30 People Share Stories About “Professionals” Who Had Some Controversial Opinions

It's one thing if your Uncle Dave said he doesn't believe in time. But it would be a completely different conversation if the same words came out of a clockmaker.

Inspired by a tweet where a microbiologist expressed his disappointment after learning that one of their colleagues was an anti-vaxxer, Reddit user u/MoniMokshith made a post on r/facepalm, saying "I had to teach a historical geology class because the geologist who was supposed to teach [it] was a Young Earth Creationist."

The post immediately blew up. As of this article, it has over 98K upvotes. And that's not even the most impressive part. The comment section got filled with similar stories, with people talking about "professionals" who made a career despite their controversial -- and often contradictory -- personal views. Here are some of them.

Image credits: foamtherunway

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I'm an RN and worked with FAR too many people in the healthcare field as a whole (not just other nurses, but also lab workers, RT's, pharmacists, hell even some MD's) who think/thought COVID was a hoax or "greatly exaggerated" and are now refusing the new vaccine, even though we all KNOW how mRNA and vaccines work. Plenty of anti-maskers too. It's like they just used their degrees as tissue paper or something, I seriously don't get how you can learn what we learn, understand it well enough to practice in the field, and yet still allow political stances to override all that, it's freaking ridiculous.

zombie_goast , Jonathan Borba Report

Final score:

366points

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Robert T 3 years ago

Never underestimate the power of stupidity.

131points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My high school biology teacher was a super religious creationist. He taught us about evolution while telling us how he thought it was all bulls**t. I always wondered why people go into professions that are directly opposed to their beliefs. Seems like a miserable existence.

Zeno_The_Alien , pxhere Report

Final score:

262points

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Colin Matthews 3 years ago

It's because they want to prove it to themselves to try and answer the huge doubts they have about religious dogma

48points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I’ve worked with an aerospace/aeronautical engineer once that believed the earth was flat. It was so weird because in order for the calculations to function properly, you have to take into account of the earth not being flat.

humanCharacter , pxhere Report

Final score:

260points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago (edited)

This is getting ridiculous

106points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I’m an ICU nurse of about 10 years. I would occasionally float to our regular, non-icu and non-covid floors. Plenty of nurses who denied how serious covid was.

The cognitive dissonance is real. Of course none of them came up to help on our covid units

ThisisMalta · , Hush Naidoo Report

Final score:

251points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

Really sad

49points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Degree is Psychology here. So many peers with devout faith, one brain dead moron took psychology as a way “to know god better” he told me and convert more to Jesus.

Once took a course literally called, “Belief in Weird Things” which was for Psych majors. 300 students enrolled, nearly half dropped out because they were offended at some point when we broke down their weird beliefs.

Melancholic_Mando , Startup Stock Photos Report

Final score:

196points

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Sian Edwards 3 years ago

I'm all for people having faith in any religion or moral code, but they have to accept that others don't necessarily share those beliefs.

83points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Used to be a science teacher and I always got flack on the evolution chapter from parents that were doctors. Like babe I hope you at least believe in bacteria and viruses evolving...

I've also come across many nurses who don't think mental illness is real.

deathbychips2 , Andrew Neel Report

Final score:

195points

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Bowtechie 3 years ago

I once had an uber driver who claimed she was a semester shy of completing her nursing degree. She said vaccines caused my T1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed so young I didn't even have all my first doses yet.

69points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Professional cook here. Near the beginning of the pandemic I heard about a Sous Chef I worked with in the past being an anti-masker. I asked through the grapevine why he washes his hands before and after handling food and the reply was “that’s common sense”. But somehow the scientific medical community saying that masks help prevent illnesses is just a big hoax. It’s beyond frustrating.

SilkwormAbraxas , Tanya Gorelova Report

Final score:

194points

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Robert T 3 years ago

So he'll wash his hands, but will still breathe a respiritory-born virus over people's food. Damn I'm going to need a big bat.

52points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My friends uncle is a '5G gives you cancer while the government controls your mind' conspiracy theorist. He's a 5G installer

BEANSijustloveBEANS , Fabian Horst Report

Final score:

172points

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Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago (edited)

You should play along and ask him how he can do that to people and sleep at night.

122points

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30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My mom's really into homepoathy bulls**t (treating illnesses with the souls of elements or whatever). She's a pharmacist.

S0mber_ , Bru-nO Report

Final score:

168points

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Martha Meyer 3 years ago

I think the homeopathy trend has more to do with the fact that many people haven't found the medical help they needed from traditional medicine.

68points

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#10

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with a former airline PILOT who was/is a flat earther. He has since went back to being a pilot but I am not sure if he still thinks Earth is flat. When I pressed him on being a former pilot and believing malarkey he claimed the schools indoctrination into round earth didn’t work on him and that the pilots windscreen was a very thick and curved glass that made everything appear to be curved.

epidemic , imcckpit Report

Final score:

167points

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Roger Haywood 3 years ago

Flattards. You gotta love them. When I say love, I mean laugh at.

89points

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#11

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I remember a few Evangelists and one Catholic ( odd since most Catholics I know aren't creationists) in my major (geography) saying they knew the truth about the age of the earth, but had to lie on tests (classes like oil&gas, hydrology, geology,etc.) in order to get good grades.

How Christian are you when you break one of the 10 commandments and lie about your faith in order to get ahead?

lurked_long_enough , Armin Rimoldi Report

Final score:

166points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

You are a typical hypocritical kind

58points

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#12

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions Last career I had, knew people who were flat earthers and moon landing deniers...we were all satellite communications engineers.

Nerdeinstein , pxhere Report

Final score:

139points

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I I 3 years ago

flat earthers have members all over the globe , thats their FB quote

77points

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#13

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work with a medication aide that refuses to take medication and actively preaches god>medication. Apparently god isn’t paying her bills so she still keeps coming to work.

WhaleIfItIsntJonah , Polina Tankilevitch Report

Final score:

130points

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Roger Haywood 3 years ago

That is being a hypocrite.

47points

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#14

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I know someone who doesn’t believe in germ theory. We work for a company that builds water sterilization.

Link9454 , Anna Shvets Report

Final score:

129points

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Sue Hazlewood 3 years ago

Since when were germs classed as a theory?

28points

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#15

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with a wildland firefighter who was a climate change denier. We fought more wild fires. We got way more OT over 3 years. Yet didnt believe it was true science and started to complain he couldnt enjoy his summers due to work....lol

hangout_wangout , oconino National Forest Report

Final score:

125points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

Not at all surprising. My farrier is a professional fire fighter (his group takes their rig all over the Western US to fight those epic fires) big climate denier. Great farrier.

24points

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#16

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I know a dude who works in the oil field who doesn't believe in dinosaurs. "Fossil fuels"

roosell1986 , pxhere Report

Final score:

124points

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Don't Look 3 years ago

He’s not right obviously but fossil fuels aren’t actually dinosaur-based.

57points

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#17

I work with someone who thinks bloodletting is a cure-all.

I work in a children's cancer ward.

Auto-Harper-587 Report

Final score:

121points

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Roger Haywood 3 years ago

What is this? The dark ages?

63points

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#18

I work with a locomotive engineer who is a flat earther and also said that gravity is a hoax. I can laugh at the flat earth part but not believing in gravity on a fright train in the mountains seems a little crazy to me.

Blackflipflop Report

Final score:

118points

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Robert T 3 years ago

Does he work on the ghost trains at an amusement park? (Just wondering what a fright train is)

32points

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#19

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work with two anti-vaxxers. They are nurses who work with elderly patients.

Sad_Panda1978 , Vidal Balielo Jr. Report

Final score:

112points

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Serbob 3 years ago

Recently found out that an anti-vaxxer worked at my step-father's retirement home and contracted Covid. The home's response was that with human rights they couldn't force her to get vaccinated. We all wanted her fired. We have the right to refuse her access to our relatives. It turned into a real s**t show.

4points

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#20

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I used to work with a geologist who used to think minerals ("crystals") could heal you even from cancer.

xenascus , Antranias Report

Final score:

106points

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Sian Edwards 3 years ago

Which is hilarious because some minerals can cause cancer or are dangerously toxic. Asbestos and cinnabar, for example.

62points

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#21

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work in defense. No one there believes government creates jobs. We only get paid by government.

farmguy111 , Touch Of Light Report

Final score:

101points

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Colin Matthews 3 years ago

And by defence, we mean attack.just gotta push out the propaganda

27points

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#22

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I work with a cancer biologist who fell for the alkaline diet hype. She got persuaded by somebody who is 1000x less educated in the matter than she is.

Verologist , thesmartwatersolutions Follow Report

Final score:

94points

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Sue Hazlewood 3 years ago

Hadn't heard of this 'diet'

19points

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#23

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I’m an aircraft mechanic and I work with a guy who believes in chemtrails.

moubu89 , Adrian Pingstone Arpingstone Report

Final score:

91points

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Guido Pisano 3 years ago

well water IS chemical

29points

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#24

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My mom is a geologist and she worked with someone who was a young earth creationist. That person's excuse was "god created rocks that were 4.6 billion years old". I guess if it works it works, but that makes no sense to me

IWishIWasAGoomba , mdherren Report

Final score:

88points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

Hard to argue with a marshmallow

51points

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#25

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions One of my teachers (it wasn't a biology teacher) made me do a homework to prove that dinosaurs aren't mammals as, for him, mammals are animals with lungs.

Cocokill , Fausto García-Menéndez Report

Final score:

87points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

I’d send _him_ to the principal’s office

42points

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#26

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with a guy who’s previous job had been designing missile launch systems who also thought the earth was flat, I’m not entirely sure how he slept at night

punkerster101 , Official U.S. Navy Page Report

Final score:

81points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

But is there night?

32points

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#27

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked with someone who had a PhD in genetics but was young earth creationist. She couldn’t seem to comprehend phylogenetic diagrams, useless as supervisor to PhD students, seeing as she was incapable of discussing a number of highly relevant topics.

Practical-Purchase-9 , National Cancer Institute Report

Final score:

81points

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Samantha Lomb 3 years ago

Honestly, research, publication and supervisory skills are totally different anyway. I know a number of PhDs who were horrific supervisors. One actually got banned by the department from taking female grad students as she was horrifically emotionally abusive to them and they had to scramble to find new supervisors. No one would ever warn the incoming students though.

22points

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#28

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions My 4th grade science teacher and my 9th grade history teacher are moon landing deniers...

Alpha_Eagle222 , WikiImages Report

Final score:

80points

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Amelia Bedelia 3 years ago

If someone tells you they don't believe in the moon landing, just look them dead in the eye and say "you believe in the moon?!?!?"

30points

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#29

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I had to teach a historical geology class because the geologist who was supposed to teach is was a Young Earth Creationist.

MoniMoksith , Diego Delso Report

Final score:

74points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

Un-freakin-believable

19points

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#30

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I've met a PhD in Chemistry from a top 5 university that was anti-vax. Their PhD work actually involved the analysis of heavy metals in an environment and how it impacted a childs likelihood to develop autism. I got into it with them, and they were able to reference a handful of scholarly papers to justify their stance.

howmuchforthissquirr , RF._.studio Report

Final score:

63points

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Samantha Lomb 3 years ago

Honestly, having a PhD myself, its not about intelligence but more about the ability to complete tasks on time. A lot of really smart people never finish cause they are either perfectionists or terrible at time management. And A LOT of scholars cherry pick information to fit their points of view

62points

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#31

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I had an ancient civ professor tell us that we know that the Epic of Gilgamesh was true because the bible proved it.

My notes from my 1 day of class included a lot of [Citation Needed] tags. I dropped it shortly thereafter.

NerdCrush , mentatdgt Report

Final score:

21points

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Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

19points

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#32

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I still don't get how a school mate who was studying biology and science, and who won science fair prizes every year, is now an evangelical Christian, who says it all happens because God. I thought it went the other way, (the more you science the less religion), but she certainly went the other way.

LDan613 , Chokniti Khongchum Report

Final score:

17points

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Carol Emory 3 years ago

Never assume. I had a classmate that came into our entomology class and tried to get us to sign up for the Atheist Club. I told her, just because you believe in science doesn't mean you can't believe in God. The two are not mutually exclusive. Even Pope John Paul II admitted that science has proven that nature is responsible for creating the physical man, but no science, no matter how perfect, can explain when God put the soul in man....and he's right.

2points

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#33

30 People Share Stories About "Professionals" Who Had Some Controversial Opinions I worked as a lab assistant for a fundamental Baptist who graduated from Liberty University. Believes the earth is 6,000 years old. Was an x-ray crystallography lab so it not like he didn't believe in matter or something, but was still a creationist.

glivinglavin · , Jonathan Borba Report

Final score:

16points

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Samantha Lomb 3 years ago (edited)

Liberty is not an accredited university. Cannot believe an actual organization accepted his degree. That a Liberty grad believed all that bullshit is not surprising at all

17points

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What do you think ?

sofacushionfort 3 years ago (edited)

Steven Brandenburg was a licensed pharmacist by the state of Wisconsin who deliberately left 500 doses for the Moderna vaccine fall below temperature, which were then injected into hopeful patients ineffectively. The ignorant will only do evil if the enlightened allow them where only good is needed.

fuggnuggins 3 years ago

Nice bit of gossip. What's your point? While I'm here: you know the name of the inventor of mRNA? His name is Robert Malone: Spike protein is very dangerous, it's cytotoxic (Robert Malone, Steve Kirsch, Bret Weinstein) https://youtu.be/Du2wm5nhTXY ; Maybe it was the worst choice for the best reason.

0points

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Jan Jansen 3 years ago (edited)

The youtube show 'Today I Found Out' did an episode on the flat earth conspiracy and concluded with (roughtly) these words: "It's always imprtant to note that many of the core psychological quirks that make flat earthers believe the earth is flat in spite of all the evidence of the contrary, exist in all of us. We all have firmly held beliefs that simply arent true and are based on the same level of evidence. Yet we tenuously cling to them and no amount of evidence is going to convince us otherwise. But luckily for most of us the absurdity isn't quite so easy to spot, allowing us to feel superior to those with alternate ideas."

20points

Freya the Wanderer 3 years ago

Albert Einstein said that the two most common things in the Universe were hydrogen and stupidity. A lot of these dips have no business being in their professions!

Meike H 3 years ago

Very nice

Steve 3 years ago

Even so, those flat earthers are crazy! They completely ignore the existence of the 6th dimension - Nicholas Cage!

-1point

Jace 3 years ago

All of us? I highly doubt that. Most people? Sadly probable. This is why most people scare the s**t out of me. I feel like I’m the only sober person in a vehicle full of drunk people who won’t let me drive.

-2points

As a species, the human race is f****d.

15points

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30 People Share Stories About “Professionals” Who Had Some Controversial Opinions

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