5

Appalachia Is Not The Murderous Yokel Capital Of The World

Appalachia is an American cultural region that stretches from the southern end of New York down through northern Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. According to Hollywood, it's exclusively populated by poverty-stricken hill folk whose main hobbies are inbreeding, hunting humans for sport and/or meat, then making you squeal like a pig. While Deliverance is the most famous example of this regional stigma, it also shows up in Hunter's Blood, Wrong Turn 1 through ... 6? (Wow, they kept it going that long? You'd think at least one of those turns would've been right.)

Say, how many people live in Appalachia anyway? Ten, twenty thousand? Can't be more than 50,000 inbred bumpkins ... right? A 2011 census puts the population at over 25 million hillbilly souls, approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population. Oh, and about 1,000,000 of them are Hispanic/Latino. So yes, there are almost certainly more than seven last names in Appalachia.

Now, it is true that the Appalachian region has seen an increase in violence and property crimes over the years, but even so, those rates are still well below the national average. What Hollywood has gotten right: the poverty. While around 21 percent of Appalachian dwellers have bachelor's or master's degrees, education and job training in the area is still directed towards failing industries, like logging or coal mining. Google and other companies have been trying to bring tech jobs to the region, but the progress there has been slow. Not because of mountain cannibals, but because infrastructure is tough to build. The hillfolk's struggle to run fiber optics through their rusty fucksheds in order to bring tech jobs to Pig Knuckle, Alabama makes for a less dramatic movie, though.

4

The Kremlin Isn't Some Disney Church

The Kremlin, as seen in everything from establishing shots of network spy shows to the cover of a recent Time magazine, is the seat of Russian government, and looks like a supervillain palace designed by the inventor of those nesting dolls.

A. Savin/Wikimedia Commons

3

The Leaning Tower Of Pisa Is Empty Inside

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built with too shallow a foundation, which caused it to, well... lean. For hundreds of years, architects tried to hide that fact, by adding columns that were taller on one side than the other. This went on for nearly 200 years, and only stopped when the problem became too obvious to cover up. So they ditched it. Yes, while the Leaning Tower of Pisa may look classy and beautiful on the outside, it's totally empty on the inside:

CAHKT/iStock

2

Slovakia Is Not Some Gloomy, Murder-Warehouse Wasteland

Slovakia gets a bad rep in movies. According to films like EuroTrip, Slovakia is a poor, ugly, post-Soviet reenactment of Hell where a nickel is enough to buy an entire hotel... but not hope. The Hostel franchise thinks Slovakia's primary industry is renting out dilapidated warehouses so rich businessmen can torture innocent people to death.

Let's look at the facts: Slovakia has a national GDP per capita of $31,200. Now, the U.S. has a per capita GDP of $57,300, but let's not forget that Slovakia is barely the size of a Texas Walmart. So while Slovaks make less money than Americans, they use it more wisely, with only 12 percent of the population living below the poverty line, compared to America's 15 percent. Slovakia is also one of the top five countries on the planet in terms of income equality. America is in the bottom third.

So the poverty thing is a myth, but what about the torture? Surely the torture stuff is accurate! Shockingly, no: Slovakia sports a lower crime rate than the United States. In fact, Slovakia is in the highest tier for efforts to combat human trafficking. In 2016, human trafficking in the United States rose by nearly 36 percent. Slovakia might not be paradise on Earth, but it's nothing like the torture-warehouse anus of Europe that movies make it out to be. Hell, it's actually the 40th happiest place on Earth. Why? Lots of reasons, though having one of the lowest beer prices in Europe probably helps.

1

The Alamo Is Mostly Gone, And What Remains Is Wildly Out Of Place

The bloody 1836 battle between the defenders of the Alamo Mission in modern-day San Antonio, and the superior forces of General Santa Anna has been featured on film dozens of times. It's an icon of the Wild West, and this is pretty much what everybody pictures when they think of it:

SeanPavonePhoto/iStock