OK not really but I've read the "rocket scientists" have been lying about how rockets work; I've learned that rocket engines don't actually work in a vacuum.

Of course you ask "but why would they lie, I don't understand". They lie because they're hiding the fact the Earth is flat and there is no space to travel to or in. We're inside a giant underwater terrarium and atmospheric life is an artificially created novelty.

Need proof? Differently shaped rocket nozzles produce varying degrees of thrust depending on atmospheric pressure.