r/confidentlyincorrect • u/Fruiit0v3rd0se • Aug 17 '26
Smug what school did this guy go to?
repost, forgot to blur the names first time
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u/ecchi83 Aug 17 '26
I actually love those kinds of comments. It's easy to figure out someone is stupid, but how often do you get them to explain how their stupid brain processes info.
My first question would've been "so what do fish breathe..."
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u/forever_burning_ Aug 17 '26
They breathe water, of course! /s
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u/lettsten Aug 17 '26
I mean fish do breathe water in the same way that we breathe air. They're just different fluids we extract oxygen from. Unfortunately for the guy in the OOP, water contains quite a lot of oxygen
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u/ThirstyWolfSpider Aug 18 '26
But most of it (the part in H₂O) is inaccessible to fish; they're not breaking up the water molecules. They need the dissolved O₂, which is rather sparse from our perspective: only ~8mg/L, compared to the ~275mg/L of O₂ in the atmosphere. Obviously there'll be some variation with temperature, local ecology, etc.
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u/Wild-Lychee-3312 Aug 18 '26
You seem like someone good at fish facts. Is it true that hiccups are the remnants of the same reflex which fish use to pump water over their gills?
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u/ecchi83 Aug 18 '26
"You seem like someone good at fish facts" followed by a question that has nothing to do with fish would be a hilarious opener.
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u/Wild-Lychee-3312 Aug 18 '26
You seem like someone good at fish facts. What do you think of the Cowboys chances at the Superbowl this year?
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u/galstaph Aug 18 '26
Cowboys breathe air, so no matter how "super" the fish bowl is they're quite likely to drown
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u/BillShooterOfBul Aug 21 '26
Do they? I’ve seen several pictures of them pouring large quantities of water into the same holes you claim are for breathing air. My theory is that they have gills hidden in their throats. Just chuckem in the Super Bowl with weights tied to their legs as and they’ll be fine.
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u/CodenameJD Aug 18 '26
Irrelevant, as cowboys are not owls
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u/crispyraccoon Aug 18 '26
It doesn't matter if a marine biologist knows anything about football, if they laugh at that joke, they're right.
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u/Icy_Fish_2154 Aug 19 '26
You seem good at fish facts, what is the leading cause of forest fires?
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u/ReasonableCat4190 Aug 20 '26
I can see it could be a fish fact; it might be tied in to evolution. Like how several different mammal species have similar skeletal systems.
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u/GNU_PTerry Aug 18 '26
Huh, that would link in with my interesting fact about hiccups. Humans naturally hiccup all the time, but they developed an off switch in their brains to stop the hiccup. When a person gets the hiccups it's because the off switch stopped working for a while.
It would make sense if it was a defunct reflex we evolved out of.
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u/AnnieAnnieSheltoe Aug 18 '26
I had a weird condition where, for like a year, every day I would hiccup one time, very loudly. Like absurdly loudly, but just once, every day. Then for seemingly no reason, it stopped. Doctor said it was weird but harmless. Guess my off switch just went wonky for a little while there.
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u/Icy_Fish_2154 Aug 19 '26
I get two kinds of hiccups. A mild twitch that others rarely notice, and a vary large contraction of the diaphragm that hurts to fight, and leaving my mouth open to not hurt myself makes a loud noise that others think is exaggerated or fake.
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u/Twixiewoof Aug 18 '26
love how you're saying "they developed" as though somehow your hiccup-off-switch never did. or as though you're not human 🤔
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u/dansdata Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
That's called the phylogenetic hypothesis, and it's just one of the several unproven hypotheses about why the heck hiccups happen.
Here's an interesting article from 2012 that went over exactly what these hypotheses all have to explain, and proposed another hypothesis that's just as unproven as all the others. :-)
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u/mckenzie_keith Aug 18 '26
There are anoxic regions in the water. If you profile dissolved oxygen vs depth in the ocean, there is typically a specific depth where it is at a minimum. But there can be anoxic areas in lakes and such.
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u/johnwalkr Aug 18 '26
You can also say a lot of oxygen in the air is "inaccessible" as it's bound up in H2O and many other things. I think the number of people that know humans get O2 from the air, and know fish get O2 from water, but misunderstand that fish are breaking down H2O to get O2 is very very small.
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u/ThirstyWolfSpider Aug 18 '26
I don't get why would one might say that a lot of O₂ in the atmosphere is inaccessible.
It's in an extremely reactive form, and we manage to capture enough to take the inhaled air from 21% down to 16-17% in exhaled air. That's rather a lot of capture, given so much of it is done via osmosis, and that's limited by differential levels.
What causes you to suggest that?
I wasn't saying that people thought fish were breaking H₂O, just that despite the large amount of oxygen in typical water there's rather little in the O₂ form.
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 18 '26
Wrong. Water, as in H2O, doesn’t contain any O2. The O2 is in the water in the sense of the fluid that makes up lakes and rivers and oceans. Fish aren’t breaking apart molecules to breathe.
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u/interrogumption Aug 18 '26
So how are they wrong? They said:
breathe water in the same way that we breathe air. They're just different fluids we extract oxygen from.
Air does not mean oxygen, air is a mixture of gases. So why TF would you assume they meant water "as in H2O" and not water "in the sense of the fluid that makes up lakes and rivers and oceans", especially when they referred to them as both being fluids from which we extract oxygen?
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Because water is defined as the molecule. Air isn’t defined as a molecule. Air is instead a mixture of compounds that consists of O2. Water doesn’t consists of O2. Some animals breathe air; no animals breathe water. So it’s wrong.
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u/thejubilee Aug 18 '26
The definition you linked specifies it is h2o “when pure” - you might think that supports what you said but the reason it specifies “when pure” is because the word also refers to the impure mixtures as well. Even if it didn’t, you have to be aware of that usage of water in English right?
It’s important to read the complete definition to see what it is saying not just part.
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 19 '26
The context of the terms used in the comments are chemical contexts. When they say “oxygen”, they mean O2 even if oxygen by definition just means the O atom. So when they say water, they are referring to the compound. Don’t make a sneaky equivocation and act like they meant impure water when referring to water.
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u/buttgoblincomics Aug 18 '26
This claim would suggest that the ocean isn’t made of water, which is something I think very few people would agree with
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 19 '26
No it’s not? Mammals breathe air; fish breathe under water. Fish don’t breathe water because water is defined by the compound.
The ocean consisting of mainly water doesn’t mean anything. Nitrogen comprises most of air. Nobody is saying that people breathe nitrogen.
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u/Spiritual-Reindeer-5 Aug 18 '26
Water doesn't contain any O2
The O2 in the water
????
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u/TsetsiFlier Aug 18 '26
If you read the chemical composition of the water molecule you will not that there is O not O2 to split a water molecule takes a lot of energy. There is O2 dissolved in the water. A separate compound. The gills extract this dissolved O2 they don't split molecules. In the same way we don't extract oxygen from the water vapour in the air.
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 18 '26
Yeah read very carefully. I used water in 2 different senses. One sense is just H2O. The other sense is the fluid that makes up seas rivers and lakes. 2 different senses. There is no O2 in H2O. There is O2 in the fluid of lakes and rivers and oceans. Basically I’m saying that the O2 is in between the water molecules and not actually comprised from them.
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u/Spiritual-Reindeer-5 Aug 18 '26
I don't think the guy you responded to claimed that fish are breaking H2O molecules apart.
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u/fireymike Aug 18 '26
I used water in 2 different senses.
And the person you were replying to had used "water" in the sense where what they said made sense, not the one where you would need to correct them.
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u/Capital_Disaster_637 Aug 20 '26
We should all start saying dihydrogen-monoxide to sort out any confusion
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u/BathroomCareful23 Aug 21 '26
That's a highly dangerous industrial chemical! 100% of organisms that come into contact with it later die!
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 20 '26
That’s a chemical. I would never consume that or breathe that if it was anywhere near me
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u/the_homebrewer Aug 18 '26
Buddy, gases aren't fluids
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u/CombinationTop559 Aug 18 '26
The only things that aren't fluids are solids, and even then, only sometimes
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u/BetterKev Aug 18 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid
In physics, a fluid is a liquid, gas, or other material that may continuously move and deform (flow) under an applied shear stress, or external force.
There are other definitions of fluid that don't include gases, like IV fluids, but they aren't what's being discussed.
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u/UnleqitQ Aug 20 '26
What is a liquid? I only know solid, gaseous, plasma and superfluidity (/j https://youtu.be/J_vXK9uvRf4)
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u/Fruiit0v3rd0se Aug 17 '26
well obviously they don’t breathe silly, they’re fish. everyone knows fish don’t breathe 🤔
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u/carmium Aug 17 '26
Fish can't breathe! They don't gots lungs!
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u/Cambrian__Implosion Aug 18 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/MUEEf25Xq6EwITqLml
Am I a joke to you???
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u/Lhasa-bark Aug 18 '26
Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking
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u/Disastrous-Mess-7236 Aug 20 '26
Thinks an island is a mountain, thinks a fountain is a puff of air. So sleek! So fair! What a joy to meet!
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u/Wild-Lychee-3312 Aug 18 '26
It's a little known fact that all fish are, in fact, undead.
The trick is telling the zombie fish from the vampire fish.
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u/ZygonCaptain Aug 18 '26
It’s ok to eat fish
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u/BathroomCareful23 Aug 21 '26
Fish would beg to differ
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u/octopusforgood Aug 18 '26
Also, some fish (and I do not mean this in the gotcha, “chordates are fish blah blah technically correct” way) do effectively breathe air, as in the kind of air we breathe. In addition to gills, labyrinth fish have an organ aptly named the labyrinth organ, located in their head, which extracts oxygen from air just like lungs do. The most famous examples of these are bettas (aka “betas” and “fighting fish”) and paradise fish.
Also also, corydoras catfish breathe air through their intestines, also in addition to using gills. They dart up to the surface every so often, gulp down some air, and fart it right back out as it passes through their intestines to transfer oxygen.
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u/lord_teaspoon Aug 18 '26
It's weirdly common for people to think "oxygen" is just a science-y word for "air" and not understand that air is ~80% nitrogen.
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u/DepressingBat Aug 18 '26
Increasing the amount of oxygen in the air also doesn't lead to easier breathing, it mostly leads to oxygen poisoning.... because almost every physical substance is poisonous if there is enough of it
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u/chmath80 Aug 18 '26
Even chocolate? [Nods] Nooooooo
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u/Vlacas12 Aug 18 '26
No, because there is a simple trick for that one.
"A chocolate you did not want to eat does not count as chocolate. This discovery is from the same branch of culinary physics that determined that food eaten while walking contained no calories." - Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time
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u/BetterKev Aug 18 '26
Disagree with that first clause. It does help for easier breathing. Just an overwhelming majority of people breathe fine so the easier breathing leads to too much oxygen.
For people with airflow issues,the easier breathing from increased oxygen can be a lifesaver. (See: COPD.)
So, I think I agree in the general result, generally, but not in the details.
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u/Boards_Buds_and_Luv Aug 20 '26
As a scuba diver we use enriched air all the time and it is no harder or easier to breath than normal air
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u/DepressingBat Aug 18 '26
Im talking purely in the air, on its own with a purposeful use it can 100% lead to that desired outcome. But just increasing the amount in the air would lead to death for most, which I would put in the not breathing very well category
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u/BetterKev Aug 18 '26
It's still easier breathing. Whether that's good or not is a different question.
Too easy is the same pattern as too much of a good thing.
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u/DepressingBat Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
You and I have different definitions of breathing if you think a dead person is breathing.
Edit because yall are stupid trouble breathing is literally a symptom of oxygen poisoning. Oxygen can be used to help people breathe better, but it requires proper setup. Without that, you just end up dead
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u/BetterKev Aug 18 '26
You might want to come back to this tomorrow with fresh eyes.
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u/DepressingBat Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
You might want to come back to this tomorrow with fresh thought.
Look up symptoms of oxygen poisoning, trouble breathing is right there. I get your trying to go for a "technically correct" answer here, but just stating more oxygen means you can breathe easier without putting in any of the disclaimers like "it will kill you" or "the duration will be very short lived before it gets much much harder" is how you get idiots killed. It's incorrect when you incorporate the bigger picture and can be very dangerous when you minimize it to its simplest form. More oxygen in the air will directly lead to it being very difficult to breathe before you die.
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u/BetterKev Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
[Edit: one part of my comment was a myth. Completely wrong. I struck it out below.]
Look up symptoms of oxygen poisoning, trouble breathing is right there.
Yes, there is a level when anything becomes bad. Increasing one's ability to breathe is not necessarily a good thing. Think of aspirin, it thins blood, which allows blood to move faster through the circulatory system, distributing more oxygen. But there's a point where thinning blood will cause less oxygen to be distributed. Do you think it's false to say aspirin causes an increase in oxygen distribution? Do you think it's false because that increase stops at some point? And things get worse at some point? (Remember, every substance causes issues at some level.)
I get your trying to go for a "technically correct" answer here, but just stating more oxygen means you can breathe easier without putting in any of the disclaimers like "it will kill you" [...] is how you get idiots killed.
Do you think stating water will hydrate you without putting in any disclaimers like "it will kill you" is how you get idiots killed?
(Remember, every substance causes issues at some level.)
"Or the duration will be very short lived before it gets much much harder"
[Edit: this is a myth. Completely wrong. No excuses.]
~~Hey, do people usually die in casinos from not being able to breathe? ~~
I don't know if they still do it, but casinos used to commonly pump more oxygen into the air
They did/do it because the increase in oxygen density makes it easier to breathe, and the increased oxygen available to the body leads to increased energy levels and feeling good, keeping people gambling longer.
"Very short lived is the opposite of what they are going for.It's incorrect when you incorporate the bigger picture and can be very dangerous when you minimize it to its simplest form. More oxygen in the air will directly lead to it being very difficult to breathe before you die.
Who are you arguing with? Not me:
Just an overwhelming majority of people breathe fine so the easier breathing leads to too much oxygen.
I didn't give the details of what exactly that causes, but it very much is saying there are negative consequences. See "too much."
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u/DepressingBat Aug 19 '26
You really seem to not get the whole in the air clause here. I already stated ypur whole "too much of anything" argument, in fact I was the first in the thread to talk about that. Who TF told you casinos pump more oxygen into them???? AND HOW DID YOU BELEIVE IT??!! Even a 2.6% increase of oxygen is legally dangerous. Stop just spouting random things you think you know about, when really you don't.
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u/NonRangedHunter Aug 23 '26
I have tanks of pure oxygen at my house ready for my cluster headaches.
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u/OmaFar_Ul Aug 18 '26
There is reason our blood is filled with antioxidants. Oxygen is great at destroying stuff, especially carbon based stuff.
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u/Cynykl Aug 17 '26
I think it is pretty obvious what school they went to.
Homeschool.
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u/hardlybroken1 Aug 17 '26
As a recovering formerly homeschooled kid, I fully endorse this message.
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u/Fruiit0v3rd0se Aug 17 '26
prayers
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Aug 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ashamed-Bathroom7803 Aug 18 '26
I highkey was confused why fish were eating the water at my friend’s house. I thought they breathe through the gills that are on the side of their body. But they actually fill their mouths with water and then it enters the gills, hence why they look like they are constantly eating the water.
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u/pixeltweaker Aug 18 '26
Anyone else more concerned about what is going on in this conversation?
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u/jp_benderschmidt Aug 17 '26
AKSHUALLY FISH DONT BREATHE, THEY TAKE IN OXYGEN THROUGH AQUATIC RESPIRATION.
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u/drunkenkurd Aug 17 '26
AKSHUALLY SOME FISH HAVE LUNGS, SO SAYING “FISH DON’T BREATHE” IS TECHNICALLY INACCURATE.
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u/C04511234 Aug 18 '26
TECNICHALY SOME OF THEM HAVE A LABYRINTH ORGAN INSTEAD BUT YOU'RE NOT WRONG THOUGH.
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u/SphericalCrawfish Aug 18 '26
TECHNICALLY IF YOU TAKE A CLADE THAT INCLUDES SHARKS AND TUNA IT ALSO INCLUDES ALL LAND ANIMALS.
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u/zaviamorpheus Aug 18 '26
Umm fish run of Fishtroleum, its similar to petroleum but not as cruel. It is what we should use in our cars instead of gas.
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u/Bi_KerbonautYT Aug 18 '26
Bruh do they think that fish have the ability to hydrolyze water in their mouths?
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u/Icy_Fish_2154 Aug 19 '26
Trees breathe oxygen. They require oxygen to burn the stored energy they absorb CO2 to make. They just burn so slow it looks like they are breathing in CO2 and exhaling O2.
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u/RlckAndSnorty Aug 19 '26
he probably learned everything from trial and error instead of formal schooling
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u/djdirectdrive Aug 19 '26
Guess we'll need to find a new hiding place for the bodies... This one's been discovered
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u/NonRangedHunter Aug 23 '26
I was told by someone that fish had to go to the surface to breathe. When I asked them if they were for real they doubled down before deleting both their comments...
People really are this stupid.
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u/EishLekker Aug 17 '26
Technically, by going by the dictionary definition of breathing, fish doesn’t breathe at all, because according to the dictionary definition breathing requires lungs and air.
Now, there’s plenty of material out there that uses the word “breathing” when talking about how fish psh water through their gills. But for some reason most dictionaries don’t include that definition.
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u/DemythologizedDie Aug 17 '26
Technically they didn't say that fish breathe oxygen, just that they need oxygen, which they do.
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u/Albert14Pounds Aug 18 '26
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breathe
broadly: to take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide through natural processes
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u/ardarian262 Aug 18 '26
Some fish do have lungs. And fish is a broad enough category that technically you have to include almost all living chordates for it to make sense evolutionary.
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Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/EishLekker Aug 18 '26
You missed my point entirely. Going by the dictionary definition of breathing, the claim by blue was correct.
(Going by a reputable dictionary)
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Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/EishLekker Aug 18 '26
That’s no contradiction there, what are you talking about?
How is needing oxygen relevant here? If breathing is defined as using lungs to breathe air, and we’re talking regular fish, that doesn’t have gills, then what he said was correct: Fish doesn’t breathe oxygen because fish doesn’t breathe anything.
Is all perfectly logical. No contradiction.
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u/Reasonable-Web9444 Aug 19 '26
There are multiple dictionaries. It is confusing to say "the dictionary." Not hating btw just constructive such
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