With all the hate and anger brewing in our world today, it's easy for people to slip from logic and become out of touch with reality. Naturally, these people have a difficult time justifying their decisions because they themselves don't know how to distinguish between what's sensical and what's nonsensical. Here are the most severe cases of someone being out of touch with reality, according to people online:
#1 Sunday Service
The pastor of a small-town church insisted that members set up the parish hall and provide food and beverages for 125 people after every Sunday service, even though the average attendance was only around 20 people. Week after week, month after month, much food would be disposed of and large urns of coffee dumped down the sink—and all because the pastor was in denial about the reality of weekly attendance.
#2 Mistaken Intentions
I will never forget the man, a wheelchair user with no feet and no prosthetics, who angrily told me to go down the stairs if I didn’t want to wait for the elevator (I had been talking to my friend, and mentioned we were going to be a little late because of the huge line). I made the comment to my friend simply to inform her we were late for work. I wasn’t passive-aggressively trying to guilt people, I don’t think I should get to cut in line or whatever. The tone I used was more “Eh, we are running late but what can you do?” Before the guy interrupted I was about to tell my friend I wouldn’t mind if she went on ahead. Just some context.
#3 No Coming Back
Parents of a 35-year-old woman, who was hospitalized after suffering severe anoxic brain damage 20 years ago. She had been in the same ward since, barely conscious. They refused to get her transferred to a more suitable facility for 20 years, saying that there was no reason to do so. Apparently, to them, those facilities are for "lost causes," and their daughter was going to make a full recovery, finish school, get married, and be totally fine. Working in hospitals got me quite a collection of these stories, but this one I thought was one of the saddest ones.
#4 I Miss You, Dad
My parents were both in a very bad car accident (head-on collision) about four years ago. Luckily, my mother was able to make a full recovery. My father, on the other hand, got a severe injury to the brain. As much as I don’t want it to be true, I don’t think he’s ever going to come back. My mom every day since says he is going to be back with us and we are all going to be happy. I miss you, dad.
#5 About The Swiss
In college, I had a roommate from the most sheltered part of Long Island. We met an exchange student from Switzerland and I swear to God she said this in complete seriousness: "Oh wow, I didn't know people actually lived in Switzerland, I thought there were just banks there!" I think some people need to invest in flight tickets; or better yet, encyclopedias.
#6 Money, Money, Money
This was from a regional manager of Starbucks after they removed merit-based raises that could go up to a 5% increase. At the end of it all, they were changed to a flat 2% increase. When she asked if people liked the new raise plan, I said no and that they were unmotivated with no reason to perform any better than just normal. The regional manager then said: “Your staff needs to realize that working isn’t about money.”
#7 Financial Illiteracy
My cousin was spoiled and sheltered her entire childhood through college. Then her parents stupidly cut the leash without any preparation and released her into society. She quickly got in trouble for bouncing checks all over town. My mom picked her up and asked why the heck she was writing bad checks everywhere. Turns out, my cousin was under the impression that as long as you had checks in your checkbook, you had money in your account. She didn’t understand that you deposit in a number and then can spend or withdraw up to that amount. Please teach your kids basic finance. Note: this was like 1996 before it turns into a “who writes a check anymore” discussion.
#8 Time Is Money
There is a girl at my work that always complains about not making enough because she makes only $200 to $300 a paycheck. She is always the first to leave early and shows up late the next day, or sometimes she just has other people take her shifts. She asked me how I make $600 to $800 a paycheck. I said because I work more. I’m currently at work taking over HER shift. She doesn’t realize if you don’t work more you’ll be paid less.
#9 Zero Self-Awareness
I was supposed to get a promotion at my job, but at the last minute, they hired another guy who had previously worked there and quit due to not making enough money. He came back and got the salary that I was promised, then he would constantly complain to me about how he was so broke (because of his drinking problem) while I was trying to survive on $50 a week. Zero self-awareness.
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#10 Spoiled Sister
My sister. She grew up with everything handed to her and literally cried when her first car wasn't the color she wanted. She also married rich. She can't fathom why I can't take off work whenever it suits me and says stuff like: "I wouldn't ask my boss for a week off, I would tell him I am taking the week off."
#11 Out Of This World
I work with a girl who is a flat earther and, on top of that, also denies the existence of space. When the topic came up and I disagreed, she asked if I had ever been there... obviously, I haven't. I told her I have also never been to Japan and that does not mean it doesn't exist. She complained to management about my intolerance of her beliefs.
#12 Shopping Trip
My old boss at the time was a girl of 26 who got four million dollars from her mom a year to play with. Her mom is very wealthy in China. Her daughter is here trying to be the CEO of a company for fun. I accidentally got a job at that "company." One day, she told us we were all going on a group outing for bonding. She took us to an outlet mall four hours away, then said she was going to go shop and she'd see us later.
That was code for "Don't follow me." Every two hours, she'd let us know she was going to go unload her bags to the giant van they rented and would group text us where we could meet her there to unload as well. We all got paid under $50k. We had nothing to unload. By lunch, she had proceeded to fill up the van with stuff. She then asked me where all my new stuff was and I said, "I'm budgeting right now." She then said: "Take out a credit card and go shop! That's the American way!" Seriously? Okay.
By 9 p.m., her bags were taking up people's seats and they had to sit with her stuff. She spent $30k. The rest of us spent about $70. We were tired and bored and cold. To this day, I still believe she thinks she did something nice for us and doesn't understand how polarizing and not-at-all team bonding that was.
#13 Upper Management
After a certain income, people just lose their minds about normal human interaction and expectations. My old team had to attend this "mandatory department meeting" once. It was three hours long and consisted of the upper management talking about how AWESOME it was when they were all flown to Hawaii to stay at the company owner’s private resort. And then how AWESOME it was to be flown to Alaska to ice fish at the company owner’s private reserve. One guy even came back with $2,000 worth of vacuum-sealed salmon. Great times, huh?
Nobody cared that my department wasn’t involved in sales in any way, that we were actively screwing the rest of the national departments by being dragged off the phones for THREE HOURS, and that all of us made just over minimum wage. When we complained to our supervisor, the upper management told him we were “ungrateful” for the “opportunity to be inspired and uplifted by the possibilities in the company.”
#14 A Sheltered Life
“My parents paid for half the down payment on my house. They paid for our landscaper, housecleaner, child daycare, car insurance and gave my wife and me a monthly allowance. We’re completely self-sufficient human beings who even try and give other friends financial advice...” Obviously written in the voice of someone I know.
#15 C-List Romance
I had a friend who insisted she was in a relationship with a C-list celebrity whom she met once during a comic convention. All of the celebrity’s Instagram and Twitter posts were for her and everything had a meaning behind it. When the celebrity got married, she said that it was just for the media so she and the celebrity could live a quiet life. When he didn’t do anything for her birthday, she had a breakdown. She went to therapy not long after.
#16 Unhinged Fantasy
My sister-in-law. She got kicked out by her boyfriend, then came to stay with us for a few days. We suggested looking for a flat or cheap house to rent near us. She wouldn’t live in the scummy part of town nearby, she wanted a three-bedroom house with a garden in the best part of town. She had no savings and wasn’t sure if she even had a job still. When I suggested maybe she couldn’t afford $500k on a family home on her salary, she suggested she’d “just get a council house,” disregarding the huge waiting list and the fact that most council properties are in the ghetto parts of town! This is just the crust of a deep layer of the unhinged fantasy world that she lives in.
#17 Married Money
My brother on his own (let's just take his rich fiance out of the equation) can't afford to even live where he currently rents cause he's on minimum wage. I worked my butt off to buy my house on my own after working multiple jobs and saving up. He called my new area a garbage dump in front of my entire family, when in reality if he was dumped by his fiance, he wouldn't even be able to afford a bedsit.
Biggest snob. My dad gave him a super expensive award-winning bottle of wine and he texted him saying it "tasted freaking awful." My brother is in tons of debt but because his fiancé's family is wealthy, he acts like he's part of the elite and looks down on where I live, which is a lovely affordable working-class town, by the way.
#18 The Delusional Neighbor
My parents' neighbor thought that her garden was too small for her sons to play in. So when she met my parents for the first time, the first thing she actually said was: "Can you give me some of your garden space so my sons have more area to play in?" Thankfully, my parents just said no. For context, they live in a very expensive neighborhood where houses cost on average from $750,000 to $1 million. The gardens in that neighborhood are a lot bigger on average than the majority of gardens in the UK. I've never heard a story of somebody being as painfully out of touch as that woman.
#19 A Border Issue
I'm Russian. I was traveling to Belarus several years ago. While we have open borders, you still need to show the border guards your passport. They tried to claim that my passport is invalid because my signature was made in blue ink, while the official standard requires black ink, and that they could not let me in unless they confirmed it somehow or unless I could prove validity. After an hour of talking to them, they told me I need some solid confirmation that it's indeed my passport and I am who I claim to be.
I said sure, let me call the Russian Embassy (my passport was issued by an embassy was in a different country). After I started searching for the phone number, they suddenly told me it was not necessary and they "trust me" to let me through. I told this to other people as a funny anecdote, they told me "they just wanted a bribe..." I guess I was the one out of touch with reality though that I didn't even get the hint.
#20 Holistic Methods
My sister brings religion into EVERYTHING. She thinks that you can survive on oxygen and sunlight alone and NOTHING else. She tried this while pregnant (in her early stages) and miscarried. When she was admitted, they said she was so horribly dehydrated and malnourished that they were 100% sure it was what caused the miscarriage. To this day, she defends her actions...
#21 No Consideration
I used to work at a software company in downtown Boston. One of the best perks of the job at the time was the flexibility in hours. Many folks had regular work-from-home days. For myself, I knew I could drop my kids off at school, get into the office by 9:30 and my boss had no issue with it whatsoever. Others with kids had similar arrive-late or leave-early schedules depending on their childcare.
After a few years, a new CEO comes in, spends a month observing how the office works, then calls for a company-wide meeting. During the meeting, she tells everyone she believes having a full office 8 to 5 is the most productive environment, and at the start of the next month, all work-from-home was canceled. She wanted everyone in the office during those set hours. No showing up late or leaving early.
A lively debate ensued, with discussions of there being a little warning, to pleas of flexibility, to concerns of making necessary childcare arrangements—especially given that in many cases (i.e. schools) we couldn't adjust those times. Plus, commuting into Boston sucks. After listening to all of these arguments, she finally responded with a long speech of appreciating the sacrifices everyone has to make to better the company, everyone doing their part, blah blah blah. She ended it by saying, "I understand where you're all coming from! Years ago when my kids were little, my husband and I had to hire three nannies to cover all of the times we had to work!"
I remember we all looked around at each other, speechless. It was also the moment I realized I would have to start looking for another job. When the millionaire CEO thinks hiring three nannies is a relatable example to her middle-class employees, it's pretty clear she's not going to change her mind.
#22 Fancy Jeans
I once had a boss tell a personal anecdote about accidentally buying a $1,200 pair of designer jeans. Until he saw the receipt, he tells us, chuckling, he’d been thinking the jeans would only cost half that amount. He paused for nods and laughter. We underpaid overworked schlubs just tried to awkwardly look somewhere else.
#23 Warped Reality
I worked on shifts with a guy for years who thought every single person was out to get him. I’ve never met anyone who had such a warped sense of reality. He would joke on with someone, then go away for the weekend and stew on one particular thing, then come in on Monday absolutely raging and overtaking something the completely wrong way.
I’ve seen him attack two people and I also heard about a third. Thing is, he’s so dopey, everyone thinks he’s harmless and “that’s just the way he is.” A guy I trained as an apprentice has just started on shifts with him. HE doesn’t take anyone being a jerk well at all. I think they’ll do well together.
#24 Up And Down
My grandfather. He would be fine with friends or family members, then go away and absolutely lose it over perceived slights that he'd obviously concocted in his mind. When he'd see them again, he'd be upset and angry and they'd have NO idea what they'd done. We did find out he had a few undiagnosed mental illnesses and we're fairly certain he had a borderline personality disorder.
#25 Filthy Rich Kids
I went to a private international school in London as a teenager. Most kids there had parents working good jobs but in-between them were some filthy rich kids with parents in the oil industry or something similar. In eighth grade, we were talking about our Easter break and my friend from Belgium was talking about how his family had decided last minute to go there over the break but had decided to drive there because there were no flights available. Then this Russian billionaire classmate of mine asked him, "Why don't you take a private jet?" She was so clueless when we started laughing.
#26 That's Overboard
International schools are prime hunting grounds for out of touch people. A friend of my mom was a school counselor at an international school in Indonesia. They were organizing a school trip for the 13-year-olds. It was a top dollar school, so they got a top dollar trip at a fancy hotel. One of the parents came in and asked her about the toilet situation. She replied saying each room had an en-suite so the kids will be fine. The mother then replied, “But who will wipe his bottom?” Turns out, this kid had a maid who slept at the end of his bed at night and would wipe his privileged arse for him.
Pxfuel
#27 Lack Of Etiquette
I went to boarding school. My friend got a roommate who was from a very wealthy Russian family. The first day we were there that year, the Russian girl asked my friend why my friend hadn’t made her bed yet... as if her roommate was just supposed to make her bed for her. We realized she’d never made a bed before. Lots of those girls had never washed their own dishes; they just put their dirty plates and cutlery in their trash. We had to have a whole little training session on how to make a bed and wash a dish.
#28 Movie Star Fantasy
A woman I knew a few years ago. She had a job. She was convinced she was supposed to be a movie star. She never did any acting, though. She also told me about the married man that she had slept with: “He loves me, but he can’t leave his wife.“ She actually did stop having relations with him, but they still hung out. He was definitely not in love with her.
#29 Actor Ambitions
My cousin would often proclaim his desire to be an actor. He went to college to study drama and did a couple of shows (which I went to see, he was pretty good, had a knack for the comedy), but then when college ended he didn't do anything. He would moan about his father, my uncle, not approving and holding him back, which wasn't completely true. My uncle was pretty blunt about asking, "Why acting?" and didn't want him to study it at college, but he also went to his shows and suggested he join a local acting group. My cousin was determined to be a victim and eventually declared that being an actor was 'impossible' unless you were 'connected.' It seems to me that he was more interested in being a struggling actor than actually acting.
#30 Pokemon Rarity
I knew someone who unironically tried to convince me that Pokemon is not only demonic, but they also exist in real life and there are reported cases of then attacking and harming people. Pokemon cards were a rarity because all the parents that found any would burn them, we had like a black market for them at school. I traded half my collection for a Pikachu from the' 90s written in Japanese. Now, a foreign card was a once in a lifetime find, let alone one from the '90s, so I guarded that thing with my life. I still have it even though its a little beat up.
#31 Religiously Warped
An ex of mine became really religious, though I'd still talk to her sometimes. Somehow, the topic of flat earth theories came up and she said she thinks it's actually possible that it could be true. I tried to explain that we have more than enough images and data indicating that the earth is round, and she said it could all be planted there by a demon. You just can't come up with a response to that.
#32 "Business" Advice
My sister-in-law legit believes she’s a strong, independent businesswoman who owns three major businesses. She does three MLM gigs. The irritating thing is that I actually do have a brick and mortar business that I’ve been running for five years now and she’s always giving me “business" advice while pushing me to join her for these amazing opportunities. It’s so stereotypically obnoxious... “HON, I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND THE GRIND!!!” Yeah, I bet you do. All said while wearing brightly horrendous outfits, caked-on makeup, and smelling like decaying frankincense.
#33 Fraudulent Activity
My "friend" stole my card information and bought loads of expensive stuff. I asked her if it was her before reporting it, knowing that a) she was going through a tough time and I wanted to give her a chance to make it right, and b) that I could be in trouble for conspiracy to fraud if I reported it and they believed I'd got stuff delivered to my friend to claim fraud for the money back. She said no, she thought someone else had done it so I reported it. When she got arrested, she said she didn't think "they'd take the fraud thing so far." She thought you could just call up banks to get the money back and they wouldn't investigate.
Pxfuel
#34 Mental Issues
My friend suffered a psychotic break when we were teenagers. He’d been not eating or sleeping, and I think he had some underlying mental health issues anyway but that routine just sent him over the edge. Before his parents had him admitted to hospital, he came and met us before we were going out to a gig. He was wearing a pink silk pajama shirt and jogging bottoms, simply looking very unwell. He was rambling on about the discoveries he was making and that he was going to meet some scientists in America. Then he laid on the pavement in the middle of the street and told us we all had to lie down to conserve the Earth's energy. That was about 15 years ago, he runs a successful business now.
#35 All Booked Up
I was a stable hand of a very upper tier barn in a wealthy part of the country. The staff has to sign non-disclosure agreements to protect clients. On one particularly scorching July day, I overheard a client venting to another about how she was "incredibly stressed" and "going to have a mental breakdown" because her first choice catering company was all booked up for the weekend of her last-minute yacht party. I'm paycheck to paycheck and had probably a total of three days off since Christmas. I would love for a yacht party to be my basis for a mental breakdown. Needless to say, the staff had a healthy chuckle on that one.
#36 The Audacity
A marketing manager I once worked under. One of her multi-million dollar houses was in Nantucket and that’s where she was one summer when we had a nasty storm. She complained to me over the phone that she was so stressed. I asked why and her one example was that she had to load her own dishwasher after a party she’d had prior to the storm because the weather was too bad for her maids to come in.
#37 Delusional Love
A streamer that I watched a couple of times was out of touch. It was a shame because when he was actually gaming, I liked the content, but his attitude drove you up the wall (and by that I mean raging—back when I watched him, the rest of the events in this post hadn't happened yet). But the out of touch with reality part—he talked about his girlfriend on stream a few times. Nothing wrong with that, except she was a female streamer who lived in Europe. He was from the States and he'd never actually met her in his life.
She got wind of this through shared viewers and debunked the story on her stream, saying she'd never even interacted with him. This caused him to go nuts and start stalking the girl wherever he could, causing her to eventually stop streaming, delete all her social media, and so on. After his Twitch account was banned for this, he eventually managed to convince Twitch to un-ban him and then did the same thing to a different girl. Now he's been permanently banned from Twitch as a result of this—again—and keeps raving about it on Twitter.
#38 The Habitual Liar
My father. He is a habitual liar. I somehow think he believes his own lies. Over the past couple of years, I've noticed he doesn't actually have anything new to say. He sort of regurgitates sentences in slightly different ways. It's caused his business to fail. He lied to everyone that was employed there saying he had to liquidate the company, going so far as to tell people he met with lawyers and the process has been started.
I did some digging and found out there were no lawyers or liquidation. He just tried to duck the system. I have no contact with him but my brother says he is still trying to use the same tactics. I just feel he believes everything. Sort of like living in his own head. Very sad that he damaged lives in the process.
#39 Regional Power
My boss's wife. She grew up in a wealthy family and married a man who was third-generation owning the company he was in. They were a regional power, etc. She was talking to staff that in general made $36K a year, mumbling about a staffer who was on his honeymoon. "Tennessee?! HA! Tennessee?!" She looked around the room for everyone to join in. "My GOD! How did she agree to that? We did Hawaii and that was the least I told him was acceptable."
#40 Out Of His League
I had a fat, ugly, unemployed friend who believed he deserved a perfect 10 girlfriend. He only asked out women that were WAYYYYYY out of his league. It was so cringeworthy. He truly had no self-awareness. In the club, he would walk up to supermodel types and ask them out, then come back angry when he was (always) shot down. He eventually moved to Brazil because he was convinced American women were too smug to appreciate his excellence. That's when he went full-out crazy. He wasn’t just playing any “confidence is sexy” game or anything. He 100% believed in this. He saw himself as a god.
#41 Missing Shots
Some people miss 100% of the shots they do take. I went to college with a guy like this. There was also this hot rich girl that he had a HUGE crush on. His plan was to ask her out, which was a sure thing in his mind. Take her to a lake, pour a bunch of gasoline in the water, then just talk while the lake burns. She declined him before he even had a chance to go through with his plan.
#42 Mirror, Mirror
My stepfather's grandpa suffered from psychosis in a strange way. He wasn’t able to distinguish mirror reflections from real life. He would often be found talking to the mirrors (his reflection) for hours. Later on, he wasn’t allowed to have any mirrors because he would believe that “that man” was there to kill him and he often would turn violent... turn violent as in he would start punching and clawing against the mirrors.
#43 The Creep Next Door
I had a neighbor once that was convinced I was flirting with him and wanted to be with him. He got all of this from the one-word verbal exchange we would have while getting our mail, which was basically saying “Hi.” Keep in mind that at the time I was a minor in high school and he was probably well into his twenties. He proceeded to harass and stalk me. It did not help that we lived in the same building. I got so scared that I could no longer go outside for a run like I usually did. I filed a police report and his family asked mine to please forgive his son. This completely freaked me out and my family decided to move.
#44 Dealing With Alzheimer's
At the risk of giving an answer that's too "real," my grandmother with Alzheimer's. We're in the stages now where it's basically a given than she's not aware of what's going on. She'll ask about people who aren't there, reference things that didn't happen or get fussy because she's late for something that occurred years ago. Don't get me wrong—it's hard, but it's nowhere near as hard as it was a few years back.
Now, it's easier to deal with entirely because it's easier to disregard what she's saying and we're all better practiced at it. A few years ago, when she didn't remember my name for the first time or when she remembered that she should recognize me but was lucid enough to try and hide the fact she didn't recognize me—that was difficult. So now, it's safe to say that she's not terribly in touch with our modern settings, but she's still very friendly and I feel like I have a duty to make sure she's not lonely or scared.
#45 Going Away
My grandma forgot that the house she was living in was hers. Every time I spoke to her, she'd ask when we were gonna take her home. Now, disagreeing with her would only upset her, so I would ask, "Where do you live?" and she'd give me the address of the house we were sitting in! So I'd say "Grandma, that's this place," and she'd say, "Oh." Those "ohs" broke my heart every time because she was trying so hard to figure out where she was and why it seemed so strange! She'd been smart and funny her whole life and she couldn't understand why she was losing it. It was a strange sort of blessing that she died of a medication complication before she had to go fully nonverbal and bedridden.
#46 Spying Around
I dated this girl who believed her roommates were spying on her. Every time they had friends over and were hanging out in the common space, it was because they were spying on her in her room. She also believed the government was spying on her and her parents directly. Us dating lasted about a week and ended not just because of the red flags, but because she tried to drop by unannounced after only being on a couple of dates.
#47 The 5G Conspiracy
This 5G thing is something I just can't wrap my head around. Never mind how or why. But if there was a secret conspiracy, why would the governments go through all that effort and cost, exposing their plan to the public, when they already control the water supply? I mean wouldn't that be a much simpler vector to infect your own population? I can't even.
#48 Blaming Bill
I have a coworker who thinks Bill Gates is funding the “G5” towers that caused the “man-made” illness so he can get people sick and then build a bunch of hospitals which he would then use to vaccinate everyone with nanobots that will track people and sterilize the poor people. She basically combined all the virus conspiracies all into one. She’s also super into gemstones and crystal energy.
#49 What Do You Expect?
My cousin's wife got very sick while we were at a wedding in Mexico because she drank NO WATER. Only mixed beverages. She said, "There were ice chips in my drinks, so I thought it was enough." Anyway, she complained because at the hospital some of the staff didn't speak English. YOU'RE IN A SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY!!!!!
#50 The Ignorance
I’m half Native American, of the Northern Paiute and Washoe Tribes, and whenever I meet new people, they always ask what ethnicity I am as I look very ambiguous, and when I say native, sometimes they say, “Oh wow I didn’t know Native Americans still existed!” Kind of sad. Also, back in middle school, we were learning U.S history, and the topic of native Americans came up. This kid goes, "There are Indians left? I thought we killed them all..." The teacher was silent for a good 45 seconds, just staring.
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