right in front of them. i once believed that we would all be smarter in the 21st century.

the list goes on.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. You know the drill: if you study hard, show up on time, do what you're

told, work extra hard at your job, and don't disturb your neighbors, you will succeed in life.

That, and get a job and you can afford a decent house anywhere you want to live.

One more, a college degree can get you a good job and security indefinitely.

[slutticus]

2. Santa, Easter Bunny, God, that Metallica rocked....

..um....what else.................oh yeah...and that if I touched myself....it would shrivel up and die. Good thing that was a lie......:evilgrin:

[mopaul]

3. i once thought that black sabbath rocked

and that love would save us all, like john lennon mistakenly thought

[hang a left]

4. That good always triumphs over evil.

The truth always prevails.

[mopaul]

5. that no american could be so evil as to allow nine eleven to happen

or even orchestrate such an event for political gain.

[mopaul]

6. that israel was a democracy..................n/t

[Eurobabe]

7. #1. our enron-govt.: by the people, for the people

#2. college education is the ticket to a good, rewarding job.

#3. give people the facts and they are smart enough to make the right choice.

[booksenkatz]

8. The biggest lie for me personally

My culture in good ole Texas taught me that America always wore the white hat, always ventured to other countries to save/help people... we were the good guys. I'm ashamed to say that I believed it until I was 26 years old! By a remarkable coincidence, that is the same year I began to inform myself and became a Democrat (I had mindlessly voted for Reagan when I was 20 and again at age 24.) By the time I was 28, I was working for the Dukakis campaign. Today at age 43, I continue to read voraciously everything I can get my hands on to make up for the first 26 ignorant years of my life. I have come to the conclusion that an informed person votes Dem and an uninformed person votes Repub... am I being too simplistic and too partisan to think that way? Ah, well. It is true from my experience, and I've seen it in family and friends.

I also believed that our government was essentially good at its core, would never lie to us, and had our best interests at heart. Stop laughing.

My son turns 5 in a month, and he will be much better informed from the very start. He's already extremely interested in politics and how the world works! He thought the convention this week was the coolest thing he's ever seen. So there's some hope for the future.

[Blue Gardener]

9. What goes around comes around

Not true. Evil people don't always get what's coming to them.

[Kanary]

16. Nor, good people get what's coming to them.

That phrase makes me crazy. It's so easy to hand out to people, to shut them up.

Kanary

[Nay]

10. #1. That evil people are unhappy with themselves and are objects of pity.

A lot of them are happy as hell, certainly happier than I am, and it's because they are sociopaths.

#2. Get a college degree, work hard, be a pleasant person, and you will be able to afford a middle-class life.

#3. That the older people got, the wiser they would become just from experience. MY experience has been that there are a lot of really dumb old people out here.

[mopaul]

12. that people are basically good

of course, many of us are basically good, but a monumental number of people are very bad, and they are the ones always fucking everything up. even little old church ladies have really viscious streaks, i've seen it firsthand.

[3trievers]

11. self aggrandizment

I once thought our representatives actually wished to serve the populace rather than scrambling for personal power and privilege.One pundit said they (the politicians)should wear uniforms like Nascar drivers with patches of the corporations that support them.That way we would all know to whom they are indebted.I realize not all are corrupt but I believe we should be vigilant.

[mopaul]

14. that being president actually meant something...then reagan happened

i was about 30 when reagan got in, and it hit me hard in the head that the office of president, which i'd always thought was some sort of holy thing i guess, was not sacred at all, just the top tier of a silly and corrupt system.

[slutticus]

That my x-girlfriend loved me....

...:(

That's the worst kind of filthy lie anyone could ever tell.

[mopaul]

15. i thought she loved me too

just kidding. good point though. many people think that getting married is a good idea. of course many people are happily married, but millions more are not, and millions have been screwed and shattered by the 'holy' institution of marriage, and it's evil twin, divorce.

[slutticus]

19. yep.

That's what gets me about the whole same sex issue. If they want to protect the sanctity of marriage, why don't they just make divorce illegal or some mess like that. It makes no sense. Marriage is a broken institution. I think our gay brothers and sisters would actually give it a boost.

[slutticus]

13. dupe

[luaneryder]

17. That DoD told the truth about casualties.

[mopaul]

18. I NEVER believed any of bush's lies, but thousands of soldiers did

i have seen many of the young men and women, our sons and daughters, who've said that they joined up immediately after nine eleven out of a sense of duty and patriotism. almost as if it were designed that way. i wonder how they are reacting to the bitter truth, and to their own gullibility, at being tricked into dying over shitty lies told by the president?

[RhodaGrits]

20. That there was a limit to how much a good person could suffer.

The pain and grief in some lives overwhelms me sometimes.

I sat at the death bed of a good, kind, thoughful and loving Christian man in his late 70s where he was racked with extreme pain from cancer and feeling very alone - and he cried out in tears "Why? I always tried to do good? Why is this happening to me?".

We all know people who seem to always have one horror after another in their lives despite trying always to live a good life. And my heart aches for them. And then I see a photo of a child dying of disease and starvation and have to consider these dear friends blessed.

I think Buddha got it right. Life is suffering.

[Stew225]

21. that "God never gives us more than we

can handle." uh, yeah, right. PLUS ANYTHING the nuns taught me!