Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is nearly a hundred years old by
now, but I think it is only now, in the age of YouTube, that a
fundamental understanding starts seeping into common knowledge of what
the theory /really/ means.

For instance, according to the General Theory of Relativity,
gravitational pull is caused by the curvature of spacetime. That's what
it says, isn't it? Right?

Err... nope.

What the General Theory of Relativity /really/ says is that there is /no
such thing/ as gravitational pull. To the contrary: What really makes
you stick to the ground is not a force pushing /you/ /down/, but a force
pushing /the ground/ /up/. More specifically, the electromagnetic forces
between the atoms of the earth push it apart with such a force that the
ground races upward at an acceleration of 9.81 m/s^2 - and all the while
the fabric of space near and at earth just contracts at an equivalent
rate, shriveling like the surface of a punctured balloon, so that the
effective distance between the atoms never gets any bigger despite their
accelerated motion through space.

I had been pondering this for a few days now, when I stumbled across
this video which I think gets the idea across quite well:

https://youtu.be/NblR01hHK6U

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