unsinkable rubber duck

plural unsinkable rubber ducks

1. A belief in a supernatural or paranormal phenomenon that people continue to hold, in spite of it being debunked.

   John, this is an unsinkable rubber duck. They're all unsinkable rubber ducks. There's no way we're going to get rid of them, because people don't listen.

   2016, Nate Hendley, The Big Con, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Indeed, even if they are thoroughly examined and refuted in one age, they seem to reemerge within the next, and people will continue to believe them in spite of evidence to the contrary. This is what I have called the “unsinkable rubber duck” syndrome.

   2010, Paul Kurtz, Exuberant Skepticism, →ISBN, page 179

   As a self-proclaimed “spokesman for rationality,” The Skeptical Inquirer documented every major gaffe made by Jeane Dixon (“the unsinkable rubber duck of prophecy”) and took special pleasure debunking SRI's Geller experiments.

   2011, Lawrence R Samuel, Supernatural America: A Cultural History, →ISBN, page 120